We speak with Colorado gardener and backyard plant breeder Andrew Barney about his work developing red-podded peas, cold-adapted watermelons, and new tomato varieties.

Connecting with Other Breeders

Barney connects with other plant breeders through seed swaps, social media groups, and online forums.

He says many people who are interested in plant breeding and preserving plant varieties are happy to share plant genetics.

“If people have something exciting they’re willing to share it.”

Approaches to Breeding

With his pea breeding, barney manages the crosses. It means that he spends time pollinating.

There are also breeding approaches that require less effort, such as landrace-style breeding he's using for his watermelons. In this approach, a number of varieties are planted in the same plot, and cross-pollination is left up to pollinating insects. The job of the breeder is then to select which resulting melons are worth saving seeds from to grow the following year. He’s been working on his melons now for about 10 years.

He’s also involved in The Big Wild Tomato Breeding Project, which he explains is introducing wild tomato genetics. The results, he says, are encouraging, with some participants reporting tomatoes with new flavour profiles that are described as being similar to mango and pineapple.