Early flowering identified- 12 weeks seed to seed

[HL2601]

Here's to hope-the first EF seedling up!

[DrTomato]

Yay! I hope you get a good one; there's still some variation but they do all flower early!

[dfollett]

I planted 5 seeds of the Micro Tom X Black Cherry Early Flowering. It almost looks like 4 are indeterminate and one is dwarf or micro. Does that make sense? What should I expect from these?

[DrTomato]

Yeah, that's consistent with what I'm seeing. I realized a couple weeks ago that this population is not all indeterminate like I thought. Of the six I have growing, I think three are determinate, and two are 6" tall while the other four plants are around 10" (grown in 2" cells and 11 wks old). One of the 6" plants is also determinate and flowered a week before the rest so I'm definitely keeping those seeds.

[dfollett]

What is the filial generation of these seeds - F1, F2?

[DrTomato]

Your seeds are F4.

[wykvlvr]

Wry grin I have been looking at my just turned 1 month old Micro Tom that are in full bloom going hmmm what do I have in regular tomatoes that is also in bloom... Most likely candidate is Stupice but Large Barred Boar, Green Zebra and Blush are also close to blooming... AND both my Pearly Pink Orange are in full bloom. Any suggestions...

[dfollett]

You could do what I've done and cross with them all. I've not grown any on your list other than Stupice. It was an OK red, but that was all. My primary objective has been diversity. Make some crosses and have some of the folks here help with the grow outs.

[DrTomato]

UPDATE: The fruit on the small/determinate EF plant officially ripened at 11.5 weeks. It looks like there is still some variation in the other EF plants with the first ripe fruit as late as 13 weeks, even though they all flowered within the same week. Micro Tom was closer to 13 weeks. Interestingly, most plants in one of the other F4 families ripened at 12 weeks which follows the patter of the EF family, although none of those were ready at 11.5. A few other families have single plants ripening at 13 weeks and I expect most of the others to be ready closer to 15 weeks or later. All of the EF fruit so far has still been bland and mealy like Micro Tom.