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Post by macmex on Oct 25, 2021 17:01:48 GMT
Here are a few photos of the roots from Seedling #1, as I'm calling it. It appears to be derived from Grand Asia.
Everything about this plant seems larger than life. The vines ran easily 20 ft. They overtook a tomato cage and climbed it adjacent to the plant. The vines were extra thick.
That main stem was nearly as big around as the handle of my hand sickle!
The leaves were extra large and most of the ones on the growing tips of the vines had a maroon cast to them.
This plant stood out in the garden. It was noticeably vigorous. It plant also overtook and almost smothered a Ginseng orange plant next to it.
It flowered abundantly at the ends of its long vines, but I find no mature seed. I have found no mature seed in the entire patch of sweet potatoes this year.
At the time of planting I made two slips out of the one seedling, so I had two identical plants. The first one I came two wasn't nearly as large or productive as the second. Why? I don't know. The first root I encountered was from the smaller of the two plants, which was planted later. The skin of this sweet potato is a light red. And it has white flesh. The first root was quite large. The second plant produced a huge, 7 lb 6 oz root and a couple smaller roots. Total production wasn't super high yet it seems promising.
Here's a picture of the total crop I got from this seedling (2 plants).
I'm pretty sure that the female parent was Grand Asia. Can't be sure of the pollen donor. Adjacent to Grand Asia was both Becca's Purple and Red Wine Velvet. I would think PURPLE would dominate, but who knows?
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Post by macmex on Feb 12, 2022 19:42:27 GMT
It was only today (February 12, 2022) that I tried cooking up the first root of one of these seedlings. I cooked a small root from Seedling #1, baking it on top of aluminum foil in the oven until it was very soft. I was surprised when I broke it open. It's bi-color, having a creamy whitish flesh with a light violet colored core.
The flesh of this sweet potato was dense and moist, kind of like Japanese White. It was very good!
I'm excited about growing this one out for a larger crop and trial!
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Post by macmex on Feb 12, 2022 21:41:21 GMT
Okay, while I'm on a roll I decided to cook up a small (and kind of thin) root of Seedling #2. Here's a photo of it baked and with nothing added to it.
I ate the whole thing and this is my impression:
This one has excellent orange color. The flavor is good. It's reasonably sweet and moist. The skin on this one is a bit on the thick side. I'm one who normally eats the skin of most baked sweet potatoes. I eat them skin and all. With this one, after a couple bites I found myself peeling the rest of the flesh out of the skin and discarding the skin. (My dog was thrilled with this!)
I plan on growing some more of these, too, to trial in 2022.
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Post by macmex on Mar 30, 2022 14:37:18 GMT
I only just now (March 30, 2022) tried eating one of the two deep purple roots which were harvested from a seedling last year. They look absolutely identical to Becca's Purple.
I baked it and had it for my morning snack. Here are some observations.
This one tastes just like Becca's and the texture is the same. Everything seems identical to Becca's Purple except one slight possible difference: the skin is pretty thick and tough. I don't remember Becca's Purple as having such a tough skin. When I ate this one I ended up scraping it out of the skin.
My conclusion is that I'll eat the other one which is still in storage. There doesn't appear to be any reason to pursue this seedling. Becca's Purple itself is as good or, more probably, better than it is.
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Post by macmex on May 6, 2022 13:30:29 GMT
May 4 I cooked up a couple roots from seedling #2 (orange flesh pictured above). They were pithy and dry. Coupled with the fact that the skin was so tough, I won't grow this one out again.
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