Squat Orange

[wmontanez]

I got my first Squat Orange TPS seedling to bloom.

[wingnut]

rub some pollen on it!

[Tom Wagner]

Wendy...Wingnut...the only thing you can do to get that flower to set a berry is to find another seedling of Squat Orange or some other diploid that is blooming. It will not take with pollen from a tuberosum. 2X x 4X are rare. If you have a flower of Skagit Leap, Skagit Vally Gold...get the pollen from them to make a cross. I forget what I sent you in the way of diploids. Diploids are self incompatible. A full sib is OK but not its own pollen.

Wingnut...I left you with so many of my varieties to cross that you must feel compelled to make crosses automatically...just like me!

With diploids...you don't have to emasculate the flowers to make crosses. Saves a lot of trouble.

Tom Wagner

[Worth1]

I gotta tell ya this plant had me buffaloed for a bit.
I thought is was a tomato plant with a purple blossom.

Worth

[wmontanez]

Worth isn't it beautiful? I have other of Tom's potato plants that fools the eye with it's folliage. From the squat orange only one is in bloom and a second plant have clusters. Most of my other potatoes are past it's prime for blooms but I am lucky this morning I found one skagit valley gold that has few lower flowers. I did a cross using svg as male. I noticed how orange the anthers in the svg is and light orange in the squat orange. Do you think Tom that some of the deep yellow from svg will pass on?

[Tom Wagner]

I am lucky this morning I found one skagit valley gold that has few lower flowers. I did a cross using svg as male. I noticed how orange the anthers in the svg is and light orange in the squat orange. Do you think Tom that some of the deep yellow from svg will pass on?

Wendy, you have a near perfect cross if the berries form. You should get almost all yellow to some degree and any leaves of the seedling crosses that have a yellow green cast should be near orange fleshed. You also have good chances of getting brilliant skin colors too....violet blue especially.

I am hoping the squat shapes occur also....instead of being long or round, the tubers take on a donut peach squatness like a Harvest Moon.

Imagine the picture here...


and substitute that with a potato somewhat shaped like that.
Funny names could be applied like Harvest Moonshine, Half Moon Gold,
Diddly Squat, etc. A flattened potato with colored spectacles of red/yellow or Purple/yellow could be called....ahem...Spectater Squats!

Tom Wagner
"Lord, I Apologize in anyone does an image search! I had better name a potato that to supplant the other image fast.

[wmontanez]

Oh my...no pressure ahem ok..I can try my best at breeder this week! I am going to make more crosses to all the flowers that I spot thwith the pair SQ/SVG and SVG/SQ. With names like the suggestion above one can sure have fun well you got plenty of ideas here for them. If the skin is brilliant purple and orange inside plus squat...Plum Squat Gold totally! Can't wait to go home today to make another cross since the second cluster had one little flower ready to open today...

[Tom Wagner]

Vicarious Thrill. I am inflicting onto others the vicarious punishment of potato breeding. I have performed, exercised, received, or otherwise suffered in my own efforts at breeding potatoes. Now I find the thrill that in place of another person doing the actual breeding...they are acting or serving as a substitute for me and are now echoing the imagined or real participation in the experience.


I want to get to the field to cross, but no, I also have to transplant hundreds and hundreds of plants. I have to weed, hoe, and observe. If I could clone myself to spend an endless summer doing this vastly over-myriadicalized activity...I could truly experience heaven and hell on earth. I say this because listening to a clone of myself blabbering on would be....like being in your shoes!

[wingnut]

Tom, I go collect pollen and cross as weather has permitted. I must say there is no way I will ever get done every cross I think of. I have aready been hit by the question of where to plant all the seedlings.....there are litterally hundreds of large marble sized berries everywhere! I am amazed at how fast the grow, from a bb to grape size in a week!

[wmontanez]

Wingnut I hear ya. This year I was trying to fit every seedling that grew... at the end I ran of space.

I think next year I am only growing seed tubers from the varieties that perform the best for me (weather resistance+flavor+looks/yield). I have about 30 varieties to carefully evaluate and select to continue to grow. My plan is to get a great potato flavor for roasting, boiled, salad, fried and baked.

For instance I have one plant of Boy Pig x Red thumb that last year was a dissapointment for yield. If this year (I planted 3 tubers) I get the same yield then I will have to decide if the flavor alone is enough to save it. On other hand I am very eager to bake one of Amey. I have waited impatiently for one year to get enough to bake few of those. This year I have 3 plants get seed and enough to bake.

I have a very demanding day job and my garden time is limited to what I can tend to without losing the fun. Right now is 44ft x 18ft if I dedicate 1/2hr daily.The weekends are my only experimenting time. The area is intensively cultivated but it lets me have enough time to weed, water, check, tidy without losing the fun! That is why I have not got into crossing any... once I get involved...well . Up to know I have let the bees make the selections but lucky me I have a proposition too good to pass: Plumsquat Gold

Any new TPS from this year has to have no more 10 seedlings per variety/cross grown and select 3-5 to grow further. That is the max I can fit in

[wingnut]

Ultimately I wish to breed a Blue potato which is thought by ALL who eat it, and ALL who grow it to exclaim that it is the BEST potato ever bred. I will name it 'BALD HILL BLUE' Then I just wish to grow alot of different spuds of all shapes /colors/sizes to feed my family and livestock. One is for my EGO the other for my INNER CHILD. I do think this potato bug might have stuck.

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I gotta tell ya this plant had me buffaloed for a bit.
I thought is was a tomato plant with a purple blossom.

Worth

I guess I'm not alone in calling skagit valley gold my "tomato leaved potato", also I am glad to hear the yellow leaves are normal. I guess part of my affinity for it is the ease of identifying it by its foliage alone. Makes it easier to talk to your plants when you know them by name.

I think I see more diploids in my future. And I thought I was going to cut back....