Camote selection NZ

[Richard Watson]

Because I cant seen to post a photo in the old thread I thought best to start a new one.

The new varieties have up to the shortest day been in the unheated tunnelhouse, some were looking to flash, so inside they go sitting in a north facing window. Four have kicked the bucket which is probably a good thing, weeds out the weak.

[Richard Watson]

Even though this fasciated seedling started oof without a growth tip and that it ended up three months later busting out the side of the stem, it seems to have handled the first winter month in the tunnelhouse well

[reed]

I direct planted about 1000 seeds this year and have in the neighborhood of 20 or so of those where the true leaves did that exact thing. Some also had off numbers of cotyledons, as in more than one set of two, or odd numbers like 3 or 5 and in some cases the normal two cotyledons except that they were fused together. Some that are producing large numbers of bloom buds even before growing true leaves are fasciated. I don't know what to do with the really weird ones, if the traits they are showing is a good or a bad thing.

I also have 200 + that are growing normally as well as developing bloom buds and showing bushy growth habit. I'm thinking maybe the best thing to do is to put all the freaky ones together, semi-isolated from the others in case these anomalies are somehow bad. I can watch their continued development this year and see what happens with their seeds next year.

[Richard Watson]

well its mid summer and I have 4 good flowering cultivars, no bushy bloomers are showing up, but hey its all about, ' can I get over the try line and achieve seed'. Having Chris from the North Island being able to have crossed Marks SP line and the NZ kumara strains should help.
Updates and photos to follow.

[Richard Watson]

Everything is lining up nicely,the weather is ideal with warm nights 17deg-22degC the low and daytime highs late 20's,had a thunderstorm dump 53mm in 40min, lots of lightning so that would have supplied nitrogen via the rain. So really pleased with the growth over the last week. There's four plants producing lots of flowers and lots of bumble bees visiting, at any one time there's 4-5 flying around the four flowering plants. The plant on the right is only just starting to form flowers but may miss the boat in timing it flowering with the others. The plant on the left is a total dead lose.

[reed]

Those look great. It shouldn't matter that they start blooming at different times as long as the weather holds long enough, there really isn't a season for blooming. Once they start, they just keep it up, the earlier ones will still be blooming when the later ones start. It should go on until weather puts a stop to it.

Unfortunately, rain can be an enemy of seed production. Rain plus warm can cause seed to sprout in the capsules. Rain plus cool can cause them to rot in the capsules. Warm, dry, makes for good seeds.

[Richard Watson]

I think having had the SP crossed with the local strains has made a big difference, they are doing so much better than past years.

Ive not had flower clusters like in the photo before, the two buds at 12 o'clock will flower in a day or so, the one at 1.00 o'clock flowered about five days ago and is looking well anchored.
 

[reed]

Generally, if a fertilized flower is going to abort it does it almost immediately, so looks like you are on your way. How long do you think you have before temps drop below 10 C? Although as far as maturing seeds goes and even setting new capsules you are ok as low as 3 or 4 so long as it stays dry.

I think root quality may decline at those temps, but the seed keeps on maturing. In a pinch you can dig them and harvest the roots and shove the plant in a pot. You can even leave it outside as long as it doesn't actually freeze. The leaves may dry up or drop off, but the seeds are still good.

Or you can just cut stems and put them inside in water. You'll be surprised at how many seeds finish up just fine that way. Take long cuttings and trim the bottom end every few days. Or if it spouts roots, which it likely will, you can just leave it alone and keep it overwinter as a house plant, either just in water or potted up if you want. Most capsules that are already on those cuttings will finish maturing.   

[Richard Watson]

When high pressure moves just to the west of NZ will be cool air mass above us meaning temps of 8-10 deg C can happen all through summer, mostly temps of 12 -15 deg at this time of year, we still have another month till the nights starts to cool.

The plant in the photo above has short flower stems which is what I had not had in past years, the others have long stems and these were still dropping off as of a week ago, now I'll see what happens to these after having had a warm week.

[reed]

Short stems with lots of flowers per might be carried from bushy bloomer. I let the original bushy bloomer go extinct, but the trait continues to show up, this year I had one that did it in the extreme, way more than bushy bloomer did. Seems to me though that those with longer stems and fewer flowers per tend to make better seeds although not as many.

The bushy bloomer ones seem to make them in clusters at the growing tips and the others make a bloom stem at every or near ever leaf joint. I miss collection on some of them because they are buried down under the growth, and I don't find them before they shatter. This year I am going to try to do better at trellising them up like yours.

[Richard Watson]

The plant on the right in the photo is a bushy, but a poor bloomer, shame really.

[reed]

I had a great one last year, two of them actually. They had very compact extremely bushy habit and made nice deep orange roots, but they did not bloom at all. I did keep them to possibly clone this spring because the roots were so nice and with that growth habit, they would be great for growing in pots. Because of limited space though I may not use them, I really need to keep favoring the bloomers.

[AndrewB]

Would grafting a poor bloomer vine into rootstock of one that is a good bloomer cause it to flower? Maybe we can coax out more genetic diversity than we otherwise would get.

[reed]

I've read scientific papers where the researchers did that and other techniques as well but all I do is select for those that bloom good because seedy sweet potatoes is a primary goal. Plus, the non-bloomers in mine and the good bloomers all came from the same original genetics so nothing really to gain by forcing blooming. I don't have specific numbers but out of any 100 seeds, some will bloom, and some won't but by selecting for those that do over the years the percentage of bloomers is going up. I just have to keep looking for those that do both, make seeds and make nice roots. I'm starting 2023 with about 15 that do both. They are clones from seeds planted in 2019 thru 2022. The only thing most of them are lacking is the very bushy growth habit that I prefer but they are also not the extremely large vines that I really dislike.

I have a list somewhere of all those I originally included and whether or not they bloomed but I can't seem to find it. I do remember that some, where blooming was mentioned in the description did not bloom and some, where that was not mentioned did bloom, but I never did anything to try to force blooming.

[Richard Watson]

My wee non bushy started to grow some tinny flowers but now we are moving into autumn we can feel the start of the cool down they have got no more advanced.

I'm going to cover the plants with clear plastic to help develop the seed-heads that only one plant managed to do, all the others the flowers all fall off.  I pulled off a stem and checked the head, it had very small round white balls so I'm sure they are pollinated, i'll only use the plastic during cool cloudy days.

The main problem is the summers of the last 10 years have gotten cooler and this summer just gone was the coolest of the last 10, and wet by normal standards. If only I were growing these plants in the late 90's and early 2000 when the summers were warmer and drier.