New Seedless Tomato (Parthenocarpic) Brent (w/Video Link)

Brent Montgomery · #1

Hi all. I'm going to attempt to link a video to my original mutant tomato cultivar "Brent". Named after me of course, he's parthenocarpic and will set tomatoes without pollen or with pollen. If pollinated, he has seeds. If pollen isn't environmentally viable due to heat, cold, or humidity, he'll still produce, but the tomatoes will be seedless. I can also ensure seedlessness by cutting the closed tomato bud in half removing the stigma. So, gardener choice...yay. Brent is open pollinated. As I've stated, I'm not trying to sell the seed or plants. All of my work will not be made public any time soon. I bred all of the lines I'll show you for two reasons. Proof of work, proof of the genetic transfer into new lines, and so that the appropriate sized tomato can be crossed with other similarly-sized fruits of other lines easily without having to select for size. Taking Brent's genetics to larger tomatoes took a long and tedious route as you may know if you breed a cherry into a beefsteak. Now, the cross can be beef to beef or cherry to cherry which will be a much faster route. Here's the video to Brent:

MissS · #2

Very interesting. Thanks so much for sharing your project with us.

HL2601 · #3

Thanks for sharing your video and process. What a journey for you.
Brent has really sturdy inflorescences!
Maybe a dumb question because I don't know much about any of this, but is this Parthenocarpic trait essentially desirable for greenhouse growers and other breeder's? Also, what does Brent taste like and how tall do the plants get?

Shule · #4

Awesome. It looks great! Have you considered trying to partner with a University? I know Universities are known to breed a lot of tomatoes. I'm not sure how much funding they get, but it might not hurt to find out.

Brent Montgomery · #5

HL2601 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 11:30 am Thanks for sharing your video and process. What a journey for you.
Brent has really sturdy inflorescences!
Maybe a dumb question because I don't know much about any of this, but is this Parthenocarpic trait essentially desirable for greenhouse growers and other breeder's? Also, what does Brent taste like and how tall do the plants get?

Parthenocarpy is praised for several reasons and greenhouse growing is a big one. It tastes really sweet like tangy sugar-maters. Lol. Hard to explain. They set fruit when the plants are really small, starting as low as 8 inches. They grow taller but with very large trusses. I believe the amount of fruit set keeps the energy from foliage growth especially growing taller. The energy is pushed to the tomatoes until the fruits are removed then the foliage picks up again. I see shorter and wider growths than I see in other cherries, but it is indeterminate growth. If I prune to one stem, they grow tall quickly and set fruit and ripen bottom to top.

Brent Montgomery · #6

Shule wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:03 am Awesome. It looks great! Have you considered trying to partner with a University? I know Universities are known to breed a lot of tomatoes. I'm not sure how much funding they get, but it might not hurt to find out.

Yes, I'm trying to communicate with them as well. I've approached 5 or 6 by email only for now. I have a presentation with links to all of the tomatoes lines. Most are unlisted, but I'm making them public every 3 days.