Kim

Could you say a bit more about that and where you got the seeds from, if you feel comfortable doing so, and what you expected as to fruit size, shape and coloration?

Thanks,

Carolyn

http://gurneys.com/hawaiian-pineapple-hybrid-tomato/p/83431/

So it's Hawaiian Pineapple, not Pineapple, and they're two different varieties.

OK, I figured it out when I Googled and found that fields was also carrying it but the so called improvement is just breeding in VFN tolerance, which does NOT make it a hybrid.

I'd alreadyput the link to Gurney's below, but the Field's description told me more/

I also read a thread about Hawaian Pineapple from here at GW a couple of years ago and almost everyone was complaning about low yeild, one person saying he got 6 fruits off two plants.

I don't want to bother to go back to the Fields site but the Gurney's sie seemed to be selling plants only.

And others have already addressed the heat and blossom drop issue, so I won't.

Carolyn

That's a strange assumption.

One being the USDA regulations of the Federal Seed Act concerning labeling and sale of hybrids.

Two, it can be better to have disease resistances in the heterozygous form for reasons I won't go into here.

Three, it is generally much faster to bring something to market as a hybrid than a stable line which takes more time.

******

Be it strange or not, it is my assumption Keith. (smile)

At any one time there are about 6-8 OP Rutgers listed in the SSE Yearbooks, all with different combos of VFN, and not one of them is ever listed as a hybrid at any commercial seed site that I know of. And there are many other OP's that are the same, Red Mortgage Lifter VFN bred by Dr. Jeff McCormack comes to mind as well.

The quote below from the link given below and I feel kind of silly doing this b'c you know more about tomato genetics than almost anyone I know, but I do think that most folks would agree that a tomato hybrid is the result of crossing two different varieties as noted below:

(F1 hybrid seed production involves the crossing of two different inbred lines. Either line can be the female or male parent, but normally the best seed yielder is selected as the female parent.

Both parents should be pure, preferably being self-pollinated for more than 6 generations (this is called inbreeding). Parents are selected for their desirable traits (high yields, disease resistance, fruit quality, earliness, etc.).)

Taking an initial OP and breeding in some disease tolerances/resistances such as V or F or N, I don't think converts an initial OP to an overall hybrid. Perhaps for a single allele as you noted,making it heterozygous, but not a variety that would be listed as an F1 hybrid in the conventional sense as seen listed at commercial seed sites.

Yes, the above quote and the link below are referring to F1 seed production but I'm also thinking of all the folks who deliberatly cross two known tomato varieties for their own breeding projects and selections made, of the wonderful varieties that have come from accidental X pollinations where selections have been made from that initial F1 and grown out for genetic stability.

For instance, how would you explain your own Purple Haze F1 as to why it's an F1 and what you started with? Some day when it's available as just the F1 seeds I'd love to try it b'c so many speak highly of it.
Carolyn

*****

.... is what I posted above in partial answer to your last post and right now I have many plants that still have NO blossoms and I'm in the same zone 5 that you are and coming up is another blast of hot humid air, so fingers crossed.

I don't know where your specific zone 5 is but it's not just heat and humidity that can cause blossom drop but also rain itself, and we've had day after day of it here.

Pollen is functionally the same for all tomato varieties, but there certainly must be differences in terms of slight structure to help explain why some varieties do better in different conditions such as high heat/humidity, rain, etc.

Where I am in my zone 5 first killing frost has been known to hit on September 7th, I remember it well, and also as late as mid-October.

So it looks like this may be the third bad season in a row for me and it really gets to me b'c I have so many varieties that will be new to almost everyone.

Carolyn

By utilizing specific breeding methods one can make uniform F1 hybrids that will segregate and look like the F1. Long generations would not necessarily be required of the hybrid parents using such a method.

I am growing something that I believe is Pineapple.
I got the seeds out of a HEIRLOOM that I bought from store.

Here is a picture. The one that is sliced.

So I am interested in the faith of my plant. But I suspect that it should be fine, otherwise WHY one would grow it commercially.

I've grown pineapple tomatoes a few times, but that picture could be pineapple or it could be another one of 3 dozen possible varieties, no way to tell from the pic alone.