Strawberry Raspberry hybrids - test results

I attempted to hybridise a strawberry with a raspberry, and I wrote numerous blog posts along the way documenting the progress. 

I produced a few F1 plants, and from them some F2 plants.  These plants displayed various morphological differences from both parent species.  The plants looked superficially similar to a strawberry, and a lot of aggressive people said this cross was impossible, so I could not be certain that they were true hybrids without getting them independently tested.  

The CSIRO offered to test some leaf samples for me to determine if they were hybrids.  Long story short, based on protein and peptide level evidence it appears that the F1 and F2 plants are intergeneric strawberry raspberry hybrids.  

No one has ever achieved this cross before.  This means my plants are the first ever documented intergeneric hybrids between strawberry (Fragaria sp) and raspberry (Rubus sp). 

The results can be seen below.  The set size represents the number of peptides detected from the samples (multiple peptides make a protein at the end).  The number on top of each column represents the peptides detected from each sample type.  You can see that the HF2 is completely different from each parent species and HF1. 

Strawberry Raspberry Hybrid - proteomics results

 The below chart represents the top 20 peptide functional classes associated with the four sample type.  These results also show the similarity and dissimilarity between the sample types based on their measured peptides.

My first F1 plants germinated in 2017 and the F2 in 2019.  It has been such a long process that I was starting to worry that I would never have these tested, or that the results would be inconclusive.  It is great to have such definitive results. 

My strawberry raspberry hybrids are vigorous and set a lot of fruit.  The taste of these strawberry x raspberry hybrids varies from plant to plant from sour to bland to really incredible.  

While there is a naming convention for binomial nomenclature, giving them a common name may be more difficult.  My daughter wants to call them "Stinkleberries".  I kind of love that name, but don't think people would want to eat them.

Below are some pictures of the leaf samples.  I have described many of the morphological differences in previous blog posts.

F1 above, strawberry and raspberry parents below

F1 above, strawberry parent below

F2 on left, F1 on right

Leaf samples that I sent

I'm not sure what to do from here.  These F1 and F2 plants could potentially be crossed with other species or other hybrids.  This holds a lot of potential for breeding new plants with increased disease resistance and/or novel tasting berries without using genetic engineering. 

It is amazing to think that this was thought to be impossible yet was achieved in my back yard, in my spare time, with no specialised equipment, and extremely limited access to germplasm.  Imagine what could be done if I had more time and money to invest in projects like this.  

If you want to help me in my plant breeding projects such as this feel free to buy something through my for sale page or even donate a few dollars to me through my PayPal.

Pink Gem Corn

I grew some glass gem corn with the kids.  I planted the seeds in blocks of similar colours.  Some of the pinks grew almost exclusively pink cobs.

Glass gem corn carries a lot of recessive genes, so much like the cobs below these will still throw the odd seed of a different colour. They still look very pretty and are loved by my daughters.

I saved the seeds from the pink cobs separately from the mixed coloured cobs.  If planted in a block it should produce cobs that are almost entirely pink, with just a few kernels of other colours.  I removed most of the different colour seeds, but left in some of the purple and some of the blue that my kids thought looked more purple.  I also left in some of the whites as they seemed to be light pink rather than true white.

All of these carry at least one gene for pink colour.  Unless they are planted too close to other corn and are cross pollinated, they should produce cobs as pink as the ones above.

If you want to grow pink popcorn I sell the pink gem corn seeds through my for sale page.

Pink Gem Popcorn

Solanum acroscopicum - wild potato relative

I have a few potatoes grown from true potato seed.  Tetraploid potatoes are ok, I really like some of my diploids because their taste is vastly superior to any tetraploid potato I have ever tasted and their colouration can be spectacular.

As well as domestic potatoes, I have a few wild relatives of potatoes, or crosses of domestic x wild potatoes.  Being wild plants they tend not to have the highest yields, but they do contain a lot of genes that are not found in domestic potatoes, so hold potential for breeding something spectacular.  Some species can be crossed with domestic potatoes, others cannot.

One wild potato that I am particularly fond of is Solanum acroscopicum.  I am not sure why, there is just something about this species that I like.

I grew some from seed planted August/September last year, and they started flowering mid February.  I have a few domestic diploids flowering near it, but this plant is reluctant to set seed for now.  Hopefully conditions are just right and it produces seed for me one day.  

The flowers tend to be large, unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos until most had dropped off and only the tired looking flowers were left.

Solanum acroscopicum

The tubers produced by my S acroscopicum are smallish, kind of round, have lovely smooth skin, white skin and white flesh.  It has short stolons so the potatoes form nice and close to the plant.  It has a short dormancy, so is not well suited to my winters, but hopefully I work out a system to keep it going.  This certainly isn't the only plant I grow that is not suited to my climate.

The taste is not particularly impressive, it tastes a little better than a store bought potato but really nothing spectacular.  I am told that (unlike modern domestic potatoes) you can eat partly green tubers safely, but haven't tried that myself.  The yield is not huge by any standards.  Like any seed grown potato, first year plants produce smaller yields and subsequent year plants produce larger yields.

Nothing really stands out as being spectacular.  Yet for some reason, I really like these little guys.

The leaves are noticeably different from domestic potato leaves, they are a bit more pointy shaped and are held more upright.  The flowers are usually pretty and often very large, probably not as pretty as the flowers on some of my diploids, and so far it has produced less flowers than my diploids, but they are still rather nice.  I really need to take a photo of the nicer looking flowers.

When grown from seed the plants show a lot of vigour early on, and the seedlings quickly surpassed my other seed grown potatoes.  Once the first year seedlings get more established the acroscopicum survives but didn't really take off.  I tried taking cuttings, but forgot about them and they died.

Solanum acroscopicum at top, tetraploid potato in middle, diploid potatoes lower left

Seedling potatoes and other seedlings

Seedling S acroscopicum on left is stout and sending out stolons, seedling tetraploid potato on right is spindly and weak

At this stage I don't really have any plans for my acroscopicum.  If any survive winter, next year I should try to cross with with various domestic potatoes to see what they can produce. 

I do have some micro tubers that I am willing to trade if someone has another potato that is interesting, or I sell tubers through my for sale page after I harvest them.

Variegated tomato plants

I was given some seeds of a variegated tomato.  They spent a while in the post, under who-knows -what conditions, so lost some viability.

Only 1 seed germinated and I have no way to get any more, so am really trying hard to save a lot of seed from this one plant.

The variegated tomato seedling grew like any other seedling, maybe a little slower, but not noticeably slower.  When small they had very little variegation, as they got larger they got more variegated.

When my little seedling had a few true leaves I transplanted it into the vegetable garden.

Variegated tomato leaf

Variegated tomato plant

After transplanting this into the garden a bird came and stripped all its leaves as well as all the leaves from three nearby tomato plants of other varieties.  I had a lot of trouble with birds this year.  For some reason the birds wanted to defoliate all the plants at that end of my garden.

I caged the little tomato seedling stump, and for some time it did nothing.  Eventually it grew one leaf, then after a very long time it started to grow again.  As it grew I covered it and all my other tomato plants with bird netting to protect them.

After a while some tomatoes were getting too large and difficult to manage to keep under bird netting, so I removed the netting and hoped for the best.  It appears that my variegated plant was large enough at that point because the birds left it alone.

Variegated tomato - red and round fruits

Young plant starting to get variegation

Variegated tomatoes are some of the most ornamental of tomato plants, even the stems are striped and interesting looking.  I love ornamental looking vegetables because as well as looking attractive they also produce a crop of tomatoes.

The leaves are green, yellow, pink, and white.

Striped stems

Variegation starts yellow, then turns white

I have tried to do a little breeding to get the variegated trait into other tomatoes.  It is far too early to tell how much success I had, and lots of generations before any new lines are stable.

I found it interesting that my variegated tomato produced lower leaves that were mostly green, and upper leaves were mostly white.  

The tomatoes the variegated tomato plant produced are round and golf ball sized.  Most were completely red, while a few had interesting stripes and swirls.  Inside the tomatoes was mostly red with red/green pulp.

Variegated tomato - inside the fruit

The variegated tomatoes taste sweet and nice.  I don't know why, but I expected such an ornamental plant to have fruit that tasted sour or insipid, so the sweet taste was a nice surprise.  While not as good tasting as some of the other varieties I grow, they taste far better than anything I have bought from the market.  I think they are worth growing just for the tomatoes they produce, and the incredible variegated foliage is just a bonus.

I have started saving seed from these variegated tomatoes.  I don't have any photos of the ripe fruit on my tomato plant, I plan to save every seed I can so have been picking them a little early and ripening them on the bench prior to saving seed.

Heirloom Tomatoes 2021

I grow a lot of tomatoes each year, I really love tomato season.  Some varieties are far better than others.  

My kids help me grow the tomatoes, collect the fruit, eat some of the tomatoes, bag some flowers and save some seed for the future.  

I don't have enough space/water/time to grow every tomato I have every year.  I have two tomato varieties that I do grow every year because they taste incredible (Japanese Black Trifele, and Verde Claro), and the rest I grow on a rotation to refresh the seed every 3 years.  

On second thoughts, I also grow micro tomatoes every year, but they are more for novelty and for breeding rather than for feeding my family, plus they take next to no space, so I don't tend to mention them.

Various tomatoes I grew

Some of the tomatoes I grow are very old heirloom varieties, others are more modern, while others I am breeding myself.  This year I grew 14 or 15 varieties of regular tomatoes (dwarf, or determinate, or indeterminate), and a small handful of micro dwarf varieties.  The plants range from a few cm tall to about 2 metres tall depending on the variety.

I also grew some wild relatives of tomatoes and some wild x domestic cross tomatoes.  I really need to take some photos of them and save some seed before winter comes. 

I thought I would show off some of my tomatoes below.

Tomatoes: Tommy Toe, Unnamed, Reisetomate, Igloo, Japanese Black Trifele, Verde Claro, Snow White, and Black cherry

My absolute favourite tasting tomato is called 'Verde Claro'.  It is a green when ripe cherry tomato that tastes incredible.  They look similar in size/shape to a grape.  Whenever people try these they love them.  

Every time I let people try these along with any other variety they always say that verde claro is the best tomato they have ever eaten.  They aren't the perfect tomato, but their taste is absolutely divine.  There is good reason I grow them every year!

Verde Claro and a bunch of grapes

I love the red tomato called reisetomate.  The flowers and fruits are fasciated, the fruits are red and lobed and can be pulled apart into segments.  

Reisetomate tomatoes are very sour, a little salt brings a true depth of flavour that I really enjoy.  Each and every tomato has a unique shape.  

Reisetomate tomatoes

I have been working on developing an improved black tomato for a while now.  The unripe fruit is purple and beautiful, it almost looks like an egg plant.  The ripe tomatoes have greenish yellow under the black, and the flesh colour is green.  

The black comes from high levels of antioxidants, and only appears where the sun hits the fruit.  They are roughly ping pong ball sized fruits and possibly my second favourite in taste after verde claro.  The fruit are a bit too small, but still large enough to slice for sandwiches.

I need to name these and start distributing the seeds as they are an incredible tomato variety.  I would hate to lose them if anything were to happen to my stock.

One of the varieties that I am breeding

This colour in tomatoes was unimaginable a few years ago

Another I grew this year was a variegated tomato.  I grew them to do some breeding and a few other genetics experiments, but after talking to some other growers I don't think anyone else in the country has variegated tomatoes so I should probably try to distribute the seeds so this allele is not lost.  Like many variegated plants, these aren't quite as vigorous as all green plants.

These are truly beautiful variegated tomato plants.  The leaves and stems get variegation of green, yellow, white, and pink.  The fruit is mostly red and round (although some fruits are slightly variegated) and tastes nice and surprisingly sweet.  

They could happily live in a flower garden and are a stunning showpiece of a plant.

Variegated tomato foliage

Micro dwarf tomatoes are heaps of fun.  These Micro Tom plants are thriving yet not reaching 5cm tall!  I am doing some breeding with them and hope to have something incredible to show for my efforts next year or the year after.  

You won't feed your family with micro tomatoes, but they can grow in a cup of soil on a window sill.  Traditionally they can taste a little insipid so they need some work in improving their taste, which is why I am breeding new micro tomatoes.  Some of my newer lines taste better than others.

I grow everything organically and sometimes sell some tomato seeds through my for sale page.  If you see something you love and I don't sell them let me know because I may be able to get you in touch with someone who does.

Amiah Potatoes - diploid potatoes Australia

I have been growing potatoes from true potato seed for a while now.  I grow a few diploid potatoes, some tetraploids, and I have a wild relative of the modern potato.  When grown from true seed, each and every plant is genetically unique.

Most diploid potatoes have really low yields, and produce small potatoes, but the taste of diploids is vastly superior to any variety of potato that you will have ever eaten.  Modern domestic potatoes are big and bland, even the tastiest modern potato is nothing compared to a diploid.

I have been messing around with breeding diploid potatoes.  I mostly grow as many as I have space to grow, cull everything substandard, each winter everything with low/no dormancy die, and I allow them to open pollinate before collecting true potato seed to plant.  

Some years one variety will do better, other years another variety will do better.  I am starting to get some really nice seed grown potatoes.

Amiah diploid potato compared to a modern tetraploid potato

 

One of my seed grown potatoes is yielding quite well for a diploid, and produces two crops per year in my garden.  It looks pretty similar to another high yielding diploid called 'toffee apple' which was bred by Garden Larder.  As I originally got some true potato seed from Garden Larder my variety (named Amiah) may be closely related.  

Interestingly someone recently sent me a few tubers of Toffee Apple Potato, it is yet to produce a crop for me because I planted it a bit late.  It carries good genes and is flowering well so I assume some of the true potato seeds I am currently harvesting will carry some of its genetics.

Amiah potato compared to pumpkin

Amiah diploid potato produces gorgeous looking potatoes, with rich yellow flesh, it yields surprisingly well and produces multiple crops per year, it flowers well and can produce berries and true potato seed if pollinated by a different clone.  

The only real down sides to this diploid are its low dormancy and its relatively long stolons.  Most of its tubers are produced under the plant but a few will spread out and be found further from the plant.  To get the most out of it this plant likes a little space to run!  

Compared to a modern potato, Amiah potatoes taste incredible when baked.  I am bad at describing taste, all I can say is this is how a potato should taste.  If I had my way I would never eat a modern domestic potato again.

I love rich yellow flesh potatoes

We roasted this diploid potato along with some modern potatoes for comparison.  The diploid looked like it was already buttered, much the same colour as pumpkin, indicating it is very high in beta carotene vitamin.

I really like the look of yellow flesh potatoes.  That being said I also grow some blue flesh potatoes and some whites that are worth keeping.  Hopefully a nice red flesh potato pops up soon.  

When grown from rather diverse and heterozygous seed it is difficult to know what they will produce!

Amiah potatoes and the white modern tetraploid ready for roasting

Diploid potatoes can sometimes produce small tubers.  Small potatoes are frustrating to clean and difficult to use.  Normally the diploids aren't too tiny, but at the start I had a couple of lines that produced pea sized tubers, needless to say I culled them from my breeding efforts pretty quickly. 

Any potato grown from true seed can produce tubers with deep eyes.  These are difficult to clean.  Some can produce really long stolons.  I have heard that some produce tubers on stolons that can be 6 foot long, making them unrealistic to grow.  Luckily I have never come across anything like that.

This diploid potato produces reasonable sized tubers, nothing huge but certainly a size that is usable in the kitchen.  The eyes are not very deep.  The stolons are a bit longer than most varieties, but not too bad.

Amiah potatoes are a reasonable size for a diploid potato

Amiah potatoes look nice

There were some potatoes that got a little sun and turned a little green, rather than risk eating them these were replanted.  

I have a few extra tubers, if you are interested I should list them for sale on my for sale page along with the other perennial vegetables and things I have for sale.

Strawberry Raspberry Hybrid - other plants

I wrote several previous posts on attempting to create true intergeneric strawberry x raspberry hybrids.  I also wrote a post on how while intergeneric hybrids are sometimes possible and all signs point to my attempt being successful I am not certain if I succeeded.  I can't be certain that it is a hybrid unless the plant is tested genetically.  I contacted a genetics lab before Christmas, had a bit of email exchange with them, but they are yet to tell me a price to have my plant tested. 

Over summer my original strawberry raspberry hybrid plant suffered badly.  It does not look good and hopefully it survives winter.  If this plant does survive there is a good chance it will grow and fruit again in spring.

As well as my first plant I had a lot of seed left over from that first attempt, so I planted more of this seed and ended up with a few more plants. Some are much like the original attempt, others are a bit different.  The differences are rather interesting.

Yellow white berries and elongated petiolules

Again there was a low germination rate, lots of albinism, and a lot of mysterious early seedling deaths.  Most of the plants display the same sorts of morphological oddities as the first hybrid.  These have taken over ten months to flower, as opposed to the five months of the strawberry parent.  The flowers tend to be irregular and inconsistent.  Leaf shape is variable and usually displays greatly elongated petiolules which is uncharacteristic for the strawberry parent species.

All of this suggests that they may be true hybrids.  To be clear, I can not be certain unless they are genetically tested.

Six petals and a stamen in the wrong place

They all look much like strawberry plants.  Most produce red berries much like the initial hybrid.  One thing that surprised me is some of them produce yellow/white fruit.  Which is remarkable considering that the strawberry parent has red fruit.

I have never had a red fruited strawberry produce a yellow or white fruited seedling, which indicates that red is probably dominant and the parent is likely homozygous for red fruiting genes.  If the parent plants were heterozygous for the yellow/white gene I would have seen a lot of other yellow fruited plants before now.

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid can be quit lump

One plant even produces light coloured berries that are a little bit pink!  Unfortunately there were very few berries.  I will have to take more pictures of this in spring when they start producing fruit again.  As they are flowering in cold weather not all of the flowers are setting fruit. 

I left the berries in the pictures below to over ripen to see if they would turn more red.  They stayed pink no matter how long I left them on the plant.  I left one to the point of rotting, and it still stayed pink and did not turn red.  Considering the parent strawberry has only ever produced red fruited seedlings this pink fruited plant came as quite a surprise.

I am quite fond of the pink berry plant.  These produced rather pretty pink berries that smell nice and taste nicely sweet, so I hope they turn out to be productive in warmer weather and I can somehow divide it.  

Pink strawberry raspberry hybrid

Only time till tell which of these plants, if any, are worth keeping. 

I also planted some seeds from the original hybrid and currently have three F2 plants that I am growing out.  So far they are about ten months old and none of them have flowered and none have produced any runners.  I will be interested to see what they turn into.

Extra petals, flowers subtended by a leaf

Only 5 petals on this one, this plant never sets fruit

Yellow/white strawberry raspberry hybrid

Unlike the original hybrid or the pink fruited plant, the plant that is producing yellow or white berries is a bit bland, they also aren't very fragrant.  This may be due to the berries ripening in cooler weather.  In spring when it starts to fruit again hopefully they taste a bit nicer.

Similar to the original hybrid, these yellow/white ones have achenes on the outside, and can be a bit lumpy and bumpy.  Even though the strawberry parent produces a huge number of runners from a young age this yellow fruiting one has not produces any runners as yet.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

I sent samples of these plants to the CSIRO who tested them and determined that they are true hybrids.  The results can be seen here.

While I don't sell these, I do sell some strawberry plants when I have enough to spare.  If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page.