Growing Doubles

[PVP]

Due to limited space, I can never grow enough plants to get a really good look at the subsequent generations of the crosses I make.

This year I was very lucky to meet Dean (Darth Vader) online, and he graciously agreed to grow several plants from each of the batches of seeds I sent him. I'm very much looking forward to what he gets in each group, but it's all a risk and luck of the draw kind of deal.

What I did at home was to grow two plants of each F-generation for each of a few crosses I've made. This way at least I get a look at two plants per F-gen per cross rather than just a single example. So far, it's working really well and I'm getting some curious results.

What I did was grow 2 plants in each of several wire cages. These are big diameter cages ... about 30 - 36 inches across ... and I dug out a big hole for each pair of plants, filling the hole with 5 gallons of composted horse manure and fertilizing with a cup of 12-12-12 or whatever I had in the shed. Plus some Epsom salts and other little goodies.

Today I was looking at some of the plant pairs. At planting, I picked out the best looking 2 plants for each pair. For a while, many of them looked equally matched and even identical for all practical purposes.

But today, I noticed some striking differences in a few of the pairs.

Indian Stripe x Sun Gold. These are a pair of F3 plants from seeds JayTee sent back from Connecticut. One plant is really outpacing the other as far as height, flowers, fruit set and general advancement. It has a few trusses of small green balls some up to about the size of a nickel. But the other plant, which is just now setting fruit, has that strong, funky, oily Sun Gold foliage aroma. I mean really strong. The more advanced plant just smells like normal tomato foliage.

Green Giant x Yellow Submarine. This is a pair of F3 plants from seeds Suze sent back from Texas from an F2 plant that made yellow ping pongs with clear epidermis. Both plants are about the same size and appearance generally. But one plant has typical fruit trusses and beefsteak shaped small green tomatoes. The other plants has the ladder truss wild cherry looking clusters and smooth, round balls. Still waiting to see how large the tomatoes get and then what color they'll be when ripe. Right now they're about quarter to half-dollar size and could get at least twice that size considering their age. I'm counting on Dean to find a pear or a green grape from this cross. I haven't seen anything but round tomatoes yet.

Purple Haze F2 and F4. These are all from the original Keith Muller creation. None of my doin'. The F2s are directly from Keith and the F4s are from Ami's seed or my own saved from last year's F3s. I have several pairs of these and looking forward to all kinds of crazy things. Some plants are showing little round balls. Some plants are showing broad, flat, pleated little greenies. Some set fruit way earlier than others but all are the same age from seed and went into the ground on the same day in boxed area of the bed that gets pretty much identical sun and other incidentals. These tomatoes I am most looking forward to after eating 4 Purple Haze (2 F1s and 2 F2s) from Texas last week. Delicious tomatoes!

Well, I'll continue reporting in this thread. But right now it's time for a shower and something to eat and some relaxation. It was hotter'n blue blazes out there today. Cuttin' grass sucked!


Peace, PV

[peppereater]

I recall reading something last year about a study done to observe competition for root space, where a number of plants were grown double as you describe. The conclusion suggested that "sibling" plants, those grown from seed from the same parent, would tolerate each other, whereas competition was apparent with non-sibling pairs.
So what I'm pondering here is whether 2 plants of an F2, 3 or subsequent generation would continue to respond this way. Not trying to hijack your thread, papa.

[PVP]

No problem, Dave. Interesting thoughts.

I'll keep a real keen eye on the doubles. Most of the doubles are sibling of the same generation. However, I have several doubles that are different varieties or different expressions of the same variety or cross.

For example, I have an Indian Stripe in the same cage with Indian Zebra. They look identical so far and both have half grown fruit. Then there is Big Cheef red in the same cage with Big Cheef yellow, and 3-way PL in the same cage with 3-way RL, and Chello cherry in with Sweet Beverly cherry, and PH F4 RL with PH F4 PL, and a few other similar mismatches.

I'll let you know later in this thread whether there are any significant signs of lopsided competition.


Peace, PV

[frogsleapfarm]

I planted all of my segregating F2 populations as doubles (two to a cage), and so far so good. I pruned suckers a little more than usual to try and keep the competition down.

[PVP]

Like Frogsleap said, yeah I trim some side shoots with doubles just to tidy it up a bit. Also have to tie some of the plants over to one side of the cage to keep the main stems separated a bit so it's easier to ID which is which when comparing fruit and saving seed.


Peace, PV