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Post by reed on Sept 10, 2017 4:26:31 GMT -5
Yea, they will definitely be out before frost. Warm and humid is what they need to cure? I wonder if setting up one of my cold frames would work for that? I wanted to keep harvesting seeds as long as possible but I have a pretty good amount of them already and since I want to focus on short season anyway maybe I'll go ahead and harvest roots of my favorite ones pretty soon.
Does your purple ornamental that blooms have deeply lobed leaves? How about the ones from seed, do they look the same or did you get new phenotypes with them? My original purple ornamental did not have a tag but it looked like the one called Blackie. Despite all information to the contrary I am 99.99% positive it is self compatible or at least the strain I have is. If you cross it to culinary varieties you get all kinds of interesting new kinds, some of which I suspect are also self compatible.
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Post by richardw on Sept 10, 2017 14:20:37 GMT -5
What ive done lately is instead of growing my new plants off a tuber ive kept a plant growing in a pot from last summer. Done this as a experiment to see if our New Zealand strains are more likely to produce flowers. Still got two months before the chance of frost has gone so it will remain in the tunnelhouse till then.
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Post by philagardener on Sept 16, 2017 20:56:18 GMT -5
Does your purple ornamental that blooms have deeply lobed leaves? How about the ones from seed, do they look the same or did you get new phenotypes with them? My original purple ornamental did not have a tag but it looked like the one called Blackie. Despite all information to the contrary I am 99.99% positive it is self compatible or at least the strain I have is. The mother plant did have cleft leaves - I googled "Blackie sweet potato" and that could be it. Both seedling offspring have good purple leaf coloration; one looks similar to the mother, while the other is more of a regular shaped leaf. |
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Post by reed on Sept 18, 2017 2:44:39 GMT -5
Our weather has turned off warm again and I decided since I had a good amount of seeds already I would start digging some of my plants to see what their roots looked like. I didn't have the heart to dig the ones that are the best seed producers and that are still maturing seed. I'll probably go ahead and do that too real soon but for now I just dug some of the others. Got a wide range of phenotype combinations, some with nice roots but that had never bloomed and some that bloomed pretty well but never made seeds. The one below is my favorite of the ones I dug. It's father was the purple ornamental and except for the more green in the leaves it looks like it. It's roots however are not at all like the skinny twisted PO roots. The mother was Patriot or Hong Kong, I imagine Patriot because Hong Kong has purple roots. It bloomed a little later than some and had moderate to poor seed production. It's young leaves and shoots are delicious. I took cuttings of the stems still maturing seeds and will also keep this root.  I think it proves pretty well that it is fine to use the purple ornamental in breeding as it's crosses to others have a pretty good chance of developing nice roots. That isn't a huge root but the plant grew in a 3 gallon pot which I think also proves container grown is a fine way to do sweet potatoes as long as the pot isn't disturbed so that feeder roots can grow into the ground below. For better production I think a 10 gallon or so pot would certainly be better but 3 gallons is fine for breeding and demonstrating what the plant is capable of producing. 3 gallons of course uses less soil and makes it easier to do mass crosses and comparisons in a small garden. Another thing I noticed so far and this might not be true of all varieties is that plants with big roots make them near the surface. On the ones I'v harvested so far the ones that have twisted skinny roots are at the bottoms of the pots. More observation is needed on that. I'm anxious to see what roots look like on the good seed producers. Some of them have green heart shape leaves, some have purple heart shape, some lobed green or purple and various combinations. I already confirmed leave phenotype and stem color are not necessarily indicative of what the roots will be but I'm hopeful of finding the lots of seed and nice roots traits in the same plant. I'm confident I eventually will but would be great if it happens this season. [add] Here are some also ran plants in the seed production department. They all made some seeds which are included in the mixed pack for next year and trades. Third one from the left I'm pretty sure is the only one with orange inside to the roots, it is probably the only one I will try store through winter for slips next year.  It remains to be seen of course how they fit on a dinner plate but I'm thinking for the most part, that all the info about how seed grow sweet potatoes are rarely any good is a bunch of crap. Even when one parent is an ornamental with skinny twisted roots, well developed roots are more common in the offspring. Again, these were grown in little three gallon pots. |
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Post by reed on Sept 23, 2017 4:00:16 GMT -5
This is one of my favorite plants. It was the first seed to sprout this spring and the first plant to bloom and make seed. It didn't bloom as profusely as a couple others with only one or two flowers per peduncle but nearly every flower matured to seed. It made 5 nice looking seeds before end of July and 62 nice seeds total.  I'm guessing it is PorHK x PorHK rather than being mixed with PO cause it lacks any purple color. It was a nicely behaved plant with short vines and I am delighted that it has orange roots although I accidentally broke the bigger one. I have taken cuttings to try to keep through winter and will also be sprouting slips from it next year. Since I am already happy with the amount of seed this year I am going ahead and harvesting in order to take advantage of the current hot humid weather to help with curing the roots. O'shoot, almost forgot. It also made the five seeds that are possibly although I suppose not likely, fathered by I pandurata. In any case all other flowers that I tried to cross aborted. |
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Post by steev on Sept 23, 2017 4:05:19 GMT -5
Well done! Sometimes you gotta boldly go.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Sept 24, 2017 14:08:23 GMT -5
I think it proves pretty well that it is fine to use the purple ornamental in breeding as it's crosses to others have a pretty good chance of developing nice roots. That isn't a huge root but the plant grew in a 3 gallon pot which I think also proves container grown is a fine way to do sweet potatoes as long as the pot isn't disturbed so that feeder roots can grow into the ground below. For better production I think a 10 gallon or so pot would certainly be better but 3 gallons is fine for breeding and demonstrating what the plant is capable of producing. 3 gallons of course uses less soil and makes it easier to do mass crosses and comparisons in a small garden. Another thing I noticed so far and this might not be true of all varieties is that plants with big roots make them near the surface. On the ones I'v harvested so far the ones that have twisted skinny roots are at the bottoms of the pots. More observation is needed on that. I'm anxious to see what roots look like on the good seed producers. Glad to hear of some progress on this project. i planted my tiny saved tubers this spring that i stored crapily after last season. I thought they died since nothing grew, but i guess i planted them in a too dry spot because they started growing in late summer all of a sudden after a rainstorm. I guess i will try to dig them up before winter again and store them. Worth dabbling with. I would love to be able to grow sweet potatoes in the future. Good to know about the growing in pots technique. Might try that. Wonder if the big roots near the surface has anything to do with adequate oxygen / CO2. I wonder if artificially increasing the aeration of the soil (like burying an airstone connected to a compressor would help increase root size. I've heard of some greenhouses increasing CO2 to speed up / increase size in lettuce and other indoor grown crops. |
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Post by reed on Sept 25, 2017 4:05:43 GMT -5
All of my slip grown plants are in big, approximately 30 gallon tubs, it will be interesting to see the depth of the roots when I harvest them. Those lined up in the previous post were the only seed grown ones in a big tub and the skinny rooted one on the left was deeper down but it wasn't all the way to the bottom like in the small pots.
My volunteers were outside the electric fenced area and were eaten to the ground by rabbits, twice. Still they survived and one is trying to bloom. I dug them up the other day and have them in little pots, they didn't make any big roots at all but I'm surprised they even lived.
All the ones with purple skin so far are white inside and I was prejudiced against them because of a rather bland taste but I found one yesterday that I had dropped and had been laying in the 90 degree sun for a few days. I washed it off and gave it a taste and it was very nice with a subtle sweetness that grew in intensity so I guess I have to rethink my assessment of them.
I'm gonna harvest all the rest soon, probably this week including the one I'm calling the seed machine. It is extremely compact and bushy and has made at lots of seeds with the first ones in early August, maybe even late July. I will of course take cuttings to to try to finish up the rest of the capsules but I can't stand the suspense of what kind of roots it has.
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Post by philagardener on Sept 25, 2017 5:27:31 GMT -5
The roots should be cured before you make any final judgements about taste and quality. Might be nice to have some that didn't require that, but they are a tropical crop at their roots.
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Post by reed on Sept 26, 2017 5:13:43 GMT -5
There was one in the group I culled several weeks ago that tasted sweet without any curing. I should have replanted or cloned it but I didn't. Don't know what I was thinking,  I guess just that since it had not offered to bloom and I had to reduce the patch some in favor of the ones that did. It was also developing into a long trailing vine which I didn't want. O'well what ever combination of genes that made it might show up again or maybe show up in a more bushy one. Does anyone know what factors determine maturity in sweet potatoes? Sandhill describes varieties as early, mid or late season and other info give specific DTM for different ones. Does it mean the point they reach usable or maximum size? The point they reach a necessary state to keep in storage? A maximum amount of sugars? A point where they start to decline in some way? I had a couple that bloomed a lot early then slowed down, others that didn't start till later and one especially that bloomed early and hasn't slowed down even now. Might that be an indication of maturity or is blooming something probably not considered as a factor at all. [add] unrelated to above just didn't want to lose track of this www.cropj.com/gurmu_7_13_2013_2074_2078.pdf |
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Post by reed on Sept 29, 2017 19:42:22 GMT -5
It is so much fun digging or rather dumping out the new sweet potato plants to see what's under them. Even when they aren't so great as some are it is still fun. Here are some more and except for one other plant two of them are the worst of all. None of the ones below did much as far as blooming or making seed and that is fine, especially as far as the ones on the left go.  I hate that the second one has issues cause I like the purple. Some others have had a streak or two of purple but this is the only one so far that is all purple. These are the first two where I saw any issues with bugs damage or anything like that. The other bad plant I mentioned had nice good sized cream colored roots but half of them had started to rot. Fortunately in also did not bloom much or make many seeds. I like the two on the right, I think a variety that made lots of small roots instead great big ones would be sweet but I expect these are due to overcrowding rather than genetics. In any event they also didn't do much as far as seeds and don't make the cut on saving for clones next year. Here is the seed take so far, except for the ones prior to mid August, they are already in the freezer. Also not included are the ones from the cloned purple ornamental. I think a good part of my plants are already descended form in so I kept it separated a little and pretty cut back o as not to overwhelm the others with too much of it's pollen. Don't ask what swd means cause I plum forgot.  I'm down now to just half a dozen or so seed grown and they are all some of the best seed producers. I want to dump them out and see what I got as far as roots but they are sill maturing seed and I guess might continue almost till frost if I let them. I haven't harvested any of the slip grown clones and some of them are also maturing seed. |
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Post by reed on Sept 30, 2017 6:36:40 GMT -5
O' I forgot. I had five new kinds of ornamental this year. Only two bloomed and none made seeds but I think that is largely due to them being stuck in as an afterthought and pretty neglected. Actually one may have made a seed or two but I wasn't paying attention and lost em.
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Post by reed on Oct 4, 2017 20:10:56 GMT -5
I discovered something kind of fun about sweet potatoes, at least when grown in pots. They have some feeder roots that grow off the storage roots but they also have lots of feeder roots originating off the root and stem above. So, again if grown in pots you can dump them out, cut off the storage root and then re-pot the plant. I don't have room to keep these plants over winter but I like them both a lot so will be taking cuttings and keeping the roots. Neither made a lot of seeds, maybe twenty or so between them but I love the very dwarfish habit. I know it isn't because of being pot grown because several others grew long vines in similar pots.  That first one pictured above an entry or two was also quite dwarfish. I didn't plan or anticipate having plants that I would want to propagate by slips but I really like some of them. It's a bit of a problem cause of my limited space but I guess it would let me test what I read that sometimes a clone reverts back to phenotype of the mother. ![]() |
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Post by imgrimmer on Oct 5, 2017 12:41:02 GMT -5
I just checked my old bookmarks and found this one. It is an accession suitable for northern regions it is of seed origin. Maybe it is helpful for someone. |
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Post by reed on Oct 5, 2017 16:12:39 GMT -5
I just checked my old bookmarks and found this one. It is an accession suitable for northern regions it is of seed origin. Maybe it is helpful for someone. Sounds very interesting but the link took me to a log in page. Do you have to have an account to see the info? And if so, I imagine you would also have to have one to try to acquire the seeds. Do you know how it works? I'v never tried to get anything from them before. |
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I guess just that since it had not offered to bloom and I had to reduce the patch some in favor of the ones that did. It was also developing into a long trailing vine which I didn't want. O'well what ever combination of genes that made it might show up again or maybe show up in a more bushy one.