Messages

1

Cucurbits / Re: Green-Fleshed Guatemalan

« on: 2021-10-04, 01:55:52 PM »

So I Googled up a number for a ripe squash from pollination. 45 days. [...]

Brent Loy writes that the embryo has largely filled the seed coat cavity by day 35 but that seed fill continues until about day 55:
https://newenglandvfc.org/sites/newenglandvfc.org/files/content/proceedings2007/WinterSquash.pdf

But seed development will continue in picked immature fruit, so I hope that you'll get a good number of viable (if not fully filled) seeds!

2

Legumes / Re: Peas 2021

« on: 2021-08-01, 04:59:02 AM »

I only remove the keel but keep the standard and wings for protection (see page 4 here: https://www.arche-noah.at/files/kreuzungsanleitung_erbse_1.pdf).
When heavy rains were to be expected, I've sometimes additionally used sticky tape, something I once saw recommended as a standard practice for common bean crosses.
I only pollinate once, then I close the flower and leave it alone.

3

Community & Forum Building / Re: Is the word landrace just jargon for "variable population"

« on: 2021-05-29, 07:43:32 AM »

Good thread!

"Landrace" is also genebank terminology. The FAO/Bioversity list of Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors includes a descriptor called Biological status of accession.
One of the values to choose from is "Traditional cultivar/landrace". I think the options they give for this descriptor give a good overview about different statuses material can have.
https://www.bioversityinternational.org/e-library/publications/detail/faobioversity-multi-crop-passport-descriptors-v21-mcpd-v21/

On a side note, with the new EU Organic Regulation (2018/848), a new legal term was introduced as a seed category in the European Union: organic heterogeneous material (OHM). I still don't fully understand the complete definition, but among other things, OHM

"... is characterised by a high level of genetic and phenotypic diversity between individual reproductive units, so that that plant grouping is represented by the material as a whole, and not by a small number of units"
(http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/848/oj)

I kind of like that sentence.

4

Tomatoes / Re: Xenia Effect in Tomato Seeds

« on: 2021-05-07, 02:10:32 PM »

Here's a picture I made a couple of years ago from seeds that grew on one S. lycopersicum plant: The ones on the left are from pollinations with S. habrochaites pollen, the ones on the right are from open pollination. I'm not sure though if this can really be considered "classical" xenia as within one species. The seeds of course might not be perfectly developed due to a certain degree of incompatibility between the species/genotypes. The hybrid plants, however, were quite vigorous, not really showing pronounced "outbreeding depressing" (other than probably reduced fertility).
Posting the picture didn't work for me (I don't know why, others don't seem to have any problem right now), so here's a link: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba1vDuQB5SK/

5

Cucurbits / Re: Cucurbita moschata × C. pepo

« on: 2021-05-01, 01:59:11 AM »

Very quick update:

The BC₁ plants were very late to set fruits and I was not able to get any viable seeds from them. I cannot tell whether this was because of the immaturity alone or also because of fertility issues.
Even though I've reached a dead end know, I still think there is great potential to moschata × pepo hybrids and their progeny, and this particular cross specifically. 'Kogigu' produced viable interspecific hybrid seeds not only when pollinated with JBL × TP F₁ but also when pollinated with pure 'Tonda Padana'. This leads me to think that 'Kogigu' might be a remarkably good female parent for crosses with pepo.

6

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-21, 09:19:06 AM »

Manually crossing cultivated material probably won't increase "promiscuity" but it will create genetic variation, of course. The flowers are small, but it can be done with tweezers and maybe magnifying glasses.
Like Jeremy Weiss, I wouldn't include wild material in a population you want you use right away. As for shattering, it's my impression that edamame varieties are much more prone to it than modern "dry soybean" varieties. Maybe that's also because you want the cooked edamame to pop open easily.

7

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-21, 08:02:51 AM »

I think it's also worth noting that cultivated soybeans (Glycine max) are rather strictly self-pollinating with very low outcrossing rates. A soybean landrace would therefore end up as basically being a mixture of inbred lines. So when starting a landrace, I would maybe include manually crossed seeds at first to really get the diversity going.

Wild soybeans (Glycine soja) may have a higher outcrossing rate – around 13%(Fujita et al. 1997*) – so as a long-term project one could include wild material for a "moderately promiscuous" () soybean landrace in the spirit of Joseph's promiscuous tomatoes.   

Source:
*R. Fujita, M. Ohara, K. Okazaki, Y. Shimamoto, The Extent of Natural Cross-Pollination in Wild Soybean (Glycine soja), Journal of Heredity, Volume 88, Issue 2, March/April 1997, Pages 124–128, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a023070

8

Seed Saving / Re: Germinating super old seeds

« on: 2021-03-20, 04:30:42 AM »

I'd be careful when using H₂O₂ on really old seeds. After all, in seed aging, oxidative damage plays a big role, so you're already dealing with e. g. rather fragile membranes. This is why when treating old seeds with H₂O₂ to increase oxygen bioavailabilty, Liu et al. (2012)* used a Calcium source to protect membranes. And they weren't even working with really old seeds (max. 6 years).

Source:
*Liu, G., Porterfield, D., Li, Y., & Klassen, W. (2012). Increased Oxygen Bioavailability Improved Vigor and Germination of Aged Vegetable Seeds, HortScience horts, 47(12), 1714-1721. Retrieved Mar 20, 2021, from https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/47/12/article-p1714.xml

9

Legumes / Re: Tannins in pea shoots and pods

« on: 2021-03-06, 11:51:22 AM »

Is it my understanding that their red-podded breeding lines fo not use the yellow podded gene?

I'm not sure if they have an advanced breeding line with yellow&red pods but they definitely have combined yellow with both "purple" and "red" (bb ...) anthocyanin mixes (01:07:40).

P.s. Peace Seedlings of Oregon has just released a red podded pea this year. Seems they have beaten me to mine. I'll still try working on my line though. No guarantee that theirs tastes good or not until I try growing it.

Cool, let us know how you like it! Unfortunately it has become quite difficult to import seeds into the EU, so it will take a while until I'll be able to grow it.

10

Blogs & Media / The Catalogue of Pisum Genes by Wojciech Święcicki

« on: 2021-03-01, 04:14:51 AM »

There's a really cool publication by Prof. dr. hab. Wojciech Święcicki listing hundreds of pea genes and providing good pictures of the associated phenotypes for many of them:

Święcicki, W. (2018): The Catalogue of Pisum Genes: Gene resources maintained at the Polish Pisum Genebank. Poznań. 
http://pw.ihar.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-Catalogue-of-Pisum-genes_02.01.2019_small.pdf

11

Legumes / Re: Tannins in pea shoots and pods

« on: 2021-03-01, 04:03:53 AM »

There was a really interesting presentation last Wednesday by Michael Mazourek and Johanna Keigler (Cornell Universtiy) about their pea breeding and pea biochemistry in general on the Culinary Breeding Network's YouTube channel (as part of the 2021 CBN Variety Showcase). Their session starts here.

Among other things they talked about how they screened thousands of plants to find peas that produced anthocyanin but lacked bitterness or astringency in their pods: https://youtu.be/D_XYtAnv94U?t=4138

12

Greens & Brassicas / Re: Watermelon Radish × Purple-Skinned Radish

« on: 2021-02-07, 08:55:04 AM »

I also don't see many with color on the inside even though I planted some in the original mix.

Can you recommend any turnip cultivars with color on the inside? The most intensely colored turnip I've seen a picture* of was a 'Collie' F1 that was red through and through, but even this cultivar doesn't seem to be that red always. 

Beautiful root, by the way!

*https://www.labonnegraine.com/navets/2118-rouge-collie-f1.html

13

Greens & Brassicas / Re: Watermelon Radish × Purple-Skinned Radish

« on: 2021-01-31, 05:32:32 PM »

So, question: inspired by this thread, I'm looking at getting some Miyato Rose and Miyato Rose-Green Luobo cross radish seeds. Looking up Miyato Rose, I see instructions not to plant it in the spring. Is that because they will bolt?  If they just get hot and woody, then no point in planting early. But if they bolt, then mwa-ha-ha. I think I will.

Very cool!
'Red Meat' did bolt early without making any bulb when I sowed it in early spring. I still used the better looking plants for pollinations but selection for most traits I care about was not possible ...


Here are two pictures from yesterday of an F₂ plant that does have red flesh and a smaller bulb than 'Red Meat'. I might cross it again to a quick forcing radish to get more spring radish characteristics combined with the red flesh.

14

Cucurbits / Re: Green-Fleshed Guatemalan

« on: 2021-01-30, 02:46:08 AM »

There was a session featuring Linda Wessel-Beaver, Glenn Teves, and Edmund Frost about Tropical Pumpkins as part of Culinary Breeding Network's Variety Showcase + Winter Vegetable Sagra on the CBN YT channel last Thursday. There they also presented some green-fleshed pumpkins/squashes and talked a bit about their properties (e.g. 13:08, 52:05). Through the chat I could ask about the nature of the pigment and it seems like no one really knows what it is. However, Dr. Wessel-Beaver does not think it's chlorophyll (01:02:49).

15

Greens & Brassicas / Re: Watermelon Radish × Purple-Skinned Radish

« on: 2021-01-18, 11:36:29 AM »

Dan Brisebois, the breeder of these black-skinned radishes, has written a nice blog post about their breeding history:

https://goingtoseed.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/living-the-radish-breeding-dream/. I also really love the "skunk radishes"!