Bi-O is gaining experience with variety maintenance, and aims to start offering self-produced seeds of certain varieties in one or two years. Both sold directly, and through other channels.
Anja Hougaard Storaker (having a go with the planting of the oat roots above) is studying biology at UiO and will participate from summer 2020 in the work in our fields at Sørbråten Gård.
Autumn 2020 we were working with variety maintenance for seed production of root vegetables, among other things:
- Pastinaca sativa Parsnips ‘White Gem’, from many sources
- Scorzonera hispanica Black Salsify ‘Hoffmanns Schwarze Pfal’, from many sources
- Tragopogon porrifolius Salsify ‘Haferwurzel’, from Solhatt’s Bingenheim range
The salsify field was sown in the spring of 2019 and about 50% of the roots have flowered this year. We have selected those that have flowered and among those selected for the right root shape and put in their own field (what Anja is working on above). Then we have done the same with those who have not flowered and set in the field about 3 km away. These plants consistently have better root size, probably because they have been able to prioritize this, and thus this can be an interesting trait to breed on. It will be exciting to see if the trait dominates in this population, when the seeds we get from these next year form roots in 2022 and then possibly bloom, or linger with it, in 2023.
Update spring 2021: The field with flowered roots died during the winter, so it is only to state that the oat root does not bloom several times, in contrast to the black root. There was also poor survival in the field with those who had not flourished. Probably the roots should have been stored in the root cellar and planted out in the spring. We still let the 10-15 plants set seeds to carry out the experiment.
Salsify has beautiful flowers, and long seeds with a “parachute”, similar to the black salsify. (NB! Wear workwear when you harvest: the gummy juice from the plant forms spots you can forget to get rid of)
Sist oppdatert 2023-10-20 av Bi-O