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Old July 7, 2009   #2
Tom Wagner
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Frogleaper's quotes followed by my responses....

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This is my first year growing OSU blue, and I've encountered a few surprises
I picked up the rate of hybridization of the P-20 Blue the last couple of years. And I, too, encounter surprises.

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It was one of the first tomato plants to flower in my garden, though fruit development has lagged behind a few of the other "earlies".
I notice also that it forms fruit early


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The anthocyanin accumulation in vegetative parts is very strong early, and then fades rapidly. The purple pigmentation now remains only in the base of the stem.
I have found that somewhat the opposite, the stems remain purplish.

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Pigmentation in the fruit is very light dependent (see photo). This plant is on the west edge of a raised bed, with the top of the fruit getting exposed full sun for a couple hours late in the day. Where fruit is shaded all day by foliage, pigmentation is muted.
Yes, light makes for purple, pure and simple.

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I've made several crosses now with OSU Blue/P20 as both the male and female parent (other photo). The seedling "anthocyanin phenotype" is so strong, I think with OSU as the female I can segregate selfs from F1 crosses
I make crosses in different directions and can see the purple trait in the stem even when the male parent is P-20, but it is muted a bit. The selfs and backcrosses are and will be important to breed away from the compact mechanical harvester type of foliage.

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One last observation, OSU Blue appears to be a Septoria magnet.
I have to agree with you that the foliage of P-20 seems to draw foliar diseases.

I seem to have lost the ability to put pictures on forum messages, but if you go to my blog, pasted somewhere below, I have posted a couple of photos: One of the P-20 and another of a cross of Blue 20 X Woolly Green Zebra. I weeded right after the photos to assuage my guilt.

That last cross will produce hybrid F-1 fruit that probably won't be that interesting. But the saved seed (F-2) will segregate for stripes, green flesh, woolly foliage, blue anthocyanins, indeterminate vines, etc.

I will know more about the CrossTalk elements of the breeding work later. I am trying to figure out what a true breeding green flesh/anthocyanin fruit would look like. Since I have a myriad of crosses, 4-way crosses going on, I will not have conclusive evidence of the value of such breeding work for a few generations of breeding and selfing.


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Tom Wagner
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