Re: Surrogate mother potato

Dear Donald,

My name is G.L. Michaelis and besides belonging to the daylily list serve,
I also run the North American Lily Societies List Serve called Lilium-L.  I
was absolutely fascinated by the potato story and would like your
permission to post a copy of it on the lilium-l.  Lots of us live in
northern climes where we are regularly have to bring in pods to ripen and I
think that this might be of great help.

I will do nothing until I hear from you.

Yours
G.L.
glmichaelis@man.net
"Perennially in Trouble" in Warren, Manitoba, Canada.
Great Landscapes.  Gramma.

----------
> From: Donald Mosser <dmosser@southconn.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <iris-l@rt66.com>
> Subject: RE: Surrogate mother potato
> Date: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 8:20 PM
> 
> At 10:13 PM 1/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >Donald you write:
> >>I planted my first and only hand pollinated pod from a 
> >>TB...I can't wait to see what comes of these in the 
> >>spring, After all, their mother died before they were born and a baking

> >>potato was their surrogate mother for over a month. You ask "A 
> >>potato?"...Dr. Zurbrigg gave me instructions on how to rescue the
> premature pod.  >>If anyone is interested I would be glad to share or
> explain the technique.
> >
> >Yes! Yes! Yes! I am very interested! Between my cats, & kids I am always

> >losing some of my crosses. Oh, and I must admit to causing some loss
myself, 
> >pure clumsiness! So please tell me how to save these preemies! I am sure
> there 
> >must be others who would like to hear this also.
> >Jefrie Jenkins -- Kent, WA  zone 5 - AIS region 13
> 
> Jefrie,
> 
> I'm not sure that this is a foolproof method since I've only tried it
once
> and I've yet to see if the seed which matured was actually viable, but
here
> goes.  Warning! This is a long story, so if you're not interested
exercise
> the delete key.  
> 
> THE POD was produced on a fall blooming stalk of BROTHER CARL (TB) as a
> result of my careless fondling of the flower to figure out what all of
the
> parts were. :)  I became enormously attached to THE POD and watched over
it
> like a mother hen for about a month and a half.  Then came that fateful
> night of first real frost and I tried to cover the entire stalk with a
> cardboard box and oops!, I knocked the poor thing off.  
> 
> I happened to be corresponding with Dr. Lloyd Zurbrigg by e-mail at the
> time and I mentioned that this particular seed pod had broken off.  He
> suggested that I attempt to rescue the pod by using a raw baking potato
to
> nourish the pod until it finished maturing.  
> 
> I accomplished this by cutting a small hole in potato to match the
diameter
> of the remaining stalk on the seed pod.  I then made a fresh cut on the
> bottom of the seed pod stalk and inserted the stalk of the seed pod into
> the hole in the raw potato.  It was still a loose fit, so I used the
melted
> wax from a birthday candle to seal the edges where the pod rested on the
> potato surface.  I placed this new union of potato and seed pod in a
letter
> tray on the top of my computer desk in front of a north facing window (no
> particular reasoning here, except that I could keep a close eye on THE
POD).
> 
> THE POD stayed green and firm for about another month, at which point it
> seemed to start loosing it's healthy green color.  I checked and it was
no
> longer firmly grafted to the potato.  I removed it from the potato and
> placed it in the letter tray, unsure of what to do next.  I then figured
> that THE POD was as mature as it was going to get at 3+ months of age, so
I
> performed a C-section on THE POD to see what the seeds looked like.  I've
> never seen what mature TB seeds look like, but these looked about like
> small boiled peanuts and most were a light tan color.  Being from the
> southern U.S. I've shelled my share of butter beans (limas) and these
seeds
> looked "filled out" to me.:)  
> 
> I planted the seeds the next day, directly in my raised bed that I use
for
> vegetable gardening. The soil is a mixture of our natural sand with
several
> season of compost and manure additions, but now mostly sand again.  I
> eagerly await the spring to see if anything germinates from the
experiment
> with THE POD and the potato.  
> 
> I guess to be scientifically objective about the effectiveness of this
> procedure, one would have to try this with many pods of the same cross at
> the same time with potatoes from the same bag, etc., etc.  I'll try to
> remember to report, good or bad, what comes of these seeds in the spring.
> Donald Mosser
> Member of AIS, HIPS, SIGNA, SSI, SLI, SPCNI, and IRIS-L
> dmosser@southconn.com
> http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/5570
> 
> North Augusta, South Carolina, USA
> On the South Carolina and Georgia Border
> USDA Zone 7b-8
> 
>
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