Update on my potato leafed tomato volunteer

[MontyJ]

Now we can guess the variety

Uhh, I guess Brandywine

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Can you guys talk english ?

Mary

Funny, it's like how two people with blue eyes can't have a baby with brown eyes.... but two people with brown eyes can in fact have a baby with blue eyes. Biology 101, I think it is the most interesting thing in the world.

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, believe it or not I understand your misunderstanding!

Remember, I'm at least half Neanderthal! For a long time when I was a kid I really and really wanted to get it, to get what I saw in my 4th grade science book. All the smart and rich kids seemed to be understanding it. Funny thing was, each one of them explained it differently. Finally, one of the MANY times I get sent to the principle's office, Mr. Traub himself explained it to me. He then let me loose in the little library.

Ya see, Digit, Chromosomes are like the little houses that the DNA lives in. Now, that DNA stuff lives all paired up, shaped like a twisty rubbery ladder. (DNA was only even discovered like 12 years before i was in 4th grade). Now, when a sperm or an egg are made, that DNA ladder thing UNZIPS right down the rungs. Wellp, you guessed it, someone came up with a weird name for those DNA rungs. ALLELES. Now, why they didn't name them rungs, my guess is GENETICISTS LIKE TO THINK THEY ARE SMART SO THEY LOOK FOR THE FANCIEST POSSIBLE NAMES!

Now, a GENE can be one rung, that is, one allele. Let's stick with allele since that's what the smartypants decided to call them. These alleles split right down the middle, just like bugs bunny sawing the ladder under Yosemite Sam. So each rung is a pair of allele halves.

hoo boy, had to make some afternoon espresso!

To make things real complicated, a single gene can consist of more than one allele pair, even a million! LUCKILY, most of the traits a gardener is really worried about have simple genes of one or a few allele pairs! (Some things with Corn can be complicated, super sweet and all that).

Digit! Tomato genetics for us gardeners, wellp, even this ole Neanderthal can kind of get. When the spermie and the egg meet up, and yep, it's that way with plants too! Pollen grains carry sperm. (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! mommeeeeeeeeeeeeee no! can't be!)
the sperm and the egg each have a split up half the ladder of DNA. Uh, Jared's gonna correct me here!!! Jared, this is the simple preliminary explanation just to get the basic idea across. Forgive me? It works this way as a way of 'splaining things. Let's leave the RECOMBINATION stuff out for now. That'll be 6th grade. At least it was at my school where all the kids but 2 of us were rich and smart.

more next post...still on proxy server

 

[897tgigvib]

If i type for too long the proxy server goes into its restart stuff and i risk losing what i type, so i copy paste for backup! that's the neanderthal method of backup!

Now the sperm's split up half of the ladder meets up with the egg's other split up half. I know...let it be...it's the simple version here!!!

each part of that ladder has to line up even more particularly than your zipper on your coat! Each half run meets up with the other half rung of the same kind. ~~~that's why zebras and cobras can't breed. they don't line up right~~~

Now, the particular elements of this DNA can have slight differences, as long as it can still line up right. One element might code for small, another element codes for big. Sometimes after they combine and line up and grow into a plant, they do a wrassle thing. Big or tall usually seems to win. That's because over the bazillions of years some kinds made it and other kinds didn't.

Turns out that NATURAL SELECTION IS NOT ABOUT THE PLANT. NATURAL SELECTION IS ABOUT THE DNA! Each animal or plant is just a test for the DNA in it to see if it'll make more of that DNA.

~~~the D/r comes next page. I promise~~~

 

[897tgigvib]

Now we can talk about DOMINANT and recessive.

I have my own method of it. It works when only talking about a few simple genes. So you know, for now I'll leave out things like coDOMINANT, and the 2 kinds of that. There are other kinds of things genes do too such as one gene doing several things, and several genes required before one thing can be done. Forget I mentioned those things for now...

One rung of that DNA ladder is one allele pair.

For most things you want to breed in a Tomato that works. Colors of the tomato you can consider as MOSTLY and KINDASORTA. Same thing with tomato fruit sizes.

Leaf type is not a kinda sorta thing. it is one or the other...though sometimes a touch of smooth edgedness can show in a regular leaf.

One half of the allele might code for regular leaf. Turns out from 150 years of trials and checking, regular leaf is dominant. Why? Somehow during the millenia and millions of years of evolving, the wrassling match between regular leafed and potato leafed wild tomatoes repeatedly found the regular leaf as the winner in natural selection. (((that group of chemicals at that rung won most of the matches.))) certain other wild tomatoes kept the potato leaf form without the long millions of years of hard battling, so that group of chemicals survived, but not as the DOMINANT group.

If the other half of the allele codes for potato leaf, there is the DOMINANT REGULAR LEAF ALLELE HALF matching up with the recessive potato leaf allele half.

I label that D/r

Fancy geneticists really hit the books and found a 3 bit word for that! HETEROZYGOUS!
and lord help us, not kidding, they call these,
D/D and also r/r HOMOZYGOUS!

I don't mind either way who's what, but, I just don't know what they were thinking

 

[hoodat]

Marshall, you would have made a great teacher. By Jove I think I got it.
Now if you could explain rabbit genetics to me; boy that gets comlicated.

 

[897tgigvib]

All I know about Rabbit genetics is that any rabbit named Marshall will make a great breeder, and should never be eaten!!!

 

[hoodat]

Update on my update. The plant is 5 feet high now and sprawling all over the place. It is loaded with blossoms but so far no fruit set. The nights are warming now so it should begin fruiting soon. Can't wait to see what I end up with. I'm just now starting to plant my paste tomatos. I'm using the San Marzano Longo 2 which is supposed to be a direct descendant of the originals in Italy which almost died out till the 90s when 27 plants were found growing in an Italian garden and the variety got rescued.

 

[897tgigvib]

Can we get some recent photos hoodat?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i know it's only been a month since you showed us the flowers, but has it started producing any tomatoes?