Produce > Edible Plants
Potatoes
Tee Gee:
I have been reading this thread with interest, and it raises a question in my head, and that is;
There always has been a great many potato varieties to be had, but on seeing the selection of newer varieties mentioned above, the question in my mind is;
" are the newer varieties better than older varieties"
I have always been a bit of a sceptic when things like this occur, not that I necessarily see newer varieties as a bad thing, it's just I often think are they better ?
I know when I dabbled in Dahlia breeding, I found that possibly I might get around 5 or 6 plants out of a hundred plants that were worthy of growing on the following year.
Then in the second year I often found that they were not stable and quite often some reversion had taken place, thus reducing the chance of me breeding a "winner"
I often wonder if this is the same with other new plant breeds/strains?
A thought that often crosses my mind since the advent of "global warming" is; will these 'new strains' survive the test of time, or will we have to go back to growing heirloom varieties that have survived the test of time, and modify them to suit the conditions of the day?
Only time will tell I guess!
Does anyone else have any views on the subject of "new varieties"?
gray1720:
Still not sure what my last two varieties are despite harvesting them last night - when I got home passata production was in full swing and by the time we'd eaten and done that, I just fell into bed. One is red - which are a bit battered, and quite scabby - and one is yellow with pink blotches. Amusingly there was one stub of the reds in the row of yellows, and a matching yellow in the same place in the row of reds. Dunno what happened there.
saddad:
"Newer Varieties" TeeGee, I am a firm supporter of Heritage varieties that have stood the test of time, with the proviso that "traditional varieties" were new once. Fellside Hero, AKA King Edwards, are showing their age now, at 100+ who wouldn't!
Beersmith:
--- Quote from: Tee Gee on September 21, 2021, 16:01:10 ---
Does anyone else have any views on the subject of "new varieties"?
--- End quote ---
For a period of about ten years, starting around the mid 1970s I was involved in the selective breeding programs directed at improving the genetics of the national pig herd. There were two important features that were true about this program that I think also apply to plant breeding.
Firstly it was slow. Genetic changes only occur with each new generation. For pigs this is about one generation per year. For plants you need at least one season to grow and evaluate the selected line. Possibly longer. It can take many generations to make even a modest difference.
Secondly the things the selective breeding are trying to change are often in conflict. Just one example from pig breeding. Pigs were selected for fast growth. Quick to market meant more product each year and more profit. But they were also selected for small gut volume. Gut offal is only really pet food, worth so much less than ham, chops and shoulder. But animals with smaller gut didn't grow so quickly. It was difficult to achieve both.
What we want of course is fast growing, very productive, disease and pest resistant, and superb flavour. New varieties often tick one of these boxes, sometimes two, but rarely more.
Is it worth the effort? Nationally the answer is yes. If every sugar beet delivers just a few grams more sugar, every rape plant a few extra oilseeds, every stalk of corn a few extra grams of flour the total benefit across millions of hectares is large. I fear those of us with an allotment might struggle to see much difference.
But ever hopeful, I still buy new them.
Silverleaf:
When it comes to new potato varieties they should be stable right away as they are propagated vegetatively via tubers, so apart from to occasional mutations and diseases and stuff that will naturally accumulate they are going to be pretty much identical generation to generation.
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