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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Apr 18, 2015 8:58:49 GMT -5
In trees the red leaved mutants commonly grown in gardens photosynthesize less efficiently than green leaves. And most shade tolerant plants I see seem to have darker green leaves in nature so maybe selecting for that would be best. Red leaved plants seem to have better frost tolerance. The anthocyanins seem to allow the plant to have some photosynthesis at lower temperatures than chlorophil seems to be capable of. The downside is that plants high in anthocyanin dont grow as well as green ones in normal growing conditions. In corn the best combination seems to be herozygous for this trait, but even then when you get homozygous purple they dont really produce seed at all. No idea what silver leaved plants do. I think silver leaved may be better adapted at not getting "sunburned" or more capable of intense sunlight. But much like the red plants (even though anthocyanin too helps prevent against intense sunlight) it may prevent some chlophil absorbsion therefore slower growing plants. Not sure. I've only seen silver leaved in desert plants or squash. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 1, 2015 17:55:48 GMT -5
I have had a problem with "hard seed" in my watermelons. Some of the seeds germinated weeks later than the rest. So this spring I started my watermelons as bare-rooted transplants so that I could more easily eliminate the hard seeds. Since I was transplanting, I also took the opportunity to screen for quick early growth.
The seeds I planted this year were almost exclusively from yellow fleshed fruits. A low sugar yellow fruit tastes sweeter to me than a high sugar red fruit. On the end of the row I planted a couple of yellow-skinned melons, and a couple of red-seeded melons. (It would be clever if I kept those emasculated this summer, so that I can incorporate some of their traits without corrupting my yellow melons too much.)
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Post by imgrimmer on Jul 2, 2015 2:19:35 GMT -5
I think something similar can be achieved in any crop including watermelons. I read something about feral melons from Zimbabwe, capable to resist night frosts in some trials. I can`t remember where I read it, I think it was about accessions from IPK Gatersleben the german genebank. |
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Post by imgrimmer on Jul 2, 2015 7:17:53 GMT -5
Okay, I found it. Here it is.It is about zimbabwean melon cultivars showing some cold resistence. The last sentence is "...in two consecutive years, they were only moderately damaged by the first heavy frosts in western New York." |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 13, 2015 23:29:32 GMT -5
Joseph Lofthouse, are you planning on watching for any "frost tolerance" in watermelon plants at the end of the season?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 14, 2015 1:35:49 GMT -5
keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.): It's been a few years since I actively selected for frost tolerance in watermelons. I have only selected for tolerance in the spring. I'll try to pay attention this fall. I suppose that I aught to do another frost/cold tolerance test now that I can actually grow watermelons and they produce enough seed that there is spare to play around with. This winter I did germination testing and tossed the used pots into the greenhouse. A few watermelons survived the freezing temperatures while the rest died. I don't remember what I did with the survivors... But the experiment is readily repeated.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 21, 2015 3:48:55 GMT -5
I know this might be a crazy idea, but what about screening for frost tolerance in squash too. You seem to be making progress in frost tolerant tomatoes...
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 21, 2015 7:29:51 GMT -5
what about screening for frost tolerance in squash too. You seem to be making progress in frost tolerant tomatoes... There is some frost tolerance in squash. The pepos in particular often volunteer (and survive) in my garden before the end of our spring frosts. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 15, 2015 9:59:15 GMT -5
My living arrangements have changed since my last watermelon harvest. So this year I adopted a new strategy for saving seeds. I cut open every melon in the field, and evaluated it in comparison to all the others. I think that there wasn't a good way (or combination of ways) to tell if a watermelon was ripe before cutting into it. This year, I only saved seeds from yellow, orange, or white watermelons. The seeds are currently fermenting in a shed. There were only a couple of red-fleshed fruits. I have a separate patch of Charleston Gray which are red-fruited. I'll save seeds from those. Too bad that I didn't gather the fruits together and take a photo! Oh well. I saved sibling group seeds from a few of the earliest melons to ripen.   |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Apr 29, 2016 15:34:32 GMT -5
It's currently snowing again. Here goes round two for cold temperature / frost tolerance selection for early germinating landrace watermelon...
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