Amazing article, thank you. I did not know about the xenia expression in the seed coat. I can't say I've seen spotted light brown sweet potato seeds in my mix yet, but I do keep have Ipomoea pandurata growing so crossing is a possibility. This year, I had a variegated sweet potato seedling. It did not thrive, and remained a tiny plant all season barely putting on vegetative growth and no tubers. I also had general seedling weirdness, for example, a few seedlings with three cotyledon leaves rather than two. At least one seedling with a single cotyledon. I have assumed these effects are due to general genetic weirdness within sweet potato as it stands, but it's intriguing to wonder about potential pollen effects from the pandurata. I'll have to make some controlled crosses next year. And, I'll be sharing about my true sweet potato seed growing soon before this year is out (I grew over 120 seedlings this season).
Thank you Zach, and I’m looking forward to reading about your true sweet potato seed experience this year. I bet you selected some great ones. I don’t know for sure if the spotted light brown seed coat is xenia, next year I’ll grow a clone of that seedling with other batatas to see if the seed coat is different. Mark Reed was growing out TSPS for years next to a large pandurata vine, but it doesn’t seem like he got wide crosses. In most cases distant pollen will not be able to get a foothold where there is plenty of homospecific pollen present. I’ll be interested to hear how your controlled crossing goes, because I have no idea if the astounding combining ability I’m seeing has to do with an unusual seed parent or is a general ability among batatas grown from seed. The variegation in these x pandurata seedlings (semi chlorotic/purplish intervein regions) is going away as the plants get bigger, a sign that mismatched developmental programs are getting smoothed out. I will say that the seed parent of the wide cross was also an off type among its 30ish siblings—the stems are much thinner and hairier, and the plant is a long vine. That may be a coincidence or it may indicate an ancestral homology that is more open to crossing.
So many gems in this article. I love the concept of repeated generations of foreign pollen exposure making pollination barriers more gentle for future hybridization. Reading your work reveals to me just how many fascinating scientific experiments have already been done in the realm of strange botany, and at the same time, all the uncharted potential. For me, nothing is more exciting. There are unimaginable botanical futures lying dormant, just waiting to be born.
In addition to the methods themselves, there's a lot of low hanging fruit for hobbyist breeders by simply setting up the right combinations. So much can be achieved by simply setting the possibilities for plant breeding beyond narrow industrial criteria.
Amazing work! Given the material on hand I hope you try some controlled crosses between pandurata and batatas next season. Will be very interesting to see how these weirdo seedlings develop as they mature.
Thank you for the support. I played with some controlled crosses this year but next year I'll a do better job of tagging the batatas flowers. Need a thin strip of tape or the like since the flower clusters can be so dense.
Amazing article, thank you. I did not know about the xenia expression in the seed coat. I can't say I've seen spotted light brown sweet potato seeds in my mix yet, but I do keep have Ipomoea pandurata growing so crossing is a possibility. This year, I had a variegated sweet potato seedling. It did not thrive, and remained a tiny plant all season barely putting on vegetative growth and no tubers. I also had general seedling weirdness, for example, a few seedlings with three cotyledon leaves rather than two. At least one seedling with a single cotyledon. I have assumed these effects are due to general genetic weirdness within sweet potato as it stands, but it's intriguing to wonder about potential pollen effects from the pandurata. I'll have to make some controlled crosses next year. And, I'll be sharing about my true sweet potato seed growing soon before this year is out (I grew over 120 seedlings this season).
Thank you Zach, and I’m looking forward to reading about your true sweet potato seed experience this year. I bet you selected some great ones. I don’t know for sure if the spotted light brown seed coat is xenia, next year I’ll grow a clone of that seedling with other batatas to see if the seed coat is different. Mark Reed was growing out TSPS for years next to a large pandurata vine, but it doesn’t seem like he got wide crosses. In most cases distant pollen will not be able to get a foothold where there is plenty of homospecific pollen present. I’ll be interested to hear how your controlled crossing goes, because I have no idea if the astounding combining ability I’m seeing has to do with an unusual seed parent or is a general ability among batatas grown from seed. The variegation in these x pandurata seedlings (semi chlorotic/purplish intervein regions) is going away as the plants get bigger, a sign that mismatched developmental programs are getting smoothed out. I will say that the seed parent of the wide cross was also an off type among its 30ish siblings—the stems are much thinner and hairier, and the plant is a long vine. That may be a coincidence or it may indicate an ancestral homology that is more open to crossing.
So many gems in this article. I love the concept of repeated generations of foreign pollen exposure making pollination barriers more gentle for future hybridization. Reading your work reveals to me just how many fascinating scientific experiments have already been done in the realm of strange botany, and at the same time, all the uncharted potential. For me, nothing is more exciting. There are unimaginable botanical futures lying dormant, just waiting to be born.
In addition to the methods themselves, there's a lot of low hanging fruit for hobbyist breeders by simply setting up the right combinations. So much can be achieved by simply setting the possibilities for plant breeding beyond narrow industrial criteria.
Amazing work! Given the material on hand I hope you try some controlled crosses between pandurata and batatas next season. Will be very interesting to see how these weirdo seedlings develop as they mature.
Thank you for the support. I played with some controlled crosses this year but next year I'll a do better job of tagging the batatas flowers. Need a thin strip of tape or the like since the flower clusters can be so dense.