They should have a shot at being pretty interesting in the F2! In many ways growing them out to stability is the hard part. The initial cross is just the start of the work.
I think finding new ones for years will be fun. The only hard part might be picking the best of the bunch each year.
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I think for an experienced gardener like ourselves who is continuing on with gardening it isn’t too hard.
Yea, I’ll figure it out. It’ll be like with my sweet potatoes l guess. I’ve been discarding good ones for years, in favor of one or two great ones. I just don’t have space to follow every one to see how it might improve the next year.
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https://www.etsy.com/listing/1872040019/mission-mountain-cherry-tomato-directly?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1872045437/the-many-tomato-mix-35-seeds-directly?
Aimee has reopened her seed shop for 2025.
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The lines I grew out in my little light garden are doing ok. I thinned out the tall seedlings in all cases but only two of the four strains am I sure produced dwarfs. The thinned seedlings I planted in some overcrowded pots.
286 or F3 Dwarf Gloria’s Treat x Pimps. Notes say from orange or dark yellow mother with good flavor and a favorite.
I don’t know if line 286 came out as dwarf for sure. I weeded out the bigger ones- transplanted them to a different pot really. The smallest remaining look a smidge rugose.
339 The One x MM. Mother was my favorite of the 2024 grow out: a rugose potato leaf dwarf with high anthocyanin expression and good flavor.
I’m not sure if this came out dwarf or not- looks a smidge rugose. But all were potato leaf so I’m thinking this might be the first semi-stable line I’ve pulled out of the Lofthouse promiscuous tomatoes. They’ve always been unstable as a rule even when I’ve been trying to stabilize them! Excited to grow more- this potato leaf strain will be what I grow in the isolation garden for this project this year. I might just direct seed them again and weed out any regular leaf ones. If I get a few red ones I just won’t save seed from those.
314 F2 Dwarf Eagle Smiley x (MMM x LA1375) 1/2 strength antho. Very promising flavor in F1.
314 has at least one nice dwarf seedling.
366 F2 Payette x (MMM x LA1375)
366 has at least one nicely dwarf seedling. Kind of a fun thing since this dwarf strain comes from a regional source and might have a different origin than most dwarf tomatoes.
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I planted the rest of my seedlings out today including a couple of flats of late planted domestics that just had their first true leaves. I hope they do ok but if not, it is ok. My purpose for growing them- including a lot of my own domestic crosses, is to make a wild cross with them so that they meet my equation of local x wild x fancy.
Made my first crossing attempts yesterday of 2025. I took pollen from a variety cerasiforme tomato from South America and emasculated as many about to open flowers as I could find and daubed them with the pollen on other varieties and breeding lines. I would only expect some of the resulting crosses to take. Always kind of exciting. The pollen parent is LA1385 an accession known for some resistance or tolerance to the brown rugose fruit virus which is spreading rapidly globally. I have about ten accessions for that problem that I need to make crosses with.
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Crosses from last weekend, none of which yet look like definite fails.
499 x LA1385
321 x LA1385
340 x LA1385
360 x LA1385
500 x LA1385
339 x LA1385 big fruit so probably took well
504 x LA1385 big fruit so probably took well
298 x LA1375
LA1385 x 306
286 x LA1385
Beaverlodge 6808 x LA1385
314 x LA1385 big fruit so probably took well
New crosses tonight- I should be able to double dip these tomorrow.
Cosmic Purple Rain x 366 dwarf
4-72A x 366 dwarf
SG-87 x 366 dwarf
SH-13 x 366 dwarf
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Yesterday I crossed tomatoes out on the land and then I crossed at the house then we all went back out to the land and I crossed more out there until I ran out of plants with flowers. I do have a late planting and the direct seeded plantings that won’t bloom much for awhile. I made a lot of cross attempts today. Used LA1385 as well as PI 129143 and LA0410 and a few of mine as parents. Altogether it seems really promising to have so many crossing attempts made already this year.
The MMM x BAG striped selections F3 domestic direct seeded row would be interesting to make lots of wild crosses with because of the wide variety of colors possible. I made a first cross attempt today with the one transplant clump of it which should be striped and green when ripe and the mother was potato leaved. One thought in the back of my head though is that if crossing with Brad’s Atomic Grape produces great visual diversity- going all the way back to Brad’s Atomic Grape might make more sense than crossing with crosses with it. A sort of ideal double cross for getting a lot of visual diversity to select from might be as simple as a 25% local tomato variety, 25% wild tomato, and 50% Brad’s Atomic Grape for fanciness. So say any one of my crosses with LA1385 crosses took. Crossing it next year with BAG might lead to a more visually diverse outcome. However, I am uncertain how different segregation from a BAG cross might be then say from a green when ripe descendant of BAG! It might be very similar. If it is similar and today’s potato leaf (MMM x BAG) x current tomato cross takes then in two years the outcome may be very fun. Because the F2 of MMM x BAG was a lot of fun! One potential improvement I could select for in MMM x BAG this year would be if I could find and save seed from an individual plant with good stigma exsertion from its Big Hill ancestor.
I prioritized the main transplant grow out to be my prior wild crosses but the occasional domestic made the cut and its almost a bit surprising to come across those- but they are high priority for crossing with something wild- especially when I am holding a spoon full of pollen! Though it does seem productive for the Brown Rugose Fruit Virus readiness project to cross a lot of dilute descendants of LA1375 with LA1385 and the PI 129143. Which also has been happening!
One kind of disappointment currently is that the 50% currant tomatoes in the greenhouse are being a bit slow to bloom. I’d like to make more crosses with them- but hopefully that will come along presently in another week or two- or sometime this summer. I regret that I only planted one clump of each of those this year. Though collectively many other crosses are the 25% and even 12.5% descendants of the prior currant crosses.
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The following look like takes to me:
SG-87 × 366 dwarf where SG-87 is a arthropod resistant line and 366 dwarf is Payette x (Mission Mountain Morning or MMM x LA1375 a brown rugose tolerant line). I’m guessing this will be a simple red tomato.
SH-13 x 366 dwarf where SH-13 is also a arthropod resistance line. I’m guessing this will be a simple red tomato.
LA1385 x 306 where LA1385 is for the brown rugose virus and 306 is (MMM x Sweet Cherriette very short season) x (MMM x LA1375). Depending on how well I selected the 306 this could end up as a blue bicolor. Will know more when the fruit ripens.
339 x LA1385 where 339 is the one promiscuous a potato leaved antho bicolor. This has potential to segregate to a tasty potayo leaf blue bicolor. It could eventually be a good thing to cross with some LA1385 half siblings.
298 x LA1385 where 298 is (MMM x Purple Zebra) x (MMM x PH5 currant for late blight). Will have to see what the mothers fruit looks like to see what potential this cross might have.
Beaverlodge 6808 x LA1385 where 6808 is an Alberta bred tomato. It will be red unless crossed again which I would normally do as it has neither fancy ancestry nor open source ancestry. So I may never share this cross in this form.
314 x LA1385 where 314 is dwarf eagle Smiley x (mmm x LA1375). This should be a fun cross with good potential for segregating back to a dwarf eagle Smiley flavor
Cosmic Purple Rain x 366 Dwarf. This cross could bring needed color and interest into my Payette descended crosses.
504 x LA1385 where 504 is Glacier x 320 which is MMS x (MMM x LA1375). I suspect this cross would be hard to move away from being an ordinary red tomato as 504 is an F1. So a subsequent cross may be needed.
There are very likely more out in the big garden.
I think one thing that I’ll have to wait a bit longer for is the MMM x BAG to bloom more. I think it may be an important parent with the wild tomatoes as it really brings the fancy traits. I think I made a first cross attempt maybe with PI 129143 yesterday. I have a fear though that soil splash meant there was some dirt on the flowers of that currant tomato. I imagine that could negatively impact take or even confuse dirt with pollen. I think I need to spread some partially composted sawdust I have a pile of under that clump of plants to control soil splash as I will likely want to try more crosses with it. Probably not a bad idea to use some kind of mulch under all tomatoes.
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There is one more 500 x LA1385 where 500 is likely Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry x 303 and 303 is MMM x LA1375 currant x MMM x PH5 currant.
The rest need more time to be sure. Might be that the really obvious ones are from the week before last when I first started crossing for the year.
Looks like I have nine more takes from past weekends of crossing. Which brings my total up to 18 new crosses should all survive to harvest with the deer this year.
500 x LA1385
500 is likely Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry x 303 and 303 is MMM x LA1375 currant x MMM x PH5 currant. LA1385 is for the Brown Rugose Fruit Virus readiness sub-project. MMM is my Mission Mountain Sunrise Crossed to HX-9 and HX-9 is also known as Big Hill.
SG-87 x LA1385
Where SG-87 is an arthropod resistant line from Kentucky.
SH-13 x LA1385
Where SG-97 is an arthropod resistant line from Kentucky.
Beaverlodge 6808 x 314
Where the Beaverlodge series is from Alberta and 314 is Dwarf Eagle Smiley x (MMM x Brown Rugose LA1375)
504 x 366 dwarf
504 is Glacier x 320 MMS x (MMM x LA1375) and 366 is Payette x (MMM x LA1375)
497 x PI 129143
497 is Puerto Cortes x 303 (MMM x PH5 LB pimp) x (MMM x LA1375) and PI 129143 is for Brown Rugose Fruit Virus.
355 x 505
355 is (MMM x LA1375) x (MMM x galapagense X) and 505 is 348 x 319 where 348 is Galahad F1 x (MMM X Purple Zebra F1) and 319 is (MMM X GalapagenseX) X (MMM x LA2329). LA2329 is the source accession for arthropod resistance.
4-157 x 366 dwarf
Where 4-157 is an arthropod resistance line and 366 dwarf is Payette x (MMM x LA1375)
294 (MMM X BAG)F3 x PI 129143
Where 294 is MMM x Brad’s Atomic Grape selected for green when ripe, stripes, and anthocyanin and PI 129143 is for the Brown Rugose Fruit Virus resistance or tolerance.
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7/3/2025 Eight more takes:
500 x PI 129143
Where 500 is Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry x 303. 303 is ¼ LA1375 for brown rugose fruit virus and ¼ PH5 pimp for LB resistance. PI 129143 is for brown rugose fruit virus
508 x 505
508 is 366 x 358 with 366 and 358 being different Payette crosses. 505 is 348 x 319 with 348 being a cross with Galahad F1 and Purple Zebra F1, and 319 being a cross with LA2329 habrochaites.
494 x PI 129143
Where 494 is a Galapagos Pear x 303 cross
342 x PI 129143
Where 342 is a Sandpoint cross
513 x 366 dwarf
Where 513 is a Nodak Early x 303
298 x 284
Where 298 is a cross involving both PH5 and Purple Zebra and 284 is MMM x PH5. So kind of a little back cross to 284.
Marchenengel x LA1385
Where Marchenengel is a very nice looking OSS variety similar in appearance to Amethyst Cream.
Home Stoop x LA1385
Where Home Stoop is an OSSI cross between Homestead from Florida and Stupice.
That brings it to 25 barring little disasters between now and ripe fruit.
I made new cross attempts today with 366 dwarf, 303, 283, and a few others. I might need to cool it with LA1385 and PI 129143 or I may have an awful lot of red tomatoes. Though the crosses I’ve listed as takes may be joined by many other attempts once they have been confirmed. 303 I used heavily last year. It has segregated back to the blue bicolor potato leaf type I’ve used so heavily. It would probably be better to return to the F1 or F2 of 303 in terms of potential resistances but it is fun to have the colored version.
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New Takes 7-11-25
- 333 x 303 where 333 is Farthest North x (Mission Mountain Morning (MMM) X Aztek) and 303 is ½ MMM and ¼ each of the PH5 pimp and LA1375. This combo has a decent potential for good colors like blue skin and bicolor or yellow.
- 359 x 303 Where 359 is Golden Bison x (MMM x Sweet Cherriette). This could lead to a blue bicolor or a blue yellow tomato.
- 309 x 303 Where 309 is Fruity x (MMM x Aztek). This could be an interesting blue / yellow cherry.
- 346 x 303 Where 346 is Fisher’s Mountain Boy x (MMM x Aztek).
- 324 x 303 Where 324 is Exserted Orange (EO) x (MMM x Brad’s Atomic Grape (BAG). With no red in this pedigree the result could be good.
- 344 x PI 129143 Where 344 is (yellow tiger aka Blue Ambrosia x Amurski Tigr) x (MMM x Aztek) and PI 129143 is a wild current tomato. Which could be a promising combination.
- 368 x 303 where 368 is EO x (MMM x Aztek)
- 299 x PI 129143 Where 299 is Fisher’s Prairie Fire x EO
- 301 x LA0410 where 301 is Exserted Tiger (ET) x EO and LA0410 is a accession I requested for its odd flower- though mine has a normal flower.
- 310 x 283 where 310 is Fruity x Exserted Orange and 283 is MMM x LA 1375
- 310 x PI 129143
- 310 x 366 dwarf where 366 dwarf is Payette x (MMM x LA1375)
- 328 x PI 129143 where 328 is Yellow Tiger x (MMM x BAG)
- 352 x PI 129143 Where 351 is McClintock x (MMM x Aztek).
- 332 x PI 129143 Where 332 is Exserted Tiger x (MMM x BAG)
- 322 pl x 366 dwarf Where 322 is Amethyst Cream is MMM
- 329 x 366 dwarf where 329 is Muddy Waters x (MMM x Aztek)
- 329 x PI 129143
- 339 x LA0410 Where 339 is The One (Lofthouse Promiscuous selection) x MM
- 500 x LA0410 Where 500 is Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry x 303
- 501 x LA0410 Where 501 is (Dwarf Mochas x MMS) x 303
- 340 x PI 129143 Where 340 is Flamenco x (MMM x (Galapagense X unknown))
- 321 x 366 dwarf Where 321 is Sunviva x MMM
- 497 x LA0410 where 497 is Puerto Cortez x 303
- 499 x LA1385 Where 499 is Dwarf Moby’s x 303
- 499 x LA0410
- 499 x PI 129143
- 5-136 x 505 Where 5-136 is an arthropod resistant line and 505 is 348 x 319
- 4-49 × 366 dwarf where 4-49 is an arthropod resistant line.
- 515 x PI 129143 where 515 is 358 a Payette cross x 319 a arthropod resistance cross
- 4-71A x PI 129143 where 4-71 is an arthropod resistance line.
- 4-124 × PI 129143 where 4-124 is an arthropod resistance line.
- 369 x 366 dwarf where 369 is Hoosier Rose x (MMM x LA1375)
- Marchenengel x 366 dwarf where Marchenengel is an OSS variety with a white and blue cherry
- Home Stoop x 366 dwarf where Home Stoop is a Stupice x Homestead OSSI variety
- 303 x 366 dwarf
That gets me to 61 takes for 2025 so far.
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Nice work!
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I picked fruit this weekend for:
504 x LA1385 New F1 where 504 is: Glacier x 320 MMS x (MMM x LA1375) and both LA1385 and LA1375 are for tolerance or resistance to brown rugose fruit virus.
500 x LA1385 New F1 where 500 is Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry x 303 and 303 is a blue bicolor with 50% current tomato but half of that from LA1375 and half from the PH5 pimp
314 which is Dwarf Eagle Smiley x (MMM x Brown Rugose LA1375)
286 which is Dwarf Gloria’s Treat x Pimps
298 which is (MMM F2 x Purple Zebra F1) x (MMM F2 x PH5 pimpinillifolium)
New cross takes for:
503 x PI 129143 new where 503 is MMR Dwarf x (Gloria’s Treat x Current) and PI 129143 is for the brown rugose fruit virus
302 x 366 dwarf new where 302 is (MMM x Purple Zebra F1) x (MMM x LA1375) and 366 is a dwarf descended from Payette and LA1375
497 x 366 dwarf new where 497 is Puerto Cortes x 303
321 x LA1385 New where 321 is Sunviva x MMMF3 making it both OSS and OSSI descended.
321 x PI 129143 new
501 x LA1385 New where 501 is Dwarf Mocha’s x (MMS x 303)
314 x P1 129143 new
Which makes for 68 takes for the year and I am likely to lose count. I am also likely to stop crossing soon to focus on seed saving as that ramps up.
Speaking of crossing: I decided to finally try anther scraping today on my 356 line because it isn’t setting fruit and it doesn’t release pollen. I quickly found that I could open the anther cone by separating anthers with a dissecting needle and then use a pollination tool to dump the pollen onto a black plastic spoon. I tried it again on one of the Kentucky arthropod resistant lines and it worked again. I am excited about this new crossing technique- which conflicts with my need to stop crossing soon. I think it will really help me out with getting pollen for the various Solanum habrochaites hybrids in my garden which have long been unwilling to put much pollen on my pollen collecting spoon.
On another related note, I finished off a box I started last year of 1000 paper and string price tags for labeling crosses today and started another box.
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New tomatoes picked for seed tonight include:
LA1385 x 306 new F1 this will likely be a small red tomato.
339 x LA1385 New F1 where 339 is The One x MM and the fruit is a blue bicolor.
360 which is 1/4 purple Zebra and 1/8 galapagense but the fruit is a blue bicolor
513 which is I think Nodak Early x 303 and thus 1/4 current tomato. The F1 has the anthocyanin. Seed will be F2.
Have the above lines in to ferment. Plus a second batch of 306.
New takes last night and this morning:
LA0410 x 284
LA0410 x PI 129143
LA0410 X 303
LA0410 x 314 (tag broken off string)
LA0410 x 366 dwarf
LA0410 x Cosmic Purple Rain
LA0410 x 283
LA0410 x 4-72
294 x 314 where 294 is MMM x BAG
294 x 511
294 x 284
294 x 303 ??
500 x 314
500 x 356
500 x 283
339 x 356 where 339 is The One x MM
339 x 283
339 x 303
339 x PI 129143
Matt’s wild x 314
4-72 x 314
4-72 x 356
4-72 x 366 dwarf
4-72 x 303
4-72 x 511
4-72 x SI promiscuous
306 x SI promiscuous
306 x 4-153
369 x 4-153
298 x Cosmic Purple Rain
This brings my count of takes to 101 for 2025.
Picked today:
New F1’s
298 x LA1385
314 x LA1385
499 x LA1385
Beaverlodge 6808 x LA1385
514 x 505
355 x 505
SG-87 x 366 dwarf
For Seed to advance filial generation:
513
286
497
509
502
500
355
340
334
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