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Hamilton Nj

well i looked at the gpc tomato board and most of the top tomatos came from the delicous line, im a big zac fan ,just wondering everyones favorite variety?? lol pizza

11/24/2012 11:45:14 PM

Tinykinville

i prefer the big zacs as well, i can tell you that #5 and #11 are big zacs. the 4.75 was grown off my 2.2 menting. I planted a delicious plant from the 7.33 hunt genetics the last two years and just havent had much luck with them yet. ill probably give one of them another try, but for now thinking just gonna be planting mostly big zac.

11/25/2012 5:18:47 AM

ShagHarbour n,s canada

is there a way to cross these two strains? i dont know alot about breeding tomatoes,,,

11/25/2012 7:38:55 AM

Hamilton Nj

crossing takes alot of practice, i have not tryed much of it, theirs a few videos on it on u tube that are good!!!

the nj state record is a cross of a big zac and a delicous i think???? 6 pounder!!! pizza

both of theese are great strains!!!!! alot has to do with soil and weather so i would grow 7 or 8 varietys to get the best giants!!!

11/25/2012 8:43:11 PM

Bloomington, IN USA

I don't know much about the genetics of giant maters.
But I am wondering if the best crosses to make would be to try to use the most disparate varieties to try to capture the "giant" genes, like one of the Big Zac strains x something completely different like Claude Brown's Yellow Giant. Or would it be better to try to introduce greater length from an oxheart type like Slankard's or Valentine x Big Zac or Delicious strain?
Anyhow, just brainstorming, I don't have any particular expertise in performing crosses altho I have had my share of accidental crosses.

12/2/2012 12:25:46 PM

East Carbon, Utah

Materdoc,

I agree with your thinking! There might be 20 genetic traits (I'm not a geneticist so I'm just guessing) which contribute to something to growing BIG tomatoes, such as:
- Superior uptake of nutrients from the soil (could be several controlling genes)
- Thicker stems = larger vascular system
- Thicker pedicle
- Delayed ripening
- Megabloom production
- BALANCED megabloom production (i.e. a triple where all three lobes grow at about the same rate)
- More massive root development
- Accelerated cell division
- More efficient photosynthic ability
etc.

Chances are, no single variety has all 20 (or whatever it might be) traits in one package - yet. Crossing quite different varieties which have shown some promise will likely increase the odds of working towards getting all 20 traits fixed in one place (genome).

This, along with grafting, are two very promising strategies for breaking the WR.

A few other varieties to consider in this effort:

Leadbeatter's Lunker
Terhune
Gold Medal
Michael's Portuguese Monster
Mémé Beauce
Church
Chilo della Garfagnana
Wes
Brutus Magnum (not sure - did anyone break 3 lbs. with this in 2012?)
MegaMarv (Showed REAL promise in 2012 - several giants)
Domingo

And several more. I'm working on compiling data from the 2012 growing season; I grew out about 130 varieties which have been claimed to grow to 2+ lbs. Many were disappointments, but several were very impressive.

I'll try to post a summary here before too much longer.

Lots of great info. about making crosses at The Tomato Depot, where several of the world's top breeders hang out.

12/5/2012 11:17:08 PM