Ipomoea batatas - breeding of Sweet Potato - Camote - New Zealand

[Richard Watson]

Thats a good point, I dont need big pots, if I use small pots and one out grows it, take a cutting and start again. With such a large number of new varieties now, next growing season will be a good one if I can get them to flowering before going outside.

[Richard Watson]

... and some other good news, one of this springs seedlings has flower buds showing

[reed]

Back when I was still starting them inside, I had one once in a while developed buds before going outside. I don't think I ever saw it on an overwintered cutting though.

But it's common for even small cuttings to keep flowering and keep maturing seed when brought in in the fall. You would have to do hand pollination, but I think it might be possible to get seeds that way especially if you have a nice warm window. Mine are a bit drafty so if the wood stove isn't going, the plants can get quite a chill. If it is going, they can get dried up. Back and forth like that, it's a wonder they make it at all, but they are very resilient, if there is even a tiny bit of life left come spring they just start over.

[Richard Watson]

So far its looking like the new varieties are going to be good flower producers. There's three of this springs seedlings with flower buds forming, the rest are to small yet, the timing of flowering should be ideal for Feb which is normally the warmest month.

[reed]

Cool, let's hope there's plenty of bees buzzing around!

[Richard Watson]

Plenty of bubble bees about. Came across a nest yesterday under a wood pile cover, I'll be taking care not to disturb them

[Richard Watson]

Managed to take cuttings yesterday from each of this summers new varieties and as well as last years variety, which is clearly not self compatible as its flowered amazingly well none stop for 10 months, but no seed. Signs are most of the new ones will be good flowering for next summer, which I hope will be better summer than the one just past, only had one day over 30C with a lot of rain.

Mark - have ye ever had any fasciation in any of your seedlings, I had one seedling that didn't grow a central growing stem between the first leaves, it sat there for three months blind before busting out the side of base below the first leaves, and now this growth stem is fasciated.

[reed]

Mark - have ye ever had any fasciation in any of your seedlings, I had one seedling that didn't grow a central growing stem between the first leaves, it sat there for three months blind before busting out the side of base below the first leaves, and now this growth stem is fasciated.

Yep, I've seen that a few times. Over the years I've had a couple come up that way, sometimes with three or four seed leaves. Sometimes it's just a branch on an otherwise normal looking plant. I don't have a clue what it means, if its good or bad, or what causes it. The weirdest thing I've seen is a few that apparently can't make chlorophyl. Leaves are a light bronze color. They do grow very slowly but die fast if exposed to direct sun, that happens in maybe 1 of 200 seedlings.

[Richard Watson]

Ok so we can add these to the list of plant varieties that fasciate.

I took the cuttings as I knew our first frost could have been overnight, in the end it reached freezing point, dont know if it was cold enough to damage the leaves

[Richard Watson]

Update on my Kumara/Sweet potato aka Camote. I'm about 3weeks from planting the seedlings from the cross made by another grower 400kms north of me. A few have flower buds forming that were the plants that handled the cold best in my tunnel house early winter, some died which i was not worried about, only wanted to toughest cultivars really. Could this be the year I get seed.