Yeah I’m about to get more lighting for this purpose, what I have at the moment has been good so far but won’t last as things expand. Just studying up on light frequencies before purchasing - cannabis lights are great but it seems they go more for the red spectrum and it seems for speed breeding for my purposes with soybeans etc., blue needs to be maybe the same or preferably more than red - not sure about tomatoes yet but might be same. For soybeans this keeps them from growing too tall, for example.
Cool that your soil seems to benefit for short season!
@Justin Common genes is what makes species and those are “just” building blocks for that species normal appearance, habits etc. Those not shared is what differentiates two species or subspecies. Then what is not shared within species is that genetic variance. It might not be lot, any two humans are no more than 0.1% different in genetic level, but it creates all the diversity seen around world.
Amongst the five tomatoes I currently have growing in my basement, Sandpoint x (MMM x Sweet Cherriette) has set fruit the earliest and Payette x (MMM x Sweet Cherriette) is the second to bloom. Some of the others have earliness in their pedigrees and current tomatoes but those Sweet Cherriette earliness genetics seem strong.
MMM x Sweet Cherriette was my earliest 2023 tomato too.
I can share seed from Sub-Arctic Cherry (42 days advertised, and it’s coming it right at that for us in Southern California). It doesn’t even pretend to tolerate heat, but it overloads itself early. I plant it where I’m going to plant okra later in the season - it’s out of the way by the time the okra needs the space. The flavor is quite good for something so speedy.
Inland Southern California. Frost maybe every 5 years. Typical temperatures May 80/60, June 85/65, July 95/75, in August or September there will be a week of 110+/90+ with 1% humidity and wind. No rainfall May-September. Drip irrigation and 2-4 inches of tree chipper mulch on top to keep water use to a minimum. Decent organic matter after 4 years of top dressing with an inch of compost each year. My neighborhood was an avocado orchard from the 30s to 50s. They left a tree in each yard when they built the houses. My neighbor still has his.
I’m trialing 3 new hot-climate tomatoes each year, so this list is subject to revision.
Carbon. Takes over the world. Full, meaty flavor. Not always as productive as I’d like, but I haven’t found a replacement for the flavor. I’m trying Dwarf Wild Fred this year, which is an offspring.
Abu Rawan (Iraq). The most heat tolerant I’ve found so far. Classic red orbs. Reminds me of the old Sunmaster.
Isfahan (Iran). One of the best balanced cherry tomatoes I’ve ever had.
Rippled Rinon Delight (Cuba). Variable. A very fine addition to the late summer salad bowl for variety.
On the topic of tomato seed longevity, this year I started 12 year old Prudens Purple seed that I saved. Germination was >50%. I put three seeds in each cell and had to thin to one, but I didn’t keep track of numbers.
I added this particular type because 12 years ago in Denver we had a really hot (105F) period that killed all of my tomato plants except Prudens and my Ropreco paste tomatoes. Both of them kept producing. I have yet to find conditions that stop the Roprecos from producing ridiculous amounts of tomatoes. They’re bland for fresh eating but I like the sauce from them.
Now that we’re in northern Idaho, I find that the hot, dry summers are actually a bit worse than Denver since at least there we got some summer rains. We’ll see how the Prudens Purple do here but I have some hope for them.
I have a lot of old tomato seed because I just can’t seem to throw out seed. Ever.
I have a few new accessions of current tomato planted already for 2024. Looking forward to making crosses with them. Just planted a lot of Dwarf Gloria’s Treat x currents F2 because it should segregate for bicolor, potato leaf, and dwarf. I would like those three traits combined so will need to weed out the non-dwars, the regular leafs, and eventually the red ones. Hopefully I will get a nice dwarf from that this year with Dwarf Gloria’s Treat’s good flavor. Also the potato leaf dwarfs will make excellent mothers for crosses.