SeanInVa's 125X

[SeanInVa]

I have both F1 and F2s of this one going. The F1 got neglected and is going to take time to recover, but it is in the ground.

Of the F2s, I have seven going. Some of the pics are hard to make out the actual plant

125X F2 1 SF
This one is looking like an indeterminate, even though it didn't really look that way initially. Currently 21" tall


125X F2 2 SF
13" tall


125X F2 3 SF
9" tall


125X F2 4 SF
10" tall


125X F2 5 SF
8" tall


125X F2 6 SF
11" tall


125X F2 7 SF
11" tall

[HL2601]

Nice that you have so many plants to observe Sean They look great!

[SeanInVa]

These plants are doing rather well, mostly. They've greened up, but #7 is still lagging behind.

#1 is definitely much larger and not a micro at all. But, I'm not sure it's indeterminate and might be closer to a determinate or semi determinate as many of the suckers are terminating in a flower truss. I've pulled a few fruits so far - and they're coming in around 79g. I'm only still growing it because, well, I'm already this deep in, might as well keep it going!


#2 is one I'm really watching. It's about 12" or so, and has a produced a couple nice size fruits. I've staked this one today after pulling the yellow/orange striped below


Here are a few more shots of a few of the plants/fruits (third pic is #1 mentioned above). The rest of the plants are between 9-13" or so

[SeanInVa]

Alright, so I've harvested off a few of the plants so far. First let me state that there seems to be some decent size potential here. The downside is the flavor isn't very good for some of them. Plant 2, which is the one I've been planning to save for sure, has decent flavor and OK size. This is the red/yellow striped one from above. Plant 3 was a disappointment in taste, and so far Plant 4 is to. Not quite a spitter - but grocery store tomatoes might be better. I'm letting some of the other 4's ripen a bit more before I totally pass judgment

I'm eagerly awaiting Plant 5's fruit to fully ripen. A bit hard to tell from the pic, and the lack of a size reference isn't helping - the second 125-5 is 145 grams or just a bit above 5oz. If there is any flavor here, I will definitely be saving this one. I tossed two more away from this plant that were probably 3-4oz because they had bad sunscald.

All of these plants are 18" or under, but most DO require supports.

[HL2601]

That's quite a lot of fruit! That plant 2 striped fruit is great looking. I also like the mini beefsteak shape of #4-too bad about the taste. Since it's only an F2 can better taste develop in F3? I think I remember reading that over in the DTP.

[SeanInVa]

Hmm, good point - and it would make sense that if traits can present past F2 for other characteristics, why not taste?

I would prefer to start with taste already presenting but if it could poke out later - that's a consideration. Maybe someone who is more knowledgeable on that can weigh in. I have a bunch more of the F2 seed so I will keep exploring this one. If someone else wants to jump in on this line, let me know! I am also growing out 1 of the F1s to get more F2 seed.

dfollett do you have any info on 3C45 from Frogsleap? All I see is that it was a small, striped, oblong indeterminate.

[dfollett]

I'm not more knowledgeable, but I'll weigh in. From the start, I've taken a slightly different approach from what I think the pros do in the big tomato world. My opinion has been that there is so little diversity in micros that my primary criteria for advancing to the next generation has been: 1) Is it micro? 2) Is it unique? 3) Is it productive? 4) Is it healthy? 5) Does it taste good? Perhaps in that order.

If it is an actual spitter, I don't carry it forward. However, there is a long ways from spitter to OK then to good to great. (I have 4 flavor categories - Spitter - OK - Good - Great. Good and Great have subcategories like sweet, tart, fruity and real.) If it checks all the other boxes and hits the flavor range of OK or above, I'll definitely take it another generation. I see many characteristics of the plant change - sometimes dramatically - from generation to generation - including flavor. The most frustrating thing is to find the perfect flavor in an early generation then not be able to find it in subsequent generations. If you can lose it, you should be able to gain it. There are no guarantees it will ever be there but if everything else is, it's worth a try - in my opinion. If you wait for the perfect flavor, you may lose the other characteristics you are after.

As for 3C45, I'll try to contact Mark McCaslin and see what I can learn. I don't have access to Tomatoville to go back and see the correspondence I had with Mark back in 2014 about it. He wanted someone to grow out some trials for him and I volunteered. I grew that one and another for him and reported back and returned seed to him from them. 3C45 was a small plum shaped bicolor indeterminate that produced quite well.

The weird thing is that cross - 125X - produced the largest F1 fruit of any cross I have made so far. I'll ask Mark if he can shed some light on what it might have in its background. I'll let you know if I learn anything.

[SeanInVa]

Dan, your input is valuable here. You've made so many crosses and carried many forward, at least for a few generations that I would imagine you have definitely seen traits appear and likewise disappear later on.

I will consider that and look to save some of this seed from the "less than tasty" and see what happens.

[dfollett]

Here is what I learned about 3C45's lineage from Frogsleap :

C45 was a cross between two high flavor saladettes, so the large fruit are unexpected. It is a complex pedigree, but the only large fruit type is BTD, which was a grandfather.

I grew another F1 from that cross this summer. The fruit is the size I expected for the original - what I'd call small saladette. Just got lucky with that first F1 in the size category I guess.

[SeanInVa]

Here's some progress on the F3s.

125X F3 SF2
I am currently growing one F3 of SF2. This is the plant which produced the red w/ orange stripes fruit. This one is a bit larger than the F2 standing about 16" tall right now.



125X F3 SF6
Currently growing two of these. This is from the F2 that produced 5-7oz tomatoes. As you can see in the picture, one has a more compact growth habit while the other is taller and lanky. The one on the left is 12" and the one on the right is 20". They both obviously need food. They are just starting to set a couple fruits.

[SeanInVa]

And here are a few more pictures, now that my phone finally decided to upload them to iCloud

125X F3 SF6-1's first fruit


125X F3 SF6-2's first fruit


125X F3 SF6-2 flowers

[dfollett]

When were they planted?

[SeanInVa]

I was bad and didn't save the date the seed was sown - but I transplanted them all on 10/2. So perhaps 2-3 weeks prior?

[SeanInVa]

Was looking through logs for a few other plants I started about the same time and it looks like these were sown mid/late August - the first transplant from dense sowing to new home was on 8/30

[HL2601]

Sean I started a tray of your 125x's on 12/1 I have narrowed down to maybe 6 plants and 2 are really worth watching. One is smallest and the other has an odd spear shaped leaf. More with pics soon
Sorry I have been MIA for a while.
Heide