Pedigree of variety Heinz 1706 Ozminkowski, R., HeinzSeed, P.O. Box 57, Stockton, CA 95201 In 2003, it was determined that the tomato variety H1706 would be part of the worldwide tomato genome project.  Since then, there have been numerous requests for seed and for a history of the variety.  This note is intended to provide a current review of our records on the development of the variety H1706. ‘H1706’ was developed by Charlie John in the mid 1960s at Heinz’s Bowling Green, OH research facility.  It was commercialized as a processing tomato about 1967 for use in Ontario, Canada and in the midwestern United States.  Contemporary varieties were ‘ES24’, ‘H1350’, ‘VF145’, ‘Fireball’, and ‘Roma VF’.    Disease resistance of ‘H1706’ is VF, carrying the I and Ve genes.  Plants are vigorous with good yield potential.  Maturity is well concentrated and considered fairly early.  Fruit are medium-sized oval to pear-shaped and the fruit tend to drop easily.  It was developed as a processing tomato for machine harvesting; pedicles are jointed (J).  Relative to its contemporary varieties ‘H1706’ had strong crack resistance and firm fruit.  Crack resistance was a primary objective for varieties developed in our Ohio program and ‘H1706’ contains some of thebest sources available at the time. The background of ‘H1706’ is primarily from recombinations of co mmercial tomato varieties.   Grandparents include ‘Fireball’ and ‘Roma’ (obtained from Harris Seeds, Rochester, NY) and ‘VR Moscow’; pedigree records indicate that ‘VR Moscow’ is the likely maternal (cytoplasm) contributor.   The fourth grandparent is a selection from a recombination of ‘Burgess Crackproof’ and an Eastern States line (‘ES 25’).  ‘ES 25’ was selected from a variable population developed by O. Pearson in the 1950’s.  The ES population is reported to have a background of ‘Andrus’ 2153’, ‘Firesteel’, Yeager’s high vitamin line and Hanna’s L. pimpinellifolium hybrid 17-5 (which was made around 1944).    As with many heirloom open-pollinated varieties, seed may be available from various sources.  In this case, different selections of ‘H1706’ were used at different times in various commercial production programs.  We are unable to confirm sources of old lots of ‘H1706’ in various germplasm banks.  The seed Dr. Rod Wing (then of Texas A&M) used for the production of the BAC library was obtained directly from our Ohio breeding program.  It was this lot of seed that has been used for subsequent increases for this research project.  Thus, any differences between various sources of this variety can be avoided if this current lineage is used (referred to as ‘H1706-BG’).  Because of the sensitivity of genome evaluation, HeinzSeed will maintain this lineage and is providing seed to the USDA to update their collection. In addition to other major collections, seed can obtained from Heinz at the above address or by e- mail (rich.ozminkowski@husa.com).  The seed is distributed for research use only.  Please provide any necessary importation permits for international shipments.

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