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

[Richard Watson]

Just about every day a new seedling, and all purples too

[reed]

Sounds promising. Have you called the bees in to give em a head's up and  a pep talk yet?

[Richard Watson]

Not quite open yet

[Richard Watson]

Now up to 11 new seedlings, all but one purple leaf.

[reed]

What's your weather like? Warm enough to get them out in the ground?

[Richard Watson]

Yes, its not to bad, they have been outside now for a week apart from the 4 newest seedlings. There was a dump of snow on the mountains yesterday and a clear night just gone, no frost though thankfully, but close to it (1.5 C deg).
Growing all my plants this year upward using bamboo, give the bumble bees a clear view of the flowers. If ya guna have a flag it might as well be up a pole.

[Richard Watson]

Decided to to grow all last growing seasons plants (two on the right) and this seasons seedlings. Hoping that the purple leaf that is heavily flowering atm is self fertile as its the only one that is, the short green leaf has flower buds and should become a better producer of flower once the summer kicks in more. Out of all this years seedlings, only one is a green leaf type

[reed]

Have you noticed bees visiting the flowers?  Only the petals fall off after pollination, the base of the flower with the stigma will still be there to start forming the capsule, which can take three weeks or more to mature. 

[Richard Watson]

Haven't noticed the bees hanging the flowers yet, not to say they haven't thought, probably visiting the flowers while by backs turned. The base of the flowers along with the stigma are still attached.

This new seedling is a crinkly leaf type, not as purple as some of the others, some are total purple, even the tip leaf are.

[reed]

It's a real good sign that the flower base remains. If it doesn't drop off within just a few days then it was pollinated and is developing seeds.  In mine if they are going to abort, they do it very early on. I like your trellis system; I think that does help. You must not have problem with deer and rabbits. Or is all that inside a big fenced area?

I've seen crinkly leafed ones once in a while.  Lots of oddball colors and shapes will show up once you get going good. A lot of them are really cool plants but I have to let them go because of lack of space and the cool ornamental ones, as in no storable sized roots, can only be kept as house plants. The woman here got tired of sweet potatoes in all the south windows a long time ago.

[Richard Watson]

Deer dont come within about a km from here, they wont cross open farm land so they travel up and down the rivers banks. As for rabbits, our cats dont let them get established thankfully.

[Richard Watson]

Nothing more was germinating so I turned the soil over that the seed was in, bingo, 5 more seedlings up. 16 new plants, all but two purple leaf.

[reed]

Sounds typical. Here I'm always finding volunteers in a spot where they grew two or three years prior. So, on top of sprouting just whenever they feel like it, they can lay around in the dirt for a long time before they feel like it. I think hope that by selecting for those that sprout faster and easier I'm encouraging that in future generations. Often though, late sprouting volunteers mature enough to bloom and contribute pollen back to the others. Sometimes late sprouting ones even make decent sized roots so maybe they can help with reducing time to maturity. Hell, if I know.

[Richard Watson]

I thinking at the moment that these seedlings wont get that big before cool down and how will I winter over, maybe I chuck the furniture outside to make more room inside, sure the old girl will love that.

[reed]

Ya don't need much room to keep a sweet potato alive. I just cut off little stems with a few leaves and stick in a pot. Plastic drinking cups are plenty big enough if you have a nice south or I guess in your case north window. You don't need to dig it up or keep the big root system, just start over with a clipping. I've even found little taters in the cups the next spring.

But I know them old girls can be contrary sometimes. Maybe you could butter her up a little somehow.