Tomato "breeding" gone right

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,844
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Results of 3nd generation 5th Year Beefsteak.

Big 4lb 1oz 21 3/4 inch circumference juicy delicious Beefsteak :)

IMG_20170722_185432885.jpg

IMG_20170722_185915926.jpg


IMG_20170722_185730445.jpg
 
Last edited:

Swede

Lovin' The Homestead
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
174
Reaction score
92
Points
83
Ooh! I like the flavor of a tomato more than the juice though.. that's why I'm not a big fan of beef tomatoes.

Looks good though! That face :lol:
 

Swede

Lovin' The Homestead
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
174
Reaction score
92
Points
83
No she was just mad because Mom & Dad said it was time to go home - she wanted to stay with paw paw :) she had a big day being outside playing and helping paw paw in the garden and with the animals and stuff.

Oh lol
 

sumi

Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
7,025
Reaction score
5,296
Points
337
Location
Ireland
Goodness, that thing is massive!
 

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,844
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
I'll share with you all how I created this new third generation (5 year) Tomato cross.

The first year 2013 I had a planted 22 Delicious Tomato seedlings in a 50' row. I had 1 of the plants constantly produce good sized tomatoes and it popped out this 3lb 4oz tomato which up until that time was the biggest I ever grew.
Mills Mater.jpg


I seeded that 3lb 4oz Delicious Tomato and sowed it's seeds to transplant in the garden in 2014. Only 2 of the 22 or so plants really did anything worth talking about. One of the plants was prolific and set a bunch of smaller tomatoes the other plant was also prolific and set much larger tomatoes. I decided I would cross 3 flowers of the prolific big tomato plant with 3 flowers of Oroma tomato. 2 of the crossed flowers produced tomatoes which I seeded and sowed in the spring of 2015.

Out of the two Delicious and Oroma crossed tomatos I sowed one 50' row from each of the seeds from the two crossed tomatoes. One row produced some really funky tomatoes that looked like this.
uploadfromtaptalk1405716324401.jpg

uploadfromtaptalk1405716347775.jpg

uploadfromtaptalk1405716370316.jpg

I still have the seeds from the tomato pictured but I abandoned that line and have not sowed them yet.

The other row however produced normal shaped delicious tomatoes with a meater flesh.

I took a flower from the plant that was setting the largest tomatoes and crossed 2 of the flowers with a beefsteak plant that was also setting the biggest tomato in that 50' beefsteak row. 1 of the 2 flowers I crossed set a Tomato. That I seeded and set transplants out in the garden the spring of 2016. My garden flooded twice in 2016 and basically killed all my seedlings so 2016 was a bust. But lucky for me I had enough seeds from the delicious/oroma/beefsteak cross left over to sow for 2017. And that's what produced this 4lb 1oz meaty tomato. All of the plants in this 50' row constantly.produce large tomatoes inbetween 1 ~ 2 lbs range.

I've seeded the 2017 4lb 1oz delicious/oroma/beefsteak tomato to sow for 2018. I'll keep refining this line but I decided to sell some bare root transplants in the spring of 2018 while the line is stable. Because honestly others should enjoy this tomato also.

I'm not a horticulturist and never even took a class on growing plants. I'm just a guy who has had a garden every year since 1985. I don't like hybrids much at all and won't even think about GMOs. Most all of my garden is from seeds I've saved from previous years harvest. Except for sweet corn i really like hybrid Honey -n Pearl SH2 but that is the only hybrid I grow. Everything else is heriloom / open pollianted.
 
Last edited:

sumi

Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
7,025
Reaction score
5,296
Points
337
Location
Ireland
You've done amazing! And those are some interesting looking tomatoes…...
 
Top