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Post by kwilds on Aug 1, 2012 21:52:50 GMT -5
I am starting to save seed from carrots and want to select for a few things - storage quality being one easy one, just plant the carrots that look the best after a winter in the cellar! The other quality I want to select for has me stumped - taste! How can one get seed from a carrot that you have to eat to test for taste??? Can I try to root the top and then grow that to produce a seed plant? It would be really nice if I could just save the tops off any particularly yummy carrots as I use them, then regrow that carrot from the cut off tops . . . but will it work? Is there any other way to select for taste?
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 1, 2012 22:45:03 GMT -5
I have found that in my garden the gophers sometimes eat off the tips of the carrots and they re-sprout. So I've been pulling carrots from the trial and biting them and then replanting them. Attachments:
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 1, 2012 23:13:30 GMT -5
The only part of the carrot that you really need to plant for seed is the crown, and enough of the root that it can re-grow roots: An inch of root aught to be plenty. Plants are resilient. You could cut wedges out for tasting, or cut it in half vertically or horizontally, and I'm thinking they would grow just fine. You could even taste it multiple times: For example when you dig it, and after storage.
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Post by DarJones on Aug 5, 2012 2:28:59 GMT -5
After storage, carrots get woody and lose their sweetness. If you are going to do selection, they should be tasted in the first year of growth before they go dormant for winter.
DarJones
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 5, 2012 10:00:16 GMT -5
For plants that are primarily eaten from food storage, I like selecting fruits and vegetables for seed production after they have gone through normal storage conditions... If I store root crops buried in a root-pit for the winter, then I want to replant things that taste good after overwinter storage in a root-pit. There's no sense propagating a vegetable that turns nasty during ordinary storage.
Most of my butternuts and maximas get selected based on taste after they have been stored for about 5-7 months. Same with onions and carrots.
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edwin
gardener
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Post by edwin on Aug 5, 2012 10:38:45 GMT -5
It makes sense to taste carrots at the end of the storage period. Is it possible to cut a wedge out of an onion for tasting? My strategy for producing onion seeds is that in the spring I sort any remaining large (2" to 4") onion bulbs that are left over from last summer. If they have sprouted already, or dehydrated, or rotted I toss them out, and only plant onions that are firm, and kept well over winter in my storage conditions. They grow and produce a seed-head full of seeds. Eventually the seeds will turn from green to black, and the head will start to dry out and the seed pods will start splitting and dropping seeds. At that point I cut off the whole seed heads and put them somewhere dry to dehydrate for a few weeks or months. When I'm ready to process them I crush them in my hands to more or less fully release the seeds, and sieve them through a 1/4" mesh to remove the chaff while passing through mostly seeds. Then I winnow them in front of a box fan. (I'm looking forward to trying raymondo's water separation this fall. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 5, 2012 12:35:56 GMT -5
Is it possible to cut a wedge out of an onion for tasting? I cut a piece from the side of the onion. Doesn't seem to harm the plant.  |
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Aug 5, 2012 12:56:26 GMT -5
Thanks - core sampling here we come!
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Post by kwilds on Aug 5, 2012 13:35:55 GMT -5
I agree that tasting at the end of storage will definitely help in the selection for taste! In fact my husband and I were just talking about the fact that storage carrots get really woody tasting and wouldn't it be nice to have some that actually tasted good in April before the new crop is ready!! I do have a particularly yummy carrot top sitting on my counter right now that has sprouted new growth. I will plant it when it had some more substantial roots but I am wondering if the new growth will try and produce seed this season (in which case it might be a lost cause unless we have a REALLY long, warm fall! Or might it grow, overwinter and then produce seed next season as a carrot should? I can overwinter carrots here easily and surviving the winter in the ground is just one more selection criteria that I am aiming for . . . guess I'll find out in a few months!
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 5, 2012 14:38:50 GMT -5
The carrot trial today. And boy does it smell yummy out there. From my experience, Biennial plants are a misnomer. All of these carrots were planted this season. Some of them are not making flowers, some are in riotous bloom. I believe the carrots "know" in their biology when and where is the optimum time to make seeds. There's a whole chapter on this in An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds by Jonathan Silvertown. A great book. Some of the onions I replanted for seed are instead dividing by set. Some are even top setting. And, they are not topsetting onions! Attachments:
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 5, 2012 22:38:54 GMT -5
Some of the onions I replanted for seed are instead dividing by set. Some are even top setting. And, they are not topsetting onions! I've been meaning to make a post on this topic, but I'll just modify a previous post... Based on the results in my garden this year, I think that the ones that are topsetting may contain cytoplasmic male sterility. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 6, 2012 10:39:03 GMT -5
Got that, I'll go check the tag number and get back to you.
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Post by kwilds on Aug 6, 2012 11:38:07 GMT -5
Speaking of cytoplasmic male sterility . . . I was not planning on segregating any of the carrot varieties I have - just let them all cross as they may and make my selections. One of the varieties I grew this year is a hybrid. It is also one of the yummiest so far! I know that most, maybe even all, hybrids are going to be male sterile so is there any point in keeping this one for seed? If I do let it go to seed with my other OP varieties will it contaminate the rest of the seed?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 6, 2012 12:16:41 GMT -5
Speaking of cytoplasmic male sterility . . . I was not planning on segregating any of the carrot varieties I have - just let them all cross as they may and make my selections. One of the varieties I grew this year is a hybrid. It is also one of the yummiest so far! I know that most, maybe even all, hybrids are going to be male sterile so is there any point in keeping this one for seed? If I do let it go to seed with my other OP varieties will it contaminate the rest of the seed? Male sterile carrots grow fine... They will accept pollen from any other carrot that is producing pollen. Therefore, they may produce seeds. If there are no nearby domestic pollen sources, they are very susceptible to pollination by Queen Ann's Lace. Any seeds produced will be male sterile. If you eventually want to create your own hybrid carrots you could use these plants as the mothers. Since the cytoplasmic sterility is carried only by the mother plant, the only way that it can contaminate the rest of the crop is if you save seeds from that plant either intentionally or accidentally. When I became aware of this topic my carrot landrace was about 70% male sterile. It grew fine. The 30% of plants that were producing pollen were enough to pollinate the whole patch. I made the decision for my garden that I will not knowingly propagate plants contaminated by cytoplasmic male sterility, so I have been eliminating male sterile plants whenever I find them. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 6, 2012 12:23:42 GMT -5
It sure seems odd to me: The comments about woody carrots. My favorite carrots of the year for flavor and texture are those that are pulled from storage in April, after having been put there in October. Perhaps it's about storage conditions. We store carrots in the ground overwinter. Buried about 18" deep to avoid freezing. Perhaps it's due to our cold climate.
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