Following on from the posts on this subject last July, I've now done what Silverleaf suggested/. It will be interesting to see what happens, and what I get.
I was reading about a space-saving way to grow out segregating tom seeds - you plant six seedlings in a single pot (the size you'd normally use for one plant) and keep the plants very small, only allowing them to set one truss before pinching out the tops. It gives you enough fruits to be able to test each plant and you'll still get plenty of seed from the rest of the fruit. I'm planning to try this myself next year.
Ooh, I'll be watching this with interest!
If you have some early Sungold fruits this year you might just have enough time to get some started this year?
I might have some Sungold f2 seeds here I could send? Or if you would like to experiment I've several varieties at F2 or later.
Although it is a good way to trial several plants sometimes doing it this way isn't easy to get a proper taste evaluation from a single truss. One F1 I grew last year, Blushing Casady, was a little disappointing early in the season (and I think I was eating them slightly unripe) turned out to be one of my favourites by the end of last summer.
Thank you Jayb for the kind offer but I'll just stick to my two pots of experiments this year. I'm sure you are right though about the tastes changing through the season. But I haven't got room to have that many extra plants on the veg patch, so in the pot they are staying! I will make sure though that I taste them when fully ripe, that is clearly important.
One great thing about tomatoes is you can taste them and still save seeds (unlike peas and beans).
I guess you method could be used to get an early crop too?
Good luck with your experiment :wave:
So I've now 8 plants, in two large pots, with one set truss on each. We've been tasting them over the last two weeks. Interestingly only three have come out sungold coloured (although this doesn't show up much in the photo below, as the orange looks a bit reddish. They are the top three in the box of six. But the nicest flavours are two of the red ones. So I'm going to keep seed from those two and one of the orange ones, and grow those on next year.
Quote from: Peanuts on May 06, 2015, 21:19:40
Following on from the posts on this subject last July, I've now done what Silverleaf suggested (see below). It will be interesting to see what happens, and what I get.
I was reading about a space-saving way to grow out segregating tom seeds - you plant six seedlings in a single pot (the size you'd normally use for one plant) and keep the plants very small, only allowing them to set one truss before pinching out the tops. It gives you enough fruits to be able to test each plant and you'll still get plenty of seed from the rest of the fruit. I'm planning to try this myself next year.