Welcome to the Decorative Micro Tomato project! Here is some information to guide you when participating in this project, things to look for, and what the goals are. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Goal
The goal with this project is to develop multiple varieties of Micro Tomatoes which offer some form of differentiation from a normal micro tomato, that someone might consider putting in a flower garden, or otherwise want to display for the features of the plant, or fruit.
Foliage
While there are some known variations in foliage type, such as Rugose, Potato Leaf, or as we're seeing in many of Dan's crosses - "carrot leaf" - there isn't much variation in color. There's green. Darker green. Lighter green. And green green green. There are a few varieties which do offer some color variation, primarily "Variegated" varieties which offer a mix of green and white or light cream.
Variegated tomato leaves
Flowers
Tomato flowers are almost all yellow, or at least some shade of yellow. They have small petals, typically, but they do differ in the number of petals. Some flowers are so-called mega-blossoms which look more like a dandelion flower. Given the number of wild tomato species and the genetics they contain, one might wonder what possibilities there are for flower variation. Some wild species have large flowers, some have flowers that are near-orange. With some cross-breeding, one might wonder what is possible?
Why?
This idea was born out of an exchange Diane, Dan, and myself were having and the idea of decorative tomatoes came up. Of all the available tomatoes, micros seem like a good growth habit with which to pursue this avenue. All other growth habits require special care, typically, such as staking, caging, baskets, etc - but a micro, if the fruits aren't too large, can typically stand on its own and is relatively small.
Notes
This project is going to require some time to acquire some varieties and species samples with which to make some crosses. It will be a bit before we have any seed available for you all to try out.
Goal
The goal with this project is to develop multiple varieties of Micro Tomatoes which offer some form of differentiation from a normal micro tomato, that someone might consider putting in a flower garden, or otherwise want to display for the features of the plant, or fruit.
Foliage
While there are some known variations in foliage type, such as Rugose, Potato Leaf, or as we're seeing in many of Dan's crosses - "carrot leaf" - there isn't much variation in color. There's green. Darker green. Lighter green. And green green green. There are a few varieties which do offer some color variation, primarily "Variegated" varieties which offer a mix of green and white or light cream.
Variegated tomato leaves
Flowers
Tomato flowers are almost all yellow, or at least some shade of yellow. They have small petals, typically, but they do differ in the number of petals. Some flowers are so-called mega-blossoms which look more like a dandelion flower. Given the number of wild tomato species and the genetics they contain, one might wonder what possibilities there are for flower variation. Some wild species have large flowers, some have flowers that are near-orange. With some cross-breeding, one might wonder what is possible?
Why?
This idea was born out of an exchange Diane, Dan, and myself were having and the idea of decorative tomatoes came up. Of all the available tomatoes, micros seem like a good growth habit with which to pursue this avenue. All other growth habits require special care, typically, such as staking, caging, baskets, etc - but a micro, if the fruits aren't too large, can typically stand on its own and is relatively small.
Notes
This project is going to require some time to acquire some varieties and species samples with which to make some crosses. It will be a bit before we have any seed available for you all to try out.
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