Recent posts

#71

OSSI / Re: OSSI breeding funding

Last post by Joseph Lofthouse - 2026-07-18, 06:37:57 PM

Alex: I reviewed your account. I can't find anything unusual about it on OpenSourcePlantBreeding.org. Staff didn't intentionally limit your account. Hoping it was a temporary glitch. If it continues, let me know and I will dig deeper.

If the error appeared when accessing ossi.org, you may have triggered an automated firewall challenge on that site rather than on this forum.

#72

Tomatoes / Re: Montana Tomato Project

Last post by reed - 2026-07-18, 05:37:51 PM

Sorry to hear that, lots of folks having weather issues this year. So far so good here but hot and dry right now, small storms popping all around, but they have missed us.

The F3 of that Mr. Stripy cross you did for me was the first of the larger tomatoes to ripen this year. Phenotype of the plants is similar to last year but fruit on one plant not as sweet and delicious as the others, I culled it out so as not to accidentally save its seeds. The wife is staying with her mother for a couple days, by time she gets home we'll need to can tomatoes.

#73

Tomatoes / Re: Montana Tomato Project

Last post by William Schlegel - 2026-07-18, 11:41:52 AM

Bad hail damage last night. With the June eighth frost this is another serious setback. Plants will be ok. Currently pretty hot for fruit set. Will be a very late tomato crop.

#74

OSSI / Re: OSSI breeding funding

Last post by Alex - 2026-07-18, 02:41:15 AM

https://osseeds.org/ossi-plant-breeder-grants/
https://osseeds.org/ossi-plant-breeders-grant-application/

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#75

Plant Breeding / Re: Mutation breeding using ca...

Last post by Geum - 2026-07-17, 02:16:02 PM

Thank you for the reply Carol. Indeed I did not run a control, but it's unlikely that the seeds were dead because I planted the same batch about a month earlier and had great success with germination.

#76

OSSI / Re: OSSI Grant program, Offici...

Last post by Carol Deppe - 2026-07-17, 01:24:46 PM

We on the OSSI Plant Breeding Committee like the idea of allowing multiple proposals from each applicant.

Accordingly, the new policy is: Each applicant may submit up to three independent proposals. We will spread the new policy around so all applicants have it.

#77

OSSI / Re: OSSI Grant program, Offici...

Last post by Carol Deppe - 2026-07-17, 09:38:31 AM

Very interesting idea, William. I will consult with the other members of OSSI's Plant Breeding Committee and get right back to you. (The Plant Breeding Committee is responsible for running grant program on behalf of OSSI board, reading and evaluating applications, etc.)

#78

OSSI / Re: OSSI Grant program, Offici...

Last post by William Schlegel - 2026-07-16, 10:33:27 PM

Could a breeder submit multiple proposal ideas and then you would pick one if it got into the top five?

Like in my case I could probably come up with one to continue work with favas, and two for tomatoes- one for finishing a couple varieties on organic farms and another for doing some marker assisted selection. Might have more ideas before September.

#79

OSSI / OSSI Grant program, Official Q...

Last post by Carol Deppe - 2026-07-16, 06:00:13 PM

I'll answer questions here on behalf of the OSSI Board of Directors, of which I am chair.

Question 1: Would it be legit to write a proposal for a situation in which the only thing needed is seed increase?
Answer: Yes. Many varieties get stuck at that point because it sometimes takes more or different land or labor to do the seed increase prior to effective release of a variety than it took to do the breeding. So we explicitly wrote our grant material to include projects in which the breeding has been done but the variety is unreleased because of inability to do or finance the seed increase.

Question 2: I might be interested in submitting an application for a tomato project. Would my application be discriminated against because OSSI already has more than 200 OSSI-Pledged tomato varieties?
Answer: We discussed this issue in the board. First approximate answer. No. We don't plan to discriminate against tomato projects just because we already have lots of OSSI tomato varieties. After all, we have so many OSSIites breeding tomatoes because they are important and everyone loves them. However, realistically speaking, we would be unlikely to award more than one or two of the five available grants for tomatoes. And there are likely to be more proposals for tomato projects than for most other crops. So competition might be greater for tomato projects than for projects involving many other crops.

#80

Legumes / Re: Runner beans bred for eati...

Last post by Carol Deppe - 2026-07-16, 04:48:34 PM

Some Runner Bean varieties have been bred for edible pods and some for seeds.

British plant breeders have done a lot of work developing runner beans for the pods.

Adaptive Seeds has bred and sells an OSSI-Pledged variety 'British Pop', which is an interbreeding gene pool population started with all British varieties bred for the pods.