Just Starting - Sourcing TSPS?

[Sean Dunlap]

Hi all.

I'm a gardener located in the Georgia Piedmont - zone 8a - prime sweet potato growing spot, which is good because my family eats sweet potatoes just about every day! They are also one of my favorite things to grow.

As such, I would like to try my hand at sweet potato breeding with seed (to compliment my other projects and hopefully future collaborations with community).

Can anyone point me in a good direction for acquiring some TSPS?

Many many thanks.

[reed]

Hello Sean, I have been breeding sweet potatoes for about ten years now. I have a fair stockpile of seeds and some superior clones that I intend to use in a large controlled grow this year with hope of starting to market them at the end of 2023 or early 2024. I don't know at this point if I'll be selling seeds or clones of seedy plants or both.

I have heard rumors of some tsps being traded around but I don't really know from where, I suspect they may have originated with some seeds I gifted or traded several years ago, but I don't know that for sure. Other than that, I know of no possible source of TSPS. Since then, I have greatly improved my seeds by selection for a number of favorable traits.

When I have more firm documentation of germination rate, percentage of new plants that are likely to exhibit favorable traits, and some other things I want to be able to tell a buyer I'll be looking to start releasing mine to the market. I have had good grow reports from north Texas to northern Indiana, I expect they would do very well in Georgia.

I'll be documenting this year's grow outs here on this forum and on a website as the season progresses if you want to follow along.   

[Sean Dunlap]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! Your project sounds amazing and going back through all the threads on this forum has been very enlightening. I'll be sure to follow along as you ready your project for the public.

In the meantime, I am going to track down some varieties that might get me the seed I am looking for and begin with that.