|
|
Post by reed on Sept 25, 2018 15:11:03 GMT -5
Yea, most offspring of bushy parents are bushy, probably 75% or more. Some are hard to distinguish from the mother (maybe selfed?) a few look the same but don't bloom, and some are vastly different. But there were never ever any long vine types in the patch, just short 3' vines or bushy so the long vines must have come from genes coming out of hiding so to speak. Actually some are even more bushy than the parents, one is plumb dwarf.
Lots of surprises in successive generations apparently, it's fun to see. Only trait that hasn't varied much is size and color of flowers, there are some differences but they're subtle.
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Sept 25, 2018 16:21:13 GMT -5
For some unknown reason a third seedling has died during germination, reminds me of a whale seconds before lifting its tail out of the water. All three were right at that exact same point and then turn brown, odd.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Sept 27, 2018 8:41:45 GMT -5
Weather turning colder here, will soon know what roots look like on my favored plants. Went ahead yesterday and took out all the rest of the less prolific seeders. Mostly no loss in good roots either. One was funny, it had long skinny roots about big around as my thumb that coiled around the bottom of the pot, looked like a big spring, goofy looking thing. I'm a little conflicted about this one though. Very poor seed production, maybe got five from it total and with seed production still of primary importance it isn't going to be saved for cloning. If it had bloomed better or even if it just had sweet orange instead of purple / white roots I would keep it because I love, love, love how it made roots. A nice little clump immediately under the main stem. Great trait to have I think. Who wants to dig feet deep or feet away looking for roots? I know I don't.  O'well it isn't the only one like this, just the most extreme I'v seen so far, so I'm comfortable knowing the genes to make it are in the mix. Also that one root looks a little different color to me and it isn't rounded and stubby like the others. Again, o'well, I'm not going to the trouble of keeping, cloning and tracking to see if they would make different plants next year, just gonna eat em all. |
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Sept 27, 2018 14:12:35 GMT -5
So did you save the seed from this clone and kept separate or does it get mixed in with the rest of the seed.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Sept 27, 2018 17:30:26 GMT -5
So did you save the seed from this clone and kept separate or does it get mixed in with the rest of the seed. It just got mixed in as it was found. This year I kept those that matured before Aug, 15 separate but the rest are just all mixed together. I just realized I also didn't pay very good enough attention to which plants the earliest seeds came from but know that most came from the same plants that were earliest to sprout so I feel OK about that. Weather is supposed to be warming and drying back up next several days so I'm leaving my favorites for awhile longer. They still have lots of immature capsules and now that the patch is thinned out good I can tell which is which, so I will probably keep them separate. Interesting and encouraging is that the earliest are also still out there in the favorites. That was the case last year too, the earliest being favorite in other ways, and even better the ones last year also had some of the best roots. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Sept 29, 2018 5:28:46 GMT -5
I dug up my production crop yesterday, a row of mixed commercial clones and some cloned from last year's "First Sprout First Bloom". The 2017 FSFB made seeds but the commercial clones did not. Got a pretty good harvest but 2017 FSFB was a bit of a disappointment grown in the ground.
I like it's sweet orange roots and in the ground it makes some nice ones but also a lot of "clunkers", huge football sized things that are hard to dig up. They were fairly well located, not far under or away from the plant stem but still a pain to deal with, more than one was damaged in process of getting them out of the ground.
I'll keep it of course, being the only orange/orange rooted one I'v had so far from seed. It's also a good bloomer and seeder, but as soon as something better comes along it will be back in the breeding patch only.
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Oct 2, 2018 23:22:02 GMT -5
#10 seedling was very weak and only just managed to get seed capsule off before dying. The last to germinate are by far the weaker seedlings
|
|
|
|
Post by molenfrederik on Oct 3, 2018 3:44:46 GMT -5
Hi everyone. My apologies for jumping in the conversation. My experience with sweet potato germination is none existing since it's the first year I'm growing this delicious crop for seeds. I have a couple of seeds germinating now (2 October 2018). They were harvested in week 37 (first week September 2018). After air drying for 1 week, 2 week in plastic bag with humidity absorbing tissue in the kitchen fridge (4'C )…, I left them at room temperature. - et voilà -, a couple of seeds started germinating. Does this mean sweet potatoes seeds lack dormancy? Please comment. I dug up my production crop yesterday, a row of mixed commercial clones and some cloned from last year's "First Sprout First Bloom". The 2017 FSFB made seeds but the commercial clones did not. Got a pretty good harvest but 2017 FSFB was a bit of a disappointment grown in the ground. I like it's sweet orange roots and in the ground it makes some nice ones but also a lot of "clunkers", huge football sized things that are hard to dig up. They were fairly well located, not far under or away from the plant stem but still a pain to deal with, more than one was damaged in process of getting them out of the ground. I'll keep it of course, being the only orange/orange rooted one I'v had so far from seed. It's also a good bloomer and seeder, but as soon as something better comes along it will be back in the breeding patch only. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Oct 3, 2018 4:27:16 GMT -5
#10 seedling was very weak and only just managed to get seed capsule off before dying. The last to germinate are by far the weaker seedlings This has me worried, I'v never had that problem except like I said with those that don't make chlorophyll but they are very rare.They come up normal with full sized seed leaves, just that they are white. They struggle for awhile then croak. Sure hope you get a minimum of ten to take off and grow good. I'd be happier if you get at least twenty but ten will give good chances of getting a good seeder or two.
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Oct 3, 2018 4:34:07 GMT -5
Does this mean sweet potatoes seeds lack dormancy? Please comment. Hi molenfrederik, glad to have you in the conversation. I don't think sweet potatoes need any kind of dormancy or cold at all. Some sprout in days when lost on the ground, others will lay there and sprout the next year. I understand refrigerating or freezing will help for long term storage like any other seed but I'm sure they don't need it to sprout. |
|
|
|
Post by molenfrederik on Oct 3, 2018 4:49:12 GMT -5
Good to know. Makes sense since this tropical species did not have the environmental conditions to evolve cold stratification requirements. Does this mean sweet potatoes seeds lack dormancy? Please comment. Hi molenfrederik, glad to have you in the conversation. I don't think sweet potatoes need any kind of dormancy or cold at all. Some sprout in days when lost on the ground, others will lay there and sprout the next year. I understand refrigerating or freezing will help for long term storage like any other seed but I'm sure they don't need it to sprout. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Oct 5, 2018 8:16:38 GMT -5
I harvested the rest of my seed grown plants yesterday. Nothing left out there but a couple nice seed producing volunteers growing in the ground. I'm real pleased that I have six more with the great trait where there is a nice clump of medium sized roots directly under the stem. The one I posted the picture of earlier is still the best for that but these are all more than acceptable in that regard and they all were 5 or better on a 1 - 10 scale for seed production. And four of them have orange/orange roots the other two have purple/white. The purple/white were most bushy and highest on the seed scale.
Also a few with stringy or clunker roots and couple with no large roots at all, or if so they are deeper or farther from the pots to be found. All of these are being discarded.
Seed collection was fine, I more than doubled my reserve but it wasn't as high as expected. Largely my fault for planting too crowded and not finding them before they got lost. Also weather was a bit of a factor, they seem to like nice hot dry conditions to mature good, even short periods of cool, cloudy and damp can cause a lot to abort or even mold and sometimes even to sprout inside the capsule.
A couple plants in particular made really great looking seeds and experienced less of the problems mentioned. They tended to have a full four seeds per capsule and the seeds are larger. These plant were descended, I think, from last year's first sprout, first bloom so I'm excited about that, thinking it might be a start to more robust, easier to sprout seeds. And even better they are in the group with the nicely clumping roots.
Looking ahead to next year I'm thinking of only planting maybe 25 seeds from those in the best group. They are all mixed up but easy to pick back out by appearance. Except for some I have lined up to trade or gift all the others are going into a long term frozen archive.
Any way for next year I expect to have volunteers from all the lost seeds, I'l sprout just a few. I'll also clone some of the plants from last and this year. That should give a good sampling of known seedy, nicely rooted plants. Then I want to try to add in some new commercial clones, which hopefully will bloom. And I want to make a much more serious attempt at crossing I batatas to I pandurata.
Being a native perennial I suspect that I pandurata does need cold stratification and the couple weeks freeze treatment I give all the seeds wasn't enough for it cause none of the seeds I planted year sprouted. I'v put the rest of those seeds in the fridge and will alternate them between there and the freezer over the winter. Might go ahead and plant some too, just to see what happens.
|
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Oct 5, 2018 9:11:50 GMT -5
Anybody heard anything about the new release "Radiance" sweet potatoe? It was in this week's Island farmer, at 120 days from slips and a nice deep orange flesh. Some tubers were dug at 76 days for a demo, and they looked not bad  |
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on Oct 5, 2018 18:43:25 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Oct 6, 2018 4:56:47 GMT -5
Here's another link to the article. www.niagarathisweek.com/community-story/8580570-a-sweet-option-for-local-potato-farmers/ I wouldn't think it would be too hard to find / breed a variety for Canada. Unless maybe there are issues with importing the plants to start with. I'm still trying to figure out what maturity in sweet potatoes really means. My best guess is it just means the point where roots are big enough to be food or for commercial purposes, when they can be marketed. But I wonder, is there a point where they will keep in storage, before which they won't? I found some roots this year that although they were several inches below ground and still part of the growing plant they had some sprouts, not roots but what in another situation would be considered slips to start a new plant. So, is possible to go past maturity? Now that they are out of the ground and the sprouts removed will they keep the same as others? What about those that are fibrous and nasty inside, seen a few of those too. Is it because they are overly mature, or is that particular one just like that? I'm assuming for now it's just cause that is how that one is and dropping it from the collection. But is that the right choice, maybe they would be fine if harvested earlier? Of course for my purposes fully mature seeds is very important but when it comes to the actual food part, does anybody know or want to speculate on what a mature sweet potato is, opposed immature or overly mature? |
|
