fabula seed balls, I thought they didn't make seeds?????

[jocelyn]

I have 3 fabula  tuber grown plants and they have bloomed for several years with open pollination and all flowers fell off.
This year, one seedball appears to be setting.  I don't think they are mislabeled, as the blooms were/are almost white with a red star, orange anthers and fading over time to almost pure white.....with a hint or pink/red till almost at blossom fall.   This looks like fabula flowers usually look???  I looked them up, and they are listed as not able to set seedballs.  I would be delighted if they sometimes do.  They seem pretty resistant to scab, and I'd like to bring that in.  On the other hand, my purple chiefs are NOT setting seedballs this year............any comments

[billw]

Congratulations. It's always fun to get seed from the difficult ones. As with most things, it is impossible to say that a variety never sets seeds, only that it hasn't been reported yet. That might mean that it almost never sets seeds, or that it does with some frequency but that nobody who has seen it has reported it. Ability to set berries is partly controlled by climate. A lot of varieties that supposedly never set seed do so regularly here. Others will grow for years without holding a flower and then surprise with a few flowers and berries. I have a similar situation with Ozette this year. After 11 years of growing it with only a flower or two every few years, I have several berries this year. Sometimes things also happen that cause the plant to hold flowers when they otherwise wouldn't, like stem girdling, root diseases, gophers eating the tubers, etc.

[jocelyn]

Ah, Ok...well, I'll wait with baited breath for the seedball to mature, grin.
It will be fun to see what the seedlings look like.

[wmontanez]

Jocelyn,

It happens sometimes.I think is weather dependent. You just got the right weather for it to reproduce! Congrats!

A person I know from potato forums after 20+ years of growing one variety he has in New Zealand called Moie moie he sudently started to get seeds after couple of cold summers. The otherwise infertile Moie-Moie plants went into a berry growing frenzy. After going back to hot summer, they reverted to the usual not setting berries.

[Tom Wagner]

Fabula is reported to rarely have berries setting. Those details are usually taken from someone growing just that variety which means mostly that it wont self itself well but if there are some other varieties around an occasional berry will form.

Many varieties have to be grown with cooler weather patterns as heat over 88 or 31 C is a killer.

[jocelyn]

Ok, thanks all. I hope it doesn't get too much hotter then...it's 27 for today, hopefully not much past that. I had hoped the Island Sunshine would bloom on time, but the last fabula flowers have fallen and the Island Sunshine is just getting ready to open the first blooms.
Ah, next year, grin.

[billw]

You can always save pollen. It lasts a couple of weeks at room temperature. That's a good way to bridge the gap between flowering of different varieties.

[jocelyn]

OHHH, can you say more? That sounds like fun.

[billw]

Sure. Just get a small plastic or glass container - something like a condiment cup or a shot glass works well. Put the container under a flower and tap the base of the flower several times. Some pollen should fall out - it looks like very fine, white dust. Most potato varieties provide only a very small amount. Store the pollen in a cool, dry place until you are ready to use it.

You can improve the situation by using an electric toothbrush. The vibration mimics the buzz pollination done by bumble bees and dislodges more pollen from the flower. Vibrate for about 5 seconds. If you get a big puff of pollen, take note, because that is usually a better pollen producer.

Yet another alternative is to remove the anthers with tweezers, let them dry down, and then crush them. This gets the greatest pollen yield, but also a lot of debris and you need to make sure that they dry quickly or the pollen goes bad.

When the flowers that you want to pollinate are ready, just use a little paintbrush or even the tip of your finger to paint a little pollen on the stigma. Pollinating twice, about a day apart, significantly increases berry set.

[jocelyn]

Ok, thanks so much. That sounds do-able. Can one freeze the pollen after drying it?

[nathanp]

Yes, or refrigerate it as well. Either will last longer than at room temperature. You could probably google it and find some information rather quickly on potato pollen.

[jocelyn]

I did Google saving potato pollen, and now it's play time

I have two anthers from Milva drying in an egg cup over silica gel, and I'll crush and gather up the pollen when they are dry and brittle. The Island Sunshines have the first few blooms open this morning. Pretty violet coloured blooms. When the dew has gone, it's 9 am now, I'll pick a Milva flower and upend a Sunshine one and do the tap, tap, tap thingy to dislodge pollen and hope it takes. This will be a whole lot of fun. I might do the reciprical cross too, just in case Milva makes berries too. Island Sunshine just has to have a bee fly by to set berries, grin. The Fabula seed ball is still there, has not shed with the heat lately, so I'm pleased.