Segregation and culling micro woolly blue tomato project

My micro dwarf woolly blue tomato breeding project is making more progress.  There are still a few years before this project will be completed, but I think it is time for another update.  

I have written earlier blog posts on micro tomatoes, and high anthocyanin (true black) tomatoes, and woolly leaf tomatoes.  

I wrote a previous blog post on my attempt to cross a micro dwarf tomato with an angora leaf tomato, in the hopes of breeding a micro woolly tomato with blue/black fruit.  I also wrote an update on progress and the F1 plant.  

Tomato seedling - woolly foliage 

I successfully made the cross between the micro tomato and the woolly leaf high anthocyanin tomato, and I grew out an F1 plant.  I saved a lot of seed from the F1, and planted some of that seed this winter/spring.  I planted a lot of F2 seeds so that I could cull really hard and hopefully get what I am hoping for reasonably quickly.  My original goal was to produce a micro dwarf woolly leaf plant with blue/black fruit.  

The F2 seedlings will display a lot of genetic diversity.  Some were easy to cull from a very young age, while other genes won't be displayed until later so the seedlings needed growing out for longer.  

The first cull was pretty simple:  

Some plants were tall, they were culled quickly as they are easy to see from a young age.

Some plants will be dwarf, and others will be micro dwarf.  It can be difficult to tell these apart when they are seedlings.  These will be kept until they grow larger as I would hate to cull a vigorous micro dwarf.  Also if I have too few keepers I may want to keep some of these dwarf lines for back crossing and produce micro dwarfs from them.  

Out of the remaining dwarf and micro-dwarf plants the next cull was also reasonably simple:  

Some plants have regular leaf, they were quickly culled as they are simple to see from a young age.

Some plants will be heterozygous for woolly leaf and are kind of woolly, others will be homozygous for woolly genes and will have very fluffy leaf.  All of these will be grown out until later.  Again I don't want to kill off any heterozygous woolly leaf plants as I may want to keep these lines to produce true homozygous angora leaf lines.

Tomato seedlings - needs more culling

The dwarf and micro dwarf woolly leaf plants are going to be grown out until larger.  I plan to keep every micro dwarf woolly leaf tomato plant.

These may have different fruit colour, some may be red, others yellow, and I would kind of like some of each.  As well as this they could have various amounts of anthocyanin, ranging from none to very dark black.  It is difficult to tell at this young age so I will have to grow out a number of plants.

I planted dozens of seeds, and have a bit left over for another try next year if this doesn't work out.  At this stage there are several plants that appear to be micro dwarf and woolly.  I plan to keep them and hopefully save seed from them.  Even if none of them are what I am after I may be able to cross them with something that has the missing genes and eventually develop what I am wanting.

One of these F2 seedlings in particular appears to be high in anthocyanin as the leaves are displaying a high degree of purple colouration.  It is too early to know for sure, but it fills me with hope.

Several potential keepers, others need culling

While my goal was to produce a micro dwarf woolly leaf plant with blue/black fruit, I may or may not achieve that this year.  Even if I do achieve that, I still have a number of generations to grow out before the line will be stabilised.  

I am happy to say that micro tomatoes have short generational times, and I can usually get 2 or 3 generations per year (sometimes even 4).  I am also working a lot with recessive and partly recessive genes.  This means that stabilising lines of micro dwarf tomatoes may take a lot of generations, but this should hopefully be completed in a small number of years.  

Working with recessive (and partially recessive) genes also means that in the early stages when the line is not yet stable they should retain all of the traits that I want to see in each future generation.  It shows progress, which is good to help keep up the motivation to bother breeding things like this.

Things have progressed a little since I took the photos, plants have grown, I have culled more plants, there are still some unknowns, and I have a few really promising fuzzy little tomato plants.  I can hardly wait to see what these grow out to be.

At this stage I plan to grow out every micro dwarf with woolly foliage, and start a few different lines from them.  I may or may not grow out and collect seed from any of the other promising plants.  If all goes well I will have several different fruit colours in my micro woolly lines before too long.  

I really want a high anthocyanin micro woolly line, and I may be able to achieve that on both red fruit as well as yellow fruit.  Only time will tell.

Variegated tiger fern 6 month growth

Around six months ago I got a variegated tiger fern (Nephrolepis exaltata 'Tiger fern').  This is a variegated form of Boston fern.  There aren't many types of variegated fern around, but there is something about variegated ferns that I really like.  

My tiger fern was a good looking little fern, and when it arrived was in the tiniest pot ever.  I repot the thing the day that I got it and it has been in the same pot ever since.  

The picture below if of my tiger fern after it had grown and survived winter living outside in a sheltered position.  

Tiger fern after surviving winter

I repotted my little fern immediately and it has been growing in its new pot ever since.  The picture below was just after repotting, and the picture below that is far more recent.  

As you can see, my variegated tiger fern grew quite a lot in the months that I have had it.  I am happy to say that these ferns are pretty easy to grow.

Tiger fern just after being repotted

The same fern, same pot, six months later 

I particularly like the foliage of these variegated ferns.  Each frond looks different, some are dark green, others are variegated to different amounts, and others are lighter green.  They are an easy to grow fern that is quick to grow and relatively hardy.  They aren't overly fussy about soil type, are able to cope with drier soil than many ferns, and appear to tolerate a wide range of temperatures.

One fun thing about these ferns is that they divide throughout their growing season.  My original fern looked strong, then just before winter I divided it because I was not sure how well it would survive my winter and wanted to ensure that at least one would survive.  I kept the larger plant outside in a spot that was protected from frosts, and I put the baby fern in my greenhouse.  

While dividing heading into winter is not great, I figured it the outside fern died I could restart from the baby.  I also wanted to learn if they could survive outside in my climate if somewhat sheltered from the harshest of frosts.

The plant that was kept outside got some damage from the cold, but looks healthy overall.  Now that warmer weather is here it should start to grow again.  That is great to know because it means I don't have to worry too much about these things over winter.

The plant in the unheated greenhouse was not damaged by the cold.  It is still looking really nice.  This plant also didn't grow very much as it was too cold.  Now that the weather is milder it should grow fast.

Baby tiger fern in greenhouse

As you can probably see in the photos, the baby tiger fern is already a bit larger than the original fern was when I got it.  This little fern looks like it should be ready to divide once the weather warms.  I probably won't divide it yet as I would prefer that it fills out the pot I have it growing in.  

The larger fern sustained a little damage over winter as it was growing outside under shelter.  It was out of the frost, but the temperature was slightly below freezing and it was blasted with icy winds on and off throughout winter.  It is pretty hardy and should bounce back soon enough.  

I could either divide this larger tiger fern into several small ferns, or I could allow it to fill out its pot.  I'm thinking of breaking off one division, and allowing the rest to fill out its pot.  

Variegated tiger fern

These things grow pretty fast and look great when they are completely filling out their pot.  They don't look as amazing when they are a new tiny division with only a few fronds, but I think they are still pretty cute at that stage.  

Variegated Boston ferns also grow pretty fast once winter is over, so they don't stay looking tiny for too long.

Baby maidenhair ferns

As well as my tiger ferns I also grow a bunch of maiden hair ferns and a few other ferns including some baby tree ferns.  

My little maidenhair ferns were spore grown, and some are native species.  I like native maidenhair ferns as they tend to grow differently to the exotic species.  Some of these little ones are spreading by rhizomes and a few are even popping out of their pot's drainage hole.  My exotic maiden hair ferns never grow like that for me.

My oldest maidenhair fern looking shabby at the end of winter

This bird nest fern is over 20 years old

Most ferns are perennial and can live for many many years if treated well.  I got my oldest maidenhair fern in 2016, and I got my oldest birds nest fern back in 2001.  While they look a little shabby at the end of winter and each have a little damage to their fronds from the cold and wind, both are still growing well and should look great in a month or two after they recover.  Ferns are a long term investment!

If you would like one of my little ferns (my older ferns are not for sale), including spore grown native maidenhair ferns, they will be listed on my for sale page.  If they are not listed there feel free to contact me as I may have some for sale but not large numbers of them.

Perennial corn survived winter

Last summer I grew some perennial corn Zea diploperennis.  I am very excited to say that some of my perennial corn plants survived winter and now that the weather is warming are happily growing!  

Zea diploperennis is a perennial undomesticated ancestor of our modern corn.  I am not sure if this particular species was used in breeding modern corn, or if it is just closely related to the species that were used in breeding domestic corn.  What I do know is that it crosses with modern corn and with various undomesticated teosinte corn species.  

My understanding is that perennial corn is pretty uncommon, and it is incredibly rare in Australia.  I had never grown, or even seen, perennial corn plants before so this was somewhat of an adventure and a learning curve.

The cobs from diploperennis were small and contain far fewer seeds than domestic corn.  I don't know if first year cobs are smaller than subsequent year cobs, but have a feeling that they are never large and never contain huge amounts of seed.  

All modern corn varieties are annual which is great for large scale chemical dependent monocropping.  A perennial corn would be wonderful for home growers, permaculture farming, and low input polyculture food forests.  Perennial corn plants are simple to grow and resistant to may pests and diseases that affect modern corn, which makes them useful in breeding something that is better suited to backyard growers who don't want to spray anything.  

I am told that this corn contains roughly 85% diploperennis genetics and about 15% domestic corn genetics.  Having a small percentage of domestic corn genetics should mean that this will flower around the same time as other corn varieties, making it easier to cross breed and produce a perennial popcorn or perennial dent corn.

Z diploperennis divided into two plants - red stems

I'm not sure how perennial corn would grow in a warmer climate, but where I am it dies back to rhizomes over winter.  Some plants have robust rhizomes that appear to have divided a lot, while others had weaker rhizomes that did not divide at all.

Perennial corn is not well suited to my climate, the frosts are just too harsh here.  It would be well suited to conditions with milder winters.  I was uncertain if it could survive winter here but I did not want to grow it from seed each year and have yet another perennial vegetable that I treat as an annual.

To give it the best chance of surviving I grew it in pots which I moved to an unheated greenhouse over winter.  This meant that it was still very cold, but the soil would not freeze.  I learned a lot from this, and by in large it was successful.  I believe that this would probably survive in the field if it was mulched.

Zea diploperennis divided into two - green stems

Some plants did not survive the winter.  These were no great loss, they were not cold tolerant and did not contain the genes required to build a perennial corn landrace that could stand up in my climate.  

A few plants survived and started to sprout in spring, then were eaten by slaters and the plant died.  This is regrettable as the plants were good and would probably survive in the field if mulched well.  They clearly had some of the required genetics and their loss represents a loss of diversity that may have been useful in some other genetic combination.  They did not divide enough, which meant that they only had one growing point and they died once this had been eaten by pests. 

Some plants divided a little, as can be seen in the above pictures they had two growing points that had not been killed by pests.  As can be seen above there is considerable diversity among these survivors.  Some have green stems, others have more red on the stems.  This diversity carries over the the colour of the seeds and cobs and is likely present in all of their genetics.  

Perennial corn flowering 

Genetic diversity is great as it means we should be able to cross things and hopefully end up with the right combination of genetics.  One of my plants started to flower as it was breaking dormancy.  We will see if anything comes of that flower and if that plant is worth keeping.

You may be able to tell in the photos, but I did not remove the previous year growth.  This was partly because the leaves stayed green and alive for much of winter, and partly because I thought they would help protect the growing points slightly.  Now that they are actively growing again it is time to remove the old growth.

Zea diploperennis dividing into many plants

One of my plants divided into several plants, I am not sure how many but it is a decent number.  This plant also had several stalks in its first year, and was the only of my plants to do this.  This is a trait that I want to keep when I try to breed perennial popcorn.  

I certainly don't want to reduce genetic diversity in the population at this stage so will not be only breeding from this dividing plant.  Given that it does produce multiple stems I assume it will produce a lot of pollen and will likely incorporate its genes into a lot of the seeds produced by my plants.

From careful poking around in the soil it appears that this plant produced several rhizomes which probably could have been split off from one another and transplanted.  These second year plants are certainly larger than seed grown at this stage, (especially considering that I have not yet planted corn seed for the year) so it will be interesting to see if they are more productive than first year plants.

Even if I never successfully cross this with modern corn this vigorously dividing trait would still be useful and highly desirable.  Even if I simply breed a population of dividing plants they can be used similar to other cereals such as wheat o oats, but with much larger seeds that are more nutritious and are far simpler to thresh at home.

Zea diploperennis cob

I have not divided anything yet as I have so few plants to play with and would hate to accidentally kill one.  Instead I am leaving all of these surviving plants as they are to see how they perform in their second year and hopefully produce far more cobs per plant.  

As you can see in the photo, the first year cobs were tiny.  I have a feeling that they could double or triple this size.  In other words I think that they will always be really small unless it is crossed with domestic corn.

Zea diploperennis cob size

I wonder if a clumping plant like this would be more productive or less work than a plant with a single stem as it may produce numerous little cobs.  It would be nice to be able to plant a perennial corn rhizome and then leave it to form an expanding clump that was increasingly productive each year.  The only way for me to find out if this is possible is for me to leave it and see what happens.

This year I don't have any spare plants or seed to share.  Hopefully all goes well and in autumn I will have spare seed and hopefully even some rhizome divisions from my more vigorous plants.  

If you are in Australia and interested in growing perennial corn feel free to get in touch with me around autumn/winter to see if I have any seeds to spare.  You can either leave a comment below or my contact details can be found on my for sale page.   

Growing Square Lemons at Home

Question: What happens when you put a round lemon (or pumpkin, or apple, or tomato etc) in a square plastic mould?  
Answer: the fruit grows and is slowly squished to conform to the shape of the mould.  

Square lemon, I grew this!

When talking about the hollow, shaped receptacle I don't know if it is spelled 'mould' or 'mold'.  I have a strong feeling it depends on which country you are from.  I'm too lazy to google it, I think I will just use both spellings and wait until some irate person corrects me, and then fix it up, or not bother and just leave it as is because that is far simpler.  Hmmm.  

Last year I bought some plastic fruit moulds.  I got some square ones, and some heart shaped ones.  I could hardly wait to use them.

I had intended on putting these fruit shaping molds on some apples and Asian pears, but at that time of year the apples and pears were too large to fit into the moulds.  

As my apples and pears were not the right size I put one on a lemon to have a little bit of practice.  Or maybe I was just impatient?  Either way, I put a square one on a meyer lemon.

I wish I chose a larger lemon to turn square

There weren't many lemons at that time of year so I chose one of the few that was small enough and put the plastic fruit shaping mould on.  

The lemon grew, then the tree flowered a lot and started producing a lot more fruit.  I wish I had chosen of one the second set of lemons as they all grew larger, but I didn't.

The lemon grew, then when it stopped growing I removed it from the mould.  Unfortunately the lemon did not fully grow to the size of the mould.  

Square lemons

This lemon was a bit small so wasn't perfectly block shaped, still became reasonably square and had three very flat sides and one slightly rounded side, so I consider it a success.  

I am told that apples and nashi pears tend to perform a little better than lemons.

My apple trees are just breaking dormancy now and will blossom shortly.  Once the little apples are a bit bigger I plan to put a few moulds on them and see how well they take to being moulded.

This lemon has three flat sides, and one round side

I have read comments from people who have seen pictures of these plastic moulds and they usually talk about how this is a pest deterrent and mean that fruit can be grown organically.  Interestingly the people who make and sell the moulds never make this claim.

I grow everything organically.  When I saw pictures of this my first through was that pests could get in and be protected from predators.  I was also concerned that fungus and mildew might grow in the poorly ventilated plastic box.

Square lemon slices from the square lemon I grew

Lemon before being removed from the mould

Now I have grown square lemons I can confirm that pests can get in and are protected from predators.  That is not a big deal as I don't have huge numbers of pests here and my square lemon was not damaged by the slugs and earwigs living in the box.

I can also confirm, as evidenced in the photo above, that algae and things do grow in the box.  This year was particularly wet so more water than normal had gotten into the box and caused things to grow.  This did not damage the fruit as it was mostly growing on the plastic.

I like square lemons

If only I used a larger lemon, it would have fit in the box better and this would look pretty incredible!  

I can hardly wait to use the fruit molds again.  My apple and pear trees are flowering at the moment, so it won't be long before I get to try this on them.  My lemon tree normally flowers on and off throughout the year, so I will try to make some more cool shaped lemons.

I do have some extra fruit shaping moulds, a few heart shaped ones and a few square ones.  They click together.  I have included pictures of them below so you get an idea of how they work.

Given that these plastic fruit shaping molds are clear it would be simple enough to put a sticker on them and use sunlight to tattoo an apple like I did here.  That way you would end up with an apple that is blocky or heart shaped, also with the name of your child or a fun picture on it.  I can hardly wait to try to do that myself!!!

I am not sure how many times they can be used, presumably if you look after them and don't drop them on concrete they should last for many years.  The one I used certainly looks no worse for wear.

Love Heart fruit mould

Love Heart fruit mold

Square fruit mold

Square fruit mould

If you want to try a fruit shaping mould there are very places on the internet where you can buy them.  There seem to be a few places selling tiny ones for strawberries, or long ones for cucumbers, or even some larger watermelon size ones, but not many places are selling ones for apples and lemons.  

If you are interested in buying some online please be careful of their size and ensure that you are not getting a tiny one that is only useful for medium sized strawberries. 

You can buy them directly from the place I got them from.  Their price includes postage to any country.  Note: While you pay the same price for the fruit shaping molds I get a small commission if you buy directly from slingfisher using the above link. 

I considered selling some through my for sale page if I have extras for sale.  To be honest you may be better off buying them from my slingfisher link above as it would work out cheaper for you, plus I intend on using these on all the appropriate sized fruit in my yard.