Anybody try crossing Brandywine with Japanese Black Trifele?

[sprtsguy76]

I did so this summer thinking I might be able to get that Brandywine taste in a pear shape tomato. The non-elongated pear shape is very appealing to me.

Damon

[heirloomdaddy]

Sounds like a first to me...a tasty first.
I made a lot of crosses this year with trifele because I think it's a fantastic tomato. It has demonstrated enormous production, more disease tolerance than its neighbor sungold, and cold tolerance....still setting TONS of fruit in mid december....only getting about 3 hours of sun too! Hopefully it will hang on and ripen the last of the crosses- gold medal and sungold
This is one of my favorite tomatoes and don't see why it isn't more popular. about half of the flowers have exerted stigmas once it starts to get chilly here. Very convenient.

Let me know how the fruit end up.

[Fred Hempel]

Is Black Trifele robustly good? I think that is a quality we sometimes overlook in tomatoes. How does it do under varied conditions?

[sprtsguy76]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

Is Black Trifele robustly good? I think that is a quality we sometimes overlook in tomatoes. How does it do under varied conditions?

Fred- It did well for me here, I grew it in a container, but it was my first year with JTB. I will definitely be growing out the f1 this year and see what the hybrid has in store.

Damon

[dice]

JBT gets verticillium and botrytis up here near Puget Sound
in cool, rainy summers. Crashes fast, too, like Black Prince.
Better in dryer places I think.

Might be worth crossing with Brandy Boy (VFNT).

[heirloomdaddy]

my plant does have botrytis...but has been fighting it like a champ. I'm very impressed by how long its been infected and how long its been fighting it off

[sprtsguy76]

heirloomdaddy- I agree, JBT for me got better as the season progressed. It was also one of the best looking (health wise) plants in my container garden.




I grew this in a 4 gallon bucket so I had to keep it well pruned because of the size of the containers and too keep water demand down.
Damon

[sprtsguy76]

Well here are the f1 fruit, first few were mealy and mushy, then lastnight had one that was excellent tasting. I'm sprouting some f2 seed right now and plan on growing about 8-12 f2's in 4 gallon buckets and see if I can find a great tasting pear shape tomato.



Damon

[rnewste]

Damon,

Just went out in the rain to snap a few photos of your JBT x BWS plant you gave me:



About 70 inches tall as of today.

Very prolific fruitset:



Shape of a few are almost onion shaped:



It will be a while before mine are ripe. Looking forward to trying your cross:



Raybo

[sprtsguy76]

Looking good Ray, they look very similar to mine as far as fruit shape and size with the prolific fruit set too.

Damon

[sprtsguy76]

Update 2012- I grew 5 f2's out last fall and found one pearish shape fruit that had very good flavor. This year's f3's have given rise to mostly deformed but tasty beefsteak fruit but I did managed to find a really good tasting, productive, pink, bomb/plum shaped tomato. Here is a picture of them.


As a result in not finding a true pear in f3 selection last fall I went back to my f2 seed mid spring and found this. A pear!! Whohooo!



I've already sampled one from this plant and it was a very tasty pink pear! About 4 oz. I will be saving some more seed probably for next year as its a little late here to start seed.


Damon

[Mark0820]

Very nice looking tomatoes!

[lakelady]

Those look great! I'm growing JBT this year in my garden and am really looking forward to it. I do love the pear shaped tomatoes, they're so pretty! Mine are still tiny little things as my plant got off to a late start as an afterthought, lol...

[Sun City Linda]

I had already ordered JBT for next year. I also have the "pear tomato obsession." Some of those crosses look great Damon.

[sprtsguy76]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

I had already ordered JBT for next year. I also have the "pear tomato obsession." Some of those crosses look great Damon.

I too love the look of a well formed pear tomato! That is what has inspired me to start this project! Dont get me wrong JBT is a good tomato but I wanted to create a great tasting pear tomato and why not use BW as a parent??

Damon