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Post by farmermike on Jun 6, 2018 11:38:42 GMT -5
William, summer 2017 I pollinated Forest Fire, Silvery Fir Tree (fern-leaved), Bison, and a no-ID determinate potato-leaf, with the cocktail of pollen from several large colorful indeterminate tomatoes. I never did get around to growing the F1s over winter, but I planted them this spring and I have some F2 fruits starting to develop already. So, not terribly exciting except that I have confirmed that the crosses were successful because all the recessive phenotypes of the mother varieties are hidden. Interestingly, though, the offspring from Silvery Fir Tree still have leaves that are somewhat ferny, but less so than the pure SFT. I suppose that means that the fern-leaf trait is quantitative. Several of the pollen donors had the anthocyanin fruit gene (aft) which literature suggests is dominant, so I expect to see "blue" skin in some of the F1s. I checked the immature fruits yesterday and none are showing the trait yet, but sometimes it takes some sun exposure to become visible. I should have plenty of F2 seeds to share around this winter with anyone who is interested.
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Post by farmermike on May 27, 2018 15:49:28 GMT -5
fliver, thanks for sharing some of your diploid seed with me this winter! Are you having any luck getting this project started? I planted exactly 6 seeds of each of the 6 varieties you sent (3 phureja, 3 stenotomum). I got at least 3 or 4 plants of each variety to work with. I'm pretty happy with that! 225668 Careta Amarilla (right side) had the best germination and vigor, 225705 Rosalena had the worst (middle). Photo: April 20th 2018 I still eventually potted up those 3 seedlings in the middle, and they seem to be catching up very slowly. I may grow them in a pot where I can baby them rather than in the field. Here are my little diploid potato patches on May 25th. They have been in the ground for about a month now. High dormancy (stenotomum) diploids seem to be doing pretty well. The low dormancy (phureja) varieties are mostly doing well, but you can see a couple of gaps in this photo. A few plants were immediately eaten to the ground by some insect while they were still small and weak. The rest were totally untouched. I suspect some kind of caterpillar, but I never saw them. I did find one little green (inchworm) caterpillar eating potato leaves far away from this location. I have a few more backup plants to fill these gaps. I'm excited to see what comes of these diploids. I'll be particularly happy if they produce some berries. The fact that they may have a long flowering period should help with this. I get a lot of hot weather here, which makes it hard to get potato fruit, but we also get some nice stretches of cool weather, so more flowering may help to get the timing right. Also, low dormancy may not be the worst thing with my long growing season and mild CA winter. I often can have fall plantings of potatoes that stay green through the winter if they have some protection next to a building or a large cactus. So, I have a couple of questions for the experts! 1) Are these diploids likely to have any variability for frost tolerance that I could select for? 2) Since these are day-legnth sensitive, and and only form tubers during less than 12 hour days, what would they do if I manage to grow them over winter? Our days are less then 12 hours between Sept. 25th and March 16th. Would they be able to form tubers during any of that period, or does it have to actually be around 12 hours? fliver, if I get any seed from these, I'll be happy to send some back to you. Tubers too, though I'm not sure I'd know how to ship them.
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Post by farmermike on May 27, 2018 11:40:30 GMT -5
reed, my first guess, if it is perennial, would be some kind of wild-rye; like Elymus virginicus or canadensis. In CA, our native Elymus species were supposedly used as an edible grain by the native people. I have been growing some in my garden for a while, and this year I think I may try to thresh out some of the seeds and see how practical they would be to cultivate as food. (Probably not very.)
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Post by farmermike on May 26, 2018 12:46:39 GMT -5
I grew these Gaspe strains side by side because I suspected, and still believe, that most Gaspe Flint strains are badly inbred. But it is still pretty good where nothing else will grow. Provided local conditions are much like its native Quebec, which mine aren't. And I think your conditions aren't much like Quebec either. OK, it still does OK for me. Did you get any crosses between Gaspe Flint and O'odham 60 day? I have some F2 seeds I'll be planting next week. I expect to have F4 seeds, and lots of it, by fall. I could send some. I also think I have some O'odham x sweet F1, and should have F2 by fall. You might like to try some of these. Good luck on this project. Corn is very adaptable, as many here can tell you. You can make it work. Interestingly, our March-May in CA, is somewhat similar (at least temperature-wise) to June-Aug in Gaspe, Quebec! Of course, my rain may be less consistent, and days are shorter. I don't think I'll get much (if any) crossing between the 2. The Gaspe is just about done flowering, and the O'odham is just about to start. If I do get some overlap, I believe the yellow flint would show up in the flour, but not vice-versa. Is that correct? This is on May 25th. Still a few days before it releases pollen -- though we have a little heat wave coming, so it may happen sooner. No silks showing on the O'odham yet. I love the striking difference in growth habit between the Gaspe (front) and O'odham (back). The Gaspe seems to grow as few leaves as possible and prioritize quick flowering, while the O'Odham has produced lots of biomass -- lots of long leaves and luxuriant growth. I can make some guesses about the probable strategies of these 2 varieties for tolerating drought in my climate. The Gaspe has just avoided it by completing its life cycle while the soil is still moist. The O'odham presumably has an extensive root system that can tap into deep soil moisture. I believe it is adapted to growing during the monsoon rains in the Sonoran Desert, which come and go quickly, and annual plants must have very efficient root systems to capitalize on residual moisture after the soil surface is quickly baked dry. I had expected that the flint would germinate a lot better than the flour in the cold wet soil of early March, but both varieties seemed to germinate exactly the same. I estimate about 50-70% germ rate. I didn't do any thinning. walt, yes, I would definitely be interested in any of those crosses you mentioned!
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Post by farmermike on May 10, 2018 17:30:43 GMT -5
So...on March 6th 2018 I direct seeded a little experimental patch of Gaspe Flint and Tohono O'odham 60-day Flour. The first sprouts came up in about 2 weeks. We had our last frost of the season around March 15th while the seeds were still in the ground. But it was only down to 30F, so I doubt it would have damaged them much if they had been already up. As walt has mentioned, Gaspe flowers a lot earlier thatn TO 60 during cool weather! The Gaspe showed its first sign of flowering on April 24th. Here is the whole patch on April 27th. TO 60 in the front. The Gaspe is showing some odd flowering traits. I don't know if this is normal, or just because of the cool wet weather (and relatively short days) it has experienced. I assume in its native region it flowers during the longest days of the year. As of today (May 10th) the Tohono O'odham has showed no sign of flowering.
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Post by farmermike on May 10, 2018 16:56:04 GMT -5
I love growing corn, but when grown during our dry summer it must be irrigated through its entire life cycle (except the final ripening and dry-down). In the spring of 2016 I had a clump of corn volunteer from a sweet corn ear that apparently got missed the previous summer, and buried whole in the fall. I assume it sprouted around late-Feb/early-March while the soil was wet from winter rainfall, but was also sufficiently warm. Here is a photo from April 25th 2016. At least 5 separate plants are about to shed pollen, and you can see a few silks at the bottom of the clump too. Here is the one cob it produced on May 30th, without receiving any irrigation. I ate it right after the photo. Well, this gave me the idea that I can grow a really short season corn without irrigation if I just get it to sprout really early while the soil is moist. Ideally, the crop would continue to get some rain between sprouting and flowering. Once it flowers, maybe it could just get by on the remaining soil moisture. This strategy may not work in a drought year, but it might in a year of normal rainfall. Normal here is ~17" (430mm) all in the cool season (Nov-April).
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Post by farmermike on May 7, 2018 23:27:23 GMT -5
Great work, billw! This is my new favorite podcast. Can’t wait for the next episode!
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Post by farmermike on Apr 12, 2018 16:47:47 GMT -5
My TSPS are up! Thanks for sharing seeds again reed. I planted a total of 18 seeds (6 "bushy bloomer" in the front; 12 "2017 mix" in the back). 77% germination so far, but I'll admit I did scratch each seed with a file before planting, since I'm working with a small amount right now. Hopefully I can produce a good amount of seed in my garden this year and then can start selecting for naturally quick germination next year. About half of those in the photo sprouted in within about 2 weeks of planting on March 10th; the rest sprouted around last week. Other than these seedlings, my only other sweet potatoes this year will be 4 purple rooted varieties ordered from Sandhill. I failed to keep any cuttings or roots alive from last year. My cuttings from seed grown plants, apparently, stayed sitting in water too long and suddenly died after thriving in their jars for a while. My saved tubers started sprouting during mid winter and I ignorantly stuck them in the fridge to slow them down. Most rotted and none have re-sprouted after I stuck them in a flat of soil. Sooo...lessons learned! I've done a little more research for next year. Apparently, it's okay if the seed tubers start sprouting really early; they'll hold like that for a long time and still sprout fine when I want them too. And I need to pot up those cuttings in soil much sooner -- if I even decide to keep cuttings in the future.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 14, 2018 19:00:12 GMT -5
Neat! How cold did it get after the first killing frost- were there lots of subsequent frosts? How hard did the ground freeze? Are you yet past the frost danger for your area of California? It's actually been an unusually mild winter here. We usually get our 1st frost around mid-November, but it was a month later this year. Our usual low temp is around 26F, but this year the low was only 34F. (Of course, this is measured in a protected location, and it would have been colder in my fully exposed garden.) The ground didn't freeze at all, and it looks like some of my peppers may survive the winter. Only one other tomato seems to have survived, and it happens to be this one with a highly exserted stigma. Interestingly, that one failed to set any fruit last summer, while all its (presumably) siblings did. I was bummed that I didn't try to hand pollinate it. I wonder if it is self-incompatible; it is out near the street and may not have much pollinator activity. I may get another chance to get some fruit from it next summer! Apparently, we did get another very light frost the other night. The surviving S. habrochaites was damaged. The recorded low was 38F. No frost was still visible by the time the sun came up. Looks like it will recover. Technically our last frost is supposed to March 15, but I suspect it will be sooner this year.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 4, 2018 1:19:57 GMT -5
Last summer, I grew 2 S. habrochaites plants from Joseph Lofthouse. Here they are on June 10th -- not long after going into the ground. I didn't cage them, and they formed a big sprawling mound all summer, and were still stunningly in bloom in mid-December when our first frost suddenly killed them. I think they were actually blooming more heavily, right at the end, than they had been at any point through the summer. I decided I should take a photo one day, but when I came out with the camera the next morning they were toast. Well, I looked at them again today and one of them (the one on the left in the 1st photo) is re-sprouting from the ground. How about that? The other one is showing no signs of life. I guess now I'll have to work on breeding a perennial tomato! Need to decide what tomato(s) to cross it with. After the plants froze, I picked up all the berries that had dropped, and left them sitting a bowl -- because somehow I thought they should keep ripening. They're still sitting in that bowl. This is a good reminder to go process those seeds. This is a really interesting plant, and I'll definitely keep growing it. Next time I'll put them in a more conspicuous location, so people can enjoy the flowers -- maybe even in the flower garden.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 4, 2018 0:23:42 GMT -5
Wow, Day , getting off to an early start! Do you think you'll be able to get 2 generations in one season? As for my project, I planted and field of Lady Godiva, Kakai, and Styrian all together in 2016. But I also interplanted them with Candystick Dessert Delicata. At the time, I guess I had designs on breeding an edible-flesh, naked-seed squash. Since then, I've realized how much I love eating the hulless seeds, and I kind of wished I had planted the naked-seed by themselves for a year -- at least to build up my stock of them. Then I could've done the cross later on. Now ALL my seed is full of crosses. Oh well, I planted another smaller patch of the next generation hulless seeds in 2017, and some of those crosses showed up. Interestingly, the F1s had precocious yellow skin (fruits were yellow before their flowers opened; and stayed yellow at maturity), even though their parents were both striped! (Somehow, I forgot to take a photo of this.) So, now I have to grow out those F2 seeds at some point. I also just received some older seed from the Ned Kelly project, which I may prioritize growing out while the seed is still viable. I've also been thinking of just mass selecting for increased size within a population uncrossed naked-seed pumpkins. In 2016 I got a few that were just big enough to carve for halloween, so I assume I could keep selecting in that direction. But, that may mean buying some new uncrossed seeds, so I don't have to rogue out all the hulled genes. Haven't decided yet. My 2017 patch also just grew very poorly, and a lot of the plants died before the fruit fully ripened. So, I didn't end up with a lot of high quality seeds. I suspect soil fertility issues, and wonder if all the rain and flooding we had leached a lot of nutrients out of the soil or something...not sure. They also had a terrible spider mite infestation! Truth be told, your project seems the most interesting to me right now. I'm excited to see how it unfolds. And if you ever need help growing out some of the progeny, I bet I could find some space for that.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 1, 2018 17:46:49 GMT -5
Thanks for all the helpful information! I found a photo of the potato flower I mentioned. Is there any visual cue that a potato flower is male sterile? (I've gotten pretty good at recognizing CMS in carrots and brassicas.) I can't remember if I actually checked for pollen release on this one. It was 90F the day this photo was taken on July 12th, and highs the next few weeks ranged from 82-103F (28-40C). Historical Weather
This plants kept blooming and producing new flowers until there were 8-10 blooms on this inflorescence. The flowers never dropped, and just hung on the plant and faded to white. Eventually, the plants looked pretty spent, so I stopped watering, waited for the foliage to die down and harvested the tubers. I'm pretty sure this one originally came out of the "red, white, & blue mix" from Home Depot a few years ago. The potatoes that I grow earlier in the season, when the weather is cooler, often develop flower buds but they always drop before opening.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 1, 2018 1:27:13 GMT -5
Those look nice Mike. How big of a pot were you using? They were in squat 15 gal pots, 17.5" wide at the soil level. None of the tubers got really large, but the soil probably wasn't that great -- whatever old soil was already there, with some composted manure added in.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 31, 2018 22:09:53 GMT -5
A graft that I see fairly frequently is dwarf-weeping cherry grafted onto a normal sized cherry tree. The graft typically occurs at about a 6 foot height. The weeping mulberries I've seen are grafted the same way. We sold them bare-root in a nursery where used to work. I always wondered if they would have problems with the rootstock/trunk sprouting suckers.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 30, 2018 21:19:01 GMT -5
Finally got to try growing True Potato Seeds last summer. I got seeds from jondear and Joseph Lofthouse, and planted them in a couple big pots, because I ran out of room in the garden. Here is what I harvested from the 2 pots. I'm really happy with the diversity here. 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?
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