This paper talks of a habrochaites trait that makes ripe tomato hybrids dehydrate. Perhaps this could be very useful for developing a line of tomatoes grown for making dried tomatoes, saving time and resources for the dehydrating part!
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03265.x
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There are many tomatoes, especially in the Mediterranean region that are already used in this manner. I donāt have time to pull up the specific varieties right now, but Iāve had good luck with the Sicagno di Valledolmo. Iāll try to list the rest this evening.
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I am very interested in any kind of crop that can be preserved and stored without processing such as canning or freezing. I actually have a tomato, which I did not plant any of this year, that fits this description. It is or was a hybrid called Plum Regal that I originally got because it was described as highly disease resistant, and it did tolerate disease fairly well.
Problem was it tasted awful, so much so that I just left most of them on the vine to rot, except for the most part they didnāt rot, they just dried up and after doing so tasted way better. If you chop them up and stir them around in some olive oil with some garlic and thyme the result is way better than any tomato sauce, Iāve ever had. It isnāt exactly a sauce at all, but it is really good.
The seeds I have now are five or six generations removed from the F1, but segregation was so lacking that Iām not convinced the original really was and F1.
Thanks @Justin for reminding me of this, Iām moving following up on this to the top of my plans next year.
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I looked that one up and found this for example:
It says itās āgrown under dry cultivation with little or no additional water inputsā but I see no indication of this self-drying trait. Are you sure weāre talking about the same thing?
Hereās an image from the paper I shared:
āPhenotypes of dehydrating and standard non-dehydrating tomato genotypes. Time-lapse series comparing the dehydration of the dehydrating tomato (left fruit in each picture) and its near-isogenic standard cultivated tomato. Fruits were kept at approximately 25Ā°C during the complete period and were photographed daily.ā
Yeah right? Sounds cool! I can imagine growing 3 crops:
- a crop of regular tomatoes for fresh eating
- the type that have thicker skins and lower water content used for long storage at the end of the season, hanging but staying fairly fresh for months
- these āself-dryingā tomatoes for use in sauces/soups etc.
Sounds cool! Do you think they dried considerably faster than regular tomatoes? I guess the disease resistance would help them dry without spoiling. With the gene in the above paper, perhaps any tasty tomato could be bred to dry so fast disease pressure would not be an added issue. And, I wonder if yours was āway better than any tomato sauce, Iāve ever hadā simply because it was made with home-grown dried tomatoes rather than any special flavour of that variety - it would be interesting if you could compare it with a tasty variety that you could dry and prepare in the same manner.
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Yes, I think so. Drying tomatoes and finding or breeding them to do so easily is and interest of mine but I havenāt devoted the needed time and effort to it yet. I had kind of forgot about it till I saw your post.
These tomatoes just pretty much dry up on their own on the vine, Iāve never seen another one that does that. Most tomatoes that Iām familiar with will just rot and fall off if left to do so. The only others Iāve seen is some of my crossed up current tomatoes will do that in the fall. They sometimes dry up and stay on the vine into winter. Surprisingly they also taste good. Must be something about dehydration that doesnāt just intensify but also improves the flavor of some tomatoes.
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I have personally grown and plant dried Sicagno di Valledolmo. It may not be specifically used for that where it is grown, but after slicing some open and noticing they were dry to the touch I left most to dry on the vine as the plant was inside the greenhouse. I know I have seeds for some varieties known for drying. People weave the stems together and hang them up inside for use all winter.
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Mediterranean Long Shelf-Life Landraces: An Untapped Genetic Resource for Tomato Improvement - PMC.
And Piennolo del Vesuvio is a āhanging tomatoā I had several varieties straight from Italy at some point, I believe I put most of them in the serendipity seed swap. With a little digging you can find them online.The Art of Hanging Piennolo Tomatoes
I have been working on improving a population of tomatoes with this trait, but sadly I had some life issues which largely limited my ability to plant out my tomatoes with the ācolgarā storage trait as well as some others that I suspect have colgar or another similar factor that promotes long storage. But I expect to return to that project next season.
Last year as I observed my colgar-esque tomatoes drying in the same room as a few types of ground cherries, it seemed to me that the ground cherries in general/across varieties were drying in a way that reminded me of the best of the drying tomatoes that I grew.
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