Notes on F4 plants, etc. 7/24/18.

Passing the peak phase.   While the F4 plants at the farm pretty much accomplished my goals, it was interesting that those plants really struggled to grow large this season. None of the “beefsteak” F4s there – these were 8A, 46A, 55A, 10B - grew taller then about hip height; many of them are sort of dying off, and no so much catastrophically wilting but simply failing to grow while the rest of the plant kinda dies naturally; the growth was really limited.   I think it's mainly due to the late start.  Weather has been hot, but not overly dry.   Nevertheless, I got fruit, and saved F4 seeds from several 55A and 10B subline plants. In contrast, the 28D3’s (cherry size fruit) grew into very vigorous plants with lots of fruit.  Also saved seeds.

So.  Sublines 8A turned out to have no purple, so I am not pursuing these any more.

Sublines 55A has pretty strong purple, mostly, and good size, so I am saving several of these plants.

Subline 46A2 has similar phenotype to the F3.  Have two at home in containers, both of which had nice fruit set and I have saved seeds from the first one with ripe fruit.

Line 10B1 was interesting for a few reasons.  This F3 was not gf, but was large and purple so I saved it.  Turns out it was definitely gf/+, as one of the three F4’s is gf/gf, and so this one will compete with the 55A sublines as having gf/gf ; purple ; large size.    One F4 was large and ripe but had no mature seeds (!); later fruit from same plant had some, but few, seeds despite a nice beefsteak.  And one F4s turned out to be y/y as well as purple    So I have saved these too.

The two 46A2 plants in containers at home did MUCH better than at farm and are still going.  The 55A7 in a hay bale died of wilt, but grew to about 6 ft first and had good fruit set, though most fruit did not ripen before the whole plant died.   

The 28D3 F4 plants were interesting for their slight differences. All three were red cherries like the F3 parent.  However, #2 had more cracking and diseased fruit than #1 and 3, which were pretty much crack-free.  #1 and 2 avg. about 10 g, while #3 is ~12g.  #1 and 2 have no visible purple but #3 has just a tiny bit.  So 28D3.3 is the one to pursue.

Other notes:

The container plants are much better in terms of health and disease protection than hay bales or in-ground.  But the fruit was prone to end-rot.  Flamme and Green Zebra were most prone to this problem. Fruit set on KB and CG was poor.   

GDZ really seems just like RT to me.   GDZ is advertised as having fruit that mature more consistently than RT, but I’m not really convinced.