CAMPARI -Campari(ng) Descendancies

[Tom Wagner]

CAMPARI -Campari(ng) Descendancies
There has been a couple of threads about Campari, namely;

tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=12120
tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...hlight=campari

...and I thought the topic I am bringing forth deserves a new forefrontation.

Question. Has anyone segregated the recombinations for filial generations of Campari.

Answer. Yes.

I have several lines of Campari descendants to the F-5 level. That is stable enough to assert some expectancies. Just today I extracted a knock off line that looks much like the F-1 Campari and I named it CAM PARIS. Pun intended.

As F-5 seed, I should be able to use it in some test hybrids. I am hoping that I have some of the VVFFTN of the hybrid left over in the inbred.

I will have to look at the other filial generations to select for the best lines as I am trying to duplicate the reputed flavor of the original.

Meanwhile back to the Cross Talk. I have a couple of new selections out of a cross of Green Grape to an F-2 of Campari. The first one is Campptown Ladies, a nice look alike, taste alike of Campari but with the tiny seeds of Green Grape. This one is quite firm. I have F-3 seed of that one.

A full sib-Paris green- (a shade of green tinged with yellow) is a Green Grape type, but of a thingytail size with extraordinary flavors and sweetness. It is rather soft like Green Grape and has larger seed than I would like.

Both of them will be segregated further in the re-combination to fine tune traits that I want. But in case I don't get those traits I crossed the Paris Green with pollen from Camptown Ladies. The cross should be all red if the CL is homozygous for red flesh. The hybrid seed will be selfed next year to get F-2 seed that will shuffle the segregation even further. I would like to get a firm green thingytail tomato with small seed and great flavors and sweetness.

Since Campari has long internodes suitable for greenhouse culture, I will note the growth of the assorted progenies and will send seed/plants to greenhouses for evaluation. I hope to salvage the alphabet soup of disease resistancies.

I extracted seed today of Camptown Ladies crossed with Stupice. There is a local love affair with Stupice, therefore I am trying to introgress Stupice into as many kinds of tomatoes as possible in the effort to get adapted PNW tomato varieties with whatever magic Stupice offers.

I now have F-3 seed of Black Gaspare, named for Gaspare Campari fame. This is a black thingytail tomato that combines Campari, Black Sea Man, Brandywine, and a chilling resistant line. This combination will be tested for chilling resistance so that ripe fruits can be placed in refrigeration without turning mushy.

Yet to be found in my myriads of tomato plots, is some F-2 fruits of the cross of Black Prince, Cherokee Purple and an F-2 Campari. The F-1 had 1 1/2 to 2 inch fruits, round red, 3 locules, and productive as all get out. The plants aren't close, one is in the upper Skagit river valley and the other is in Vancouver, WA., nearly 300 miles from each other. I should not be disappointed in the flavor combos.

I have been extracting seed from the F-2 fruits of Campari and Savantas, a cluster roma. The fruits are even more firm than Campari and I will be looking for jointless pedicels, and a variety of shapes. I am not sure what I have, so I am not naming any of them yet. Most of what I like has the Campari shape.

I will be looking at some yellow cluster recombinants of Campari crosses as soon as I pick them.

Some really tall vines are coming out of the Airy Leaf, Pineapple, Elberta Girl, Campari lines crossed to Green Grape. Yes, all in one pedigree. Most are 2 inch red fruits with green getl indicating the success of the cross. I am impressed of how the Green Grape imparts sweetness and smaller seed size. In these crosses, one doesn't see much of the ancestry of Airy Leaf, Pineapple, or Elberta Girl, just Campari and Green Grape. Maybe I will see those lines show up again in the F-2 generation.

I put much effort into this treatise, but if anything ever comes out of this work, you may anticipate what it may be.

Tom Wagner

[Tom Wagner]

Since I am writing about Campari crosses, I thought it would be nice to put a place holder here about the Campari that I read about a year ago on a Wiki.


upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/38/Camparis1.jpg/300px-Camparis1.jpg

Campari is a variety of tomato, noted for its juiciness, high sugar level, low acidity, and lack of mealiness. Camparis are deep red and larger than a cherry tomato, but smaller and rounder than a plum tomato. The popularity of the campari took off in North America in 2002, following a brief appearance on the television mafia drama The Sopranos.

Originally from Europe, the campari was introduced in North America in 1997 by the Mastronardi Produce company, based in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. Paul Mastronardi, a fourth-generation employee at the company, experimented with about 60 varieties of seeds before settling on the campari, after being urged by a customer to "Throw out all the rules that say big, big, big and let's focus only on flavour and see what that tomato looks like."

Sales of Camparis have grown rapidly since the variety was introduced, and the tomato maintains a loyal following. The tomato is produced by three suppliers in North America: Eurofresh Farms, BC Hothouse, and Mastronardi Produce, the latter two being located in Canada. Together, the producers form the Campari Marketing Group, which produces 50 million pounds of camparis annually, as of as of 2005.

The Campari cultivar is a globe-shaped hybrid, with regular leaves, and exhibits resistance to the tobacco mosaic virus. The plant grows 6–8 feet (1.8–2.4 m), and matures in 69–80 days

I found it hard to believe that the variety has been around for 12 years or more. Last year I was talking with a Mr. Mastronardi on the phone about the variety and after a few phone tags dropped my interest in the variety. But since the grocery store tomatoes drive the public's interest in tomatoes off season especially, I realize that Campari is part of the talking points about flavor in tomatoes in general. Folks blog about Campari type tomatoes and there is one variety to be released next year that will be constantly compared to it. That will be in another post.

[Tom Wagner]

-I am getting overwhelmed with Campari crosses and OP segregating lines. The latest of my named varieties, three minutes ago, is HAPPY CAMPER.

The cross was originally from an F-2 of Savantas and F-2 Campari. The F-1 plant was grown out all summer in a 2" pot and was selected from a number of full sibs because it was early, very firm and very red. Little did I know what to expect from this plant's F-2 seed.

The F-2 fruit's seed was extracted and labeled F-3. Four fruits from a one gallon container grown at Tim Pitts's greenhouse in Seattle.

This plant has jointless pedicels, which allows it to be picked as a cluster without the fruit falling off. Nice potential of having 7-9 fruits on the cluster of a perfect globe shape with two to three locules. So firm that even I am surprised. The super firmness and j-less traits comes from one or more of Savantas's parents. Both Savantas and Campari F-1's are greenhouse varieties with good disease resistant pack ages. The pertinent thing coming down from Campari is the campari like fruit.

This vine came through the 102 temps a couple of weeks ago just fine.

I have some hybrid seed of Happy Camper to extract soon. The male parent of this cross is BRAD'S SLEEVES, a stabilized line that I got out of a mixed cross family at Brad Gates's farm in the Bay area of California. It is an indeterminate version of my Green Sleeves, although not related.

I am hoping to get a jointless Green Sleeves type for greenhouse production that could be a great cluster (on the vine) tomato. Since many tomatoes are coming out of Brad's work in California that have great flavor and ancestry back to my Green Zebra, I am just trying to come full circle in my breeding efforts

Anyway, I anticipate the Happy Camper in a field of tomatoes some day and many other tomatoes not being a happy camper due to some problem and coming to a plant of my HAPPY CAMPER, and saying, "Now that is a happy camper!"

Tom Wagner