Sweeter Chard Breeding Project

[rxkeith]

bower,

i would have to figure out winter storage to keep the plants alive. chard just doesn't winter over here.
i could grow some in buckets, and bring in doors during the winter. if the plants go dormant, i can keep
them in the unheated basement if they won't need light other wise it would be unheated enclosed porch
until it gets really cold, then some where else in the house near a window.
you got me thinking.

[Tormato]

A great project, Bower.

And, having Julianna's children, who will give the MOST honest opinion, is clearly the way to go.

My own project can't get off the ground. I have Verde de Taglio seeds collecting dust for a year, while I try to find MacGregor's Favorite to make a cross with.

If there is ever any spare F1, F2 , seed, etc... from your project, you know how to find me.

And, where am I going to sow the 1,000+ seeds of Diverse/Perennial/Multiplier shallots? I'd better do a test germination, first, to see what I've gotten into.

I made little frittata bites yesterday and Zain loved them and Adam the older one said it was gross. Then later on that day he asked me what would.it taste like if you mixed milk and diet pepsi. I said "gross" to which he replied "oh like your frittata?" So he can be the ultimate judge.

I think that I remember what milk and regular pepsi tastes like, from 50+ years ago.

There's gross (milk and Dr Pepper), not that good (milk and Pepsi, milk and Coke, milk and grape soda), and excellent (milk and root beer, milk and orange soda). You're raising a champ.

I don't know what a frittata is.

[Julianna]

A great project, Bower.

And, having Julianna's children, who will give the MOST honest opinion, is clearly the way to go.

My own project can't get off the ground. I have Verde de Taglio seeds collecting dust for a year, while I try to find MacGregor's Favorite to make a cross with.

If there is ever any spare F1, F2 , seed, etc... from your project, you know how to find me.

And, where am I going to sow the 1,000+ seeds of Diverse/Perennial/Multiplier shallots? I'd better do a test germination, first, to see what I've gotten into.

I made little frittata bites yesterday and Zain loved them and Adam the older one said it was gross. Then later on that day he asked me what would.it taste like if you mixed milk and diet pepsi. I said "gross" to which he replied "oh like your frittata?" So he can be the ultimate judge.

I think that I remember what milk and regular pepsi tastes like, from 50+ years ago.

There's gross (milk and Dr Pepper), not that good (milk and Pepsi, milk and Coke, milk and grape soda), and excellent (milk and root beer, milk and orange soda). You're raising a champ.

I don't know what a frittata is.

Mine was 12 eggs, some milk, parmesan, mushrooms, chard leaves, onion, garlic powder, and tomato. Mostly egg. Like an omelette but i baked it.

I have never tried it. I just am not a fan of the idea lol. Cream soda was never my thing.

[bower]

Overwintering chard would probably like unheated enclosed porch better than indoors. I've never measured just how cold they like it, but air temperature below freezing does happen in my greenhouse. It takes some lower temperatures for soil to freeze. Air is probably close to freezing many nights out there now, where the young chard are looking perky and pleased.

[worth1]

I'm looking.

[Sue_CT]

I love Chard, and just recently found out I love beet greens. The beet greens surprised me because I don't like beets. I found a local mix of spring greens that contains beet greens and I love them! This looks like an awesome project!

[MissS]

What a great undertaking @Bower. A fun project for sure. It's going to be fun to keep an eye out for this years grow outs and see how they do in different cliamates.

[bower]

It's been some fun so far @MissS . The non bitter ones are really tasty.
Just wanted to mention here, in case anyone else in the States is interested in joining in, seeds can be gotten by SASE to our friend Tormato!
viewtopic.php?t=4387

My selected plants are slowly coming on. Not as fast as brassicas but the heat tolerance is showing in the greenhouse.

SBCandothers-april2023-095.JPG

[MissS]

It's been some fun so far @MissS . The non bitter ones are really tasty.
Just wanted to mention here, in case anyone else in the States is interested in joining in, seeds can be gotten by SASE to our friend Tormato!
viewtopic.php?t=4387

My selected plants are slowly coming on. Not as fast as brassicas but the heat tolerance is showing in the greenhouse.
SBCandothers-april2023-095.JPG

It's fun for everyone to try this and very generous of you to share @Bower!

[bower]

The beet family genetics is new to me, so just trying to figure out what these different colors might be, and share my 'hypothesis' in pics.
Edited to add: my WRONG hypothesis. I just read something about beets and it seems like there are 3 alleles for Red, which gives 'orange red' vs 'magenta pink' colors. So there is more going on than my 'two allele' garblish.
It is basically a two gene system where color is dominant, and Y (yellow) is necessary for other color R (red) to be expressed.
Since the F2 have a lot of 'half yellow', that is light yellow stems (Yy vs YY), it seems to me that the more intense dark colors in the reds are the result of YY, while the two softer red colors are due to the action of the Yy combination, as seen in yellow.
Secondly, if that's correct, then the color types where red or orange color is suffused into the dark green leaf are the RR, while those that only color the stem would be Rr.
If this theory is correct, I should be able to get all the red shades by allowing two plants to cross: the Magenta and the Peach. So I think I will try to do that just to see if I got it right. If so, I should get some suffused red and orange leaf, even though Magenta and Peach are green leaf.
So here are some pics of the colors I have in my selected plants.

SBC-Peach-and-Orange-045.JPG

SBxC-F2-darkreds-040.JPG

SBC-rrYy-HALF-YELLOW-042.JPG

SBC-RRyy-PINK-WHITE-057.JPG

[bower]

Some pics from the top to show how the leaf color is "suffused" in the Red and the Orange chard leaves, but not in Magenta or Peach.
First pic of Red and Magenta from above - Red on the left has a darker looking leaf and the red color spreads beyond the veins into the leaf.

SBC-darkreds-010.JPG

SBC-RRYY-RED-018.JPG

SBC-RrYY-MAGENTA-020.JPG

Edited to add, this is probably RR* a different allele, not a Ry?

SBC-RRYy-ORANGE-022.JPG

SBC-RrYy-PEACH-027.JPG

Edited to add: these might be shades of the red allele, since they are both orangey and not pinkey...??

SBC-RRyy-PINK-WHITE-030.JPG

This one if isolated from other plants should be stable for color.

[Whwoz]

Fabulous work @Bower. You may turn out on that even I like of these! Will keep an eye on this thread to see how it develops.

[Julianna]

Mine are in the bins! I put them out today. My other chards are about to bloom and so i will practice on them for seed collection in order to get it right. I have two bins for your project.

[bower]

@Julianna lets call it "our" project please! And if anyone else jumps on board and finds a keeper, we can all swap seeds back and forth and heap praise upon the most magnificent tasting of all.
What kind of chard do you grow? I'd love to see pics of the colors.
I realized after posting the above about the red colors, I forgot about reading there are multiple alleles for 'red' which determine the shade from red to purple (amount of blue in the red). So actually whether the color is 'suffused' or the leaf is green, may even be independent of that.
And looking at the colors in my sample, it seems like the 'magenta' or purple-red should produce pinker colors in the 'less color' department, vs. the ones I picked for taste are definitely orangey-peachy and maybe they are both out of the red allele, not from 'magenta' diluted at all. So there may be yet more shades for me to find...
Just thinking ahead (way way ahead!) to what colors to isolate or what combination of colors I would put together to cross pollinate and set seeds for a full flush of pretty colors.
Really hope you enjoy the flavor (of the good ones!) and can't wait to hear your descriptions good or bad.

@Whwoz it is sad that seed travel is so restricted, but the cross is really simple to do and you could easily replicate something parallel, if you can obtain seed of an OP sugar beet in Aussie and just overwinter that with your favorite colored chard for the wee flies to pollinate. I am really stoked about how good some of these taste to me, since I am not a usual chard lover.

[Whwoz]

@Bower , I would need to discuss with Mrs first. I know that she likes silverbeet but I think that she is not clean on the coloured chard. Sugar beet seeds are readily available but by the time they arrived here would almost be to late for this season, we plant in late summer to autumn, harvest over winter and on spring the plants run to seed.

[Julianna]

@Bower i have some fordhook, some peppermint, bright lights, and some verde da taglio. I can take pics in the morning! It looks like a chard jungle. I know i posted the peppermint ones here before somewhere.

[worth1]

My neighbor has never heard of swiss chard and he's my age.

[Tormato]

My neighbor has never heard of swiss chard and he's my age.

There are some who think that iceberg lettuce is the only green known to mankind.

[worth1]

My neighbor has never heard of swiss chard and he's my age.

There are some who think that iceberg lettuce is the only green known to mankind.

Well he's one of them.
His brother and late Mom were the same way.
He told me he didn't like tamales but the only time he tried to eat one he didn't know you had to remove the husk.

[Tormato]

If you go back about 50 years, or more, people who didn't travel much, or who didn't interact with other cultures much, basically ate their regional food. Many areas of the country, especially rural, had no idea what other areas of the country ate.

But, just about every place had Wonder bread, bologna, iceberg lettuce, mayo, and Coca Cola (whole milk, if your parents didn't want you having soda/pop).