Quote:
Originally Posted by NarnianGarden
That is fascinating Joseph. I remember reading your posts about your work of making crosses, but cannot keep in mind which species are 'compatible' with each other and which one need an intermediator (?) for that to take place. You don't do the crosses in a test tube, but on an open field, I suppose? So how does one cross those species which don't naturally 'connect'?
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A few years ago, I made manual crosses in a greenhouse. Solanum habrochaites and S pennellii are semi-compatible with domestic tomatoes (can act as pollen donors). I also attempted unsuccessful crosses with more distant relatives.
I am currently growing the wild species, and the hybrids close together in the same field. There are lots of pollinators on the tomato flowers. Perhaps a few of the more unlikely crosses will show up eventually. Perhaps the wild species will cross with each other, and one of those can act as a pollen donor to domestic tomatoes.
I am still doing a bit of manual pollination, but undocumented. Mixes of pollen onto any flower with an exposed stigma. This year I expect to cull several hundred plants that are self-incompatible and have closed up flowers. That's a bad combination, since they can't get pollinated reliably.
The wildflowers in the foreground are promiscuous tomatoes.
A closeup. Too bad the camera munged the green and yellow. They are stunning in real life.
