I know there's already a post on this topic, but it's mostly people who have been breeding sweet potatoes for a long time and are far along in the process. I'm still trying to get seeds, so I'm starting a new post.
I have two varieties this year--I have no idea what varieties they are as they were both gifts, one white fleshed and one orange. I will be planting both in the greenhouse to try to give them the longest possible growing season in the hope of getting flowers and seeds. The plant (singular) that I had previously died in the first frost and never bloomed.
What conditions do sweet potatoes need in order to bloom (aside from genetics, which I can't precisely control)? Can I help the process along somehow? How long before I can expect to see flowers if they are going to appear?
(FYI, last year's sweet potato test was in pretty much straight sand, under deep mulch, and watered for a few minutes every 10 days. So not ideal conditions, but it had a massive root mass and a few good sized tubers so this year I'm using the sweet potatoes outside the greenhouse for soil building)
Sweet potatoes seem like one of the most genetically diverse species that I have worked with. In other words, the best answer I can provide is: It depends. I have had sweet potatoes that flower all summer long. Gloriously flowering things, and others that don't flower at all. My primary selection criteria for any breeding project is seediness. The plant has to produce seeds for a breeding project to exist at all. After I can reliably grow seeds, then I'll start selecting for other traits.
Lauren, you say you are starting in green house to extend growing time. Where are you located, is your growing season generally considered too short or cool for sweet potatoes?
I'm in Utah, and the growing season is too short. I'm hoping if I can get some seeds I can work on shortening the season. Joseph's season is considerably shorter than mine, so there is hope.
I was also working under the impression that the flowers would appear only at the end of the season, which is apparently incorrect.
Quote from: Lauren on 2019-03-18, 08:45:01 AM
I know there's already a post on this topic, but it's mostly people who have been breeding sweet potatoes for a long time and are far along in the process. I'm still trying to get seeds, so I'm starting a new post.
I have two varieties this year--I have no idea what varieties they are as they were both gifts, one white fleshed and one orange. I will be planting both in the greenhouse to try to give them the longest possible growing season in the hope of getting flowers and seeds. The plant (singular) that I had previously died in the first frost and never bloomed.
What conditions do sweet potatoes need in order to bloom (aside from genetics, which I can't precisely control)? Can I help the process along somehow? How long before I can expect to see flowers if they are going to appear?
(FYI, last year's sweet potato test was in pretty much straight sand, under deep mulch, and watered for a few minutes every 10 days. So not ideal conditions, but it had a massive root mass and a few good sized tubers so this year I'm using the sweet potatoes outside the greenhouse for soil building)
Lauren, I could send you a few sweet potato seeds to get you started. PM me if interested. Most of the seeds I produced this year came from seeds that Reed shared with me last year. I've been sharing them with a several new people, but I still have some left I could send out. I'll be planting my seeds for this year's crop any day now!
Depending on how many seeds I can produce this summer (which I hope to be a lot), I was thinking about starting something similar to the Kenosha Potato Project seed trains or maybe starting a new project with the Experimental Farm Network, and really start getting as many people as possible breeding sweet potatoes.
Also, massive thanks to Reed for all the work he's done with sweet potatoes, and being able to share seeds. This is one of the most exciting breeding projects I am currently working on.
That would be fabulous. I IM'd you.
I would love to be part of a collaborative sweet potato prpject, too!
Is there any update on this project? I am growing out 11 or 12 varieties this yeah and hoping to get some seed was wondering if Lauren has had any success.
Quote from: Kevin Collignon on 2021-04-10, 07:55:57 PM
Is there any update on this project? I am growing out 11 or 12 varieties this yeah and hoping to get some seed was wondering if Lauren has had any success.
Quote from: Kevin Collignon on 2021-04-10, 07:55:57 PM
Is there any update on this project? I am growing out 11 or 12 varieties this yeah and hoping to get some seed was wondering if Lauren has had any success.
There is a category on here just for Sweet Potato topics.
http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?board=11.0
This topic seems pretty old, there seems to be another topic that might work out better for you.
http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?topic=116.0
There is a discussion for just Europe and just Australia / New Zealand as well. Even if you aren't from those places, they have a lot of information on there.
I am planning on trying out sweet potato breeding next year. I will post a website with a lot of information on sweet potatoes and wild relatives of them.
https://www.cultivariable.com/
For me Lumper - Bloody Banana - Calawah - Chiar Choque Pitu - Solanum hjertingii and a few others look quite nice.
If you are new to potato breeding, I would make sure to double check / research on ploidy.
There are all sorts of different ploidy in potatoes: tetraploid -pentaploid - aneuploid - hexaploid etc.
Some things can be easily crossed, others can take a bit of work.
The wilds seem fun to work with - toxic tubers are easy to sort out.
Calawah seems to have an interesting ploidy.
It's almost time to start sweet potatoes here, I'll likely be posting some details over on my thread pretty soon.
I'm moving to trialing some of my better plants for actual production instead of focusing on just seeds. Doing that by cloning the best from 2020 in better growing conditions. Also from them I hope to produce a line of elite seed where the chances of any particular seed producing a high quality plant is greatly increased over previous years. I expect the seed from 2021 to be much improved over all previous seed in pretty much all respects but of course I'll have to wait till 2022 to find out.
95% of my seeds are archived for long term storage, still undecided if I will start any seeds at all. I hate the thought of not doing so but about all my pots, tubs and inground space is already reserved for the 2020 clones.
I've gone and read most of the posts about breeding on here. I look forward to reading about everyone's progress this year. I am hoping out of 400+ plants mixed between 12 variaties I'll be able to collect some seed and maybe contribute to other peoples breeding projects in some way.
I received some seed from Michael Jennings in 2020 that I grew out, from the KPP TPS train. 9 / 22 germinated, 8 survived to be transplanted outdoors. One produced true seed, but only a few that did not germinate this year. Several flowered profusely throughout the season, but there seemed to be an inverse relationship between flowering and tuber size. Those that flowered best produced the smallest tubers. Two of the 8 produced tubers large enough to save for replanting, and I have them in potting soil to develop slips at present. If these two do not produce true seed this year, I probably will not grow these clones again.
I started 25 seeds with 15 germinating this year. I did not scarify seeds, but directly planted them in germination mix. As many as survive into late May or June will be transplanted outdoors. A few of them look rather weak, so they may not make it.
Quote from: nathanp on 2021-04-11, 07:05:26 AM
Several flowered profusely throughout the season, but there seemed to be an inverse relationship between flowering and tuber size. Those that flowered best produced the smallest tubers.
Yes, that
is, was most certainly true in the early years and still is to a degree. Also those that flower most profusely with large clusters of flowers make a higher percentage of seeds that are hard to sprout.
There seems to be a happy medium developing. Many that have just two or three flowers per cluster rather than as many as 15 or more make less seed overall but they seem to be larger seeds that sprout easier. Even though they make comparatively less seeds they make them at nearly every internode. The capsules also more often, contain a full set of four nice seeds.
Those being cloned this year are mostly of that type. Only drawback is the internodes are farther apart and the plants have larger vines. They aren't giant vines but still not the bushy trait that I am most fond of. I guess you can't have everything.
Quote from: Garrett Schantz on 2021-04-11, 12:49:33 AM
For me Lumper - Bloody Banana - Calawah - Chiar Choque Pitu - Solanum hjertingii and a few others look quite nice.
If you are new to potato breeding, I would make sure to double check / research on ploidy.
There are all sorts of different ploidy in potatoes: tetraploid -pentaploid - aneuploid - hexaploid etc.
Some things can be easily crossed, others can take a bit of work.
The wilds seem fun to work with - toxic tubers are easy to sort out.
Calawah seems to have an interesting ploidy.
Garret, you may be mixing up regular potatoes (Solanum spp.) with sweet potatoes (Ipomoea spp.) All of the named varieties you mention are Solanum spp
For a useful discussion of breeding domesticated Solanum potatoes, see this post.
http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?topic=14.30 (http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?topic=14.30)
Quote from: nathanp on 2021-04-11, 07:48:28 AM
Garret, you may be mixing up regular potatoes (Solanum spp.) with sweet potatoes (Ipomoea spp.) All of the named varieties you mention are Solanum spp
For a useful discussion of breeding domesticated Solanum potatoes, see this post.
http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?topic=14.30 (http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?topic=14.30)
I did get them mixed up - typing a bit too late at night I suppose. Thanks for the correction.
This year I have 12 plants, all from the oldest (original) seeds. Initially planted in my bad soil, with plenty of water and bottom heat.
I was babying them, trying to get the max germination without nicking the seeds and got tired of the constant fuss, so I dumped what was left in a pot and stuck it in the cold greenhouse--three days later, they were starting to germinate. Quite amusing. I'm watching, and so far it appears that only a few are struggling with the cold.
Last year I got one good clump root plant, which I'm growing out this year. I tried to overwinter 6 plants, and kept roots from the same plants, but only one survived the winter. I have a decent number of seeds from the population. The seeds I got last year from my own plants will be planted next year so I should get only the strongest.
I'll mix the populations the following year.
Thank you for the update. I hope some of my plants put on seed this year so I can start my own breeding project.
Quote from: Mike Jennings on 2019-03-20, 10:34:51 PM
Lauren, I could send you a few sweet potato seeds to get you started. PM me if interested. Most of the seeds I produced this year came from seeds that Reed shared with me last year. I've been sharing them with a several new people, but I still have some left I could send out. I'll be planting my seeds for this year's crop any day now!
Depending on how many seeds I can produce this summer (which I hope to be a lot), I was thinking about starting something similar to the Kenosha Potato Project seed trains or maybe starting a new project with the Experimental Farm Network, and really start getting as many people as possible breeding sweet potatoes.
Also, massive thanks to Reed for all the work he's done with sweet potatoes, and being able to share seeds. This is one of the most exciting breeding projects I am currently working on.
Any update on this from either Lauren or Mike?
I received and planted the seeds Mike sent me. In 2019 I got only 5 seeds from my seedlings, probably because I didn't know what I was looking for. None of those seeds came up the following spring so I replanted from the original seeds. Six plants survived to produce seeds, but the roots were small and only one survived the winter. It has currently been planted out, along with the 15 seedlings from this year.
Based on the last few years I am going to breed for easy germination, easy slip creation, and keeping ability first. This year 6 of the 15 seedlings germinated in plain garden dirt, in a cold greenhouse, without bottom heat or any other assistance. They are being kept separate and will have priority for keeping seeds. Seeds were not nicked for any of the 15.
Mine was a failure this year. Out of 18 plants, 6 that germinated in cold conditions, I got no flowers and only a couple of small roots. I put them in the main garden where they would get plenty of water, thinking that would help them grow better, but it didn't work. No seeds.
I did acquire a commercial variety that seems to be a heavy bloomer, but it doesn't seem to be self-compatible. No seeds.
I have three small roots that I will try to overwinter and I got stems from all that survived. They are currently in water and I hope to keep them over the winter.
I'll try again next year.
Hi Lauren, sorry yours didn't turn out this year. I've never seen a named variety that was self compatible. What was the commercial variety that bloomed for you? Did you notice pollinator activity on it's flowers?
No, I didn't notice any bees. I hand pollinated the flowers I found, but none of them took. I honestly don't know what variety it was, but it's stronger than the other commercial varieties I have seen in this area. I planted the starts from the other commercial varieties at the edge of the garden and at best they got a few short stalks. That's about normal. This one sprawls everywhere, the leaves are huge (comparatively) and everywhere I planted it (main garden or under trees, under woodchips or in straight sand, well watered or drought conditions) it thrived.
At this point I'm mostly using the commercial varieties to improve the soil, leaving most of the roots in ground to rot over the winter. This one sprouted immediately, grew faster than the other commercial varieties, didn't seem to object to transplant and it's getting usable sized roots under conditions that made the others expire in agony. The skin is orange/pink and white inside. I still have usable roots from two of last year's survivors, one a pink and white the other purple all the way through, but it has a white ring which is quite interesting. I think if the roots were larger it might be striped white and purple.