Short fat colored carrot project progress
Aug 18, 2014 0:16:35 GMT -5
johno and kazedwards like this
Post by templeton on Aug 18, 2014 0:16:35 GMT -5
Went and thinned my carrot patches yesterday. From the initial mass cross I selected seed from the colored progeny, and resowed it, according to parental color - the short fatness didn't show up in any of the F1 plants, perhaps because of the small amount of French Round plants that were flowering.
Since these were all mass crossed, there was really no way to tell what had crossed with what, so I just broadcast 1 square metre plots by parent - French Round MX F1 (that is the seed borne on the French Round original parents from the mass cross block), Slightly mauve and pink MX F2, quite mauve MX F2, and one very purple MX F2. I rejected all the white roots from this first F1 growout.
Germination was very variable. These have been growing over winter after my Fall 2014 sowing. They are still very small, mostly about 5 mm diameter,and exhibiting a range of shapes and colours, some long and skinny - reject, others short and fat with tapering roots, others blunt ended, and a few round.
I've left anything with purplish coloration of the stems unthinned, so can't report on color variation, but a few got plucked by mistake, with some nice pastels among them. No pics, since I ate the colored ones to see what they tasted like. Variation in taste, too.
There is a chance I'm selecting for early bolting by this single year growout technique, but I can't wait for 2 years between generations, figuring I can savagely cull once I get these somewhat stabilised.
Will report further when I dig the bed, after the spring flush, but before the heat of summer in a month or two - if I can curb my impatience. I'll be replanting selected roots in the hope of getting mid-late SH summer seed, so might have some seed to distribute then, if anyone is interested. I'm lucky, no Queen Anne's Lace round here.
T
Since these were all mass crossed, there was really no way to tell what had crossed with what, so I just broadcast 1 square metre plots by parent - French Round MX F1 (that is the seed borne on the French Round original parents from the mass cross block), Slightly mauve and pink MX F2, quite mauve MX F2, and one very purple MX F2. I rejected all the white roots from this first F1 growout.
Germination was very variable. These have been growing over winter after my Fall 2014 sowing. They are still very small, mostly about 5 mm diameter,and exhibiting a range of shapes and colours, some long and skinny - reject, others short and fat with tapering roots, others blunt ended, and a few round.
I've left anything with purplish coloration of the stems unthinned, so can't report on color variation, but a few got plucked by mistake, with some nice pastels among them. No pics, since I ate the colored ones to see what they tasted like. Variation in taste, too.
There is a chance I'm selecting for early bolting by this single year growout technique, but I can't wait for 2 years between generations, figuring I can savagely cull once I get these somewhat stabilised.
Will report further when I dig the bed, after the spring flush, but before the heat of summer in a month or two - if I can curb my impatience. I'll be replanting selected roots in the hope of getting mid-late SH summer seed, so might have some seed to distribute then, if anyone is interested. I'm lucky, no Queen Anne's Lace round here.
T