Quote:
Originally Posted by DK2021
I have never really investigated this before, but is the potato leaf phenotype related to any other trait (e.g., stress/disease tolerance) or flavour characteristic? IIRC it is recessive, so I suppose it is useful for selecting out plants that are homozygous for potato leaf and whatever other genes are linked to this trait.
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There are several reasons I selected potato leaf in my project none of them based on scientific linkages per se but rather on personal preferences and my style of observation based trials and selection in my growouts year on year.
I find the heavy leaf cover an advantage in protecting the fruit. I find in my selections that the structure of the leaves and possibly a thicker cuticle helps resist ordinary fungus pathogens such as early blight and septoria better in my gardens. I like large dark green foliage that is capable of producing lots of sugars and I think it can lead to enhanced flavours although not always. I like a strong and vigorous plant in general.
Importantly for my small projects where I am breeding strictly to my own preferences I actually just really like the way they look.
I am interested in creating original tomatoes that suit me and grow well in my Canadian garden.
There are few, if any beautiful potato leaf white cocktail cherries. Few, if any potato leaf white saladettes. … but there soon will be
Low quality and often unstable Novelty can be fairly easy to find these days but high quality stable original tomatoes is what I’m working toward and It’s important to me not to do what’s already been done a lot.
I’m Not there yet with these but it’s a start and I’m happy with the progress so far. I’ll See where we are in 4 more seasons at F7 for my Nightingale. Segregation will continue and Plans can evolve but they will all be potato leaf, that is one certainty because That aspect of the phenotype is fixed from the original F2 selections because it was what I had planned the cross to create. It’s specifically why I selected the parents I used.
KarenO