Hafen, L. and E. C. Stevenson.
The sideshootless mutant, when crossed with normal fertile Ohio WR3 Globe and Michigan State Forcing, produced F1 plants with normal flowers and normal sideshoot development. Segregations in F2 and backcross progenies gave a poor fit to a 3:1 and a 1:1 ratio respectively. Two plants in a large field planting in 1957 were found that had corolla-less flowers and sideshoots; in previous populations corollaless flowers were always found to be associated with sideshootlessness. Crosses have been made to see if the sideshoot condition in these two plants is the same as that in normal tomato varieties. The phenotypic expression of the sideshootless character is extremely variable, ranaing from plants with cotyledons only to plants with indeterminate growth and numerous branches (not true axillary sideshoots).
We have not been able as yet to select sideshootless lines that combine fruitfulness, desireble fruit quality, large fruit size and indeterminate plant growth. Rough fruit, unfruitfulness due to lack of fertilization, delayed blossoming and ripening of the first clusters, small fruits, corolla-less flowers, and unpredictable vegetative growth must be intimately associated with the sideshootless condition.