Johnny Gunter potato variety

[carolyn137]

Do you know about it Tom?

If yes, I'll say no more.

If no, I'll say a lot more.

Came from the PNW, DNA analysis is very interesting as to original background, many unique traits.

Carolyn

[wingnut]

I am growing it, and do not know much, so educate us.Please.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by wingnut

I am growing it, and do not know much, so educate us.Please.

First, Tom was online so I just reminded him about it.

I then Googled it and while I first read about it in the 2013 summer edition of the SSE publication it turns out the same article was written in 2004 by the same person

There were other references to it in a google search, but here's the original article that I read that intrigued me.

http://biology.uoregon.edu/enhs/arch...03/nov033.html

Carolyn

[Tom Wagner]

Chris Homanics is the young man locally to introduce me to the Johnny Gunter potato.

Mr. Homanics is one of the very few people to regularly visit my potato plots and even help me hand dig some. Chris called me today and mentioned his growing collection of potatoes and asked if I had ever grown Cruza 148 or NDINAMAGARA in Rwanda.
I told him I have it...had grown it in the previous years and have grown hybrid plants of it and have lots of TPS seed that has one quarter Cruza background. I owe him a visit to see his collection and the Johnny Gunter potato plants. He says he has potato berries from it, and I am thinking Wingnut does too.

I have grown in for two years but in my plots in Skagit County which is a festering pool of late blight. Two years in a row it has been hit with late blight and appeared to have a virus when I examined them. I was hoping for more progress.

Anyway my thoughts about the history of this potato. Since it had been in the Western USA for so long...my hope was that it was a remnant of the old Western Red variety that is probably no longer extant. We are not sure about the Western Red Seedling called, Peachblow, which came into public knowledge in the mid 1860's
There are many progenies of the Peachblow series coming about during the 1880's and after. Who knows what is what?

I have not gotten around to planting all of my thousands of potato clones as most recently I have been a crossing fool with tomatoes...594 crosses to date. And of course, my tuber units of JG are among those not planted yet. I have about three weeks to get to them.


I want to obtain the berries and TPS of JG to make sure we don't mess up holding on to just the tubers. I am not one to save varieties by tubers....too many diseases. Maintaining the variety by tissue culture is a necessity. That is beyond my expertise and capitalization. Though the potato called Johnny Gunter could gain historic importance, especially if the DNA footprint is analyzed.....I worry that all of the strains I have built up and/or collected will go by the wayside.

The most closely related existing potato that has hints of the Johnny Gunter phenotype is the Red McClure.

I really want the Johnny Gunter to be the Western Red.

[carolyn137]

Maybe the article in SSE was updated, I didn't compare the two, but DNA analysis has been done and the results were mentioned in the SSE article.

SSE is putting it into tissue culture to clean it up and it wasn 't clear if it would be offered in the Yearbook or the public catalog.

What did interest me so much was it not going down all summer and finding both matrue tubers and small new potatoes at the same time in the late Fall as well as the interesting history that the DNA analysis showed not only back to Chile but also Ozette, which I've grown, Red Indian and the others mentioned in the article.

Carolyn