My first breeding experiments 2023

[DevonCurry]

Last year I decided to try crossing some of my favorite varieties- Brad’s Atomic, red grape (unknown), Tim’s Taste of Paradise and an unknown yellow/orange stripe.

I used tweezers to pluck off the stamens while the flowers were still pale yellow/unopened and then dusted pollen from another variety on my phone screen and rubbed it up against the exposed stigma, then I used a sharpie to write the varieties on a looseleaf tea bag and covered the flower to see if it would develop. Some took and I got some viable seeds from them that I just started this year.

The crosses I got seeds from were:
Brad’s Atomic x Tim’s Taste F1 (by convention as I understand it the mother plant name is listed first) (5 seedlings being grown out this year)
Unknown red grape x Brad’s Atomic F1 (1 seedling being grown out this year)
Unknown red grape x Tim’s Taste F1 (1 seedling being grown out this year)
Unknown orange/yellow stripe x Tim’s Taste F1 (2 seedlings being grown out this year)

Here are some pictures of the progress so far (on the tea bags my notation had pollen donor first/mother plant FYI):

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[bower]

Hi Devon. Congrats on your first crossed seeds! Lots of interesting color genetics in these crosses.
Obviously the red parented crosses will have a red F1, but I'm curious to see what color you get from Brad's x Tim's and from the unknown orange/yellow x Tim's.
I haven't grown Tim's Taste of Paradise, just looked at a picture and it isn't clear to me whether it's orange or yellow. But coming from many crosses with wild relatives, chances are good it could be a Beta orange. If so, the F1 with Brad's would be red, because red is dominant to bicolor (and Beta orange always has a RR red background or it can't be expressed). If Tim's is yellow, I'm not sure but we might see bicolor expressed as dominant to yellow (as some others here have reported).
There are several possible genetics behind the unknown orange/yellow : rr yellow; Beta orange; tt tangerine. even rr and tt together. So the outcome of the F1 will tell you about that background and Tim's as well, thanks to the multiple crosses.
I don't know anything about stripe genetics but it's bound to be fun.. and your F2's are going to be a riot of colors.

[Frosti]

Hey Devon,
looking forward to your results!
Do you have a special goal in mind with your crosses or is this more of a "let's see what I get and decide later" situation?

[maf]

As stripe genetics were mentioned above, a quick note on the gs striping seen in varieties like Brad's Atomic:

gs is generally described as a recessive gene, but it is not completely recessive, and if the grower has good eyesight then the heterozgotes of a cross can be observed to have a very faint striping. In other words a cross between a striped and non striped will yield a very faintly striped F1 and the subsequent generations will segregate in a ratio of 1/2/1 for striped/very faint stripes/no stripes.

[DevonCurry]

Finally getting back here with some results

Thank you so much for the info bower and maf, it's so cool to be able to put what I'm seeing into context!

@Frosti My main goal was get the colors of one parent and the flavor, size/shape or vigor of the other parent, and I'll see if I end up with anything that is worth continuing to work on as a breeding project.

This is the unidentified yellow/orange stripe x Tim's Taste F1 (faint striping visible, thick skin, average flavor, extremely vigorous plant, like twice as fast-growing as anything else):

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This is the unidentified red grape x Brad's Atomic F1 (nice flavor and interesting anthocyanin shoulders):

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This is the unidentified red grape x Brad's Atomic F1 (inside):

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This is Brad's Atomic x Tim's Taste F1 (nice flavor, interesting translucence and red blush stripes and trace of antho on shoulders):

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This is Brad's Atomic x Tim's Taste F1(inside):

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The unidentified red grape x Tim's Taste F1 was a spindely plant with tiny fruits that didn't seem promising for vigor or flavor.

[bower]

Any F2's coming along?

[DevonCurry]

I ran out of time this year, but I collected at least 64 seeds of two of these (red grape x Brad's Atomic and Brad's atomic x Tim's Taste) to grow out for the F2s for next year. I'm excited to see what happens next, I'll make sure to post pics of the F2s as they develop! I'm counting the days to when I can get some seeds started, and wishing I had a greenhouse