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Post by mjc on May 28, 2017 13:59:15 GMT -5
I closely inspected the area where my sweet potatoes were last year. I was pretty thorough in collecting the seeds but thought I might get lucky but found nothing. Then later I was hoeing around my potatoes and low and behold a volunteer sweet potato! That area is where I pitched a lot of old vines last year. Unfortunately I found it with the hoe  it was cut maybe an inch below the ground and had some little white root nubs above the cut so I put in a little clear cup with some clean sand and brought it in. It was wilted terribly this morning so I cut the larger leaves from the bottom and just left the smallest top leaves. The stem has now started lifting back up so maybe, just maybe it's gonna make it. So, now I 'm amazed again. You probably didn't even have to leaf trim it...sweet potatoes are generally easy to root, almost too easy...like any little piece of stem that stays slightly moistened will root. They are related to the garden morning glory...and that also means they are related to one of the most pernicious and easiest rooting weeds out there...BINDWEED. |
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Post by richardw on May 29, 2017 3:41:08 GMT -5
I closely inspected the area where my sweet potatoes were last year. I was pretty thorough in collecting the seeds but thought I might get lucky but found nothing. Then later I was hoeing around my potatoes and low and behold a volunteer sweet potato! That area is where I pitched a lot of old vines last year. Unfortunately I found it with the hoe it was cut maybe an inch below the ground and had some little white root nubs above the cut so I put in a little clear cup with some clean sand and brought it in. It was wilted terribly this morning so I cut the larger leaves from the bottom and just left the smallest top leaves. The stem has now started lifting back up so maybe, just maybe it's gonna make it. So, now I 'm amazed again. Good luck |
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Post by imgrimmer on May 31, 2017 16:00:05 GMT -5
I don't know that it matters much, just though it was interesting. The reading I did on scarifying by filing the seed said to file the edge, not the round side of the seed which makes sense and that is what I did on the ones I scarified which by the way did not sprout. I have some seeds germinating right now. I cut off a small piece of the shell with a sharp knife and let it soak in water for 2 days. Today emerged the first sprouts (a small tip comes out of the shell). This was very quick, I did this with other Ipomoeas but it took them longer. |
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Post by reed on Jun 1, 2017 4:41:10 GMT -5
I was afraid of damaging the seed if I tried to do too much on filing the shell. Turns out I don't think it is really necessary anyway, just have to figure out exactly what they like as far as germination. I had three or four pop up almost immediately then another four or five in the next few days. I guess maybe ten in the first week. They have been coming up sporadically since then. I'm not sure how many I have now, 17 of 42 cells have sprouted but several of them have two or three. I thought they were done but found two more came up yesterday. Germination rate is much higher than I expected.
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Post by reed on Jun 6, 2017 5:28:45 GMT -5
Well that is a bummer. On the other hand some nice fresh caught walleye is some compensation. My plant that I chopped with the hoe is starting to grow new leaves, it was definitely set back some but I'm gonna go ahead and put it out with the others.
Several more have sprouted including some of the traded seeds, I had about given up on them and then all of a sudden they pop up. I'v about ran out of dirt to fill the pots, I guess I'll just stick later ones in the ground.
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Post by notonari on Jun 12, 2017 11:26:04 GMT -5
I was afraid of damaging the seed if I tried to do too much on filing the shell. Turns out I don't think it is really necessary anyway, just have to figure out exactly what they like as far as germination. I had three or four pop up almost immediately then another four or five in the next few days. I guess maybe ten in the first week. They have been coming up sporadically since then. I'm not sure how many I have now, 17 of 42 cells have sprouted but several of them have two or three. I thought they were done but found two more came up yesterday. Germination rate is much higher than I expected. I have all of my seedlings out in the garden now (about 40 I think), most are rooting nicely and starting to take off. I took a cutting of most of them, so I have a clone of most seedlings just to see if the roots develop differently when they haven't been potted up. A few seedlings already had started forming minitubers in their pots, which is promising! I scarified all my seed (like I did last year) and probably got around 90% germination. Once you scarify and soak them, they germinate instantly. Once I have larger batches of seed (hopefully this year) I'll see if I can select for seed that germinates without scarification. Reed, how's Patriot for you? I found it to be a fairly weak grower, it produced some slips but they remained tiny and the ones I potted seem to refuse to root. The leaves are really yellow, is that normal? |
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Post by notonari on Jun 12, 2017 11:36:29 GMT -5
PS reed, I'm now about 90% sure 'Nordic White' is actually Bonita, see if you see any difference at all in growth habit, leaf type or tuber while you grow them, I can't really see any. It's a really good variety though, it flowers early and abundantly for me.
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Post by reed on Jun 14, 2017 4:50:10 GMT -5
I ended up with around 50 seedlings, way more than I expected with the last one sprouting just a couple days ago. The original group of 7 or so that sprouted in the first few days are of course the largest now with a couple already getting flower buds. Depending on how the season goes I may select heavily from them for next year.
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Post by notonari on Jun 17, 2017 2:36:35 GMT -5
Amazing you already have flower buds, I'll probably need to wait another month for that at least. But the seedlings are looking happy. Did you scarify your seed at all?
I'll select heavily for early flowering for the next couple of seasons, while expanding the gene pool, before I start caring too much about tuberization. I added Orleans and Bellevue to my crossing block this year (assuming they will flower here).
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Post by reed on Jun 17, 2017 4:50:41 GMT -5
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to see buds so early. I have about 1/2 a dozen with buds and expect the first open blooms anytime. I did lightly scarify only the seeds I got in trade. I wanted to try to increase chances of getting those genetics in my mix. I used a small diamond file on the sharp edges of the seed. I don't know if it had an effect or not, I think not. I am up to six sprouts from those seeds but they are recent, don't have any true leaves yet. I did not scarify any of the others. I am not sure how to proceed with my project. I did not expect so many to sprout. I want to favor ones that sprout easily and that make seed early so at very least I will be saving those seed separately. I am considering culling some of the late sprouting ones especially where they have come up at base of one already growing. Otherwise if the late ones catch up they will be so crowded that I won't be able to tell which one a seed came from. I have pulled some of the little ones up and planted in their own pots but I'm running out of pots and thinking I might be better off without them anyway as they don't have the genetics I'm looking for. The original few that sprouted within a few days, without scarification, are also the ones getting ready to bloom now. I don't know what they will do as far as root production but they meet all the other criteria I want so far. Only thing left is if they mature good seed before end of August or there about. Here is what some looked like the other day. Those in the big tub are slips the one in the smaller pot is one of my earlier ones, it has flower buds. You can't see them but there are two late sprouters hidden under it's leaves.  |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 18, 2017 23:51:06 GMT -5
with a couple already getting flower buds. That's exciting to me. We are days away from the longest day of the year, which indicates that those plants are not day-length sensitive!!!! Here's what my seedlings looked like a couple days ago. (More have germinated in the soil I saved after transplanting the early germinating seedlings)  |
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Post by notonari on Jun 23, 2017 9:08:31 GMT -5
Some of my seedlings have flower buds appearing as well now, probably on about 20%. We have 18 hours of daylight at the moment, so definitely not daylight sensitive for flowering.
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Post by reed on Jun 24, 2017 8:21:07 GMT -5
And so it begins, did my first hand pollination today. Have had a few blooms already but today is first time I had blooms on different plants. This plant had just one today and the other had three so I sacrificed one of them to do the deed. Not enough all at once to attract the bumblebees so I thought I would try to get a little head start. However a bumble did stop by so shouldn't be long till it tells its friends and I can stop doing this. I think they are better at it anyway. I'll only do it if I want to try to cross specific plants.  Speaking of bumblebees, they are living in a bunch of junk on a shelf above where I keep my lawn mower. Noisy and nosy critters they are when ever I go in there. I put up a Do Not Disturb sign inches from their entrance, they seemed ok with that. |
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Post by reed on Jul 5, 2017 8:12:26 GMT -5
Got bunches of plants either blooming or in bud now. Enough that the bees have noticed so I don't have to hand pollinate anymore. Lots of phenotype differences in leaf color and shape as well as growth habit. Some very bushy some more viny. Capsules are forming on the ones I had pollinate earlier.
The stem of a flower that is not pollinated quickly turns yellow and drops off. It's a good indicator as you don't have to wait long to know if it took. Especially interesting as the I pandurata down the road is blooming profusely and stems of the flowers I pollinated with its pollen are still green. I'll be doing that a lot more in next days or weeks. I sliced some orange tape into little 1/8 inch wide strips and tagged those individual stems, what a pain in the rump that is with fat fingers and bifocals.
The I pandurata is certainly an interesting plant. Looks almost exactly like sweet potatoes except flowers are huge in comparison and a little ruffled with tons of visible pollen. I took cuttings to see if it is also as easy to clone, too early to tell on that. Also took cuttings of a couple of my best bloomers to pot up and take down there. I guess I should take just one plant as otherwise I wouldn't know if any seeds were crossed with I pandurata or just with each other. On the other hand I am more and more convinced that at least some sweet potatoes are self compatible so I wouldn't know for sure anyway. Will also check regularly for I pandurata seeds. No flowers yet on my pet bind weed that I have growing in a pot.
I'm severely cutting back any long vines that do not have buds. I'm thinking anything not in bud by around the middle or so of this month will be almost completely cut back. No need to have to sort and search through a bunch of non fruitful foliage.
A discovered another 1/2 dozen volunteers and decided to just leave them where they are, lots of variation there too.
I hope to have lots of seeds to trade this year. I want to focus mostly on the ones with shorter maturity time and will be saving them separately. Pretty much all of the longer maturity ones will be available for trade. Short maturity ones will be available only for particular individuals I'v traded with before.
NOTE:
**NO plant material, whether roots or cuttings will be traded or sold** period!
**Unsolicited communication from people I don't know will not be answered.
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Post by gilbert on Jul 5, 2017 13:29:07 GMT -5
Why do you have a pet bindweed? I have acres of the stuff I can't get rid of . . . Is I. pandurata know to be cross compatible with sweet potatoes, or are you going out on a limb with that?
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it was cut maybe an inch below the ground and had some little white root nubs above the cut so I put in a little clear cup with some clean sand and brought it in. It was wilted terribly this morning so I cut the larger leaves from the bottom and just left the smallest top leaves. The stem has now started lifting back up so maybe, just maybe it's gonna make it. 
