Last year, I grew the genetically engineered Norfolk Purple Tomato, as well as Black Krim. I decided to cross them to try to get that purple snapdragon gene into a larger fruit. This year, I grew the crossed seeds, which I'm calling Purple Krim F1.
What I ended up with here is a slightly larger fruit with chocolate-brown skin, dark purple flesh, purple juice, and green seed gel sacs. The purple gene is expressed!
The pictured fruit is 4.5cm in diameter (Norfolk Purple was about 3cm at the largest), showing a blend between the size traits.
The flavor is… not great. It's something like unsweetened dried prunes. If i really wanted to sell it, I might describe it as "well-aged Cabernet wine with strong notes of leather." I think the savory flavors from Black Krim and the bitter undertones from the purple compounds end up amplifying each other to the point where they're overwhelming. It makes you thirsty. I can taste just a hint of the fruitiness from the Purple parent.
I've collected the seeds, and in the F2 generation, I will expect to see some plants giving beefsteak size fruits.
To fix the flavor, I want to mix a sweeter, fruitier beefsteak size tomato into this genetic line. I'm open to any suggestions!
by TBSchemer
5 Comments
Awesome experiment and explorer mind set š„š how would you describe the flavour profile of the Norfolk Purple tomato, the colour and gene editing itself put me off looking at it. I have grown Krim many times (except this year), itās one of the best larger tomatoes out there.
I hear the yellow brandywine is the sweetest of the brandywines. š¤·š»āāļø Thank you for the link!
Interesting. Thank you for sharing.
When it first came out I think a lot of people were wondering why Norfolk hadnāt tried harder to create a better tasting tomato with the purple genes but maybe they had tired pretty hard and that was the best they got.
Iām really interested to hear why you find in the F2 grow out.
Blasphemy get that sinful pollen out of our communities. Shame on you.
Maybe chef choice yellow?