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Post by billw on Feb 22, 2018 5:04:11 GMT -5
Last year was a big disappointment for me, as we had a rough year and a lot of flooding early on that damaged the crop. That was quite a setback and I had little to report. I'm anticipating a better growing season this year. The most exciting projects:
* I will be growing out 98 of my own seed-grown ulluco varieties. I have now reached the point where I can start separating them out by phenotype and hopefully produce different lines of seed with more predictable shape and color traits. My goal is to collect 4000 seeds this year, which would produce about another 160 seedlings over four years of germination. I still have seeds from 2014 germinating, with a total germination of about 4% over that period.
* I am looking to grow about 500 yacon seedlings this year from two groups of seed - those collected from the earliest flowering varieties and those collected from varieties with the reddest storage roots.
* I will be doing final evaluations on about 40 new mashua varieties produced over the past four years. I have some really nice looking ones with pink and dark purple skin. These will be more closely evaluated for seed set and flavor this year.
* I am starting about 1000 oca seeds this year. Not the biggest batch that I've grown, but still big enough to produce about 20 candidates and probably four or five keepers over the long haul.
I'm still dabbling with the other crops, not making a lot of progress. I have some achira crosses to grow out this year. Usually they aren't very different from the parents, but I'll keep looking for something that stands out. I have propagated up arracacha to useful quantities, but have had no luck getting seed from it yet. I have a few crosses between red and white mauka to try. When it comes to the lesser known species, I still have a lot to learn.
What are you growing this year?
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Post by billw on Feb 22, 2018 4:53:30 GMT -5
Only seven weeks late starting the thread this year. Probably better than average! I guess I am more of a lumper than a splitter and we've been doing a combined threads for Andean root crops for a few years now. It seems to work, but you are of course under no obligation to stick to this thread. Typically, we discuss Achira, Ajipa, Arracacha, Maca, Mashua, Mauka, Oca, Ulluco, and Yacon. Potato is obviously also an Andean root crop, but usually there are other threads running that are dedicated to potatoes. Last year's threadI thought that I would start off with some useful links this time for anyone who is contemplating trying these for the first time. Many of the links are mine, which is probably uncouth, but there just aren't very many sources of information on these crops. Lost Crops of the IncasThe classic source for these and other Andean crops. It is dated and will lead you astray in numerous ways, but it is also probably the best introduction overall. Radix Root Crops BlogRadix has covered many of the Andean root crops in detail and few of us who grow them would have had much success without those pioneering posts. If you want to go back to the beginning of the Andean root crop renaissance, work your way through the blog. My guides to each of the nine species: AchiraAjipaArracachaMacaMashuaMaukaOcaUllucoYaconIf you know of other good sources of information about these crops, please share them!
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Post by billw on Feb 20, 2018 17:17:23 GMT -5
Some of the most used general references on my bookshelf:
Plant Population Genetics, Breeding, and Genetic Resources, Brown Plant Genes, Genomes, and Genetics, Grotewold Plant Physiology, Taiz An Introduction to Plant Structure and Development, Beck Plant Form, Bell Seeds: Ecology, Biogeography, and Evolution of Dormancy and Germination, Baskin
More of my most used books are crop specific.
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Post by billw on Feb 19, 2018 19:27:15 GMT -5
I recognize the book. It is Breeding Vegetable Crops by Bassett. Looking at my copy, it appears that you have the whole book there, minus the introduction.
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Post by billw on Feb 1, 2018 18:10:49 GMT -5
There is no way to tell by looking at it. In some cases, you can see that a flower has shriveled, poorly developed stamens and those rarely produce much pollen, but male sterility in potatoes is more about producing non-viable pollen than simply not producing pollen. That said, there are probably very few or no varieties that set berries at 90 degrees. That weather is just too hot for potatoes to make seed.
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Post by billw on Feb 1, 2018 16:09:42 GMT -5
I was excited to find a seed ball on Russet Burbank this summer. I know it occasionally forms seed balls, mostly under laboratory conditions, but I guess we had the perfect conditions this summer! This is rare. Either that, or what was sold to me as Russet Burbank is actually something else; always possible. It did form only the one berry though, in spite of profuse flowering. It is either self fertilized, or fertilized by All Blue, which is a bit of a bummer. However! Shall procede. Burbank is male sterile, so it would have been pollinated by another variety. That's good though, because Burbank is a pretty poor variety for everything but tuber size. They only grow it successfully with tons of pesticide to keep disease at bay. Much better to cross it and mix things up a bit.
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Post by billw on Feb 1, 2018 16:04:53 GMT -5
Got lots of new TPS (including some diploids) in trades this year that I'm really excited to try out. I can usually start planting potatoes out in February in my mild climate, so I think I will be starting some TPS soon. If I get them planted early, they can grow mostly on the winter/spring rains and I won't have to water. I realized that, in order to grow my own TPS, I may have to grow them during the long days of summer to get them to flower. Does that sound right? When I grow them in late winter/early spring, and harvest when they dry down in June, I never get flowers. Last summer, I grew an unknown purple potato during mid-summer (with lots of irrigation) and it flowered profusely. It still didn't set any berries though. It seemed to be producing plenty of pollen. Was it likely self-incompatible? Potatoes will flower at any time of year. Temperature is much more important than day length. Daytime temps need to be between about 50 and 75F to get much flowering. They will flower more profusely during long days, but mostly just because they are taking in more energy. Unless you have a good reason to think that it is diploid, your purple is probably not self-incompatible, but male sterile. The majority of commercial types and varieties descended from them are male sterile. It could also simply be a flower dropper, which is true of many varieties, particularly if the weather isn't just right.
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Post by billw on Jan 20, 2018 22:46:45 GMT -5
I really enjoy your reports. It is a totally different way to explore in the garden.
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Post by billw on Jan 20, 2018 13:23:28 GMT -5
The difference is that, while Wisconsin 55 has been sitting in the USDA's freezer since 1965, this strain has actually been grown out repeatedly, likely becoming at least a bit better adapted to local conditions. It would be really interesting to compare the two genetically to see what has changed over time.
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Post by billw on Jan 20, 2018 1:42:23 GMT -5
Available from the USDA as PI 303809, but I have to admit, I like this story a lot better than "so he ordered it from the USDA."
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Post by billw on Jan 17, 2018 16:48:18 GMT -5
LOL. It is interesting, isn't it. I have never spent much time thinking about it, but all the vegans that I know are city people who never get their hands dirty.
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Post by billw on Jan 10, 2018 21:00:36 GMT -5
I'm with Joseph. Is axil color linked to flower color in peas? If not, mutation seems unlikely.
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Post by billw on Jan 5, 2018 17:08:40 GMT -5
They're your garden variety bulk repackager, I think. I ordered some bitter melon and brassica seeds from them once. The bitter melons didn't germinate and the brassicas weren't the correct type - I ordered two or three turnip varieties and got all Chinese cabbage.
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Post by billw on Jan 3, 2018 12:54:46 GMT -5
It will last a year dried and then frozen. It will last a couple of months at room temperature in a container with some desiccant.
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Post by billw on Dec 30, 2017 23:30:42 GMT -5
Theoretically, it shouldn't be that difficult to get a phureja type potato with dormancy. Crossing with high dormancy stenotomum type potatoes is easy and progeny segregate for the whole spectrum of dormancy. Unfortunately, in practice, I find that you almost always get the other stenotomum traits when you select for dormancy, which includes less vivid skin and flesh colors and the more typical potato flavors. Continuing to cross back to the phureja parent restores the color and flavor but also the poor dormancy. Still, these are not linked traits, so it's just a numbers game and enough plants for enough generations will probably get you there. My current diploid population came from a mass cross between phureja and stenotomum types and I get a lot of intergrades that wouldn't be easy to classify as one or the other. There is an additional problem with phureja/stenotomum crosses, which is that you will only have short day progeny.
Other possible approaches would be to cross to a tuberosum haploid or to cross up to a tuberosum tetraploid, hoping for 2n gametes. These would have the advantage of giving you access to the more reliable dormancy genetics of tuberosum and long day tuberization.
You could also cross to wild diploids that have dormancy, as you mentioned. I have found that S. brevicaule and S. candolleanum can introduce strong dormancy into domesticated diploids, but they also bring along a whole bunch of undesirable traits like bitterness, super long stolons, and low seed set.
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