An interesting article I just read and thought I’d share:
I’ve grown tomatoes with purple tops or bottoms but never an entirely purple tomato. I didn’t care much for their flavor but maybe it wasn’t the anthocynanin to blame for that.
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I have mixed feelings over this. High anthocyanin tomatoes tend to have very poor flavor. We already have high anthocyanin conventionally bred tomatoes so it is just piling on to add a GMO high antho variety. At the same time, the potential of GMO is off the charts. I want a tomato that produces antifungals in the leaves and hosts symbiotes to produce nitrogen like legumes and, and, and…
I’m going on memory with this so please verify accuracy if interested. Tomatoes contain the entire anthocyanin biopath which means all the genetic machinery is there to produce high anthocyanin tomatoes. There is not a gene in tomatoes that turns the anthocyanin biopath on which leaves normal tomatoes producing caroteinoids which are on another biopath. This tomato was developed by pulling a gene out of snapdragons that produces the anthocyanin precursors that turn the biopath on. Once enabled, the existing biopath proceeds to make the compounds that give the color to this fruit. There is a very good opportunity to improve this tomato by increasing sugar and/or by increasing flavor compounds.
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if they get around to selling seeds, here’s their website:
I meant to get seeds for this current season (gmo approval wasn’t needed to sell them if I remember their NYT article correctly, so they planned to start selling without that) but they never listed them
I want better texture. Don’t want runny around seeds or those drips.
Find Tennessee Britches. It is the closest I’ve ever grown to a dry tomato.
yeah I don’t really like tomatoes… I just want to grow it as a curiosity. I made sure to buy a rainbow papaya in hawaii (gmo, sold at farmers markets), same reason
Thanks for the recommendation. With our short season, I usually look for things that are 80 days or less. Maybe when I’m retired I’ll better manage vegetables from seed.
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If these plants are being sold to your average Joe I can see this complicating things with your starter gardener. Up till now we were able to say all plants were are growing are GMO free. It will give those people who are against hybrids because they think hybrids are GMO a leg to stand on. That being said I do wonder if this is the start of a new way of gardening. I wonder if they could start making rootstocks of plants that are GMO to not have animals attack the fruit trees. A interesting idea none the less.
Interesting. I was under the impression no GMO products were available on the market for your home gardener.