Mission Mountain Grex
Crop: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
Breeder: William Schlegel
OSSI Pledge Date:
Release Date:
Bred for Organic Systems: Yes
Commercial Availability: Yes
Description
“All tomatoes in this grex are descended from OSSI-pledged tomatoes, and I consider the project to be one where you the end user of these seeds and I are working towards breeding more open-source tomatoes together. I hope you take this still variable and segregating population and find something in it that does well in your garden. Then save seeds, name your new variety, and hopefully eventually repledge it to the Open Source Seed Initiative. This breeding population of tomatoes is one I have made in the last few years working towards some new Montana-bred tomato varieties. It contains seed for what will be F2, F3, and F4 seedlings. Ancestors of this mix include Joseph Lofthouse’s Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) pledged ‘Big Hill’ (HX-9), OSSI-pledged ‘Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry’, and OSSI-pledged ‘Dwarf Gloria’s Treat’. I also included as ancestors for disease resistance two accessions of the currant tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium LA1375 (PI 365967) an accession known for tolerance to brown rugose fruit virus, and PI 270443, which may be the source material for PH5 late blight resistance. I used ‘Purple Zebra F1’, a remarkable modern hybrid, bred for looks and heirloom flavor by artisanal breeder Mark McCaslin as another parent that may confer some resistances to a small portion of its offspring. I made a cross with a Solanum galapagense hybrid that showed up in my 2022 garden for another ancestor. Other ancestors include ‘Mission Mountain Sunrise’, a tomato Joseph Lofthouse calls ‘Brad’, ‘Sweet Cherriette’, microdwarf ‘Aztek’, Brad Gate’s ‘Blue Gold’, ‘Brad’s Atomic Grape’, as well as some unknown pollen donors. This mix is largely composed of F2 seed that will segregate in spectacular fashion. Reds, yellows, orange, green when ripe, bicolors, blue skin, potato leaf, regular leaf, and stripes are all possibilities. A small portion of the population may have elongated styles that stick out from the pollen cone facilitating higher rates of natural outcrossing — and it is possible that additional crosses could have occurred in 2023.
Source:
Availability from OSSI Seed Company Partners
