Things To Go With Banana Legs?

[papavic]

Okay, just to kick this thing off ...

What are the attributes of Banana Legs, and what would be some specific tomatoes or some general types that would match up well in crosses? What could one expect in the F1 and subsequent generations from some of the proposed crosses?

Bill

[clarkbar2311]

I don't know the genetics of banana legs but I'd love to see some bi-color or other colors in that shape. It's one the varieties I'm considering crossing into the LISP dwarfs.

[canadamike]

Clarkbar, being french, acronyms are a bit mysterious to me. Could you explain LISP please?

[alan]

Hey Michael, LISP refers to the Long Island Seed Project and their dwarf mix to tomatoes, you can find the LISP at www.liseed.org.

Hope that helps friend.

[tatermater]

I am glad someone (Bill) brought up the Banana Legs (BL) as it represents why communities of growers are essential to each and every variety. If someone else had not grown it, it would have disappeared totally. I did not keep it in my collection, as I recall, a mouse problem occurred.



When I met John Swenson last July, 2007, we had a lot to talk about. First of all, John treated me like I was a man of some respect, which is close to foreign to me.

I forgot just how John first obtained the seed from me, but likely from my Long Toms Mix in my old Tater Mater Seeds catalog. I believe he should be given credit for actually coming up with the name, Banana Legs. My Long Toms had an assortment of colors, including my Green Nails. I had a working name for the BL, but no matter. Anyway, Mr. Swenson grew my tomato for a few years and must have had the variety next to some tomatoes called Antique Roman, a blocky Roma type red. He grew a chance hybrid of the cross of these two lines. Apparently the F-2 generation had some great recombos, leading to the Speckled Roman, and the Roman Candle, and the generations that ensued

John Swenson has offered the Speckled Roman in the SSE editions since 1999

See
www.kokopelli-seed-foundation.com/actu/new_news.cgi?id_news=22

Crosses of Banana Legs are unique. As an F-1, the stripes are faintly visible, but the tomatoes are elongated regardless of the other parent. The F-2 generation will throw all kinds of striped, mostly longish fruits. The wispy foliage is slightly dominant in the hybrids, but will throw 1:4 in the F-2 family. BTW, there is a Canadian variety in its' pedigree!!!

I believe I helped Amy Goldman select the name Roman Holiday for yet another "Sport" of this family. She wrote to me with some names and I liked the old movie of the same name, thus the naming conventioning at work.

I would like to see someone cross BL with bicolors and blacks.

Tom Wagner

[clarkbar2311]

The bicolors and blacks would be cool. I personally am fond of the elongated types just because they are different.

[kctomato]

dont you see nippling as well in the F2's?

[tatermater]

dont you see nippling as well in the F2's?

Keith,

Funny thing about elongated tomatoes and the nippling effects.

Some crosses and recoms may segregate for recessed nipple (flower scar attachments) and I rather like them because those fruits are less apt to get bruised. To each his own, but i have tried to diminish the nippling expression simply because it is a factor in mechanical harvesting.

Tom Wagner

[flowerpower]

Is there a plum variety that has the reverse patterning of Speckled Roman? So yellow with red striping.

I kind of like the nipples. But I am harvesting by hand.

[tatermater]

The Speckled Roman is a red tomato that just happens to have stripes. Those stripes looked dark green on a light green fruit while in the immature stage. Once ripened the stripes turn yellow. The amount of stripes comes from the original cross from my Banana Legs which had a set stripe pattern. It has a ripe fruit that is yellow with yellow stripes that are hard to see. Of course, you could see the dark green stripes on immature YB's.

I have strains of striping that run heavier in the stripes so that it does appear that red fruits have more yellow stripe on the red fruit. In those, they look yellow with red stripes. It is possible to develop yellow fleshed tomatoes that hold more of the green stripe when ripe, but a yellow flesh with red stripe has to have some bicolor genes in order for it to appear as you wish.

Tom

[spkfero]

hello tom

wat do you hope to do with the striped tidwell german seeds
that i sent you .
if it is a mutation ?? do you think it will grow out
true at f2 or ??
i hope it is not a dud
a avatar of my tidwell and your green zebra side by side
would look great

gene

[tatermater]

striped tidwell german seed

Thanks for sending me that seed. It was one of the very rare tomato varieties that I have requested lately.

The stripes on this tomato, and I do remember it on your avatar, look different than anything I have seen before. I have seen many kinds so I am looking forward to using in a few crosses, and to observe it outright.

Not knowing anything about it, I will grow sufficient numbers of the plants, watch the growth habits, look for any difference in plant habit, leaf type, and early fruit striping or not. At which time I will make crosses, both male and female to an assortment of striped types and then green, pink, yellow, orange, bicolor, and blacks as a contingency for testing out combining ability and for eventual recoms and yet further crosses. I should have some good data by Sept 1.
Thanks Gene for offering that seed. Any development of a strain will be offered back to you first.

Tom Wagner

[flowerpower]

tatermater said:

I have strains of striping that run heavier in the stripes so that it does appear that red fruits have more yellow stripe on the red fruit. In those, they look yellow with red stripes. It is possible to develop yellow fleshed tomatoes that hold more of the green stripe when ripe, but a yellow flesh with red stripe has to have some bicolor genes in order for it to appear as you wish.

Tom

Thanks for the simplified answer. See, I am learning something already about breeding veggies.

[papavic]

Gene,

Do you plan on increasing the seeds from your striped Tidwell yourself? It would be interesting to see if the seeds come true to the unusual striping you found ... and for you to have a larger supply of the inbred seed for that expression.

Bill

[spkfero]

Bill
i have about 60 seeds left,I don,t know if i will grow it out or not
IAM 72 yrs old with a small garden have had 4 disc surgery
but i plant a garden every yrs.

Tom
in your post at tw hard of hearing iam deft in rt ear and 20% in the left
i learned to lip read at 10 yrs old, only good thing wen driveing i can,t
hear my wife tell me how to drive
gene