Some University of Florida researchers are looking to breed better tasting tomatoes for home gardeners, not commercial varieties. They've come up with a couple varieties already and are offering to give 10 seeds to anyone who donates $10 to their research.

Klee and his team profiled the genes of 398 of the best-tasting heirloom tomatoes and used a gas chromatograph to analyze the minute ingredients that go into a tomato's flavor fingerprint.

To identify the best-tasting varieties, Klee and psychophysicist Linda Bartoshuk conducted detailed surveys of 500 consumer panelists.

They found that ideal flavor is a complex sweet/sour blend made up of sugars (glucose and fructose), acids (citric, malic and ascorbic) and hundreds of volatile compounds (including amino acids, fatty acids and carotenoids).

About 30 of those compounds are most important to flavor, and Klee found that 13 of them are significantly less in commercial varieties compared to typical heirlooms.

Klee said the flavor-mapping gave a "recipe for what chemicals and how much of these chemicals drive consumer liking."
https://www.pennlive.com/gardening/2017 ... ull_h.html

Here's a link to a U of F website where you can get the seeds. This article is a year and a half old but it appears the offer is still valid.
https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/kleelab/new-garden-cultivars/


I'd get some myself but I limited room. Anyone else interested? This could be a cool project.

I don't agree with the stereotypes about heirlooms being outmoded by commercial F1 hybrids (especially if they're including all OP varieties in that), but I like what they're trying to accomplish in creating tastier, more prolific tomatoes for home gardeners, even if the results are F1 hybrids.

I thought Garden Gem was patented. They must be doing this with permission, or else have the people involved with Garden Gem involved here.

For me at least heirlooms are outmoded. I'm sure 99.9% of tomato aficionados on this forum will disagree with me, but heirlooms just are not a viable option here because of the intense disease pressures in my area. Hybrids offer a solution to get some kind of plant that can actually live long enough to produce fruit. My hope is that they continue to breed hybrids with better taste.

My understanding is that Garden Gem is patented by UF and they are allowing a commercial site to sell it. I could be wrong.

I did find it weird that Brandywine came in dead last in their taste tests?!?!

This is very cool. I saw that Garden Gem was trying to make its way into the commercial industry, without success, but its nice to see the research and development is still progressing.

I didn't know it was a descendant of Maglia Rosa, that's cool. I passed up on growing Maglia Rosa previously, I'll have to rethink that decision.

I wonder what happened to the tests with Pink Tiger?

They look like "reds" in the pics. So, I have my doubts as to great flavor. At least they weren't blacks or greens.

"And yes, because they’re hybrids, you will need to buy new seeds each year."

They don't know us very well, do they? Whatever magic hybrid they make, someone will dehybridize it in a few years. Also, their quest for the perfect tomato seems to ignore location. North florida is a tough place to grow tomatoes.

Cole_Robbie wrote: ↑Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:33 am. North florida is a tough place to grow tomatoes.

I know the feeling.

What resistance genes for phytophthora do they use?