My Cantaloupe Breeding Patch

[mnjrutherford]

I've been wondering about both your academic backgrounds. One thing which I have been observing is that modern science tends to focus on things that are proven short term. As example, American Medical eliminating breastfeeding as a viable function from the 1940s through the 1980s. Now, the cascading impacts on physical and mental health are just beginning to be recognized, much less understood.

The catastrophes of "modern thinking" as applied to agriculture are now becoming visible, one by one. However, the need to step back and analyze current practice with ancient practice and natural function does not come to mind. More betterer to fix all the stuffs that appear to be brokened. (then turn out to be just fine)

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Sept 2, 2010 7:50:57 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

I've been wondering about both your academic backgrounds.

b.a. In chemistry. Worked 20 years as a research scientist in an analytical and research and development chemistry lab. My studies included things like:

What happens to pesticides after they are used.
Development of the Neem oil (and other) pesticides.
Environmental monitoring for poisons.
And unspeakably vile projects of a similar nature.

I have never had a class in any life science (other than biochemistry). I used to be so sad about that. Today I think it is to my advantage as a plant breeder because I can do my own thinking about growing rather than getting sucked into whatever is the current politico-religion in plant science.

I grew up on the farm of my 3g grandmother. I've been gardening for 40 years.

And the thing that drives me crazy??? Ten people a week say to me some version of the following statement: "Your tomatoes are beautiful, I don't know if I'll get any... The weather has been so ____". I just smile. What can I say? They have the same soil as I do, and the same irrigation water, and the same weather patterns. The difference is that I walk through my garden every day. Even if I don't do any work I at least walk through and see that there is work that could be done.

Regards,
Joseph

[DarJones]

Not sure if you were including me, but for the record, I am a telecommunications engineer by trade. I design phone offices, specifically the switching equipment that makes them run. I have a diploma from a telecommunications program along with 32 years experience in the field and enough 'certificates' to paper a small wall.

I also have a near photographic memory and an intense interest in most things related to gardening. I am another one of those gardeners who just about always has a good crop when others fail miserably.

As a sideline I raise and sell tomato plants from my website at www.selectedplants.com/

My interest in breeding vegetables is based on an inclination toward genetics. While I have little formal training in breeding or genetics, I have self-educated myself well beyond the level of most university programs. I'm also a fair to middling programmer when I have the inclination.

DarJones - The very best fertilize to use in a garden is the footsteps of the gardener.... along with judicious use of a good hoe.

[mnjrutherford]

Technically, I wasn't including you Dar. However, in broad terms, I was including you as well as anyone else with a technology based educational background. I'm nothing more than a high school drop out. Anything I've learned at all, I've learned from reading, listening, and watching the world around me.

I think it rather notable that your signature Dar, reflects Joseph's premise of the gardening ideal.

[grunt]

"I think it rather notable that your signature Dar, reflects Joseph's premise of the gardening ideal. "
Absolutely!

[woodsygardener]

Aug 16, 2010 8:04:16 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

And from his book: 'They spoke of “first finding a genetic source of resistance”. It will become apparent later that this belief became a shibboleth, a myth, that has both dominated and plagued the whole of twentieth century crop science.'
www.sharebooks.ca/system/files/Return-to-Resistance.pdf

What a fantastic book, thanks.
With just a brief look thru I found a gem. Graft potato stems to tomato roots to induce flowering. (p 344)

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I harvested my cantaloupes on Tuesday due to frost. The best growing plant that I mentioned earlier produced 3/4 bushel of fruit . Many of the other plants didn't produce any harvest-able fruit. (I planted something like 40 varieties.) Two other plants produced 1/2 bushel of fruit each. They look like a close relative of the other plant.

The fruits on the two most productive plants didn't get super sweet yet. The flesh is orange, but they could have used another week ripening on the vine to acquire that smell and taste that I adore. (Even green they are still better tasting and smelling than what I can get from the grocery store.)

I harvested 6 ripe melons during the two weeks before frost. They also all look like close relatives of the best producing plant.

I am adopting a new selection criteria for next year... When the longest vines get to be a foot long, I will go through the patch and weed out any plant that is not growing vigorously. I say this because looking back on it, the plants that I put marker stakes on early in the season because they were growing so well are the same plants that produced the highest yield (and the fruits closest to ripe). (If you think that was a hard sentence to read you should have tried writing it.)


The fruit in the lower right corner is the phenotype of the best producing plants, and of the earliest ripening melons.


I also harvested pumpkins, watermelons, gourds, and squash. A somewhat disappointing yield due to getting them in late combined with an early frost.


My land-race butternuts produced pumpkin types, necked squash types, and one cheese type. Most of the plants didn't produce any fruit. But at least I have selected for short season moschatas.

Regards,
Joseph

[jonnyyuma]

Hello,
I have noticed in american cantaloupe and long shelf life melons that a larger plant usually results in later maturing fruit. I am pretty sure this is related to ethylene production. I would suggest selecting for smaller plants and softer flesh at maturity. I would think these correlate to faster maturity in most cases.
Thanks for the pictures,
Jonny

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Thanks jonnyyuma. So the main selection criteria aught to be for plants that will produce ripe fruit in my garden with it's short growing season? Because otherwise I might weed out smaller or slow growing plants that ripen early.

I planted 6 varieties that were supposed to bear 20# fruits. They all failed spectacularly... I planted a number of 1-2 pound melons as well. They produced fruit which is still quite green.

The melons that ripened for me before it froze weighed around 5 pounds. No melon smaller or larger than that has ripened so far, though many of them will ripen in the garage.

Since "Armenian Cucumbers" are the same species, and since they grow so prolifically in my garden I'm wondering about the possibility of incorporating some of the Armenian's genes into my muskmelons to hasten ripening.

Regards,
Joseph

[jonnyyuma]

Hello,
If I was looking for earliness I would focus on days to female flower (days after germination to female flower) and compact plants. Not necessarily small plants or weak plants, but compact. In general, where I live, after pollination it is roughly 35-45 days to maturity. The early something sets female flowers, the earlier the variety is going to be.
I have never seen an Armenian cucumber x melon cross. Also I have never grown Armenian cucumbers so please correct me if I am wrong. I would suspect that that may be a dead end as far as earliness goes. Do you judge earliness in the cucs by the seed maturity or as a mature "cucumber"? Sweetness is a very complex trait and I would think that the arm cucs aren't all that sweet? You may make the cross and end up with something that is very difficult to get sweet again.

A very early and sweet melon are the korean type/silverline types. They are shaped like a pickle, yellow skin, white sutures, white flesh, high sugar. These things are unbelievably fast. If you look at that type and see the plant, that is what I am referring to by early female flower, compact plant, high ethylene release.

I am jealous of all the room you have to grow your melons, i have to beg around to my friends to get any space for my stuff every year.
Jonny

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Sept 10, 2010 18:31:00 GMT -5 jonnyyuma said:

Hello,
If I was looking for earliness I would focus on days to female flower (days after germination to female flower) and compact plants... The early something sets female flowers, the earlier the variety is going to be.

Thanks for mentioning that... Early in the season I marked the plants that set fruit first. They are the same ones that ripened fruit first. I didn't notice the compact plants criteria though... The first plants to set fruit had 18" vines while many of the other vines were only 4". I'll review my photo archives just in case I am mis-remembering something.

This year I harvested my first melon 24 days earlier than the first melon last year, and I harvested 6 melons 2 weeks earlier (might be better to say 3 weeks earlier since last year I had to pick them un-ripe due to frost), so I consider this years project to be a great success. It looks like I have also selected for earlier tomatoes this year since I had collected my "earliest", and my "early slicers", and was just starting to select for "main season slicers", when the frost arrived. Temperature tonight is forecast around 36 so if the tomatoes survive the night I might yet get a good tomato harvest. (The previous frost killed the top 5".)

I am delighted with all the space I have. Two years in a row I have not got it all planted. I also beg for space so that I can do plant breeding without worrying about pollen from my production gardens. (5 begged gardens this year and 2 rented.)

The fruit in the lower left of my most recent photo sure looks to me like it shares some Armenian genes. I grow Armenians, but if they start getting too big for small slicing "cucumbers" I pick them and make worm food, so I don't know how long it would take them to ripen. (35-45 days would be really clever). I would plant them in a begged garden with other melons and see what happens. I attempted it this year, but I got them in late and there was an early frost so better luck next year. (One Armenian was the only melon of several hundred planted on that day that produced a fruit.) I'll sure be looking for early non-muskmelon melons like the Silverlines for my garden next year.

My local grocery store had lots of odd melons this year: Santa Clause, Canary, Casaba, and a half dozen I forget the names for... I have fallen in love with melons.

Regards,
Joseph

[jonnyyuma]

Hello,
I have 2 F1 Silverline types. If you want some seed let me know. They are both treated with Thiram.
Jonny

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I finally found the photos that demonstrate what I noticed about prolific vine growth on cantaloupes.

The first photo is of a plant from my breeding program... It also happens to be the
best producing plant in my garden this year. There were a number of very similar
plants.



The second photo is of a plant sown on the same day a few feet away. This is typical of
what an off-the-shelf cantaloupe grows like in my garden.



So after only one year of selection I am growing a plant that is capturing roughly 50 times more solar radiation. I like to fantasize that the extra energy can be used to produce more and earlier fruits. I can hardly wait until I have three or four years of adaptation to my garden.

[toad]

Dec 13, 2010 23:02:57 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

..... demonstrate what I noticed about prolific vine growth on cantaloupes......

I have similar experience from my melon breeding in northern europe (Denmark). Was growing out my second generation of Farthest North Melon Mix, and the most prolific winer was also by far the best producer, and one of the first. It was a bad summer, and it outgrew my squash Turk's Turban.
But I still need to improve on my melons, before it will be interesting for other than amateur breeders like some of us

toads.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/melon-miracle/

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I'm wondering if early blossoms are key to maturing cantaloupe fruits in my garden? Here's what some of my cantaloupe looked like today.