|
|
Post by reed on Apr 19, 2017 20:57:13 GMT -5
You store your sprouting tubers in the dark. Intuitively this makes sense because they are roots and would be underground. Past couple years I have been sprouting mine in the living room which means they are in ambient, indirect light. Two different methods that work. What I have been wondering, though, is whether there would be any benefit (or major negative) to having the half-buried tubers under the grow lights for any period of time - would such a blast of light trigger chemical changes in the tuber that would break it out of dormancy and steer it towards growth? A little wake-up call, so to speak? Mine are stored over winter in total dark but the stairs are not enclosed so not completely dark. It gets a small amount of indirect east light but is shielded from the south windows. I think what happens is a week or two of that causes them to root a little, then I move them to the south windows. I checked earlier today and a couple had little white nubs just above the sand, probably more under. I really don't know for sure how best to sprout them but this has worked for me as has just putting them in jars of water in the kitchen window. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 19, 2017 21:01:30 GMT -5
Here's what my sweet potato seedlings looked like a few minutes ago. Eleven have germinated so far.  Sweet, sweet! I'm rather surprised but I have six up now after only three days. Two of them are S2 seeds, possibility of S3 seeds this year although the S2 are from that plant that didn't set seed good, I'm gonna keep a close eye for that this year. |
|
|
|
Post by kevin8715 on Apr 22, 2017 17:45:29 GMT -5
Update: I am trying a new strategy this year. I left quite a bit of the crop unharvested from last year so that they start growing immediately when the soil warms up. So far, tons of plants have come up and should hopefully produce flowers before the cool weather comes. I keep getting a decent harvest, but the flowers don't develop into seed under th cool weather even with hand pollination.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 23, 2017 4:41:55 GMT -5
I'm up to nine seedlings now. I don't know but wonder if fast easy sprouting could be genetic. In any event I'm going to go with that assumption and keep track of them separate from any that sprout later.
I'm also going to keep earlier maturing seeds separate in hopes of isolating a group of seeds that grew from easy sprout mothers and matured before say, mid September. Any that mature in July or August will be extra special. I'll ship later ones off to interested folks in longer season areas.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 28, 2017 5:05:52 GMT -5
I'm up to 14 TSPS sprouts but only six really nice ones and they are also the six that sprouted first. Just six but I think most of the combinations are represented pretty good or at least there is a good range of phenotype in color. Fast sprouting and strong early growth are definitely traits I'm looking for.
I'm thinking strongly of culling the ones that are doing poorly. They might be fine but conditions are exactly the same for all and for some reason they are puny in comparison. Exception are the two from the S2 seeds, I'll keep them going to see if I get S3 seeds. Unfortunately none of my traded seeds have sprouted, if any do I'll keep them for the new genetics.
Four of my six traded roots are growing slips so I'll have opportunity to bring in diversity from them even if the seeds don't sprout. Only two of my mine have slips but they have tons of little roots so expect they will. Also have two new varieties on order from Sandhill.
[add] I forgot to mention, one plant of the six is especially interesting. It is only half as tall as the others but the leaves are probably 1/3 larger and the stem is noticeably thicker. It isn't as dark purple as a couple others but has a reddish coloring in the veins. It's my favorite based just on eye appeal and I also like the short stout growth habit.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 28, 2017 18:28:51 GMT -5
I potted up my sweet potato seedlings a couple days ago. Saved the original seed starting mix in case anything else wants to germinate next week during warmer temperatures.  |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 29, 2017 4:29:02 GMT -5
Those look great and a nice range of color. I'm guessing that maybe the color range indicates different parental combinations.
On mine I'm not seeing much of the deeply lobed leaves from the purple parents even on the darker purple ones. Maybe it will show up as the true leaves get bigger.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 29, 2017 5:40:29 GMT -5
Am I being premature in thinking of culling the ones I called puny? They are actually fine, they just sprouted later and are smaller.
My thinking is to try to get lots of seeds from the fast, easy sprouting plants and also to have them as the father side of a higher percentage. I guess I'm trying to cheat on moving to a easy sprouting population at the price of maybe losing some other genetics. Except I wouldn't really be losing any because all of the same original clones are being grown again. Plus I have a good supply of back up seeds.
Humm, this plant breeding thing can get complicated.
|
|
|
|
Post by farmermike on Apr 29, 2017 5:50:29 GMT -5
Might the slower growing seedlings just be more bushy or determinate, and the faster ones be more viney? Just a thought.
That's a concern I always have about culling slower growing seedlings. For instance, if you have tomato seedlings segregating for determinate vs indeterminate, might the slower growing ones represent the determinate?
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Apr 29, 2017 16:37:36 GMT -5
Might the slower growing seedlings just be more bushy or determinate, and the faster ones be more viney? Just a thought. That's a concern I always have about culling slower growing seedlings. For instance, if you have tomato seedlings segregating for determinate vs indeterminate, might the slower growing ones represent the determinate? Never thought of that but I don't think so. The one plant that is shorter is my favorite of all. Short but stout with secondary leaves as big or bigger than the others and thicker stronger looking stem. Also by comparison the dwarf tomatoes I'm growing this year are probably a 1/3 the height of some of the others but they are far from puny looking. I got some good pictures but photobucket is being so uncooperative lately I got disgusted and gave up, gonna have to do something about that cause pictures make discussion much more fun and interesting. Don't know why I get ahead of myself anyway on decisions that don't have to be made yet, I'll decide at planting time what stays and what doesn't. With the slip sprouted ones and the ones coming from Sandhill I'm up to I think 11 distinct varieties all know for good flowering. By happy coincidence they are all also early varieties and all bush growth habit. Well, not sure about growth habit on the traded ones. Makes me wonder if all those things go together somehow. Early, bushy, seedy all happy to together and somehow genetically linked? That would be really nice. All that said, although it seems early in the project to start culling I am leaning toward growing just the six early sprouting plants so they cross with all the others in higher percentage. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on May 1, 2017 18:24:59 GMT -5
I also mist the exposed part as I remember and they have spent some time on a heat mat but only at night. Have even had them outside several days but bring in at night. All but one have slips growing now. The traded one called Nordic White is slip crazy, where the others have one or two it has six. A couple of each is really all I need. Slips starting now will hit about right to plant early June.
Drove real slow on way home today past where the wild ones were last year and saw some suspicious looking viney growth. I'm wondering if they clone just as readily, if so would be much easier and more convenient to just bring some home. I guess I will stop and clip some stems although I won't be sure till they bloom that I have the right plant.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on May 6, 2017 4:22:28 GMT -5
A couple more seeds have sprouted bringing the total to 16 but I am still leaning toward going only with the first and strongest ones for breeding. I marked them with a tooth pick in the soil but not really necessary as they are considerably larger. They are resenting being inside and getting a little leggy. They had been out in full sun prior to this past week when it turned cool and wet. Found a few aphids on one, yuk.
Look to have plenty of slips from the root sprouted ones except for the variety Patriot. I think I see a couple little bumps on them this morning. The trade varieties Bonita and Nordic White have the most, Nordic White has the most and largest of any. Exposed skin on the Bonita root is turning green like a potato tuber will. Don't know that it means anything, just don't think I ever saw a sweet potato do that before.
So for breeding I have some unknown combination of:
S1 plants from Purple ornamental mother
S1 plants from Patriot Mother
S1 plants form Hong Kong Mother
S2 pants from S1 plants, grandmother being (I believe) the same Purple ornamental
From slips I have:
Nordic White - trade
Bonita - trade
Mystery Jet - trade
Purple - trade
Hong Kong
Barb & Gene -local variety, suspect it is probably Beauregard
Unknown 1
Unknown 2
Coming from Sandhill
Red Resisto
Arkansas Red Leaf - this one isn't described as a good bloomer but is described as early, bush habit with beautiful red / purple leaves, Ill try to force it to bloom
So, if every seed sprouted one is a distinct variety I have a total of around 18 different ones to try to mix up this year. More if I decide to keep the slow sprouters but they came from the same genetic sources as the good sprouters so what I do I really need them for anyway?
Researching on sweet potato breeding indicated you should focus on good bloomers, that forcing techniques work on others but you will be carrying on the trait of poor blooming if you do that. Sandhill has more varieties than anyplace else I'v found and with this year's order I have all the available varieties know for blooming plus the traded ones.
I don't think I could do any better as far as collecting up genetic diversity. Last year hot weather and seed production continued into November but that may have been an anomaly so I'll be keeping earlier maturing seed separate from later. It is so easy to clone stems with buds so I can do all kinds of controlled crosses too if I want to and test for self compatibility of various ones by bringing cuttings inside.
Research on Ipomoea pandurata indicates it is also supposed to be self incompatible, so much so that it's wide distribution is hard to understand. That means I can take potted clones of several varieties to set beside it and any seeds that develop should be a cross. And I can drive down there each morning and bring back pollen for isolated clones here to try it the other way.
Guess I'm a sweet potato breeder, not sure how that happened.
|
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on May 6, 2017 6:42:45 GMT -5
Here's a fun, short video about an elderly NZ couple that bred a disease resistant sweet potato (which they call the Kumara) and saved the NZ North Island crop. Well worth a few minutes of time - will leave you feeling good. loadingdocs.net/mrandmrsgock/ |
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on May 6, 2017 6:56:15 GMT -5
I wonder if NZ varieties (which apparently date back to the Maori) are more fertile than the ones grown in NH? Maybe richardw would know. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on May 7, 2017 2:48:56 GMT -5
Cute little video but a little short on actual info about the breeding process. Still if they did breed for disease tolerance while at the same time keeping some uniformity of root production they must have had no problem with seed production. The Kumara website link also had some new varieties so they must also be growing from seed. Interesting for sure.
Unfortunately I don't have ability to trial them all to see how they are for root production and if I cull some I suppose I could be discarding some good ones. I had already accepted that in favor of working toward varieties that easily produce seed. What I need is local collaborators to do root grow outs but haven't had any luck with that so far. I have a nephew just moved closer to me and he has some interest but he isn't exactly reliable. It doesn't help that they have to be so tightly secured from rabbits and deer, it would be easier to find people to help if not for that.
Has anyone else I sent seed to had any luck on germination?
|
|
