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Old September 7, 2011   #7
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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I work on this. All of the early crosses that I am carrying forward so
far are saladettes or cherries. So far I have not had any success
getting earlier, tastier fruit baseball sized or bigger. (I keep trying
Ben Gantz x Fireworks II, which I think would bring better texture
and consistency to Ben Gantz with fruit 4-6 oz, but so far no buds
have set. I had a chance Ben Gantz x unknown F1 this year, RL,
but the fruit ended up tasty but Stupice sized again. I already have
other crosses like that farther along.)

I will have Spring King X Huge Black F2 seeds here in a couple of
weeks. The F1 has been more like "as late as Huge Black" rather
than "as early as Spring King", but some earlier selections should
shake out in the F2s or F3s. (I crossed that F1 to Jetsetter F1, seeking
something early, tasty, and productive with verticillium tolerance,
but I only have one fruit developing of that cross, and I do not know
yet how many seeds I will have.)

How big of tomatoes are you seeking to develop?

edit:
Also, how many plants of a cross can you grow at one time?
(How much room do you have?) That is an important question.
It can take years just to find what you want in an F2 or F3 if you
can only grow a few plants of a generation. I have hit something
with superb flavor in an F3 growing only 7 plants, and then
grown 20-25 of the F4s from those saved seeds without finding
one with comparably good flavor.
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Last edited by dice; September 7, 2011 at 02:12 AM.
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