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Post by raymondo on Jan 15, 2014 23:17:35 GMT -5
I have two potato cultivars that I grow each year. Both produce abundant flowers, one also produces abundant berries, but neither produces any pollen. This means of course that the one that produces berries produces no seed. What are the chances that if I were to pollinate either of these cultivars, I might restore male fertility? I suppose the answer depends on the cause of the lack of pollen in the first place. I'm hoping that this male sterility is just something that has been ignored, and let develop, rather than deliberately selected. I have a plant from seed someone sent me and I'm hoping it will produce pollen.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 15, 2014 23:39:30 GMT -5
If the plants are triploid, then fertility cannot be restored. I suspect that on most commercial varieties of potatoes that sterility has been purposefully selected to avoid having a lot of feral potato weeds showing up in the fields.
I have noticed that some types of potato flowers have what I think of as sticky pollen. It clumps together into a jelly like substance. I don't know the cause, whether it is due to cytoplasmic or nuclear DNA. Sticky pollen might be viable enough to cause pollination if manually transferred.
On a sunny day, if I flick potato flowers with my fingernail some varieties release a cloud of pollen. I'd think that one of those types might be a good pollen donor.
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Post by samyaza on Jan 17, 2014 7:49:05 GMT -5
Joseph : I don't think pollen is a reliable sign of male fertility. I've grown several modern european cultivars and I always noticed a lot of pollen when squeezing them, whereas we all know they're largely affected by CMS. Some years give a lot of TPS on normally poorly fertile cultivars, I don't know why. Anyway, these varieties gave me such awful progenies that I don't give a damn.
If one you work with such material, always keep in mind you need to throw away all that's not fertile enough, weak or low yielding or you'll rely on amazing luck to find a good clone, that will degenerate within a few years, anyway. You'll thank your cruelty when your seedlings will mostly be winners.
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Post by raymondo on Jan 17, 2014 15:05:03 GMT -5
I've only ever had one potato in my garden produce seed. It was already here when I moved in and it flowered and set seed that first year. It has never done so since. I'm not sure what prompted the seed set that first year. I think perhaps because the tubers were basically on the surface and the plants only ever got whatever water fell from the sky. I grew a couple of the seeds and got some nice spuds but wasn't interested at the time in doing any more with it.
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Post by richardw on Jan 17, 2014 15:30:53 GMT -5
I believe that cooler than normal summers promote berry set,could be wrong but ive noticed that pattern with the Moie moie type i grow.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 17, 2014 15:32:23 GMT -5
In my garden, the number of berries produced by the same clone also varies from year to year based on the growing conditions. Probably is influenced by the weather, and my irrigation and weeding habits, and when I planted them, and the soil, and what other flowers are blooming nearby to distract the bumblebees, etc... I love digging the potato seedlings. Most of them get used for food, or outright thrown away. Perhaps 5% to 10% get saved to become clones. They gotta produce an abundance of fruit and tubers in the first year or I don't keep them around.
Fertility is a matter of degree... Supposing that a potato plant produces viable pollen that is ensnared in a jelly-like substance so that it can't be transferred under normal biological processes from the anther to the stigma. Pragmatically I'd call that plant male-sterile even though it might be possible to manually transfer the pollen and get offspring.
I believe that lack of normal behaving pollen is a reliable sign of male sterility (as defined above). When reading about making manual pollinations with potatoes, the instructions often say something like "use a scalpel to dig the pollen out of the inside of the anthers". Those types of manipulations are on my list of things that I won't do. Therefore I recommend pollen donors with free flowing pollen, because I can pick a flower, take it to the other flower and flick it with my fingernail and a cloud of pollen falls out onto the recipient. This pollen could also be collected onto a spoon by vibrating. I acknowledge that says nothing about the viability of the pollen, but it says at least that pollen is being produced that behaves like normal dusty pollen. Jelly-like pollen is abnormal.
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Post by DarJones on Jan 17, 2014 22:18:33 GMT -5
Potatoes have the solanum S gene complex that prevents self pollination. This is present in most commercial cultivars. You have to find a potato that has compatible pollen and use it on a fertile female variety. In addition to this, male sterility is common, especially in commercial varieties based on the cytoplasm line they are derived from.
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Post by trixtrax on Feb 1, 2014 0:15:20 GMT -5
Raymondo, you can try planting early to get flowers before the warmth of the season or plant late to get flowers in late Summer to early Fall. Flowers in cooler season with be more likely to produce berries. Then hand pollinate with a collected pool of pollen from as many varieties as possible and especially from TPS descended plants to increase chances of breaking through incompatibilities.
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Post by cesarz on Feb 8, 2014 22:49:09 GMT -5
Hi Ray,
I have produced a strain of potatoes that produces 75% male fertile offspring. I have grown all of last year's seed crop this year and all flowered straight from seed and checked them for pollen using a vibrating toothbrush and 75% were producing lots of powdered pollen, the other 25% do have pollen but do not come out as powder. These are diploids from the "Maori" genepool. I am also doing the same with the commercial tetraploids.
I could send you seeds if you are interested.
Cesarz
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Post by raymondo on Feb 10, 2014 5:31:11 GMT -5
Thanks Cesar. Can I take a rain check on your offer? I'm hoping my own potatoes will set seed this season. One plant I grew from seed from another plant and it is not far off flowering. With any luck, it will produce pollen which I can use to pollinate the other spud flowers. It may also be self-fertile. Fingers crossed.
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Post by raymondo on Feb 17, 2014 3:30:56 GMT -5
My seed grown potato has yet to produce pollen. Two flowers have opened so far. Mind you, the weather is humid so perhaps the pollen is damp and sticky.
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