Breeding Sweet Potatoes (turning them into a seed grown annual)

[reed]

And I noticed the bees know which flower they have already visited.

O'yea they definitely know that. Even the next bee to arrive knows. It might crawl quickly in and out of a flower or two but usually just hovers over an already visited cluster and moves on. Either the first one leaves a detectable trace or maybe it doesn't detect the presence of what it came for.

[whwoz]

Makes sense from an energy expenditure point of view for Betsy to visit all the flowers close to each other rather than randomly visit flowers over a given patch.  Have noticed that they do the same on fruit trees

[nathanp]

I just stumbled across this video on potato breeding which I found interesting, by Craig Yencho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdzh0GTSJU0

[reed]

That is an informative video. Here is a little paper that I refer to a lot. I managed to track down some of it's references too, all good stuff. http://www.cropj.com/gurmu_7_13_2013_2074_2078.pdf

[Richard Watson]

I just stumbled across this video on potato breeding which I found interesting, by Craig Yencho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdzh0GTSJU0

A bit of winter watching, thanks, right now I have a late summer sunrise to go and greet   

[reed]

Well it's time to get some slips started for this year. Actually it's probably earlier than really necessary but I just wanted to get them out and started. These are all nicely seedy ones from last year that also made good "clump" roots where they are all directly under the stem so easy to find and dig. 

I think there are lots of ways to do this, I just stick them in wet sand in a sunny window. The sand just hold them in place while they sprout some roots.

I'll hold off a little longer on starting seeds. I'm gonna do that outside in the cold frame this year and probably also try direct sowing some.

[Chris Morrison]

Good tips there Mark, thanks. I was wondering 'whats next' with my seeds. Still harvesting but coming to an end. Should get ~300 odd for the season, very happy with that. I had no luck with slips last year, but didn't really try that hard, concentrated on over wintered cuttings. This year will try the sandbox in sunny window! I know the highly seed prolific 'G1' has good roots directly under the plant, so is seeming like a 'Super SP'.
Then we have to figure out where and how to plant all the seed, so watching what you do carefully, as I am sure Richard is  :-)

[ilouque]

Hi Reed, not sure if you got my message. I would love to grow some for you here in SW Louisiana; sending germination rates & other data points to you and send resulting seeds back as well. I have room left in my garden for a few rows. Willing to pay for seeds & postage. Please message me your thoughts either way. Thanks!

[reed]

Chris, sounds like your off to a real good start. I had maybe 20 seeds the first year I found them and if remember right 3 sprouted.

[AndrewB]

How is this project coming along? has anyone progressed to the point they are reliably getting a good quantity of seeds and can start sharing? How long until tubers are of good eating size? Two years?

[reed]

I harvested seeds in the thousands last year but I'm not ready to widely share seed as I am hopeful of making a deal with a seed company and am holding seed until I know more on that.

Some plants do not produce usable roots, they are better for ornamental or for eating the greens. Percentage of the not-rooting ones is going down because of selection. Those plants that do make usable, even very large roots, do so in the first year from seed, I suspect this at least to some degree is climate related. No need to go through multi-year process like with potatoes, a huge advantage in my opinion.

Although I'm not 100% sure of the difference between the two sweet potatoes are roots not tubers. I think that may be why they tend to mutate in cloning, they don't have the same kind of cell structure as tuber. Very interesting plants.

If it doesn't work out with the seed company I may start offering seeds for sale but probably not till next year. 

[AndrewB]

I just stumbled across this video on potato breeding which I found interesting, by Craig Yencho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdzh0GTSJU0

WOW! great video! Thanks for sharing! lots of interesting information! Some of it applicable to other crop species!

[reed]

well I went and did it, planted about 300 seeds straight in the ground. Not actual direct sowing really as they are crowded in a little spot about 3' x 4' and will be transplanted later. Sweet potatoes are one of in not the easiest thing to transplant I'v ever worked with.

I'm not going to cover them or anything, just wait and see what happens. exception to that is if we get a hot spell and some sprout followed by a cold spell, I'll cover them. I'm setting a goal of enough sprouted by June 1st to make the bulk of the patch. Well, except I put another two hundred in the cold frame and tomorrow I'll put 100 on a heat mat in the window.

The June 1st date is for all of them, don't know what I'll do with the rest, toss them out I reckon as I don't have room to do otherwise. Don't know what I'll do really if more than fifty or or sprout. Thinking if that happens I might put lots in small pots  and when they start blooming dump them out and examine the roots, replanting just the best ones. That would reduce production I'm sure but that's OK as it would move along the section of preferred root types. Digging or dumping a plant out and removing the big roots does not appear to have any negative effect on continued flowering and seed set.

[Chris Morrison]

Wow, interesting strategy. Will you use soft/fabric planter bags? Maybe 5 gallon, or larger? I am toying with a similar idea, using large terracotta pots, may be an issue dumping those, perhaps more likely a deep 'tickle'. The idea with Terracotta, is they look cool, and initial expense aside, present an ideal porch/patio growing option, where the plant offer pretty blooms aver 4 months, the runners can be snipped and eaten (they are actually really good), and of course the nice big fat roots and the main prize. I think I can 'sell' this idea to some older folk in apartments, well, anyone who craves gardening yet is space constrained, for that matter I guess? It would be a controlled 'trial'. I would only let out 1 seed type, so no seed setting occurs in the potted trials.
Any thoughts?

[reed]

I grow most on them in plastic nursery pots I scrounge up from people discarding them, mostly five gallon size but some even smaller. The feeder roots go out the drain holes into the ground so I don't have to water them much or be too concerned with the soil mix. If I  end up with a lot of seedlings before June 1st I may use one gallon plastic pots for my trials. You might need a larger pot if it was sitting on a surface where they couldn't do that but they would look cool that way for sure.

I have a few very large pots that cattle feed came in and some 55 gallon barrels cut in half, sometimes feeder roots even go out the bottom of them. I had one plant that made big storage roots under one of those, I culled that thing. I ain't digging holes two feet deep looking for sweet potatoes. The smaller pots let you know if it is a easy harvest type cause only the feeder roots exit the pot, the big nice ones are in it.