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#11

Tinkering / Re: Joining the Forum

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-06, 02:41:11 PM

How do I post images here that are not hosted online ( from my phone )?

#12

Sweet Potatoes / Re: Breeding Sweet Potatoes (t...

Last post by reed - 2026-10-06, 10:14:58 AM

The approach you are exploring should work equally well for potatoes

I've wondered that and why, to my knowledge no one has done it already. I still grow some potatoes, but my climate isn't the best for them, and I don't have a good place to store them so the fact that they don't really make anything to eat or really even much to evaluate (from seed) makes working with them really hard. I remember seeing a video one time from a grower in coastal California that got some not huge, but pretty nice potatoes, from seed. I wondered if they could do the same as I did with sweet potatoes and just grow clones of those nice ones and keep backcrossing and selecting until they had a line that really did have good chances of making a harvest again, from seed. I don't think that grower followed up. Patience is critical in such matters, I think.

I'm rethinking my plans for my sweet potatoes next year; I'll get back to that later. Below are plants I'm keeping as houseplants this winter because they didn't make large storable roots but are very seedy. I've always mostly just discarded plants such as these but decided it might be a good idea to make a "super seedy" side project away from the others. I'll keep them on the patio or in the back garden.

These are four very seedy new plants ready to come into the kitchen window when it gets cold. The two not in line in the tray are just the old Miss Bloom and Likes to Climb. The six cell pack on the right is Bean Patch Volunteer. It is very seedy, nicely bushy and has potential to be a root producer. The six in the middle are two that came from seeds I planted and that are both very seedy, although poor rooting. The six pack on the left are another volunteer, again with potential for better rooting than it did this year.



As far as rethinking my plans, it's more rethinking my technique. You can see in the photos they have seed capsules in development, as well as flowers and flower buds in various stages of development. I know from years past that that will likely continue even after they go inside and light and temperatures decrease. The reason I know for sure that the plant Miss Bloom is self-compatible is because it fully matured seeds in January a couple years ago when I hand pollinated it.

As I looked at these, I realized without bees to interfere I can do the same thing with all of these and find out which is self-compatible and which is compatible with which else. I can easily do that in the patch next year too, either by taking individual cuttings inside or by bagging stems with lots of flowers. (I already bought some soft mesh bags)

I'll still do my breeding groups, but I don't have to wait to find out compatibility preferences of each plant. It won't be all that much trouble to identify for sure any self-compatible plants as well as compatible pairs just by isolating cuttings or bagging branches. If I find any self-compatible plants especially in my culinary group(s)it will be very interesting in 2028 to see how they turn out.

The first seeds I ever saw came from a self-pollinated plant and I've always wondered about the potential involved with it how often it occurs and so on. I of course don't know but I suspect inbreeding depression is not a big concern with sweet potatoes. I suspect it's more likely that multiple phenotypes will still result even from self-pollination.

#13

Legumes / Sourcing Rare Commercial Pea V...

Last post by Tarruvi - 2026-10-06, 04:30:02 AM

I was looking into buying a few varieties, but the states have made it a headache to order anything related to seeds outside the US. I was fortunate enough to have bought some varieties like "Black Eyed Susan", "Crown Pea", and "Swedish Red" a year or so ago before... everything. (Note: I bought these seeds from Annapolis Seeds in Canada.)

At the moment, I'm trying to source more varieties like these with visually distinct characteristics. Foremost among them being "Argenteum", a variety that has silver leaves. Every search brings me to vendors that are in Canada, with one vendor in the US, Seed Savers Exchange having previously sold them but no longer have them in stock.

One more wrench in my goal to obtain these seeds is GRIN, and how wishy-washy it is to get anything from them. One time I was lucky enough to get an accession, all other requests with the same plans laid out were rejected. So, I can confidently write them off as a source.

That brings me to the name of this topic, where can I find something like "Argenteum" in the US?

#14

Legumes / Re: Variegated Peas

Last post by Tarruvi - 2026-10-06, 02:12:16 AM

An update on the variegated pea, the plant appears to have been fully pollen sterile. Resulting in no self-pollination, I think it may be due to the plant having been grown indoors. As some other peas that I've grown in the past have exhibited this behavior to some degree, but eventually began producing pollen after a time. Since the variegated pea did not produce any pollen, I used pollen from other plants to procure some hybrid seeds from it. Having hybrid seeds carrying this trait vs. no seeds at all is a no-brainer.

The first flower pollinated this way only produced a single seed, and the following flowers produced 3 more seeds. The first seed produced from the variegated plant was a cross with my snow peas, and I planted that F1 seed a couple months ago. The hybrid grew normally and did not have any variegation, which is expected as the trait is typically recessive. Cut to a few months later, and this F1 plant produced 5 seeds. I'm more than excited to see what these 5 seeds will look like when they sprout, but I'm going to have to wait for next year as the days are getting shorter with winter on the way. I should be able to plant them in February, as that was the month I started my Red-Podded F2s earlier this year.

I still have the 3 F1 seeds, and they will accompany the 5 F2 seeds on the windowsill next year. With the number of F2 seeds, at least one plant should appear with their grandparent's variegation. Additionally, those same F2s also have the recessive white flowered genes. So, there's an equally small chance that the variegated individual will have white flowers.

#15

Cucurbits / Re: Unusual C.moschata

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-06, 12:34:11 AM

Did you grow any more like this,  would love to know if that trait was passed on.

#16

Cucurbits / Re: Get a Blue c.moschata

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-06, 12:30:04 AM

Keep us posted,  i look forward to see how this pans out.

#17

Tinkering / Breeding software

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-06, 12:10:43 AM

Hello,
Im planning of doing some backyard breeding for my pumpkins and chilli's this year so I wanted to build  myself a little app so I don't have to log via a spreadsheet, then I got carried away, it's now online and free for anyone to use.

My background is breeding of animals on a hobby farm, but switched to plants now I live closer to the city,  so my app supports both and is still a work in progress,  just sharing in case anyone is looking for something  😀

Lineagetracker.org is the site,  i look forward to see you all around this forum.

Luke83

#18

Tinkering / Re: Joining the Forum

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-06, 12:01:52 AM

Oh, User Action button,  my bad.

#19

Tinkering / Re: Joining the Forum

Last post by Luke83 - 2026-10-05, 11:58:33 PM

Are new users restricted from posting new topics,  maybe in just blind:)

#20

Cucurbits / Re: Watermelon Landrace (proje...

Last post by AndrewB - 2026-10-05, 08:48:56 PM

This was the smaller watermelon from today, with the larger seeds.