Potatoes from CIP

[DuckCreekFarms]

Just wondered if anyone has received potato cultures from CIP and if a person needs an import permit? www.cipotato.org

thanks
gary

[Tom Wagner]

Yes, I have. But luck has been with me for when I have made a request for tissue cultured plants, the USDA at Sturgeon Bay Plant Collection Station offers to make it a joint request. It takes near two years since the imports from CIP must go through quarantine. I can either request the tissue culture or wait til the station grows out some mini tubers.

One of the potatoes I really wanted was the Guisi. Here is part of the write-up..

After 15 years of testing stability of yield performance and repeatability of agronomic and commercial tuber quality attributes, the potato hybrid H020-30 was released for the Peruvian farmers with the name of UNALM-GUISI. The name of this new variety combines the University's Spanish acronym (UNALM) and GUISI as a dedication to the memory of our late student Guillermo Simbaña who died, in a sad and dark night of terrorist insanity, near to the field where he was evaluating the hybrid's agronomic performance.
Since the early days the University's Potato Program oriented its breeding research to identify and select good quality and highly productive hybrids well adapted to the country's main potato producing zones. These genetically complex characteristics required the production, maintenance and evaluation of a large number of hybrids. Because of this, the Program's scientists have evaluated several hundreds of thousands of these hybrids. In 1981, the International Potato Center (CIP) made available to the University (UNALM) 37 families. One of the families was constituted by 61 hybrids, each represented by one tuber, and one of these was selected and identified as H020-30. UNALM GUISI's progenitors are the Mexican variety CONCHITA and the Peruvian varieties YURACC TARMA and WILA IMILLA that originated and are well adapted to the country's Southern highlands.
Agronomic Characteristics
UNALM GUISI'S plants are compact, 60 to 80 cm tall with elliptic leaflets and abundant flowering but no fruit setting. Plants are vigorous with 4-6 main stems of 2-3 cm diameter and 60-80 cm tall. The stems remain erect most of the growing season permitting an optimum reception of the light energy and maintaining an adequate soil coverage.
This variety produces between 15 to 20 tubers, of an uniform medium size and a predominantly round shape, per plant. The skin is from light red to pink and the flesh is from light cream to cream with a faint purple pigmentation. The eyes are semi-deep in the top end and shallow in the rest of the tuber and the sprouts are of a red-purple color. Tuber dry matter content ranges from 22 to 24% with a good cooking quality. The taste is near to that of the native varieties that is the house wives' preferred one. The attractive tuber skin color and texture, uniformity of size, good skin texture, good solids content and good taste ensure consumers' preference.

I have this potato planted in two counties here in Washington (state). I will increase the tubers of course, taste a few, but mostly used it in crossing. I will have to evaluate the pollen to see if I can use it as a male parent otherwise it will be a female parent only. I am trying to fix Peruvian flavors into our mix of potatoes that can be grown at our latitude.

There is a restaurant that charges $250 per person that will test a few of my potatoes grown locally. I will wait a year to increase the tubers of the Guisi. I won't try to make those contacts by myself, only with CSA growers performing the intervention.

Alca Tarma (Lop 868) is a potato of interest. Yet another that I request for breeding

Major gene inheritance of resistance to Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) was demonstrated in a parthenogenic population derived from the highly resistant tetraploid andigena landrace, LOP-868. This major gene or chromosome region seems to control a single mechanism for resistance to infection and virus accumulation in this source. About 149 dihaploid lines segregated in a ratio of 107 resistant to 32 susceptible, fitting the expected ratio for inheritance of a duplex gene under random chromatid segregation. A tetraploid AFLP map was constructed using as reference the ultra high density (UHD) map. All AFLP markers associated with PLRV resistance mapped to the same linkage group. Map position was confirmed by analysis of previously-mapped SSR markers. Rl adg is located on the upper arm of chromosome V, at 1 cM from its most closely linked AFLP marker, E35M48.192. This marker will be used to develop allele-specific primers or a pair of flanking PCR-based markers for their use in marker assisted selection.

Tom Wagner

[DuckCreekFarms]

Thanks Tom, that's very intersting

I collect Sweet Potato varieties and really want some of their varieties that they have that are nowhere to be found in the states. I suppose I can ask for a joint effort throught the USDA Station in Griffin Georgia as that is where the sweet potato germplasm is maintained.

I have tried to get responce back from the CIP, but they don't seem to want to answer my emails.

2 years?.....I guess I better get the ball rolling. Any suggestions?
thanks
gary

[Tom Wagner]

I know, the CIP is slow about answering emails. Must not be a priority.

And I far as sweet potatoes go, the CIP is famous for that too! Since I will be performing more sweet potato investigation, a friend of mine has received meristem tissue culture of a number of different lines including the blue ones, yellows, orange, etc and the Georgia Jet as a control.

I have over 1,000 hybrid sweet potato seeds from ten different female parents and who knows how many male parents. Somewhere sometime I will devote a big part of a greenhouse to finish off sweet potato production into the fall and even early winter to get seed to set during the short days. Now that the weather is going to be warmer, I will have to uncork the battery acid and treat some Sweet Potato seed to get them to germinate. I want the new seedlings to be very vegetative come fall with little or no tuber production

That being the case, I will talk with one or more folks who will visit the CIP within the year to see if the import of many of their lines can't be expanded to the USA.
In fact I will visit with one fellow today or tomorrow and see if he wants to work collectively to get the import permits together. I will let you know if we can do this. Let me know if there is anything you want. There are about 45 lines from Peru already available on request from the USDA.

[DuckCreekFarms]

I devote a large area in the greenhouse for sweet potato stock plants over winter. around February, I take cuttings and plant in hanging baskets, by late spring, they are flowering vigorously. Many are still in bloom now. I have found it difficult to find pollen to hybridize with, but really don't have the time to pursue that anyway.

Dr Ted Carey from K-state just went to work for CIP, he has been working on getting purple varieties with better flavor. I am supposed to get some of his lines that he left at Kansas before he moved, but haven't received them yet.

Still I have around 150 varieties of Sweets and it's very difficult to maintain that many varieties by traditional growing. I may have to look at invitro cultures if I continue to expand my collection.

And if you find out more about how we can get cultures easier, please let me know.