Post by orflo on Jan 6, 2012 15:16:02 GMT -5
A few years ago, I received some true oca seeds from Ben (www.realseeds.co.uk), and one of these seeds actually gave a fine new oca variety. The tubers of this one were distributed to some friends, and from that point on a 'breeding oca' project started. True seeds were grown out by Ben and especially Owen (both live in a favourable climate for oca seed production, not far from the west coast of the UK), Owen is 'Rhizowen' here on the forum.
True seeds can only be formed if you have the right mixture of varieties available, and need a very mild autumn (or even late summer) with possibly also a very high air humidity. A document on growing out oca seeds has been written by Michael Hermann (I couldn't relocate this on the internet, but if anyone is interested I should have a copy of this), and some more info can be found here:
oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2011/11/saving-true-oca-seed-its-in-bag.html .
Owen (http://radix4roots.blogspot.com) grew out lots of seeds and new oca varieties were grown from 2010 on. Out of the 45 varieties that were grown over here (Belgium), some 29 were kept, the other ones were either very unproductive or extremely late to form tubers, and were discarded. A further selection of these tubers will happen within weeks, some did produce a very disappointing crop, while others look quite promising.
Another batch of seeds, again produced by Owen, was sown and grown out in 2011, and as is usual when breeding plants, results were mixed. 55 varieties were grown out (see the included picture), they were all grown out in 3 liter pots (these can be moved easily when an early frost threatens).
You can see three groups in the picture, one group to the left, next to the left oca stem, has been harvested on November 2, the stems were dead by then. A second group , in between the two stems was harvested on November 17, also when the stems had died. A third group, to the right was harvested on December 14. Now, some things are quite peculiar, the group that was harvested first does have, generally speaking, the biggest crop and the biggest tubers. This could be a coincidence, but I have a feeling it's not, especially since that seems to be confirmed by the harvest of the last group, that had lower productivity compared to the other two groups.
Besides that there seems to be a tendency that red colored varieties had this earlier harvest as well, although that could be just as coincidental as the previous remark. Is one of the (red?) pollinators somewhat earlier? Perhaps, or is it the right mix with a red-colored variety, or even something else?
Both of these remarks need some more investigation when new seeds will be grown out.
The purpose of this all is of course to breed an oca variety that starts producing earlier. Besides some new very promising looking varieties, we didn't make any real progress on that point, although some of these new 2011 varieties could be somewhat earlier, wait and see)). Other progress however has been made, namely that some of the new varieties seem to have an earlier flowering habit, and some even combine this with a bigger presence of flowers (although this is a purely visual perception, nothing has been counted yet up to now).
Another interesting point is this variety: picasaweb.google.com/orrflo/OcasNewVarieties2010#5589951608512720498
this looks exactly like another new variety that was grown out this year, the yellow ocas that are placed fifth from the left on the top line in the picture below. These two varieties could have the same two parents, their characteristics are very similar, and they have a very good production of quite thick ocas, which is confirmed by the experience of several other people who did try out this variety.
True seeds can only be formed if you have the right mixture of varieties available, and need a very mild autumn (or even late summer) with possibly also a very high air humidity. A document on growing out oca seeds has been written by Michael Hermann (I couldn't relocate this on the internet, but if anyone is interested I should have a copy of this), and some more info can be found here:
oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2011/11/saving-true-oca-seed-its-in-bag.html .
Owen (http://radix4roots.blogspot.com) grew out lots of seeds and new oca varieties were grown from 2010 on. Out of the 45 varieties that were grown over here (Belgium), some 29 were kept, the other ones were either very unproductive or extremely late to form tubers, and were discarded. A further selection of these tubers will happen within weeks, some did produce a very disappointing crop, while others look quite promising.
Another batch of seeds, again produced by Owen, was sown and grown out in 2011, and as is usual when breeding plants, results were mixed. 55 varieties were grown out (see the included picture), they were all grown out in 3 liter pots (these can be moved easily when an early frost threatens).
You can see three groups in the picture, one group to the left, next to the left oca stem, has been harvested on November 2, the stems were dead by then. A second group , in between the two stems was harvested on November 17, also when the stems had died. A third group, to the right was harvested on December 14. Now, some things are quite peculiar, the group that was harvested first does have, generally speaking, the biggest crop and the biggest tubers. This could be a coincidence, but I have a feeling it's not, especially since that seems to be confirmed by the harvest of the last group, that had lower productivity compared to the other two groups.
Besides that there seems to be a tendency that red colored varieties had this earlier harvest as well, although that could be just as coincidental as the previous remark. Is one of the (red?) pollinators somewhat earlier? Perhaps, or is it the right mix with a red-colored variety, or even something else?
Both of these remarks need some more investigation when new seeds will be grown out.
The purpose of this all is of course to breed an oca variety that starts producing earlier. Besides some new very promising looking varieties, we didn't make any real progress on that point, although some of these new 2011 varieties could be somewhat earlier, wait and see)). Other progress however has been made, namely that some of the new varieties seem to have an earlier flowering habit, and some even combine this with a bigger presence of flowers (although this is a purely visual perception, nothing has been counted yet up to now).
Another interesting point is this variety: picasaweb.google.com/orrflo/OcasNewVarieties2010#5589951608512720498
this looks exactly like another new variety that was grown out this year, the yellow ocas that are placed fifth from the left on the top line in the picture below. These two varieties could have the same two parents, their characteristics are very similar, and they have a very good production of quite thick ocas, which is confirmed by the experience of several other people who did try out this variety.
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