From The Vine customers - volunteer opportunities to help us on the Dwarf tomato breeding project
Last year some of you took advantage of free experimental Dwarf tomato varieties - you got to grow some interesting possible new varieties, for the cost of providing me with a ripe tomato or two from the plant for seed saving.
We will do it again this year. The main caveat:
These are not stable varieties, so please don't save seed from them, or share seeds. The varieties belong to the Dwarf project - the advantage to you is that you get the plants free, get to learn a bit about tomato genetics, take part in the project (and as a contributor to new varieties) and get to eat tomatoes that are likely to be very good!
So if you are interested, let me know by email (nctomatoman@gmail.com) - I can be sure that you get the variety or varieties of your choosing.
The options are as follows:
Boronia - F6 or F7 generation, this one is nearly stable and we will release it soon. Goal is medium sized tasty purple fruit on a short growing dwarf plant.
Striped fruited varieties, either from the Tidy family (Adelaide Festival), Beauty family (numerous examples, such as Chocolate Lightning and Beauty King), and Messy family (Fred's Tie Dye). Tomatoes are either green, purple, brown, red, or yellow with different contrasting stripes.
Barossa Moon F4 - potato leaf, white cherry tomato on a dwarf sized plant
Loxton Lad or Loxton Lass F4 or F5 generation - medium to large orange fruit, short plant, delicious
Dwarf Blazing Beauty, either F6 or F7 - delicious medium sized orange fruit on a potato leaf dwarf plant. One of the most promising Dwarfs that is nearing completion
.
Wherokowhai - nearly completed, a yellow/red bicolor of good size and great flavor on a potato leaf Dwarf plant
TastyWine - best flavored dwarf we ate last year, large pink fruit, potato leaf Dwarf plant, needs a few more years of selection work
Rosella Crimson and Dwarf Rosella Giant - we are having a tough time getting these two, but at their best, they are a delicious medium sized pink fruited dwarf (Rosella), or large sized (Giant)
Sweet Scarlet Dwarf - medium sized tasty red fruit on a potato leaf dwarf, a few more years needed to finish it up.
Dwarf Russian Swirl - medium large, yellow/red bicolor, good flavor, nearly stable.
Sarandipity - golf ball brown fruits with green stripes, we are looking for the one with the best flavor, very productive and unique looking. Named for my daughter Sara.
Bendingo Dawn and Bendingo Rose - two new dwarf growing cherry tomatoes named by a grower in Australia - the Dwarf project hasn't done much with cherry tomatoes yet, but you get a chance to try to grow some and see what you think
Dwarf Caitydid - wonderful last year, a large yellow/red bicolored variety with a pink interior, needs selection work, named for my daughter Caitlin
Dwarf Arctic Rose - very compact dwarf, developed in Alaska, medium pink fruit, nearly ready for release
Summertime Gold - we released this but it doesn't seem quite right so we are looking back at some earlier generations to do some reselecting. Large yellow delicious fruit.
Dwarf Sweet Sue - nearly ready to release, just taking a final look - medium yellow delicious fruit, potato leaf dwarf, named for my wife
Dwarf Pink Passion, Dwarf Lemon Ice, Dwarf Golden Heart, Dwarf Scarlet Heart - working to our first heart shaped varieties, all need work - most has been done on California so far - how will they do here?
Dwarf Kelly Green F8 generation - nearly ready for release, we are taking a final look - medium green delicious fruit. Named for my wife's uncle Ed Kelly.
Summer Sunrise F9 - same story as Kelly Green - nearly ready, large flat yellow tasty fruit
Sunny ivory F4 - from the Sunny family, no name yet, medium large ivory fruit, early days for this one
Chocolate Champion F6 - nearly stable, we are aiming for a dwarf form of Cherokee Chocolate - needs more taste opinions
Loaves and Fishes, Neil Lockhart, Patrina Pepperina - all F3, all early named selection from Witty - no idea on these, would value opinions
We will do it again this year. The main caveat:
These are not stable varieties, so please don't save seed from them, or share seeds. The varieties belong to the Dwarf project - the advantage to you is that you get the plants free, get to learn a bit about tomato genetics, take part in the project (and as a contributor to new varieties) and get to eat tomatoes that are likely to be very good!
So if you are interested, let me know by email (nctomatoman@gmail.com) - I can be sure that you get the variety or varieties of your choosing.
The options are as follows:
Boronia - F6 or F7 generation, this one is nearly stable and we will release it soon. Goal is medium sized tasty purple fruit on a short growing dwarf plant.
Striped fruited varieties, either from the Tidy family (Adelaide Festival), Beauty family (numerous examples, such as Chocolate Lightning and Beauty King), and Messy family (Fred's Tie Dye). Tomatoes are either green, purple, brown, red, or yellow with different contrasting stripes.
Barossa Moon F4 - potato leaf, white cherry tomato on a dwarf sized plant
Loxton Lad or Loxton Lass F4 or F5 generation - medium to large orange fruit, short plant, delicious
Dwarf Blazing Beauty, either F6 or F7 - delicious medium sized orange fruit on a potato leaf dwarf plant. One of the most promising Dwarfs that is nearing completion
.
Wherokowhai - nearly completed, a yellow/red bicolor of good size and great flavor on a potato leaf Dwarf plant
TastyWine - best flavored dwarf we ate last year, large pink fruit, potato leaf Dwarf plant, needs a few more years of selection work
Rosella Crimson and Dwarf Rosella Giant - we are having a tough time getting these two, but at their best, they are a delicious medium sized pink fruited dwarf (Rosella), or large sized (Giant)
Sweet Scarlet Dwarf - medium sized tasty red fruit on a potato leaf dwarf, a few more years needed to finish it up.
Dwarf Russian Swirl - medium large, yellow/red bicolor, good flavor, nearly stable.
Sarandipity - golf ball brown fruits with green stripes, we are looking for the one with the best flavor, very productive and unique looking. Named for my daughter Sara.
Bendingo Dawn and Bendingo Rose - two new dwarf growing cherry tomatoes named by a grower in Australia - the Dwarf project hasn't done much with cherry tomatoes yet, but you get a chance to try to grow some and see what you think
Dwarf Caitydid - wonderful last year, a large yellow/red bicolored variety with a pink interior, needs selection work, named for my daughter Caitlin
Dwarf Arctic Rose - very compact dwarf, developed in Alaska, medium pink fruit, nearly ready for release
Summertime Gold - we released this but it doesn't seem quite right so we are looking back at some earlier generations to do some reselecting. Large yellow delicious fruit.
Dwarf Sweet Sue - nearly ready to release, just taking a final look - medium yellow delicious fruit, potato leaf dwarf, named for my wife
Dwarf Pink Passion, Dwarf Lemon Ice, Dwarf Golden Heart, Dwarf Scarlet Heart - working to our first heart shaped varieties, all need work - most has been done on California so far - how will they do here?
Dwarf Kelly Green F8 generation - nearly ready for release, we are taking a final look - medium green delicious fruit. Named for my wife's uncle Ed Kelly.
Summer Sunrise F9 - same story as Kelly Green - nearly ready, large flat yellow tasty fruit
Sunny ivory F4 - from the Sunny family, no name yet, medium large ivory fruit, early days for this one
Chocolate Champion F6 - nearly stable, we are aiming for a dwarf form of Cherokee Chocolate - needs more taste opinions
Loaves and Fishes, Neil Lockhart, Patrina Pepperina - all F3, all early named selection from Witty - no idea on these, would value opinions
