Post by Rebsie on May 3, 2010 10:52:52 GMT -8
Most of my breeding work with peas has involved breeding for anthocyanin - so it's probably not surprising that I have a strong interest in anthocyanin in potatoes too. For the last four or five years I've been growing a very special potato called Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy, and would love to experiment with it in some breeding work.
It's a heritage potato originating in the lowlands of Scotland, named after the late Mr Little of Yetholm, a Scottish shepherd who kept the variety going for 50 years. He had been given the tubers at a horse fair in the 1940s, and was told that it was an old variety even then. It now owes its survival to Alan Romans, a well known potato expert in Scotland who has had it cleaned and re-introduced on a small scale. I acquired it in the form of microplants - disease-free laboratory-grown stock which took two years to produce full-sized tubers.
What makes it so spectacular is its colour and markings - a really unusual swirl of cream, purple and pink.
The flesh inside is not coloured, but a fairly standard pale golden colour. The base colour of the skin is also pale golden, and the beautiful outward appearance is made by a thin layer of pink pigment overlaid by another layer of purple. The different colour layers combine randomly to create the swirling effect. Sometimes the tubers look almost solid purple when first harvested, and it's during the process of washing them that a little of the pigment rubs off to reveal the other colour layers below.
As well as the unusual appearance, the tubers have an excellent flavour - a strong, rich, old-fashioned flavour. The skin is quite thick and the flesh fairly high in dry matter, though it darkens when cooked. Some of the pink/purple colour is retained when the tubers are baked or roasted. Yields are moderate (not bad, but less than most modern varieties) and the tubers vary in size and shape. It is said to be blight-susceptible, but as it's an early maincrop I usually manage to get mine harvested before the blight strikes.
The Gypsy produces pale violet flowers most years, but only occasionally sets berries. As I grow them in an OP environment with other potatoes flowering elsewhere in the garden, I don't know whether the berries are selfed or hybridised. I don't currently have any TPS ... but would like to make an effort to get some this year. I would like to get some self-pollinated TPS if possible, to see what segregates out of its existing genome. But it would also be fun to try crossing it with something else.
Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy at the bottom, showing a cut tuber. Pictured here with two coloured-flesh varieties, Salad Blue and Highland Burgundy Red, along with Witch Hill, which is not coloured but is a benchmark for flavour. (Of this group, only Salad Blue is a prolific berry producer.)
So, I am open to suggestions and ideas for how I might experiment with this fascinating variety.
I know this breaks Tom's principle of selecting good berry setters as breeding parents. But I don't know of any other potatoes anything like this one and would love to find out what it's capable of.
My main question: when a variety produces flowers but only sometimes sets berries, is this an indication that it has sterile pollen? Is it worth trying to hand-pollinate the flowers to get some self and sib pollinations, or will I have to cross it with another variety to get any berries?
Any suggestions for what I might try to cross it with? Something that sets good berries would be a good start, I know!
It's a heritage potato originating in the lowlands of Scotland, named after the late Mr Little of Yetholm, a Scottish shepherd who kept the variety going for 50 years. He had been given the tubers at a horse fair in the 1940s, and was told that it was an old variety even then. It now owes its survival to Alan Romans, a well known potato expert in Scotland who has had it cleaned and re-introduced on a small scale. I acquired it in the form of microplants - disease-free laboratory-grown stock which took two years to produce full-sized tubers.
What makes it so spectacular is its colour and markings - a really unusual swirl of cream, purple and pink.
The flesh inside is not coloured, but a fairly standard pale golden colour. The base colour of the skin is also pale golden, and the beautiful outward appearance is made by a thin layer of pink pigment overlaid by another layer of purple. The different colour layers combine randomly to create the swirling effect. Sometimes the tubers look almost solid purple when first harvested, and it's during the process of washing them that a little of the pigment rubs off to reveal the other colour layers below.
As well as the unusual appearance, the tubers have an excellent flavour - a strong, rich, old-fashioned flavour. The skin is quite thick and the flesh fairly high in dry matter, though it darkens when cooked. Some of the pink/purple colour is retained when the tubers are baked or roasted. Yields are moderate (not bad, but less than most modern varieties) and the tubers vary in size and shape. It is said to be blight-susceptible, but as it's an early maincrop I usually manage to get mine harvested before the blight strikes.
The Gypsy produces pale violet flowers most years, but only occasionally sets berries. As I grow them in an OP environment with other potatoes flowering elsewhere in the garden, I don't know whether the berries are selfed or hybridised. I don't currently have any TPS ... but would like to make an effort to get some this year. I would like to get some self-pollinated TPS if possible, to see what segregates out of its existing genome. But it would also be fun to try crossing it with something else.
Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy at the bottom, showing a cut tuber. Pictured here with two coloured-flesh varieties, Salad Blue and Highland Burgundy Red, along with Witch Hill, which is not coloured but is a benchmark for flavour. (Of this group, only Salad Blue is a prolific berry producer.)
So, I am open to suggestions and ideas for how I might experiment with this fascinating variety.
I know this breaks Tom's principle of selecting good berry setters as breeding parents. But I don't know of any other potatoes anything like this one and would love to find out what it's capable of.
My main question: when a variety produces flowers but only sometimes sets berries, is this an indication that it has sterile pollen? Is it worth trying to hand-pollinate the flowers to get some self and sib pollinations, or will I have to cross it with another variety to get any berries?
Any suggestions for what I might try to cross it with? Something that sets good berries would be a good start, I know!
