Breeding Sweet Potatoes (turning them into a seed grown annual)

[reed]

Thanks Ferdzy, that's what I'm thinking too. They're so pretty right now. I'll have to take a few pictures before I commence to chopping on them. I'll remove the buds that haven't opened yet and probably some of the most recently pollinated ones too.

Sorry yours are not cooperating. I guess the one that is blooming isn't setting seed by itself? I know self incompatibility is the norm but also know there are exceptions to that rule.

[Richard Watson]

How much seed have you ended up with this year reed

[reed]

Goodness, I don't know but I'm pretty satisfied with it this year. I'v stopped worrying over it on a daily basis except for the volunteers and new varieties.

I found a third volunteer a few weeks ago when some bean vines started dying down and it is also producing. Still have no guess why the left in place volunteers are doing better than those I transplanted. I have lots of seed from the transplants but nothing like the others.

I have plenty of seed from each cloned one and am thinking of reducing the number I clone from next year in favor of starting lots of new ones. If the volunteers turn out to have nice roots they might replace some or maybe all of the ones I'v kept for last few years. I feel a little remorseful to consider it but the original Bushy Bloomer may go extinct.

I don't know cause I'm always changing my mind and if I don't the weather or something changes it for me but I'm thinking next year to:
*Plant about 30 or so cloned plants from my best two or three root and deed produces primarily as
my food crop but also to get still more seed.
*Archive most of this years seed and direct sow all, around 1500, of my older seed and select the best from them. The vast majority I'm sure would end up not sprouting or discarded for some reason but that's OK.

The picture is of those same two volunteers. The more purple one is more bushy, that's it to top and left. Maturing seeds are mostly hidden under the leaves. I intended to chop off all those new flowers but they were so pretty and the bumblebees were having such a good time I haven't do so yet.

[Richard Watson]

I like how the flowers stick out above the leafs, easy for the bumblebees to get at them. I found that on my plants last year the flowers were deeper among the leafs, the bumblebees still were flying about under the leaves though

[reed]

I like how the flowers stick out above the leafs, easy for the bumblebees to get at them. I found that on my plants last year the flowers were deeper among the leafs, the bumblebees still were flying about under the leaves though

That particular plant does have lots of well displayed flowers but there are lots more buried in the leaves too and all the developing capsules are.

What do you think? Should I remove all of those to help with maturing the the ones that are hiding under the leaves? I haven't so far partly cause the bees love them so much. There are lots of flowers still around but they seem to visit the sweet potatoes first every day, then on other things. Or maybe they know, especially in the hot dry that the sweet potatoes will be closed up by noon, so they get em while they can.

[Richard Watson]

gees I have no idea, would it make much difference removing them? ,one of those shoulder lifting moments hey.

Thats interesting that your flowers close up in the heat, so what sort of heat are you talking here as I didnt notice flowers closing on the hot days last summer.

[reed]

30C plus and very, very dry but it's pretty normal anyway for the flowers to fade by afternoon at the latest whether they have been pollinated or not. Plants are actually quite variable, some open flowers  later than others and some fade later than others. No rhyme nor reason too it that I have seen. Some stay open for longer periods of time.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and chop all the new flowers in hopes it puts more energy into the currently developing capsules instead of new ones that have little chance of maturing. Might be in the 30s now but could be below zero C about any time. We don't have a gradual shift between seasons any more.

I was out looking at them just a little bit ago and had a thought. I'm perfectly happy with # of seed I'm getting from that plant but I bet less than 20% of the flowers in those bloom clusters develop capsules.

When the bees visit they tend to go from one flower to the next nearest so lots of pollen movement on the same plant unless different plants are closely planted.

I have other plants where nearly every flower develops capsules.  They are more closely growing with others but still seems unlikely that every flower is visited right after visiting a different plant.

Anyway, what just occurred to me is that maybe that is an indication of self compatibility.

[Lauren]

The hail got mine the other day. The quail seem to be enjoying what's left. One flower looks like it set fruit, so I may have a few seeds. I'll keep tubers for the two well adapted plants and try again next year.

[reed]

I went out and commenced to chopping on those in the picture. Should have done it sooner as a found a number of capsules that had already shattered and lost those seeds. O'well maybe they will volunteer next year.

Also found several clusters where blooms of the two plants were in very close proximity were all maturing seeds. I'm pretty much convinved now that these two plants are both self-noncompatible but they are compatible with each other.

I think it would be interesting to identify particular clones for self compatibility but would require growing in isolation, lots of good record keeping, in short more effort and space than I want devote to it. I also have a theory that some are compatible wit just some other particular ones and even in particular direction. For example (A) may  compatible with (B) but not with (C, D or E). Or maybe it's compatible as mother with (B) but not as father.

I'v read that some are just male or female sterile or even both. I guess I wouldn't know if one was male sterile but I'v never seen one that was female sterile, well unless you count those that don't bloom at all.

[reed]

I'v started harvesting sweet potatoes starting with those that didn't flower. They include all of the volunteers that had green ivy leaf. I'm a little bummed about that cause I don't have any green ivy leaf types that flower. Also no flowers on the new commercial clones with green ivy leaves.

About 2/3 of the purple ivy leaf volunteers did flower and are still making seeds. All of both green and purple volunteers with heart shaped leaves are currently maturing seeds.

One green heart leaf plant is making a high % of seeds that seem to have very thin seed coat or even lack it entirely. If I get them wet they sprout immediately but I wonder about their storage ability.  I'm sure that if not for the very dry weather they would be sprouting or rotting in the capsule. For now I'm taking a dim view of these seeds.

One of the two isolated volunteers have larger seeds than I'm used to and they are a lighter color but the they seem fine. In past I'v considered brown seeds as inferior but these look great, just a different color.

About 1/4 of those cloned from my own saved roots have not flowered or if so only sparsely.  I don't understand that as others cloned from the same roots have done so in abundance.

I'm saving seeds in groups, from my clones, from new commercial clones, from transplanted volunteer patch and lastly from the two semi isolated not-transplanted plants.

I'm also saving each group by when they matured. I harvested no seeds in July this year and only a few by mid August, by end of August I had about 700 total. I'm blaming the cool wet of June for the delay this year.

Each day when I bring them in I dump them on a plate and discard any that are misshapen or puckered or anything else I don't like the looks of. After this screening the total saved so far I estimate is in neighborhood of 3000 or little more. I haven't bothered to actually count, guess I could count # in a teaspoon and then count the spoons full.   

Weather is still quite warm and seeds still maturing but  think I will go ahead and harvest all of them soon to insure warm conditions for curing the roots.

I actually real happy with total collection, it's big enough I feel safe to do a mass direct planting next year and still have a nice insurance supply in the archive.

I'm interested in how my seeds did in the far north but haven't got any reports. I know in past they've done pretty well in Texas, North Carolina and California. Also some success in Utah. I'm aware of sweet potatoes volunteering in Minnesota, unrelated to my work but I have no report on how my seeds did there. I'm also aware, again unrelated to my work of success in getting seeds by a grower in Canada.  I think a grower in Sweden managed to get seed or at least flowers from my seed but the seeds I got from him grew but did not flower.  Richard in New Zealand wasn't able to get seeds but he does have plants going into their second year so it might work out. In any event the overall project of adapting sweet potatoes to a seed grown,northern adapted annual is moving along pretty nicely I think.

One point of interest is that I want them to be dependable and reliable as a seed grown crop. To do that I may need to pay better attention to the issue of self incompatibility. I see a danger in by focusing too narrowly on specific growth habit, color what ever might eventually lead to a situation where even though you have a great variety that blooms good it still might not make seeds and that would defeat the whole purpose. I'll have to think on that some.

[Lauren]

I have two that are still blooming, although one (Bushy Bloomer purple ivy leaf) hasn't set seeds at all. I see another possible three stems on the other (purple heirloom mix) that appear to have set but the stems are still green so who knows? I'll be keeping seeds (if I get any) and roots from these two for next spring.

I think there are a number of environmental problems this year. GDD (growing degree days) is down pretty much across the board. At the same time UV has been higher than normal in most areas.

Leaf types--ivy leaf and heart leaf are pretty self explanatory. What do you call those deeply indented leaves? Another variation of ivy leaf? Or do they have their own name?

[reed]

I think there are a number of environmental problems this year. GDD (growing degree days) is down pretty much across the board. At the same time UV has been higher than normal in most areas.

Except for early June we have not had a deficit of GDD, quite the opposite. Many nights above 70 F and many days above 90. I have no clue if like in corn there is a temp above which is detrimental, at least for seeds. For root production along with drought I think, definitely so.

Leaf types--ivy leaf and heart leaf are pretty self explanatory. What do you call those deeply indented leaves? Another variation of ivy leaf? Or do they have their own name?

Somewhere I have drawings from some old university literature showing all the different leaf types but I don't pay much attention to it. Especially since I remember that paper and others saying pretty much all sweet potato phenyotypes are highly variable and genetically quantitative. And to complicate things a little more they are prone to spontaneous mutation especially in first few generations of cloning a new seed grown plant.

I basically just make it up and pretty sure I haven't been consistent in my descriptions. If it doesn't have any lobes at all I'v called it heart or normal but there are variations even among those. if it does have lobes I'v called it ivy or finger leafed. It's not a trait that matters except aesthetically unless it turns out to somehow be related to seed production. Right now I don't think that is the case, I just haven't happened on a green, seedy ivy leaf yet. 

[Lauren]

We got our first frost today. I pulled the two well adapted plants and put them in the greenhouse to hopefully ripen the developing seeds. One (purple heirloom mix) has been blooming slightly but consistently for about a month and a half. I got my only seeds from this one. It had two small roots that I'll try to keep over the winter inside. The other (bushy bloomer) has been blooming for a little less than a month. No seeds yet. The feeder roots were 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch in diameter and probably 12+ inches long, but whatever roots were down there snapped off when I tried to dig the plant. They mostly went out away from the plant itself, or went deep. There were at least three roots that snapped off but I couldn't find them within a reasonable distance from the plant. I'll be trying to re-root the plant itself and try again next year with these two.

[reed]

I went ahead and dug up all the transplanted volunteer patch and several of them also had what I call stringy roots. I won't be keeping them to clone. I found some bigger ones when digging a different plant that I could tell by color actually came from one a couple feet away. I consider those that make roots far from or deep down the same as those that don't make any. I don't want em.

I keep all seeds but only plants with what I call "clump root" get saved to clone. They make nice clumps of good roots directly under the central stem. I figure by growing about any seed but only cloning the best ones I'm keeping diversity high but at the same time for lack of a better word, distilling the whole population for the traits I like. In first few seasons I cloned all that made seeds but changed that a couple years ago.

The bulk of my seed this year comes from the last couple seasons best clump root seeders but pollen came from other sources too.

I'm about done with them all this year and even though it is still very hot that might change anytime so I think this week I'll dig them all, tag the best roots for cloning next year and call it done. I don't think I'll keep any as house plants this winter either, I know any can be kept that way.  It's extremely easy, all you need is a three or four inch cutting with a growing tip. It doesn't even need roots, just stick in some dirt and keep it moist for couple of days. 

[Richard Watson]

Sounds like youve had a good year overall. Now its my turn again, looking a my clones today, putting out new leaves but no sign of flowers though.