Tomato germination 2018

I had to re-sow some of them, around 4/8/18.   More ZPT - these seeds were from 2013 and had 0/4 seeds germinated, so I re-sowed 2 seeds x 6 wells and got at least 6-8 or so up.   Also re-sowed several F4s, and one or two other heirlooms.    By 4/26/18, almost everything has at least some germinated - at mostly pretty good rates - and all have been transplanted.  The only failed germination was Lucky Cross.  Oddly this was a gift from Tomatoville this year, so they should be "fresh" seeds.  However I didn't plan on this variety anyway so no big deal.

Random notes: I sprayed Daconil on the soil tops after sowing.   By 4/25, just a couple of the last few seedlings that I had not transplanted yet had beginnings of damping-off, which is not bad out of about 70 or so seedlings.  However, I sprayed those guys with Daconil, gave 'em more soil, and the next day seemed more stable.  I guess if the infection is controlled and they can develop new roots above the old infection point they might make it.

Sowing heirlooms

4/1/18 I also sowed these:

BC, BZ, BTD, BW, CA, CP, CG, FL, GZ, HC, GDZ, GZ, HC, KB, LC, MS, RT, SG, WB, ZPT.    = 18 varieties!

New abbreviations:
BZ   Black Zebra
PBTD  (Pink) Berkeley Tie Dye
CA  Carbon
GDZ  Godzilla
LC    Lucky Cross
MS   Mr Stripey
WB  White Beauty

Sowing F4s

4/1/18 -  I sowed F4 seeds from these 2017 F3 plants from the IRxCP cross.

8A-6, 8A-7.                         

Gf. Biggest of the 8As. 250-300 g.  Might see an increase in purple color in F4s?

46A-2                                   

Gf, globe, nice purple

55A-1, 55A-5, 55A-7.  

Gf.  Better purple than 8A but might not be quite as big: 150-200 g.

10B-1

Not gf but good size and good purple, so kinda neat.  Gf homozygotes might emerge in F4s. Chance of any one F4 plant being gf/gf is (2/3 x 1/4) = 1/6.  

28D-3            

The purple-tinged cherry.

Not sure how to handle the nomenclature going forward, but I don't see why after this point I'd be inclined to save fruit from more than just my favorite single individual from any one line.  Going forward I can keep the F3 identifier and just append the generation, e.g. 8A6-F4, 46A2-F4, etc. 

Big red sauce prep of 2017.

I thawed all of my "red" tomato juice for a large batch of sauce to can, on Labor Day.   (I still have two frozen bags of "dark" juice, which are either CP, F3s, or both.) By weight the frozen red juice was about 12.9 kilograms; this translates to over 13 quarts of liquid, assuming it's mostly water.  I had to thaw it out in 2 pots - the 12 qt pasta cooker and also my big canning pot.   After reducing it a few hours in both pots, and also reducing 2 quarts of the stuff in the oven in baking pans, it fit in the 12 qt pot and was around 8-9 quarts volume.   Added: 1.5 chopped onion, 1.5 bulb diced garlic+ 2 tsp garlic powder, about 1 cup fresh chopped basil (all that was left from my garden), about 2 tbsp salt, ~4 tbsp oregano and some sicilian spices. The end result was pretty good though when I had it on pasta the next day I thought it could use a bit more salt.   Better too little than too much though.

And in the end, I reduced it to about 6+1/4 quarts. (canned 6.) This was a pretty good thickness compared to my previous sauce attempts, but it really still could be reduced more - I bet if this got down to 5 or even 4 quarts it would be spectacular.  Of course the risk of burning it goes up the thicker it gets.   I may try to make a decent thick quart from the remaining "dark" juice.

Tomato press yields summer 2017

Saucy

On Sunday 8/20/17 I thawed all of amy frozen, pressed yellow tomato juice - by weight, this was about 6-7 quart equivalent.  I reduced this down to only 2 quarts of finished pasta sauce.  It turned out well.

World's smallest tomato???

World record smallest tomato??? My entry won "littlest tomato" in the Nashville Tomato Art Festival, 8/12/17.  7.95 mm.   There's not much out there in the interwebs about any such world record...Let the challengers rise.  Till then I claim the crown.   Actually they don't do any measuring at this festival, it's pretty informal.  The calipers are mine.   I carefully "dissected" it and found a total of two seeds inside. !