Thanks for sharing, everyone.
As for how many plants I have room for, that's actually up in the air now, since I might be moving soon. I guess this means I have time to plan a breeding program carefully before doing it.
Greensparrow, you say, "One of the earliest tomatoes I've grown is from a cross between MWC and Black Krim. Flavor is also exceptional." That's intriguing. What stage of breeding is this at? And I like your idea to crowd plants together for the sake of fitting more in your test plot.
Frogsleap, it sounds like you're doing what I was planning, but you're way ahead of me. How many plants did you have to grow in the F2 generation to find something worth selecting? Also, even if most plants weren't exceptional enough to select, did they still produce decent tomatoes that were worth eating? I'm imagining this project taking up space that I'd otherwise devote to known good varieties, and I don't want to deprive myself of tomatoes for the sake of this project.
Dice, if you're having trouble finding big tomatoes in your F2s, what if you instead backcrossed your F1 to the larger-fruited variety, and selected from that instead? Those plants would have genes that are 1/4 from the smaller-fruited variety and 3/4 from the larger-fruited variety, and would be more likely to have the large fruit you seek. Of course, then they might lack the earliness you were hoping to get from the smaller-fruited variety, but it might be worth the experiment.
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