Potato: Germination of USDA Wild Potato Accessions

This post is not really meant to be read start to finish.  The intent is that it will be picked up by search engines so that breeders and researchers working with these accessions in the future can find this information.

We use accessions supplied by the USDA in some of our breeding work.  This report covers accessions of wild potatoes, supplied as true potato seeds.  We’re reporting germination percent after 30 days and speed of germination relative to S. tuberosum.  Seeds that had their first germination at least 3 days earlier than S. tuberosum are noted as fast and those that had their first germination at least 6 days later than S. tuberosum (when S. tuberosum germ had reached 50%) are noted as slow.  Accessions that germinated after the initial 30 day evaluation period are noted as very slow.

All seeds were started in sterile potting soil in individual cells.  Either 25 or 50 seeds were sown.  The seed starting room was heated to 65 degrees during the day and allowed to fall as low as 50 degrees at night.  Seeds were not treated with GA3.

Overall, germination was low compared to fresh seed of S. tuberosum, which reached 90% germination in 16 days. 19 accessions (18%) failed to germinate at all, although I am maintaining those cells in the hope that they might eventually germinate.  Where more than one accession was grown, results were fairly uniform by species.  That might indicate that our starting conditions weren’t in the right range for some of the species that didn’t germinate.  Bamberg (2018) reported that alternating temperatures inhibit germination in some species.  I wish that paper had been published a few months earlier!  We will retry the low or non germinating accessions for which we still have some seed at constant temperature to see if they do better.

Thanks to the USDA Potato Introduction Station for maintaining and providing these accessions.

Species	PI Number	Germination %	Germination Time
S. acaule	205507	22	Slow
S. acaule	472665	34	Slow
S. acaule	561642	40	Slow
S. acaule	597688	28	Slow
S. acaule	597711	26	Slow
S. acroglossum	365313	36
S. acroscopicum	230495	48
S. agrimonifolium	243352	38
S. agrimonifolium	545748	52
S. albicans	498201	62	Slow
S. albicans	631199	66	Slow
S. albornozii	498206	8	Slow
S. andreanum	247360	28	Slow
S. andreanum	561631	16	Slow
S. berthaultii	217458	70
S. berthaultii	265577	46
S. berthaultii	310927	56
S. boliviense	233125	40
S. boliviense	435077	28	Slow
S. boliviense	597698	36	Slow
S. boliviense	597758	38
S. brevicaule	205394	44
S. brevicaule	265885	56
S. brevicaule	275276	20	Slow
S. buesii	568922	8	Slow
S. bulbocastanum	243508	40
S. burkartii	568985	16	Slow to very slow
S. cajamarquense	230522	12	Slow
S. candolleanum	246533	90	Fast
S. candolleanum	442697	98	Fast
S. candolleanum	458375	86	Fast
S. cardiophyllum	558041	94
S. chacoense	265576	42
S. chacoense	275142	28	Slow
S. chacoense	498321	36
S. chacoense	558043	40
S. chomatophilum	473460	44
S. clarum	275202	20
S. colombianum	561641	0
S. colombianum	570615	0
S. commersonii	243503	48
S. commersonii	320266	44
S. demissum	160208	40	Slow
S. demissum	186552	46
S. dolichocremastrum	498234	20	Very slow
S. ehrenbergii	279303	0
S. flahaultii	498166	8	Slow to very slow
S. gandarillasii	265866	0
S. garcia-barrigae	498158	40
S. guerreroense	161730	84
S. hjertingii	251065	32	Slow
S. hougasii	558402	60
S. huancabambense	458400	0
S. hypacrarthrum	473477	4
S. immite	498245	80	Fast
S. infundibuliforme	442675	0
S. iopetallum	498021	68
S. jamesii	275170	26
S. jamesii	498407	34
S. jamesii	592416	40	Fast
S. jamesii	595783	38	Fast
S. kurtzianum	133687	0
S. laxissimum	473372	40
S. lesteri	558434	44
S. lignicaule	275273	12	Slow
S. limbaniense	473468	44
S. lobbianum	567840	0
S. longiconicum	186568	8	Slow
S. malmeanum	320269	0
S. medians	458402	16
S. microdontum	175150	76	Fast
S. minutifoliolum	583298	0
S. mochiquense	283114	36
S. morelliforme	243357	0
S. morelliforme	619119	4	Very slow
S. multiinteruptum	265886	0
S. neorossii	473202	28	Slow
S. okadae	458367	88
S. okadae	498063	80
S. oxycarpum	230479	0
S. paucissectum	365340	0
S. pinnatisectum	190115	0
S. piurae	310997	4	Slow
S. polyadenium	175444	20
S. raphanifolium	210048	36	Slow to very slow
S. schenkii	498250	40	Slow to very slow
S. sogarandinum	230510	16	Very slow
S. stenophyllidium	249927	16	Fast
S. stipuloideum	545974	40	Fast
S. stoloniferum	255547	70
S. stoloniferum	558057	62
S. tarnii	498043	56	Fast
S. trifidum	255539	28
S. venturii	218220	76
S. venturii	558146	70
S. vernei	230468	68
S. vernei	320332	62
S. verrucosum	160228	100	Fast
S. verrucosum	251756	92	Fast
S. vioaceimarmoratum	258856	8	Slow
S. x aemulans	275132	30	Slow
S. x aemulans	500018	22	Slow
S. x blanco-galdosii	498214	0
S. x doddsii	442690	28
S. x michoacanum	653799	56	Fast
S. x rechei	558227	12