Breeding Sweet Potato in Europe

[Morris Charbonnier]

Sweet potatoes are a relatively "new" crop in most parts of Europe. With lacking cultivation history, no traditional varieties and limited intercontinental exchange of genetic material, it's even more important to share experiences. For this reason the new thread:)

I managed to get op seeds (under field conditions) from: Bonita, Evangeline, Murasaki, Beauregard, Tahiti, Tatakoto, Jin-Eul-Mi, Ho-Gam-Mi and an unnamed purple variety

Didn't succeed with: Sakura, Jeng-Mi, Kaukura (just few flowers), Manihi, Makatea and other two Korean varieties (no flowering at all)

I'm trying to expand my gene pool (nurseries, Asia shops, internet...), if I get enough material, I'm setting up some population crosses. I'm particularly interested in intense color (combinations) and taste

Additionally, I'm planning to graft weak flowering varieties on other Ipomoea species. Curious to hear about other (European) breeding projects;)

[Ocimum]

Hi,
not doing it (yet...) but happy to hear someone is doing it in Europe. May I ask in which country/region you are?

[Morris Charbonnier]

I'm in Switzerland, contact me when you're starting with Sweet Potatoes:) I'll probably have some spare seeds in late September...

[orflo]

I am growing sweet potatoes in Belgium.  By the end of February I start them indoors or in the greenhouse, depending on the weather.  In May they are planted outside, in the field, and harvest takes place in September/Oktober. The results are quite OK, up to now T65 is the best one with plants producing 2-4 kgs each.  The last few years it became hotter and hotter, but also drier. Therefore harvests went down, clearly indicating that they require quite a bit of water.  Seeds are formed just about every year, it's however hard to ripen them off outside, cutting the seed stems and bringing them inside, in some glasses filled with water can prolong the ripening process. 
I am growing out these varieties: Purple II, erato violet, erato orange, T65, erato pleno, nordic white, beauregard, 022 (from Sweden), and an unknown one.  I won't grow beauregard any more, it's very unproductive.  Seeds are formed on erato orange, erato pleno, purple II and erato violet, sometimes also on nordic white .  Unfortunately t65 never flowers over here, even when they are left (and covered) until mid-December...

[Richard Watson]

If you can get seed set at your latitude Frank surely i must. Getting to late summer here and Ive had little in the way of flowers since spring.

[reed]

I was thinking that too. I'm not at all familiar with most of the variety names mentioned in this thread. Maybe there are some more short season types in Europe. I know there is a fellow in Sweden that has had some success. I traded him some seeds several years back. His did not do well for me, only two sprouted and the plants did not thrive or bloom. That also makes me wonder if there are some that actually like it a little cooler. I don't know if he had much luck with mine or not.

2-4 kgs per plant yield sounds pretty good too. Most of mine have been less than that I think but I have mostly grown them in small pots and not been especially diligent on preparing a good soil mix nor watering during hot dry spells. I'm changing that this year with clones of the twenty best seedlings from last year.

Orflo, when you say you start them in Feb, are you talking about cloning slips or sprouting seeds? Here I do both in mid to late April. I also plant them out in May but here by then we are over 10c for nighttime lows. I generally harvest in October but once in awhile it stays hot into November so I leave them as long I can.

From what I have seen they are not daylength sensitive, some start blooming as small seedlings but I wonder if that might vary as some heirlooms such as Beauregard and Hong Hong don't bloom until much later. 

[Morris Charbonnier]

In my experience only early pollinations in open field lead to completely matured seed. I also used the indoor water glass method for vines with unmatured seed (I got seeds; germination test not yet done).

I'm growing parent plants in pots in the greenhouse (slightly higher seed set) and with trellising (easier harvest, seed capsules stay dry unlike in dense field foliage). Seedlings and new varieties are evaluated in the field.

From what I have seen they are not daylength sensitive, some start blooming as small seedlings but I wonder if that might vary as some heirlooms such as Beauregard and Hong Hong don't bloom until much later. 

I tend to agree on that. I put hardly flowering varieties under (admittedly improvised) short-day conditions and haven't noticed a significant increase in flower setting...

Seeds are formed on erato orange, erato pleno, purple II and erato violet, sometimes also on nordic white .

Interesting, I definitely have to get those Erato varieties;)

[orflo]

I was thinking that too. I'm not at all familiar with most of the variety names mentioned in this thread. Maybe there are some more short season types in Europe. I know there is a fellow in Sweden that has had some success. I traded him some seeds several years back. His did not do well for me, only two sprouted and the plants did not thrive or bloom. That also makes me wonder if there are some that actually like it a little cooler. I don't know if he had much luck with mine or not.

2-4 kgs per plant yield sounds pretty good too. Most of mine have been less than that I think but I have mostly grown them in small pots and not been especially diligent on preparing a good soil mix nor watering during hot dry spells. I'm changing that this year with clones of the twenty best seedlings from last year.

Orflo, when you say you start them in Feb, are you talking about cloning slips or sprouting seeds? Here I do both in mid to late April. I also plant them out in May but here by then we are over 10c for nighttime lows. I generally harvest in October but once in awhile it stays hot into November so I leave them as long I can.

From what I have seen they are not daylength sensitive, some start blooming as small seedlings but I wonder if that might vary as some heirlooms such as Beauregard and Hong Hong don't bloom until much later. 

I start to make slips at that moment, the seeds are sown by the end of March, we probably have less hot and long summers than many places in North America, so at 51 ° north we need to take an early start, frosts can occur until mid-May.  In my experience sweet potatoes are not daylength sensitive, not for producing potatoes nor for flowering. Flowering here is very dependant on the variety, some varieties flower already when the are about 30 cms long, others need stems up to one metre...The 022 variety I mentioned probably comes from your Swedish connection...

In my experience only early pollinations in open field lead to completely matured seed. I also used the indoor water glass method for vines with unmatured seed (I got seeds; germination test not yet done).

I'm growing parent plants in pots in the greenhouse (slightly higher seed set) and with trellising (easier harvest, seed capsules stay dry unlike in dense field foliage). Seedlings and new varieties are evaluated in the field.

I tend to agree on that. I put hardly flowering varieties under (admittedly improvised) short-day conditions and haven't noticed a significant increase in flower setting...

Interesting, I definitely have to get those Erato varieties;)

I can grow some extra slips for you and send them in May, the only problem is that deliveries are quite slow since the pandemic, and I did have issues once sending live material (oca/yacon) to Switzerland.

If you can get seed set at your latitude Frank surely i must. Getting to late summer here and Ive had little in the way of flowers since spring.

Richard, are sweet potato seeds still allowed into NZ?  I don't have many this year, but I'll dedicate some plants only for seed saving in 2021, so with some luck I could have some for you

[Morris Charbonnier]

@orflo: I'm always interested in new varieties (sent you a PM) and of course I'm willing to share mine (in accordance with my capacities:).

Someone familiar with such color patterns?

[reed]

Someone familiar with such color patterns?

Cool!, yes I see similar from time to time. White with purple star pattern or streaks or swirls. One time I had one with purple spots. I don't think it really means anything as far as flavor or otherwise but it's always fun to find. Do you notice that the snowy white part starts to discolor almost immediately when exposed to air? 

[Richard Watson]

Richard, are sweet potato seeds still allowed into NZ?  I don't have many this year, but I'll dedicate some plants only for seed saving in 2021, so with some luck I could have some for you

Yes they are Frank. Seed coming from 51deg north might really do well coming to my 43deg, that would be so nice of you if you could.

[Angelo Dewitte]

Hi everyone,

I started a participative Belgian breeding program for sweet potato and yacon in 2017. @Frank (Orflo), we met before.
Sweet potato is a very promising new crop in our region but the new (licensed) varieties (mostly coming from Louisiana) only exist out of orange fleshed tubers (Bayou Belle, Orleans, Bellevue, ...), with exception of some white varieties like Bonita or Murasaki. My impression is that beauregard still is one of the best varieties for our region, but the quality of the planting material is very important and differs from company to company. Also the presence of virusses may influence the yield.
Our goal is to develop several robust orange, white and purple (and speckled or striped) varieties adapted to our region, with focus on taste and moderate to good yield under several climate conditions. We now have our first selections that 'survived' the previous 3 years (tested on more than 20 locations). We had a very hot and dry summer, followed by a very cold and wet summer in 2021. Perfect to select robust varieties!
You can find our 4 selections (3 orange and 1 striped purple) on our website (www.yacobat.be; I will update it soon) and I would be happy to exchange material of these varieties with anyone who is interested. I'm always interested to obtain new varieties to test, so if you have interesting varieties, please inform me.
By the way, for flower induction, we graft on ipomoea 'star of yelta'. Grafting is easy, use 6 to 7 week old seedlings. On our website (or youtube), you can find a short movie how to do it (in dutch however)

I know companies in Switserland and the Netherlands that also started to breed sweet potato. So, I guess the development of European sweet potato varieties will evolve quickly now.

[Nicolas]

Hi Angelo,

That is a very great project, thanks for bringing it up to us !

Your link has a problem of punctuation, here is the correct link :

https://www.yacobat.be/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfZEshNqcaZ4HaAHr_OJYtQ : Youtube channel

[reed]

Interesting work you're doing.

I'm curious, when you induce flowering by grafting do the seed grown offspring keep the flowering ability on their own or do, they need grafted again?

My climate is much different of course but I have a small garden pond in full sun, so it gets quite warm in the summer. I've seen a couple of times that vines of types that typically don't bloom do so a lot when grown hydroponically in the filter area of the pond, but they do not make any large roots at all grown that way, just masses of feeder roots.

I glanced at your youtube video, interesting most of the flowers on your plants are a darker purple color than most of mine are.

[Adrian]

Do you have use ipomea purpurea as rootpower?