New Purple Tomatoes released

[DallasFigShop]

It's difficult to tell. Are all of these hybrids?

I grow some (not tomatoes), but I'm trying my best to avoid anything where I can't save seed.

The ones I mentioned are hybrids at least OSU Blue...and not GMO manipulated crosses

OSU Blue Tomato

pictures and video of 'OSU Blue' tomatoes. The first blue tomato for the garden. See also the post on 'Indigo Rose' tomatoes.

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But then again, most or all of the human selections are hybrids...

OSU Blue allegedly was bred through the basic breeding methods, crossing a wild tomato containing Anthocyanins back into the genes... Even most Heirlooms spent a time as an F1 and had to be backcrossed a few generations to stabilize and to eventually align with human preferences consistently...

In modern times alot of f1 breeds exists for commercial production... if the grower wants the exact traits they have to purchase seeds or put the years into stabilizing the traits ... but usually there are natural varieties that taste as good and store almost as well, but that do not get a huge marketing budget or science grants

There are some tricks ive read about for interspecies breeding that are not exactly natural, but maybe they happen once or twice in a Milliom years on their own... certainly they are more natural than Genetic Modification practices... One was to use cement on a receiving flower to increase the likelihood that it will accept pollen from a similar but different species. I assume they have to be close and that it might take hundreds of times...I knoe with stone fruits there are alot of compatibility issues, not every plum will cross easily with a peach or a nectarine

Black Beauty still reads as a hybrid cross rather than a GMO, and the seeds are readily available... and also are not labeled as F1 and... so I assume they sre stable... why not just breed from stabilized natural genetics?

When they genetically modify i dont think its mostly about the polyphenols and anthocyanins. I think they started with these traits which did occur in nature obvioualy... there are naturally anthocyanin rich potatoes as wellz and they tend to cime from cooler climates.. same with orangesz blood oranges are more cold Hardy than many...

They are probably tweaking the plants for mass productivity disease resistance and easy harvest ... appearance is more valuable in the market, and also shelf life, than are the health benefits and flavor

I avoid GMO for the most part for the same reason I dont like to tinker with the weather (too much)... if you make it rain here it affects a pattern over there, and no one knows what it will produce in the long term! If we pushed the moon it would have major effect on the ocean which would influence the weather patterns and the climate...

Human cells are a tiny little world ... we dont see it in the short term but if they are mixing signals then the brain also has to work harder too...and if we alter the focus of the brain it will work in things that maybe nkt exactly what we want but of course they can gmo something for that and keep selling it

If im going to grow fruits such as tomatoes I can use natural elements and practices to extend shelf life and disease resistance..such as rotating soils, mineral balances and to foliar feed with freshwater kelp and epsom to extend shelf life, for longer than I will need probably

 

[Bofig]

The ones I mentioned are hybrids at least OSU Blue...and not GMO manipulated crosses

OSU Blue Tomato

pictures and video of 'OSU Blue' tomatoes. The first blue tomato for the garden. See also the post on 'Indigo Rose' tomatoes.

share.google

But then again, most or all of the human selections are hybrids...

OSU Blue allegedly was bred through the basic breeding methods, crossing a wild tomato containing Anthocyanins back into the genes... Even most Heirlooms spent a time as an F1 and had to be backcrossed a few generations to stabilize and to eventually align with human preferences consistently...

In modern times alot of f1 breeds exists for commercial production... if the grower wants the exact traits they have to purchase seeds or put the years into stabilizing the traits ... but usually there are natural varieties that taste as good and store almost as well, but that do not get a huge marketing budget or science grants

There are some tricks ive read about for interspecies breeding that are not exactly natural, but maybe they happen once or twice in a Milliom years on their own... certainly they are more natural than Genetic Modification practices... One was to use cement on a receiving flower to increase the likelihood that it will accept pollen from a similar but different species. I assume they have to be close and that it might take hundreds of times...I knoe with stone fruits there are alot of compatibility issues, not every plum will cross easily with a peach or a nectarine

Black Beauty still reads as a hybrid cross rather than a GMO, and the seeds are readily available... and also are not labeled as F1 and... so I assume they sre stable... why not just breed from stabilized natural genetics?

When they genetically modify i dont think its mostly about the polyphenols and anthocyanins. I think they started with these traits which did occur in nature obvioualy... there are naturally anthocyanin rich potatoes as wellz and they tend to cime from cooler climates.. same with orangesz blood oranges are more cold Hardy than many...

They are probably tweaking the plants for mass productivity disease resistance and easy harvest ... appearance is more valuable in the market, and also shelf life, than are the health benefits and flavor

I avoid GMO for the most part for the same reason I dont like to tinker with the weather (too much)... if you make it rain here it affects a pattern over there, and no one knows what it will produce in the long term! If we pushed the moon it would have major effect on the ocean which would influence the weather patterns and the climate...

Human cells are a tiny little world ... we dont see it in the short term but if they are mixing signals then the brain also has to work harder too...and if we alter the focus of the brain it will work in things that maybe nkt exactly what we want but of course they can gmo something for that and keep selling it

If im going to grow fruits such as tomatoes I can use natural elements and practices to extend shelf life and disease resistance..such as rotating soils, mineral balances and to foliar feed with freshwater kelp and epsom to extend shelf life, for longer than I will need probably

There’s only one gmo dark tomato genetics, now officially up to 5 varieties total. There is the OG purple offered to gardeners, and the store bought version under a different name. This year they released a different line of regular purple cherry, larger purple called dark hollow and a larger striped called the eleven. Majority of the “purple” tomatoes outside of these five are a combination of darker reds combined with green gel, and anthocyanin skins. None of those are gmo and only the five varieties from Norfolk are gmo. All others are stabilized or heirloom varieties bred normally. The two genes controlling purple for gmo are Delila and Rosea1 inserted from a snapdragon flower to increase antioxidants and differs from the traditional gmo that was created to be resistant to herbicides we spray on them. These two genes are inherited identical to normal tomato genes so you can select against them and still save seeds or create new varieties without worries of cross contamination across your entire collection.

 

[TorontoJoe]

The ones I mentioned are hybrids at least OSU Blue...and not GMO manipulated crosses

OSU Blue Tomato

pictures and video of 'OSU Blue' tomatoes. The first blue tomato for the garden. See also the post on 'Indigo Rose' tomatoes.

share.google

But then again, most or all of the human selections are hybrids...

OSU Blue allegedly was bred through the basic breeding methods, crossing a wild tomato containing Anthocyanins back into the genes... Even most Heirlooms spent a time as an F1 and had to be backcrossed a few generations to stabilize and to eventually align with human preferences consistently...

In modern times alot of f1 breeds exists for commercial production... if the grower wants the exact traits they have to purchase seeds or put the years into stabilizing the traits ... but usually there are natural varieties that taste as good and store almost as well, but that do not get a huge marketing budget or science grants

There are some tricks ive read about for interspecies breeding that are not exactly natural, but maybe they happen once or twice in a Milliom years on their own... certainly they are more natural than Genetic Modification practices... One was to use cement on a receiving flower to increase the likelihood that it will accept pollen from a similar but different species. I assume they have to be close and that it might take hundreds of times...I knoe with stone fruits there are alot of compatibility issues, not every plum will cross easily with a peach or a nectarine

Black Beauty still reads as a hybrid cross rather than a GMO, and the seeds are readily available... and also are not labeled as F1 and... so I assume they sre stable... why not just breed from stabilized natural genetics?

When they genetically modify i dont think its mostly about the polyphenols and anthocyanins. I think they started with these traits which did occur in nature obvioualy... there are naturally anthocyanin rich potatoes as wellz and they tend to cime from cooler climates.. same with orangesz blood oranges are more cold Hardy than many...

They are probably tweaking the plants for mass productivity disease resistance and easy harvest ... appearance is more valuable in the market, and also shelf life, than are the health benefits and flavor

I avoid GMO for the most part for the same reason I dont like to tinker with the weather (too much)... if you make it rain here it affects a pattern over there, and no one knows what it will produce in the long term! If we pushed the moon it would have major effect on the ocean which would influence the weather patterns and the climate...

Human cells are a tiny little world ... we dont see it in the short term but if they are mixing signals then the brain also has to work harder too...and if we alter the focus of the brain it will work in things that maybe nkt exactly what we want but of course they can gmo something for that and keep selling it

If im going to grow fruits such as tomatoes I can use natural elements and practices to extend shelf life and disease resistance..such as rotating soils, mineral balances and to foliar feed with freshwater kelp and epsom to extend shelf life, for longer than I will need probably

you’ve laid out a lot of good perspective here… I was only coming from the narrow standpoint that abandoning heirlooms and becoming dependent on crops that can’t reproduce on their own… or for which we need a license to grow because someone owns the genetic code… perhaps I’m a caveman, but for me that’s a bit scary

 

[Bofig]

you’ve laid out a lot of good perspective here… I was only coming from the narrow standpoint that abandoning heirlooms and becoming dependent on crops that can’t reproduce on their own… or for which we need a license to grow because someone owns the genetic code… perhaps I’m a caveman, but for me that’s a bit scary

There is no license to grow or save only a license to sell. If no sales or money exchanged then there is free will transfer and saving of seeds for the purple gmo tomato. Farmers sign contracts to buy row crop like corn and beans but their patents have expired already. Saving seed year to year is ok outside of the contract you sign to get the seed for planting your fields.

Much of the gmo is misunderstood by the general public and a lot has to do with scare tactics of the media. The crop itself is not dangerous, the chemicals it can be sprayed with are. Licenses are only necessary if sales occur.

 

[TorontoJoe]

There is no license to grow or save only a license to sell. If no sales or money exchanged then there is free will transfer and saving of seeds for the purple gmo tomato. Farmers sign contracts to buy row crop like corn and beans but their patents have expired already. Saving seed year to year is ok outside of the contract you sign to get the seed for planting your fields.

Much of the gmo is misunderstood by the general public and a lot has to do with scare tactics of the media. The crop itself is not dangerous, the chemicals it can be sprayed with are. Licenses are only necessary if sales occur.

Fair….. speaking strictly of F1’s. What’s your feeling on crop plants for which you’d (mostly) need to buy seed to keep growing it?

 

[Bofig]

Fair….. speaking strictly of F1’s. What’s your feeling on crop plants for which you’d (mostly) need to buy seed to keep growing it?

I love the idea someone else made the cross for me, then I will grow out my own rounds of F2 for selections. I regularly cross my own plants anyway so there is no issues. I look at plants as parent stock or pre crossed stock rather than it must grow identical every time but I also like the experiments.

 

[snarfing]

I love the idea someone else made the cross for me, then I will grow out my own rounds of F2 for selections. I regularly cross my own plants anyway so there is no issues. I look at plants as parent stock or pre crossed stock rather than it must grow identical every time but I also like the experiments.

Ive decided to make my project to try and stabilize love gormansun sunrise. Got some f2 seeds i gotta make selections out of. Any suggestions on how to speed up generations so you can get there faster since you do some breeding?

 

[DallasFigShop]

Ive decided to make my project to try and stabilize love gormansun sunrise. Got some f2 seeds i gotta make selections out of. Any suggestions on how to speed up generations so you can get there faster since you do some breeding?

Plant them twice outdoors, spring tomatoes, fall tomatoes...stay focused on your selection stock, and then grow more in a grow tent over the winter!

Maybe the genetics will adjust a little differently, but you could speed up by 1-2 years if you are as dedicated ... easier to stay outside though

 

[Bofig]

Ive decided to make my project to try and stabilize love gormansun sunrise. Got some f2 seeds i gotta make selections out of. Any suggestions on how to speed up generations so you can get there faster since you do some breeding?

I always run two generations indoors if possible although small. I have about 6 months of indoor growing with October through April and then April through October outdoors. You can get almost any tomato to ripen in 90-100 days even indoors if lighting and fertilizer is right. Shoot for 3-4 generations a year.

 

[DallasFigShop]

A key is focus in optimal temps for pollination to take place, usually around 85F... some heat set varieties will take at slightly higher temps

I noticed with tomatoes that some will recover if they bloom at the wrong time... very few will make a good harvest in laye spring ...and then they just sit through summer when its too hot for fruitset, and then set more... most will not... thr fre that do seem to have wild genetics or green shoulders, in my limited trials anyhow

And so timing or optimal climate for breeding and temperature ranges can help to speed things up or limit .. but maybe worth growing seed from sime selections to see what temperature they like for fruitset.. and then a few more plants timed for optimal pollination temps to see how they compare

Another thing is varieties that cold stunt.. im not 100% sure but ive always operated as if the plant when exposed to below 50F or 45F might produce less.. some not problem, a few maybe more and maybe minerals help with stress adaptation but generally I do my best to avoid exposure to temps any lower even when young.. if I had all the time in the world I would experiment with different varieties such as cold hardy Russian tyles in our cooler months and maybe some early types ehen its cooler***

 

[Bofig]

A key is focus in optimal temps for pollination to take place, usually around 85F... some heat set varieties will take at slightly higher temps

I noticed with tomatoes that some will recover if they bloom at the wrong time... very few will make a good harvest in laye spring ...and then they just sit through summer when its too hot for fruitset, and then set more... most will not... thr fre that do seem to have wild genetics or green shoulders, in my limited trials anyhow

And so timing or optimal climate for breeding and temperature ranges can help to speed things up or limit .. but maybe worth growing seed from sime selections to see what temperature they like for fruitset.. and then a few more plants timed for optimal pollination temps to see how they compare

Another thing is varieties that cold stunt.. im not 100% sure but ive always operated as if the plant when exposed to below 50F or 45F might produce less.. some not problem, a few maybe more and maybe minerals help with stress adaptation but generally I do my best to avoid exposure to temps any lower even when young.. if I had all the time in the world I would experiment with different varieties such as cold hardy Russian tyles in our cooler months and maybe some early types ehen its cooler***

I run all my tomatoes indoors through winter with temps ranging 58-65 in my basement with no issues on fruit set. Above 85F the pollen can go sterile though, not enough light also causes flowers to abort. For this year I’m running newer lights that have at least double the output so I’ve had zero aborted blooms and I run an electric toothbrush across all the flowers daily for proper pollination. A few plants I tried to test in a window sill aborted flowers almost immediately when the light changed even though it was warmer. I think 50-85F should be perfect temps although the speed of things progress faster at warmer temps like figs do.

stable temps seem to work well in the range of 50-85 but high fluctuations are where the problem lies at least for me, same goes for humidity.

 

[DallasFigShop]

I found this video showing a method for pollinating tomatoes!

Please share any tips i was starting to look for this the other day and it landed in my feed just now

100K views · 789 reactions | This is a pretty intense oversimplification and I did my best to fit as much info into a short format while still being approachable (plant biologist and breeder friends forgive me!!) There are almost always exceptions to

This is a pretty intense oversimplification and I did my best to fit as much info into a short format while still being approachable (plant biologist and breeder friends forgive me!!) There are...

www.facebook.com

 

[Bofig]

I found this video showing a method for pollinating tomatoes!

Please share any tips i was starting to look for this the other day and it landed in my feed just now

100K views · 789 reactions | This is a pretty intense oversimplification and I did my best to fit as much info into a short format while still being approachable (plant biologist and breeder friends forgive me!!) There are almost always exceptions to

This is a pretty intense oversimplification and I did my best to fit as much info into a short format while still being approachable (plant biologist and breeder friends forgive me!!) There are...

www.facebook.com

Here’s my video lol

 

[DallasFigShop]

Here’s my video lol

Very cool im motivated to do that too.. I love the three level case too!

I planted a Bunch of OSU Blue thinking i can cross them with everybody ... a small percentage have white stems starting off too and so maybe crossed with whatever i grew that year... these plants get very blue even the roots

 

[snarfing]

Do you recommend bagging the flowers if im trying to make sure theyre selfing only? Or is it not a common issue for tomatoes/peppers

 

[Bofig]

Do you recommend bagging the flowers if im trying to make sure theyre selfing only? Or is it not a common issue for tomatoes/peppers

Tomatoes are something like 99% selfed and the bees don’t do a whole lot of cross pollination because the stigmas are sitting inside the flowers touch the anthers. Many peppers have stigmas that push out past the anthers by quite a bit so they cross something like 15% of the time by bees. Once emasculated they are not attractive to pollinators either so you could bag them but it may not help much.

The key to knowing if you should or shouldn’t bag them is checking where the end of the stigma sits in relation to the anthers. If it sticks outside of the anther cone then definitely bag, but like most tomatoes they are completely encased by the anthers you don’t need to bag but still can if you want it’s just not necessary

 

[snarfing]

Tomatoes are something like 99% selfed and the bees don’t do a whole lot of cross pollination because the stigmas are sitting inside the flowers touch the anthers. Many peppers have stigmas that push out past the anthers by quite a bit so they cross something like 15% of the time by bees. Once emasculated they are not attractive to pollinators either so you could bag them but it may not help much.

The key to knowing if you should or shouldn’t bag them is checking where the end of the stigma sits in relation to the anthers. If it sticks outside of the anther cone then definitely bag, but like most tomatoes they are completely encased by the anthers you don’t need to bag but still can if you want it’s just not necessary

Hm I may bag a couple of flowers just to be my seed saving ones for the peppers. And ill check the stamina as suggested

 

[Bofig]

Here’s video proof that I’ve successfully micro-dwarfed the purple tomato I’ve been working on

I’ve been doing a lot of research on seed rules, and I’ve realized that freely sharing seed right now — while I’m also exploring the possibility of opening a seed shop — could create confusion or look like something it isn’t.

For that reason, I’m holding onto the seed for now until I get clear guidance on how free sharing is treated. My plan is to keep working toward stabilizing this line, and I’ll reassess everything around spring of 2027 once I have more clarity.

 

[superdave336]

Awesome. Congrats. Those are pretty

 

[DallasFigShop]

Here’s video proof that I’ve successfully micro-dwarfed the purple tomato I’ve been working on

I’ve been doing a lot of research on seed rules, and I’ve realized that freely sharing seed right now — while I’m also exploring the possibility of opening a seed shop — could create confusion or look like something it isn’t.

For that reason, I’m holding onto the seed for now until I get clear guidance on how free sharing is treated. My plan is to keep working toward stabilizing this line, and I’ll reassess everything around spring of 2027 once I have more clarity.

Very cool. I was not interested at all in Micro tomatoes but after seeing I think that is really awesome, great work!

I want to share this too
"In nature, anthocyanins are mostly bound to sugars. Anthocyanins that are bound to the sugar glucose are very high in antioxidant capacity. And flavonoids bound to glucose have been found to be more readily absorbed in the human gut"

Interesting information I found from this link in case you are interested in breeding for bioavailability and uptake of Anthocyanins -USDA ARS Online Magazine Vol. 56, No. 1 https://share.google/3xmhmiHnWScv47eeR
These powerful compounds work better when bound to sugars ...

There is also something to know about Polyphenols in general. Many fruits when browning produce Polyphenol Oxidase which literally breaks them down into smaller components...

Bananas are very high in PO. One study showed an 80% reduction in measured polyphenols in the blood when adding a banana to a Blueberry smoothie... and so bananas are rare for me now... not from the same article but similarly, cooking can destroy most anthocyanins in foods such as Blue Potatoes unless they are steamed within a lower temp range, alot of the superfood quality is destroyed