Dehybridization Questions

[ContainerTed]

A couple of questions:

1. Currently I have what I believe are Brandy Boy F6 seeds. I received F3 seeds and have grown this one and saved seeds for the last three years. I can see no difference between the plants and fruit that I am getting from the saved seeds as compared to the commercial hybrid seeds. Both produce plants which are indistinguishable (to my untrained eye), and both give lots of large pink beefsteaks with excellent flavor. Can this one be called stable???

2. During the tomato scare back in 2008, I used tomatoes which were suspect to teach myself fermentation. The tomato in question at the time was from Walmart and was their 3151 product code (Red, Round, ~8-10 oz, Early) and had a DiMare sticker on it. Well, I ended up planting some of my F2 seeds (assuming I had harvested from F1 fruit) and that winter grew a plant in front of some lights and the fruit was delicious, especially in January. Then I harvested F4 Seeds last year and F5 seeds last winter under lights and F6 seeds this year. The plants are always Semi-Determinate and they really load up Red, Round, ~8-10 oz fruit.

(And, YES, I was totally flabbergasted when they actually tasted pretty darned good when vine-ripened.)

I searched the DiMare website extensively and sent three Emails trying to find out the possible name of the tomato. Naturally, I got no answers- not even an acknowledgement that the Email was received. So, I looked for suppliers of seed to the big Florida producers. Finish Line was the closest to what I had grown, but no way of confirming and the minimal description I found was vague at best.

So, I have a great looking/tasting tomato that is imperfection resistant and has really good shelf life. It is a good slicer and also has a sweet enough taste for canning. There's a good touch of that Old Fashioned Zing in the flavor. It may have some disease resistance, because it seems to be the last plant to go down in late summer. Geza, who is in Hungary, grew some in 2009 under a working name of Maiden's Pride, and when I asked for his comment, he said that his wife told him to only grow this one - that the others he grew weren't as good.

That brings me to the question. Since I can't dig up the original name, should I put a name on it???? I'm convinced it's stable. I had 9 plants in the garden this year - all identical to the description above. What am I to do? Doing the right thing is very important to me and I would appreciate it if I could also hear from the Pros on this one.

BTW, Craig and others, if you're reading this, you might want to include this one in a cross. Small, compact plant, early, lots of fruit, seems to have some disease resistance are qualities I've observed.

Here's some pictures from the last couple of years.

Ted

[mjc]

Pssst....wanna hear a secret?

A number of PVP protected (and now patented/utility patents) hybrid varieties aren't. You can't really find out all the details until the PVP/Patent expires and the supporting documentation, application and what not become public...but they will. Often times the supposed hybrid has been taken to the point of stabilization. (Dig through the expired PVP certificates some time...you'll be amazed.)

This most often happens with varieties that just say 'hybrid' and not F1 hybrid, though.

In the case of F1s that produce later generations with little to now variation...probably as has been mentioned above OR the seed company could be lying (to the public at least). The closely related parents is more likely, though.

Ted, that commercial tomato may be a 'standard' variety already...since there are thousands in that particular 'class', it would be pretty darn hard to figure out what it is/was...