The KARMA Project
 

KarenO and Ginger 2778

KARen and MArsha

The [B][U]KARMA[/U][/B] project :)

I made a cross this summer with the goal in mind of an early potato leaf fancy cherry from a cross between Ambrosia Gold (early, tasty, cherry, strong RL plant) x Captain Lucky- midseason vigorous delicious tricolour potato leaf plant. medium to large fruit.
hoping we can produce a cherry with special colour like a bicolour, tricolour or pink/black with super taste on a vigorous early midseason PL plant to carry forward. If we are really lucky, there could be more than one but one is what we are hoping for to start.
Marsha gardens in Zone 10B in Florida and can garden in the winter. We came up with the idea to be partners and pass seed back and forth between us to speed up the stabilization process if we get an interesting cherry to work with.

My Zone 3 growing season is about 120 days and from June to September which severely limits my tomato growing to a single season. Sending seed north to south and back and forth the two of us can cut the time in half that it will take to stabilize it :)Some of you might remember me growing out F1 beefsteaks over winter in my kitchen to save a year but with my Friend Marsha as a partner I don't have to do that again. lol

I sent Marsha F1 seed from the cross a couple of weeks ago and she has started growing the seedlings. I will wait and see what she posts once she sees this thread because she might have babies growing soon!

Thank you Marsha for agreeing to work on this with me and I am excited to see how the F1's turn out. Cross your fingers for us folks and follow along!:)

KarenO

Oh my, that sounds like a great cross. I will be keeping an eye on your progress. Good luck to both of you.

Sounds fantastic! Good luck with the project!

Linda

Very cool, but this thread should probably be moved to the CrossTalk section...

Cant wait for pics of the F1 though, keep us posted.

Good luck with the project, Ladies.
I like the name , KARMA

Gardeneer

Great idea Karen and it's exactly what the Dwarf project did for so many years,that is, our summer is their winter, and the reverse so it speeded up results and movent towards ultimate stabilization and release of varieties.

Carolyn

Starting Documentation
 

Karen sent me 12 seeds of her F1 cross of Ambrosia Gold X Captain Lucky. Not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket, I sowed 5 in a damp paper towel sealed in a ziplock baggie. This way
I could check daily and get them right as a little root was forming. Photo taken here with the baggie in the position of least amount of glare.

Hello Partner!
There were only 30 seeds altogether from a single crossed bloom that "took" and formed a small fruit. Can't risk sending them all in the mail so I kept some back just in case but that dozen arrived safe and sound and Marsha is coddling them along and seems like they all look likely to germinate. Fresh seed helps too. I would have had to store the seed til spring but with Marsha involved, they went in the mail as soon as they were dry enough with minimal storage time.
Looking forward to some wee green babies soon. All the F1 seedlings will be RL. We guess that the fruit will be small and either yellow or pink but don't know for sure.
KarenO

Good luck with the project - I love the name.

[QUOTE=KarenO;505877]Hello Partner!
There were only 30 seeds altogether from a single crossed bloom that "took" and formed a small fruit. Can't risk sending them all in the mail so I kept some back just in case but that dozen arrived safe and sound and Marsha is coddling them along and seems like they all look likely to germinate. Fresh seed helps too. I would have had to store the seed til spring but with Marsha involved, they went in the mail as soon as they were dry enough with minimal storage time.
Looking forward to some wee green babies soon. All the F1 seedlings will be RL. We guess that the fruit will be small and either yellow or pink but don't know for sure.
KarenO[/QUOTE]

Two of those wee green babies are already up! Photos tomorrow. Sleep now.;)

Here are our first 2 seedlings up, day 6. They look quite strong so far.:D

Excellent! Always good to see another project that brings some great taste and colour into an earlier package. :) Methinks the Karma from this is all good. :yes:;)

This is good medicine for the funk I go in at the end of the season. It is great to see a project uniting 2 outstanding varieties. Ambrosia Gold is a great producer, and I think it is better than Sungold because it doesn't spit nearly as badly, and the taste is quite comparable...not to mention it will be OP.

Looking forward to reports!

Babies! They look great Marsha!
Karen

[QUOTE=KarenO;505959]Babies! They look great Marsha!
Karen[/QUOTE]

Thank you, and I agree! ;)

So this way you can grow 3 generations. Eg, in 3 years you can get up to F9.

VGood.

Gardeneer

Three growouts per year might be pushing it but two should be easy. Marsha can grow in winter and I will grow in spring/summer. Not rushing allows for close observation and careful selection of the best and it will be interesting to see how they do in such vastly different climates.
It will still be twice as fast as I could do it on my own thanks to Marsha's partnership.
KarenO

Karen, I think you're going to like this......Heeee!

All together 3 healthy looking seedlings, one is getting it's true leaves. Day 10.

looks good; nice fat stems too.

What mix are you growing in?

[QUOTE=Barb_FL;506297]looks good; nice fat stems too.

What mix are you growing in?[/QUOTE]

Miracle Gro seed starting potting mix. Will go into PromixBX at first true leaf transplant, about 6 more days, I think.

Oh they look perfect! It's so nice to see little seedlings again, it's was March when I last had some little sprouts to pamper. I like MG seedling mix too and use it myself and then you can't go wrong with pro mix for later. You and I think alike it seems
Thanks for posting the photo :)
Karen

Nice! It's a little hard to tell from the photo but that one seedling in the middle looks like it may be PL. Is it, Marsha?

Regular leafed all the way! Here's a fresh photo from 15 minutes ago, and looky looky, another seed has come up! That's 4 of 5!

Awesome! they look great Marsha, the three big ones are nice and stocky! Are you planning to grow out all that grow or are you going to select the best one from the group to grow for your winter season?

Thanks for posting the progress, I am sadly starting to clean up my gardens for winter so it is lovely to see the babies :)

Karen

Verrrry interesting!:)

[QUOTE=KarenO;506587]Awesome! they look great Marsha, the three big ones are nice and stocky! Are you planning to grow out all that grow or are you going to select the best one from the group to grow for your winter season?

Thanks for posting the progress, I am sadly starting to clean up my gardens for winter so it is lovely to see the babies :)

Karen[/QUOTE]
I think I will transplant all 4, give 2 away to friends that will use them just as food plants, since I am having the swap, and 2 are going to get coveted sunny spots in a shared Earthbox.
Karen, you must be so proud, the quality of these seeds is wonderful. These little guys are going to be treated like royalty.:)

This sounds amazing! It's just what I'm looking for in my garden. :)

I'm looking forward to your results!

Here are the babies, ready for transplant, and a little one not quite ready.

Now transplanted deeply to the 4" pots, I used a pinch of Tomato Maker, and Promix BX.