Profoundly Promiscuous and Totally Tasty Tomato Project

@Joseph L: "The floral display is so bold that they stand out from across the garden. The photography doesn't do them justice... "

Can't think of any reason why these could not be offered as a potted ornamental as well as a hardy, adapted tomato.  Nice photos!

The stigma on this plant is exerted a long time before the flowers are releasing pollen. So the stigma isn't going to get self-pollinated while growing out of the anther cone. This species is alleged to be self-incompatible.

Solanum corneliomulleri:

I'm sure loving the floral display on Solanum peruvianum!

A row of wild tomatoes: Solanum habrochaites. I'm using these as parents in the auto-hybridizing tomato project. The plants are growing upright without supports. The hoe is my favorite weeding hoe.

I am definitely seeing the merits of selecting for upright growth with little support needed, as I deal with my tomato jungle. Are you selecting for determinate or indeterminate?

In my landrace tomatoes, I have ended up selecting for mostly determinate plants, because that's what has been most productive with the short-season and cold-nights. I expect that the auto-hybridizing tomatoes may follow a similar trend, but they might not, because they are likely to be a bit more cold tolerant. So my first selection criteria will be for flowering traits that work for this project. Then, later on I can deal with secondary traits like taste, determinate/indeterminate, fruit color, size, etc...

I finally captured a grainy photo of one of the most common pollinators on the wild tomatoes that I am using for projects to create promiscuously pollinating tomatoes and/or auto-hybridizing tomatoes.

A common tomato pollinator in Cache Valley.

Here's a progress report  on this project.

Solanum pennellii, LYC 1831, did not thrive for me. Before I can use it in a breeding project, I need to learn what growing conditions (soil?) that it is able to grow in. Boo hoo. It has so many traits that I want to use.

Some of the wild species have produced ripe fruit already. It looks like some of the others may produce seed before the imminent arrival of fall frosts. There are plenty of ripe fruits on Solanum peruvianum, so I tasted some of them. They are reminiscent of tomatoes. Not very sweet. Nothing bitter about them. A bland fruit (in other words, better tasting that what the grocery store offers). They are turning purple when ripe.

A number of crosses were successful between domestic tomatoes and Solanum habrochaites, LA1777. Some of them are currently growing in the greenhouse. I intend to bring them indoors during the winter to attempt to grow some F2 seed before spring.

Some of the wild tomatoes have super-showy flowers. Just the kind of thing to attract lots of pollinators. I expect this to be the archetype of the auto-hybridizing tomatoes.

Some of the F1 hybrids for the auto-hybridizing tomato project are currently flowering in the greenhouse. I am intending to try to keep them alive long enough this winter to harvest seeds. They are crosses between domestic tomatoes and Solanum habrochaites, a wild tomato. Here's what the flowers look like: Big showy flowers that are definitely descended from S. habrochaites. I am selfing the F1 plants, and also using the pollen to attempt to pollinate S. habrochaites. If the second cross is successful, it may lead to self-incompatible domestic-like tomatoes.

F1: [NOID red X LA1777]


Here's what the greenhouse plants currently look like. A few plants from the sweet potato breeding project are included in the photo.


The following flower is of an F1 plant in the promiscuously pollinating tomato project. I love how the stigma sticks way out, and the anthers peel away from the stigma. A delightful flower configuration for a promiscuously pollinating tomato. Both parents to this plant have recent influence from wild species in their DNA.

F1: [WXO X Sun4X].

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:March 2016 -- I potted up 66 Sungold F2 plants. I'm intending to screen them for exerted stigmas

One plant had exerted stigmas the whole growing season. I saved seeds from it for possible inclusion into this project.

I'm really loving the decorative flowers on the wild tomato Solanum habrochaites.

Here's some photos of fruits of some of the wild tomato species. Taste of fully ripe fruits is sweet and very fruity. Lots of possibilities for selecting new tomato flavors.

Solanum peruvianum


Inter-species hybrid between domestic mother and S. habrochaites father. From the wild species, the plants are exhibiting: huge flower petals, striped fruits, hairy fruits, and wild leaves. The plants inherited inserted stigma from the domestic tomatoes. With so many wild traits showing up in the F1, it makes it easy to confirm that the crosses were successful.


Solanum corneliomulleri

Joseph Lofthouse October 2nd wrote:F1: [WXO X (Sun4 X Pink)].

Nine weeks later, and these plants have produced ripe fruits. Yay! Looks like I'll be able to grow one more generation this winter.

I'm continuing to work on this project overwinter. I have about 30 plants growing in a south facing window. Some of them are ripening fruit. For example: Here is an F1 hybrid. The mother was a red NoID from my landrace. Fruit was about 2" in diameter. The pollen donor was LA1777, Solanum habrochaites, a wild tomato with green/white fruits about 1/2" in diameter. So the cross took on the small-fruit size of the wild parent, and it picked up some genetics for a hint of yellow color from the domestic tomato. I expect the next generation to segregate into plants with lots of different colors and shapes of fruits, and lots of different leaf and vine shapes.

The F1 hybrid: [NOID Red X LA1777]


The wild species was the pollen donor.


This is the mother.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:The F1 hybrid: [NOID Red X LA1777]

This morning, the seedlings from these fruits had germinated. That makes them the grandchildren of the original cross between wild tomatoes and domestic tomatoes. That's the generation where things get really exciting for a plant breeder! Things are looking good for this generation to produce seeds before I'll be wanting them for planting in the spring. Happy Dance!!!

This project just keeps getting more exciting.  Nice that the greenhouse is allowing you to get multiple generations per year.  Can't recall if you mentioned the diameter of the fruits at this point...does the grid below the fruit in the photo indicate a 1 cm x 1 cm square with the + signs at the corners?  Or is that 1" x 1"?  Will you then be backcrossing for larger fruit size?  It would be really cool down the road if a seed packet ordered from your catalog would contain all of the genetics being compiled in these current crosses for re-selection by gardeners from Tierra del Fuego to Tuktoyaktuk.  A legacy project, Joseph!.....

John Weiland:

Thanks. The + signs on the grid are 1 cm apart. The dots are 1 mm apart. That's the only size grid that I use for photography. I aughta modify the graphic to include that info.

The domestic tomato that was the mother of this cross was about 2" in diameter, so I'm expecting that some of the offspring will be that size as well. I made crosses with other domestic mothers, with fruits about 6 oz, and the same wild pollen donor, so I expect fruits of that size to be showing up also. Next summer, I intend to make a back-cross to mothers with 12 oz fruits. That's about the biggest fruits I can expect to ripen in my climate.

I'm attempting to keep the first generation plants alive for the whole winter, so that I can plant them in dirt this spring, and generate lots of second generation seeds for sharing. That will give the widest possible selection choices for people in other areas.  They are currently growing in my bedroom window. In 6 weeks I'll be able to move them back out to the greenhouse. They are not currently flowering, but fruits that formed earlier are continuing to ripen.

I attempted the back-cross to S. habrochaites in the fall. Fruits from the attempt are growing fine. I expect them to ripen within a month. I don't expect to be able to tell if the cross was successful until the fruits ripen in about 4 months.  I'm expecting to attempt many more back-crosses to S. habrochaites,  trying to incorporate the self-incompatibility gene into domestic tomatoes. That's the primary focus of this project.

I also  attempted back-crosses to a different line of domestic tomatoes. Those seedlings have also germinated, I'll know in a few weeks if the cross was successful.  I'm only contemplating making one more manual back-cross to domestic tomatoes in order to recover larger fruits... Additionally, I'll watch my tomatoes carefully, because some naturally occurring back-crosses will be happening because I am encouraging promiscuous pollination.

Hi Joseph
Interesting stuff but above my head these days . Yesterday the weather was grotty so I decided to look though my seed catalogue that came  in the post that morning . In it I found something that might interest yourself and others thinking of breeding some tomatoes . As I understand it  most tomatoes have been so inbread they cannot breed with other tomatoes bit like the Royal families of europe  . So I was surprised to find this in the catalogue  Tomato Groseille / Red Current  Lycospersicon  pimpinellifolium with the warning dont grow this if you want to save seeds as it pollinates other tomatoes http://www.germinance.com/tomate_groseille_27-F9-E91.php ( yes I know its in French but since I live in France you have to go with the flow non? ) Could this be used by others seeking to make their own land race ?

David: I'm loving it! A warning from a seed company that a tomato is promiscuous. I'm currently growing Lycospersicon  pimpinellifolium. It does really well in my frost/cold tolerance trials. It would be a good species to use for those wishing to add diversity to their tomato landraces. The flowers are super-tiny, so I'm not currently using it in the auto-hybridizing project. For that project, I am targeting huge flowers.

Here's the pedigree of some the tomatoes that are currently growing in my bedroom window that are part of the auto-hybridizing tomato project. I've been saying that the pedigrees for the promiscuous pollination project are complicated. I didn't realize the magnitude of the complexity until today. There is a mix of naturally occurring and manual cross-pollenations.  There are four lines of 7-way crosses.This graph represents the core of the most advanced lines, where there was a favorable intersection of my desires, dumb chance, plant compatibility, etc. Some varieties that I wish were included are completely missing.

A single arrow on the graphic is flow of pollen from the father of a cross to the mother. If the arrow is circular, the plant self-pollinated. The doubled arrows lead to offspring through one or more generations of selfing or selection. The boxes represent the current generation of seeds or seedlings that are only a few weeks old. Perhaps some of them will produce seeds before spring.

I'm really loving this project. The box labeled "BC1"  may contain self-incompatible tomatoes. I harvested 15 seeds for BC1 this morning. The other two boxes probably contain lots of different types of promiscuously pollinating tomatoes, but I don't expect them to be self-incompatible.

Pedigree of auto-hybridizing tomato project.

Joseph, Did you apply for Patent Variety Protection on your "WTF" seed accession shown in your flow-chart??  

Saw an article that promotes what you do.....keep up the great breeding! :  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tomato-flavor-science_us_5889d3fae4b061cf898cdc9b?ykjdvidf8tkmlsor&

"One big exception to the sad state of the average beefsteak is the resurgence of so-called heirloom varieties seen in farmers markets and upscale grocery stores. Those vegetables are often grown using generations-old seeds, selected for their flavor above all else. But they come at a premium."

The thing that sticks with me from that article is how they're all like "Look at how advanced we are. We have the technology now to tell if a tomato tastes good. NOW we can grow tasty tomatoes." Now that it can use expensive and specialized equipment the farmers will be expected to by, it's becoming an industry priority? Anyone else seeing that?

@Casie B.: "Now that it can use expensive and specialized equipment the farmers will be expected to by, it's becoming an industry priority? Anyone else seeing that?"

Yup....when it comes to standard industry interests and practices, "follow the green".....and I'm not talking about the color of the foliage.  

What has been cool about following Joseph's and others progress is that, for most of the breeding projects, it's about everything *but* uniformity of product.  Taste is only one of many traits for which the different collections are being saved and propagated.  And when it does come to taste, why create a machine for what your own taste buds and olfactories can do cheaper, more sensitively, more accurately,.....and more uniquely to the palate of the taster?  Imagine if over half of your neighbors had their own selection/breeding projects going where taste to the grower was key and seeds were shared between homes.  You might end up liking 'Jane's sweet corn' who lives two doors down more than others on the block, but may like 'Bill's paste tomato' who lives across the back alley more than anyone else's, simply because you share their same respective palate for those flavors.

I'm continuing to work on this project overwinter. I'm growing about 30 plants in a bedroom window, and just started their offspring in a germination chamber. Another week or so, and I'll be able to take them out to the greenhouse during warmer days. Some of the offspring are forming flower buds, so it's looking good to get one more generation of seeds grown out before I start the spring tomatoes.

I didn't realize, before I started this project, how beautiful the offspring would be. Here's some tomato flowers that are a hybrid between domestic and wild tomatoes. I'm loving the bold floral display.

Am I right in guessing these are determinate tomatoes? Or has your focus on the flowers allowed some indeterminate traits to survive?

Casie Becker wrote:Am I right in guessing these are determinate tomatoes? Or has your focus on the flowers allowed some indeterminate traits to survive?

My starting varieties were a mix of determinates and indeterminates. Fruits were red, yellow, purple, or white. Fruit size was between 0.5" and 2.5", so offspring are likely to have a wide range of traits. My primary selection criteria is for promiscuous flowering traits, and ability to make viable seeds. Once that is well established, then I'll select for other traits like taste, and large fruits. I'm likely to settle on determinate growth pattern, cause that tends to work best with my short season. I'm likely to select for yellow, orange,  or white fruited tomatoes because I don't much care for the taste of red or purple fruits. A tremendous amount of diversity is expected, and I'm sharing seeds widely, so all sorts of wonderful traits and varieties are likely to arise from this project.

There are currently 16 fruits growing in my bedroom window, so I may have more seeds to share before spring.

It's funny how completely opposite your tomato taste and needs are to mine. The deep darker red a tomato is, the better it tastes to me. Yellow and orange tomatoes taste rather insipid to me. The best of them taste like a typical supermarket red tomato. I've never tried a purple tomato, but I suspect I'd like it. On top of that, I have a very long growing season and I'm happiest when I get a tomato plant through all eight months we can grow them here. Most people just plant a second set of plants in the fall because disease pressure and heat stress can be so hard on the spring plants.

Unfortunately, I also have a family member in the house who is deathly allergic to tomatoes. She can't even stand near the plants. I only grow a couple of plants each year, in beds at the far reaches of the yard. I've already planted saved seed from a variety I was impressed with. If it wouldn't risk sending my sister into anaphylatic shock I would consider trying to make next year my 'year of tomatoes'.

Hi Joseph
I thought of you today as I have been reading " Legumes " by JM Pelt ( it's in French I doubt it's available in the. uSA ) where he states that until the 1780s tomatoes where grown more for decoration than fruit in France . I wonder if these veg had flowers like yours
People did not eat the fruit because it raised unhealthy appetites strangely he gives no more details on this

David

Though not part of Joseph's project yet, his efforts have inspired my own goings and tinkering in the wild tomato breeding area.

Today i planted seed for 4 accessions of S. galapagense, one S. cheesmaiae, 2 S. habrochaites, and 1 S. peruvianum. I used the 1:1 ratio of water:bleach method soaked for 30 min for all of them (with a little lemon juice and cream of tartar mixed in). For S. galapagense and S. cheesmaniae they actually recommend 1 hour soaking, but i only did 30 min.

My earlier pots of test S. galapagense and S. cheesmaniae seemed to have germinated well. I have at least 5 seedlings of each that i can probably separate at some point into separate pots. The S. galapagense did take longer to germinate though and when i was still unsure if they would germinate at all i did add a little lemon juice to the soil one day. Not sure if it helped, but i guess it didn't hurt.

One of the accessions i think for S. cheesmaniae for the notes i wrote on the seed packet said exerted stigma and antho, so that sounds exciting. One of the S. galapagense accessions said red fruit which is unusual. I'm hoping the orange-brown fruit one actually is brown.

In a flat of seedlings which were harvested from S. peruvianum, that were inter-planted with S. habrochaites, there is one seedling that is off-type. Perhaps it's an interspecies hybrid? I'll keep watch on it, and see if other traits diverge later on.

The second photo is what is typical of the mother on the right. What is typical of the father on the left, and what looks like a plant with traits mid-way between the suspected parents in the middle.

The third photo shows a ripe tomato from a cross between a red domestic tomato, and S. habrochaites. Andrew: If it has any seeds in it, some of them are intended for you. The fruit turned more yellow under the sunlight in the greenhouse than it did in a low-light bedroom window.