May 9, 2008
Breeding project purple fava bean, dwarf selection
Posted by skrubtudsen under bean, fava, garden, plantbreeding | Tags: plantbreeding, garden, bean, fave |
Roottrainer with dwarf selection of purple seeded fava bean. Each row contains 4 plants from one unique motherplant
This year I decided it was time to separate dwarf plant from tall plants. To have the dwarf plants flower before the tall plants, I decided to start them in a roottrainer. I never tried a roottrainer before, but it is supposedly supporting better root development. I thought that big seeds would favor a special treatment. Ordinary trays probably would retard the root growth. Only one seed out of 28 didn’t sprout.
Dwarf selection of purple seeded fava bean. Each pot/box contains plants from a single motherplant.
Today I have transplanted to pots or boxes. Some plants are taller than others. Maybe the tall plants are tall because they were first to sprout, or maybe they are not dwarf, and thus shall not be allowed to set seeds or pollinate other plants. I will just wait and see how tall they grow. As long as I’m in doubt, I will remove any flowerbuds, and if they grow tall I can remove them completely.
May 15, 2008 at 1:05 am
Last year I planted 3 different broad beans - 1 dwarf, 1 standard of a variety I hadn’t sown before and 1 whose seeds I had been collecting for a few years. I was very surprised to find absolutely no difference between any of them!
May 16, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Hi Kate.
Very disappointing, isn’t it!
The dwarf can’t have been dwarf - shame on the seed company.
But two varieties might look just the same and still be different, like on have a disease resistance, and the other not, but you can only notice the difference if the disease attacks (hopefully not every year).
The UPOV guidelines can be very helpfull trying to tell two varieties apart.
For fava beans you can find them at:
http://www.upov.org/en/publications/tg-rom/tg206/tg_206_1.pdf
a complete list of guidelines you find at:
http://www.upov.org/en/publications/tg_rom/tg_index.html
Hope it can help you sort things out.
Søren.
May 17, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thanks for pointing that out. You are quite right and I had not thought of those types of differences. Thanks too for the links.