May 21, 2016 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Ireland
Posts: 41
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Albinism/Partial albinism and mutations in OP varieties
Hi,
A while ago I noticed that one of my seedlings had partially white leaves and thought I mixed up my seeds as my seedling was supposed to be a vezanka. I initially thought that I had sowed fish pepper seeds instead, so I sowed a few more seeds when I noticed that. Later I realized that the growing habits and particularly the leaf shape was different than on my fish pepper seedling. The leaves were much larger and droopier. The stem also started showing some purple streaks, and no way a fish pepper that's half albinos would produce so much anthocyanin, what's more the fish seedling didn't show any purple streaks. And I definitely ruled this out when the seedling formed it's first pepper. From the shape and from the corking, this is definitely a vezanka piperki and not a fish pepper. I never grew any of these varieties before but the vezanka surely isn't supposed to be half albinos, so that's troubling. I don't think it's crossed seeds either as I bought the seeds from commercial source (baker's creek), although I also have seeds from serbia and can't remember which one I sowed as I did it multiple times because they didn't germinate the first time around. Who knows why, they are the only ones that caused me so much difficulty to germinate. But anyway, I have a macedonian friend and discussed these vezanka piperki with her prior to growing these as they are traditionally grown in Macedonia and Serbia and from what she told me, these should be albinos but should indeed show some strong corking. I'm baffled by this. Doesn't seems like crossed seeds, now could the fact that I also grow fish pepper close to them be a factor that could trigger albinism in this seedling ? Pure coincidence ? As far as I now, albinism and partial albinism are purely russian roulette on the great wheel of genetics and are defects, right ? Could it be that open pollinated varieties are more prone to mutation/less stable than hybrids ? I mention that because a few of my tomatoes have been putting out fused blooms and another of my pepper plant keeps cracking out pods that are all different from each others and no two looks alike. Any ideas ? The first pictures are pictures of my vezanka seedling and the last picture is a picture of the fish seedling, as you can see the leaves exhibit the same kind of white/see-through streaks and both show variegation. I don't think it's stress either as I'm growing them indoors. |
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