ZPT x GDZ F1s

I got a couple of ZPT x GDZ F1 fruit, which were interesting as they combined traits of either parent.  The fruits were not as weirdly fasciated as GDZ; however, the larger of the two fruits was pretty funky shaped.  Still it did not have any lobes that were totally separate, like GDZ and RT usually have. In other words the fruit was one unified body.   The smaller fruit was very similar in apperance to Costoluto Genovese, in having the ribbed appearance of ZPT and CG but flat like CG.  In addition, the seed blobs inside the locules were not very juicy and there was an air cavity separating the seeds from the outer rim of the locule, which is just like the ZPT parent.  This trait is seen in "stuffer" variety tomatoes, which are not very popular.  I have seen this trait in one other heirloom I have grown several years ago, Gogoshari Stiped.   It seems to be a dominant trait.

After consideration I think it's still possible that these plants could be from ZPT self-fertilization, i.e. the cross did not work as planned.  Wish I had more than 2 fruits on which to base the phenotype.  But my gut feeling is that they are not quite shaped like the ZPT parent - the first one seems to have the asymmetry of GDZ and the second fruit was too "flat". 

More 55a7 x pBTD F1s

Another 55a7 x pBTD F1 fruit.   I now see the stripe allele is not fully recessive - you can see striping, just barely, but not nearly as strong as in the pBTD parent.
Below is an example of pBTD (Pink Berkeley Tie Dye); image is copied from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds website.   

Follow-up on the y gene

y =  yellow epidermis.  This year I grew two F5 plants for 46A2.3. Turns out one is "pink", i.e. clearly y/y, but the other is not "pink", i.e. normal reddish skin.  Therefore the F4 parent (46A2.3-F4) must have been y/+!  Saved seeds of 46A2.3 F5 y/y.  (see fruit on the right, below.)

46A2.3 F5 fruit:   y/y "pink" is on the right.

2019 notes, continued

• Remember to disinfect all buckets.  A few plants had wilt, etc.  Mostly late onset except for that RT/GDZ F1.

More pics of tomatoes:
• RTxGDZ F1, ripe.
• White Beauty heirloom.  Good taste.  Very pale yellow inside.
• 55a7 x pBTD F1.  This is clearly an F1, lacking the strong purple of 55a7 and lacking the striping of pBTD.   Note inside the fruit is gf/gf and, I think maybe has the bicolor phenotype - see how dark red the center is (the columella). !  I think Berkeley Tie Dye has this gene based on various web pictures, though it is not evident in the various Pink Berkeley Tie Dye pictures I can find.

WB, Flamme, and a red cherry for comparison (28d3)

Notes on the 2019 tomato season

Welp, it was not a banner year for backyard production.   Sometimes you have to learn things by making mistakes.

The late start had a definite impact on productivity.    There was no ripe fruit until about the 2nd week in July; meanwhile, the heat-induced blossom drop took a toll when the plants were getting going.  The big disappointment for me though, was that the high-calcium fertilizer did not help reduce end rot.  In fact, it might have been worse than last year.   So next year I'll try ordinary fertilizer and just try supplementing with calcium.

I think my soil mix does not hold water very well, so I had to tweak my new timer drip-watering setup to water like every 6 hours or so.

Next year:  put a brick or 2 in the bottom of each bucket for stability.
Also, put posts in place while filling with soil - NOT after planting!  You need to get them in deep and stable. 

end rot on Flamme.

RT x GDZ F1 update

Well, disease is taking over the RT x GDZ #16 F1 despite my earlier pruning.   Not too surprising.  This may impede ability to assess fruit phenotype fully.  It's a bit confusing.  The first two fruit to form and grow are clearly ultra-fasciated as per the unique RT and GDZ phenotype.  In addition there was the megabloom from the last post; that fruit is not growing much.    However, there is another fruit that has an intact, flattened ribbed phenotype a la Costoluto Genovese.  And the newer flower to form seem modest-sized and have a modest number of petals, e.g. about 6.   So I am wondering if the first fruit were "megablooms", but the more typical fruit phenotype will actually be less fasciated than either parent.  That would be very interesting and suggest partial complementation, e.g. two separate loci.

Not ultra-fasciated, just ribbed and a little catfaced

Sick plant

Rest of patio tomatoes doing OK

RT x GDZ F1 fruiting despite disease

Looks like the RT x GDZ #16 F1 produces fruit that are clearly fasciated like either parent was, suggesting either that it is monogenic or was self-pollinated.    Here are an early stage fruit and a separate, impressive megabloom.

A new disease - bacterial canker?

My RT x GDZ F1 plant in 5 gal bucket seemed to have a unique disease/condition not seen in any of the other plants.    Browning of leaf margins ("marginal scorch"), mainly, on older leaves at the end of branches, and without profound wilting.  This is different than the wilt I've often seen in my garden bed tomatoes.  The leaf appearance matches images of what is most often called "bacterial canker" via online research. 

I isolated the pot from the other plants and around June 15 I trimmed off all of the affected branches, using an old scissors I was discarding anyway so as not to contaminate other plants.   Here are before and after photos.

Hay bales this year...meh

Not thrilled this year with progress in growing veggies in hay bales.   I have 2 bales and I think curing them went fine...   Tried direct seeding lettuce with mixed results; also direct seeding a few cucumbers seeds.  I noticed several sprouts disappeared overnight - something's eating 'em.  One row of lettuce is growing but one row lost all the sprouts. I transplanted my dill and cilantro starts into the bales but they didn't last long.   Transplanted my little pepper plants but something has been eating those too so they will probably not make it.  It's also been pretty hot and dry.   I put in a couple store-bought basil plants and they are surviving but need water every day.

Other 2018 crosses germinated mostly ok

As of 5/27/19 here are germination rates (after about 10 days):
For 2018 crosses #18, 30, 40, 45, 56 each: out of 12 seeds sowed, germ N = 5, 8, 11, 7, 1.
Neither of the 2 seeds from #26 germinated, which is not surprising.

Testing my 2018 crosses more thoroughly

Since two of my 2018 F1s had seemed to totally resist germinating, I decided to test all of my 2018 F1 seeds.   To recap, I already sowed 48, 22, 13, 16.  13 and 16 had multiple germinations with only 6 seeds sowed each.  After a failed attempt and repeat tests, 48 and 22 failed (total 18 seeds) and 57 failed (total 36 seeds).

Therefore ~5/16/19 I sowed 12 seeds each of the remainders - 56, 30, 18, 40, 45; There were only 2 seeds from #26 and the fruit was poor, so not expecting those to work but I sowed those too.  Incubating these outside since it's quite warm already.

As of 5/23/19 there are a few plants emerging, including one from #30, ZPT x GDZ.  Transferred to 4 inch pot.

New crosses 2018
cross/fruit#	collected	type
#56	7/6/18	pBTD x F4-46A2.2
#26	7/31/18	RT x GDZ
#57	7/21/18	ZPT x KB
#48	7/24/18	CG x FL
#22	7/24/18	CG x FL
#13	7/21/18	F4 55A7.3 x pBTD
#16	8/9/18	RT x GDZ
#18	8/12/18	F4-46A2.2 x pBTD
#30	9/2/18	ZPT x GDZ
#40	8/10/18	GDZ x RT
#45	8/14/18	pBTD x F4-46A2.2

Homemade low-ammonia, high-calcium fertilizer for tomato plants

This fertilizer is designed to have high calcium but minimal ammonia.  The plants need calcium to minimize end-rot, but ammonium ions have been reported to interfere with calcium uptake.


• 2 cups Hi-Yield Calcium Nitrate.   Can buy on Amazon.

• 1 cup 26-0-4 Vigoro lawn fertilizer; its nitrogen is mainly in the form of urea, not ammonium nitrate like many other fertilizers

• 1 cup Triple Super Phosphate 0-46-0, from Easy Peasy Plants.

• 10 cups wood ash.  I made this the old-fashioned way in my fire pit.  Wood ash has about 5% potash  (potassium) and about 1% phosphate, and as a bonus has a lot of calcium - up to 25% calcium carbonate. An alternative could be Espoma potash 0-0-60 6 lbs.   

This should make 14 cups.  I estimate this to have a makeup that is very close to 4-4-4 NPK, and is ~5% calcium.   Use 1/2 cup per 5 gal of planting medium.   

In practice, I carefully measure this "14 cups" but in the end I measured out 6 batches of 3 x 5 gal and it was gone, so I only got about 9 cups out of it !  I believe that when I thoroughly mixed the ingredients it compressed together, so I should have probably re-measured the whole batch and adjusted accordingly.  This means that I may have overshot the fertlizing by about 50% or so.

Setting up 5-gal containers: Homemade planting medium.

I have set up 19 tomato plants in 5-gal buckets.

All were first transplanted to 4-inch tall cowpots for a week or two and hardened outdoors.  The original medium for seeding and first transplant was Jiffy organic seed starting mix, which has worked pretty well for me the last few years - very low fungus/damping off problems with this stuff.  In fact this year I think I had zero damping off.  I am pretty careful about not overwatering.

The 5-gal bucket medium is made as follows.  This makes 15 gal, enough for 3 buckets, and convenient to make up in a wheelbarrow.

1. 5 gal peat moss.

2. 5 gal vermiculite or perlite.  I used either in different batches, due to availability at home depot.

3. 5 gal cheap topsoil.   Specifically this has no added fertilizer.  Most name-brand topsoils have fertilizer added so I avoided these.  Instead I used Evergreen brand from home depot.  As far as I can tell, the batch I purchased this year is simply ground up wood shavings - it basically looks like wood mulch, just more finely chopped up as compared to regular mulch.   I am pretty sure this product varies regionally, and maybe from year to year.   So although this has no added fertilizer, it certainly is 100% organic material.   

4. 1 & 1/2 cups of homemade fertilizer.    See the separate post for this recipe.

Mix all ingredients in wheelbarrow.  Makes enough for three 5-gal buckets.   I find it helpful to mist the peat moss and vermiculite with water after dispensing them, as they are very dusty.

Germination from 4/7/19:

All of the heirlooms germinated OK.

(CA; FL, some each of old purchased seeds and my own; BC, ML, BZ, MS, UO, WB)

These of my own 2018 seeds germinated OK:

46A2.3 F5,   28D3.3  F5;   RTxGDZ;  55A7 x pBTD.

However, my initial seeding of 3 seeds each of  CG x FL and ZPT x KB both failed, as did my basil which was several years old, and my dill I saved from last year.  New sweet banana pepper germinated, as did cilantro which is a couple years old now.

So: around April 15 I re-sowed 12 seeds each of  CG x FL and ZPT x KB.  Heat pad.
As of April 20, no germination visible.
Newly purchased seeds of basil (12 seeds) and dill (6 seeds) were sowed at the same time, and had all germinated by April 20.  Will keep watching the tomatoes.

Late start for 2019

A couple weeks late... Finally sowed tomatoes for 2019 on April 7.
Decided no to use an offsite farm plot this year.  Need to scale back my plans so I can focus on other things... However I will try about 16 or so tomatoes in backyard buckets this year.

Sowed heirlooms:

CA; FL, some each of old purchased seeds and my own; BC, ML, BZ, MS, UO, WB;

Sowed from my old cross:

46A2.3 F5,   28D3.3  F5

Sowed from my new 2018 crosses:

RTxGDZ; CG x FL; ZPT x KB; 55A7 x pBTD.

Also sowed: sweet banana pepper, cilantro, basil, dill.
Still to direct sow in garden: green beans, cucumber, sunflowers, zinnias.