Golden Sweet x Sugar Ann

[Silverleaf]

This one's a fairly standard project. No new flower colours, and only a couple of genes to worry about, and a specific aim (or two) in mind.

We all know Golden Sweet. It holds a special place in my heart because it's the first pea I ever grew, and because Gregor Mendel probably grew it too and used it in his experiments. Also I just like it! It isn't the best-tasting snow pea ever but it tastes nice enough, looks lovely and the yellow pods really stand out.

So I crossed it with Sugar Ann in 2014, hoping for something better. Ann is a short green snap which I basically chose because it almost has my name!

The F1s, as expected, were tall with green snow pods and wild type purple/maroon flowers. I had a taste of one of the pods and it was pretty good - sweeter than GS with a nice pea flavour.

I only care about two genes here - gp for yellow pods, and n for snap pods. SA has white flowers and no antho on the plant at all so it's very likely that it's aa, and this means that a quarter of the F2s will also have no antho. But I'm not that concerned with the flower colour on this one so I'm not using that as a selection criterion. 1/4 of the plants will be short as well, and I definitely do care about that! I will eat the peas from short plants rather than saving them.

Here's what I expect to see in the F2 grown this year:
9/16 Gp_ N_ Green snow
3/16 Gp_ nn Green snap
3/16 gpgp N_ Yellow snow
1/16 gpgp nn Yellow snap

The eventual goal is a nice tall yellow snap, but I'm going to try for a tastier yellow snow as well.

[jayb]

Lovely sounding cross, Mmm yellow snaps. Looking forward to following progress
How many are you starting off with?

[Galina]

I was lucky to get a yellow snap from only 5 F2s (CEG x Amish snap) in the second growout of the year very late. Hope you won't need all 16. To be sure of one you'd need even more than 16. Hope you are also lucky. How many are you planning?

[Silverleaf]

To be 95% sure of a yellow snap I'd need 46 plants, and for 99% I'd need 71. I'll probably sow about 100.

The reasoning is, about 25% will be short and get culled. That leaves me about 75 tall plants, and that's enough that I'd have to be extremely unlucky not to see a yellow snap.

Of course it's never guaranteed!

[Galina]

No it isn't guaranteed, but with a bit of luck there might be several of them. And some other surprises for you. And quite a lot to eat as well, all edible podded, which is a bonus.

[Silverleaf]

I might actually get to eat a decent amount of peas this year!

The average number of tall yellow snaps in a growout like this of 100 peas is 4.6. Of course that's only an average, the real number is in the hands of random chance (and I'm definitely expecting a whole number of plants ).

It's not unreasonable to hope for several though.

[Silverleaf]

It'll be nice to actually get to eat some experiments!

[jayb]

With all those plants you should be well catered for

[Silverleaf]

Good job we love peas here, right?

[jayb]

The more the merrier I'd say and if they look stunning too.....heaven

[Silverleaf]

This stage of the breeding process is exciting in two ways - it's the time when I get to see the early results of my work, and it's the time when I get to actually taste them!

[jayb]

I'm excited for you and I can't wait for the pictures and progress reports to start rolling in

[Silverleaf]

Yes, I will bore you to death with endless reports and pictures! :P

[Galina]

yes please

[Hector1]

Look forward to this...our family adore Golden Sweet, so grow it every year...the idea of a Golden Snap is wonderful.

[Silverleaf]

Of course I'll share if something good turns up.

[Silverleaf]

Well I have green snaps, and yellow snows, and a few days ago I discovered that one of the yellows is a snap too. Success!

It's not a proper success because that plant is quite short and it's only made about 3 pods so I don't feel that I want to continue that line, but I'm happy to see the phenotype I was trying to get.

One of the yellows looks like it'll be 5' or so maybe, but it's too early to tell what type of pods it has.

The plan is to grow out yellows and snaps next year, because about 2/3 of them will be carrying the "missing" gene and therefore I have a decent chance of a yellow snap next year even if I don't get a good one this year.

[Silverleaf]

I've been eating the green snows mixed in with Elisabeth, Golden Sweet, Bijou and Shiraz and I haven't noticed that any that don't taste good. All have been sweeter than Golden Sweet, which isn't surprising.