Stone House Breeding

09/04/2025

Sale plants out enjoying the sun, fully hardened off and ready to go in the ground! They grew faster than anticipated with the unseasonably warm temps and rain we had the last week!

Sat. April 12: 10 am -1 pm
Sun April 13: 1 pm - 3 pm

The weather looks cloudy and cool those days.

01/04/2025

Last week was a busy time preparing for the 2025 season. The weather was perfect! The cover crop (vetch, rye and red clover) was mowed and new hilled beds made with the rotary plow incorporating leaf mulch. I also used Harmony Ag chicken manure based organic fertilizer. The landscape fabric is back down ready for planting the last week of April through mid-May. Now I have many hours of lab time scheduled for marker assessment.

26/03/2025

Getting close! April 12-13 is the tentative sale date depending on weather! 475 plants out getting some sun!

01/03/2025

Using a beautiful, warm, late-winter day to spread leaf mulch before we get more cold next week. The cover crop of hairy vetch is starting to take off. Planting plan is almost in place and seed will be sown next weekend for transplanting to the field in late April. Looking forward to a successful 2025!

19/01/2025

The city dropped us 25 huge loads of leaves from the fall collection, now turning into good mulch! I spent the last two days moving some of it to the rows (barely made a dent in the pile!)

Ten 8 cu ft wheelbarrow loads per row, seven rows done, 11 more to go. Spreading in the walkways will keep the weeds down over the winter. In Late March it'll be incorporated into the hilled beds with the rotary plow, along with the cover crop residue, to more fully breakdown before early May planting.

03/01/2025

I have a small molecular biology lab in my garage cobbled together from eBay. Most of my equipment is from the same era as my grad school days, in fact some pieces are the exact same models I used in the 90s.

I use this lab to do what is called Marker Assisted Selection (MAS). MAS is a genetic screen (think 23 and Me) that requires purified DNA from every single plant. I screen hundreds of plants per year (I'm low throughput since it's just me in the garage!) I've been pretty successful at finding plants with multiple genetic markers for traits I'm interested in. Those plants will be a significant focus in 2025.

The first step in MAS is the laborious process of DNA extraction from every plant. I worked up a protocol that works well for me and is quick, minimizes sample transfer steps, cuts plastic waste, and uses inexpensive reagents. I shared the protocol with a few people and was encouraged to make it public. So here it is!

Described is an inexpensive single-tube mini-prep method of plant DNA isolation from small amounts of starting plant tissue. Isolated DNA is suitable for PCR applications such a...

09/11/2024

While the field may be done for the year, progress continues in the off season. This is a flower ready to receive pollen from a sibling to continue pyramiding useful alleles. These plants are in large pots and I'll move them into the garage under lights in the next month since I don't have a greenhouse available. The plants will be severely pruned and used for seed production only. The next generation will go to the field, after marker assessment, for phenotypic selection.

20/10/2024

That's pretty much a wrap on 2024 out . The rows are planted with rye, vetch and crimson clover. Just need a bit of rain. Reasonably successful year. I made some advancement and abandon decisions! Next year I'll have more disease resistant plants selected via genetic markers in the field. I should have plants homozygous for 5 disease resistance alleles to high priority pathogens. Only a few months to seed starting time!

16/10/2024

While not as rigorous as described in the post below, I am cautious about cross contaminating between home and farm plot. One of the diseases of most concern is To***co Mosaic Virus, related to ToBRFV. Once in the soil TMV can survive decades.

By Frank Millenaar

24/09/2024

Wrapping up 2024 . Winter bed prep means cover crop time. This year it's a mix of cereal rye and hairy vetch on the raised beds. I may try rye exclusively in a few of the walkways and figure out a way to crimp terminate in the spring, leaving a thick layer of mulch.

In the spring I'll make a few light passes with the rotary plow to rebuild the beds a little.

Five beds done, 14 more to go!

10/08/2024

https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS-04-24-0878-PDN

Impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) (Orthotospovirus impatiensnecromaculae) is a virus in the Order Bunyavirales and Family Tospoviridae. The virus is vectored by several species of thrips and is a serious pathogen of ornamentals and lettuce in the United States (Hasegawa & Del Pozo-Valdivia 2023;....

22/07/2024

https://www.nunhems.com/global/en/media/News/2024/Our-discovery-of-the-ToBRFV-genome---the-foundation-for-today-s-resistant-varieties

By Marco Mammella

13/07/2024

Evolution of pathogens is a given. The race will be to find new R genes to replace Sw5-b.

Tomato spotted wilt orthotospovirus (TSWV) causes substantial economic loss to tomato production, and the Sw-5b resistance gene is widely deployed for management. Here, we show (i) the emergence of resistance-breaking (RB) TSWV strains in processing and fresh market tomato production in California o...

05/07/2024

A blazing hot day out at Good Hope Farm, 105 F and well over 110 F heat index with the humidity. Tomatoes are taking a hit in the heat and drought showing lots of Blossm End Rot from the stress. I finally had to get a drip irrigation system in this last week. Last year was way too wet, this year it's way too hot and dry!

Nevertheless, the plants are putting on enough fruit to make some selections and they have new growth after being watered well with the drip.

Pictured is an F3 that I really like. Productive dwarf and micro dwarf with good tasting pink, deep red, and purple fruit.




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03/07/2024

Very happy to be partnering with on breeding tomatoes for the challenging NC climate! Today was leaf sampling day on a new line. Two leaf punches (paper punch) from each plant will yield plenty of DNA for many genetic tests (think 23&me for tomatoes!) Now off to my lab to see if a few of the plants have the genes I am interested in.



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09/06/2024

An A+ day out at . A little mowing and tidying up after being gone for two weeks. Plants are looking excellent this year! Back at it tomorrow to finish stringing and collecting leaf samples for DNA marker analysis. Harvesting should begin by end of the month for the small fruit types.

28/05/2024

The field is looking good this year so far with the hilled beds. After a stormy rainy 4 days there is water standing in between the rows and will be for a couple of days. The tomatoes are liking their dry "feet"! No rain in the 7 day! Yay!

19/05/2024

Early generations are the most fun! Leaf and plant architecture diversity in this F3 line.