𝐀 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞?

𝐘𝐞𝐬! 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈’𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭!

Thanks to the Peruvian tomato (𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑚 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑚), a wild tomato species that is perennial and more or less frost-resistant!

This species is very distant from the cultivated tomato, too distant to cross with it without resorting to sophisticated in-vitro embryo rescue techniques.

At least, usually!

Because I managed to obtain a very special and completely innovative line that is partially interfertile with the cultivated tomato and a hybrid line obtained with a red cherry tomato!

I immediately saw the potential for a perennial, frost-resistant tomato!

Because from 2015 to 2019, I had grown and selected another 𝑆. 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑚 line that is just as exceptional, but this one for its very high frost resistance! 

Nearly 100% of the plants were perennial and resistant to frosts down to -10°C!

Their foliage dried out during winter, then new shoots emerged from the base the following spring; the plants could live like this for 2-3 years!

But at the time, the flavor of its fruits and its inability to cross with other tomato species made it uninteresting.

So, as early as 2023, I grew a large number of these interfertile Peruvian tomatoes!

Unfortunately, this line turned out to be frost-tender, and no plant ever showed renewed growth in its second year.

So, in spring 2025, I took a batch of seeds out of the freezer dating back to 2019 and I undertook crosses between these two lines!

… In reality, “undertook” is a bit of an exaggeration, since these plants are self-incompatible!

“SP1” (the interfertile line) was used as the female and was surrounded by pollen donors from the “SP2” line. 

Pollinators were certainly not lacking, yet the fruits obtained were few and contained very few viable seeds. A sign of a significant genetic distance between these two lines, despite belonging to the same species!

The choice of this crossing direction is not trivial, as it allows the SP1 cytoplasm to be retained in the offspring.

I stacked the odds in my favor!

I now hope that these hybrids will be frost-resistant like their father, and interfertile with the cultivated tomato like their mother!