Sam’s HGII adventures (with Owen too)

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Growing crosses I created outdoors in 2024.

This plant is producing an F1 fruit so I can plant F2 seeds in just a a little while.

I am not sure I’ve ever seen such large blooms and I’m trying to decide if it is fused or a single.

First flower set has this tomato on as a result.

IMG_9623.jpeg

The second set has its first flower open and is larger than the first.

IMG_9620.png

Would love to hear others thoughts. This is a massive plant with huge potato leaves.

~Sam

[MissS]

Those are some beautiful big blossoms to brighten your day.

I saw your first fruit and I do think that it's a fused blossom. It's hard to tell on this one without a side view but the seapals appear to be fused on the lower half of your picture. If that is true, then this would be a fruit from a faciated blossom. A normal tomato blossom has 5 seapals.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Those are some beautiful big blossoms to brighten your day.

I saw your first fruit and I do think that it's a fused blossom. It's hard to tell on this one without a side view but the seapals appear to be fused on the lower half of your picture. If that is true, then this would be a fruit from a faciated blossom. A normal tomato blossom has 5 seapals.

I had wondered because the flower itself looks singular. It has 6 sepals that are one at the bottom but split into two tips at the top.

This cross is likely to be pretty strange. Is it often normal to see all fasciated flowers on a cross? I have grown out other people’s unstable many times but don’t think I have seen this.

I’m also shocked at the size of the blossoms that there are four flowers per cluster. The parent was setting singular fruit and its cross partner is Cabin Fever (Gary’s) .

[MissS]

I don't think it is normal to have all faciated blooms on a plant. While there are some varieties that do produce more mega blooms than others, it is said that faciated blooms are more often found in cooler spring-like temperatures. But of course this is not always true. I have had plants that produced them all year through while others had none. I wonder if your plant will stop doing this as much as spring comes around. Also, blossoms come in many sizes. Some plants do have very large blossoms while others are smaller.

@bower has a better understanding of genetics. Perhaps she can chime in.

[bower]

Blossom size and fused sepals are one of those things, both genetic and environmental factors may be in play.
Time will tell, which factors are at work.
It is true that some varieties have much larger flowers overall, so you may well find that it continues in the next generations.
That first tomato looks more or less typical of a multi-locule (beef type) large fruit - I would think that both parents are beefs. Also the number of sepals (and petals) can be quite a few for those large fruited types. And variable! Due to the environmental kick. They generally do have bigger flowers, more petals, often more sepals too, but how this is linked to actual locule number/fasciated fruit condition isn't clear to me... the flowers can vary a lot.

They are lovely tomato flowers!

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Blossom size and fused sepals are one of those things, both genetic and environmental factors may be in play.
Time will tell, which factors are at work.
It is true that some varieties have much larger flowers overall, so you may well find that it continues in the next generations.
That first tomato looks more or less typical of a multi-locule (beef type) large fruit - I would think that both parents are beefs. Also the number of sepals (and petals) can be quite a few for those large fruited types. And variable! Due to the environmental kick. They generally do have bigger flowers, more petals, often more sepals too, but how this is linked to actual locule number/fasciated fruit condition isn't clear to me... the flowers can vary a lot.

They are lovely tomato flowers!

Plants are in a grow tower in the house and the room stays at an even 72 degrees. Light is running about 16 hours.

One parent is a heart (on the blunt side) the other a beef. I expect a red blunt heart for the fruit but the plant is as massive as the flowers.

IMG_9169.jpeg

Here is one leaf compared to my hand (I’m not a tiny human).

@bower do you have recommendations on reading materials to learn more about dominant, recessive, alleles, etc. I’m wanting to grow in this area. Thank you in advance for any suggestions you may have.

~Sam

[bower]

@Homegrwoninillinois we started a thread a while ago which I should've made a sticky.. here it is:
viewtopic.php?t=2639
Didn't get too far with it, but the references listed there are a good start, and feel free to ask in that thread about anything else that's on your mind.

[MissS]

@Homegrwoninillinois we started a thread a while ago which I should've made a sticky.. here it is:
viewtopic.php?t=2639
Didn't get too far with it, but the references listed there are a good start, and feel free to ask in that thread about anything else that's on your mind.

DONE!

[iva*hi*hope]

Hey, Samantha!
I’m still trying to figure out how this site works. Nice to see a friendly face.
Hope

[JayneR13]

Wow that's a huge leaf! Do the parent plants have such leaves? And what variety is the F1?

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Wow that's a huge leaf! Do the parent plants have such leaves? And what variety is the F1?

Hi Jayne,
I used one of Gary’s selections as a pollen donor and another tomato that is a red blunt heart as the parent plant. Both are potato leaf plants but neither had leaves or blossoms this large. It will be fun to see what selections come at F2

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Hey, Samantha!
I’m still trying to figure out how this site works. Nice to see a friendly face.
Hope

Hi Hope! Keep plugging away. It gets easier the more you use it. It’s a really great group of folks with no dramatics which is fabulous.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

I cut the tops of the “triple threat” cross, which is the plant with the large flowers above. When I did so there was a second flower set that I let be and cut just above. The flower set was small at that time. It has grown and opened and to my surprise it has 7 flowers in this cluster and they are all very large.

The fruits of this plant parent had blunt hearts. I’m hoping the hearts stay in some of the further generations.

Does anyone know of a potato leaf plant with heart shaped fruits that set so many flowers in a cluster? If so I would like to read about that variety.

I’ve attached a photo here of the second flower set.

IMG_9749.jpeg

[bower]

Those are gorgeously huge flowers!!
In my experience, hearts or other large fruits with large flower clusters will tend to produce variable sizes of fruit if they set them all. Container size also seems to limit that.
Oaxacan Jewel PL has clusters up to a dozen and they'll be all sizes if none drops. Not a heart but sometimes heart shaped.
Other big fruited tomatoes may regularly drop several blossoms instead of setting them all, and then you get more uniform fruit size in the ones it decided to keep.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Those are gorgeously huge flowers!!
In my experience, hearts or other large fruits with large flower clusters will tend to produce variable sizes of fruit if they set them all. Container size also seems to limit that.
Oaxacan Jewel PL has clusters up to a dozen and they'll be all sizes if none drops. Not a heart but sometimes heart shaped.
Other big fruited tomatoes may regularly drop several blossoms instead of setting them all, and then you get more uniform fruit size in the ones it decided to keep.

I am wondering if I should be worried about which fruit from this plant I am saving. For example if one fruit has more of a pointed heart should I be selecting that over blunt or will it truly not matter because this is the F2 fruit and too many variables at play to be trying to select any traits preferred over another?

Thank you for your interaction @bower

[bower]

No worries about different shapes in F1, but the heart shape genetics is complicated. Once you get to F2, you might have all the shape genes lined up or you might not. However all the fruit on the same plant have the same genetics, whether heart shape is better expressed or not. So on one plant, it doesn't matter.
If you were growing many F2's and one of them had a better heart shape, then you'd want to save seeds from that for the shape that you like best. OTOH if one of them tasted the best but had variable shapes, you could still select and grow that one out, looking for the perfect shape in your F3.

It's a treat to see your indoor project happening, while shutting my eyes on the snowy wasteland outside the window. thank you for sharing it with us.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

No worries about different shapes in F1, but the heart shape genetics is complicated. Once you get to F2, you might have all the shape genes lined up or you might not. However all the fruit on the same plant have the same genetics, whether heart shape is better expressed or not. So on one plant, it doesn't matter.
If you were growing many F2's and one of them had a better heart shape, then you'd want to save seeds from that for the shape that you like best. OTOH if one of them tasted the best but had variable shapes, you could still select and grow that one out, looking for the perfect shape in your F3.

It's a treat to see your indoor project happening, while shutting my eyes on the snowy wasteland outside the window. thank you for sharing it with us.

Thank you for your time to reply. I learn best while doing rather than reading alone. So I try and ask someone as they come.

I’m in northern Illinois and this coming week is going to feel like the North Pole. I’m ready for it to be over. So I am making grow list selections today while trying to leave space for anything great that may show up from the MMMM.

Stay warm out there

~Sam

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Owen has two micro plants starting to ripen

Strong boy

IMG_9773.jpeg

Father Frost

IMG_9779.jpeg

He is very excited because his cross is on the strong boy plant.

[MissS]

I'm very excited to see the first fruits of Owen's cross and it's on a PL plant too!

[Homegrwoninillinois]

I'm very excited to see the first fruits of Owen's cross and it's on a PL plant too!

We do love our potato leaves over here