Hi Mark,

Sounds interesting! Where can I find this newsletter?

Tom

Tom, check this link below. Here's a summary:

Identical artichokes: California Early Oregon Blue Chet=s Italian Red Lorz Italian Mchadidzhauri Randl Colorado White Red Italian Susanville

Identical rocamboles: Colorado Black Dominics French Rocambole German Brown German Red GSF65 Kilarney Red Russian Red Spanish Roja Western Rojo Yugo Red

Identical porcelains: Georgia Crystal Georgia Fire German Hardy German Porcelain German White Leah 99 Music Northern White Polish Hardneck Romanian Red

Identical purple stripes: Metichi Persian Star Samarkand

Identical marble purple stripes: Bogatyr Brown Tempest Marino Siberian

(Maybe someone can repunctuate the above paragraphs... or better yet, comment on if they are NOT identical to them.)

They also have a PDF file/chart on genes/characteristics here:

http://www.garlicseedfoundation.info/garlicpress/GENES.pdf

Hope this helps.

Mark

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.garlicseedfoundation.info/garlicpress/INDEX.HTM

I think there's a lot of room in the article's disclaimer stating "there may be differences in key genes that cause considerable differences in varieties " since they didn't test the whole genome. I've grown Northern White and Music side by side for the past 3 years and there are definitely differences ... Music is taller with a broader spread and the capsule contains many (well over 25) small bulbils while Northern White is shorter and the capsule produces around 10 or so well sized bulbils.

I've also had a less distinct but still quite noticeable difference between German Brown and Killarney Red in that the Killarney Red always has a deeper green tint and more compact / wider leaf growth, even when grown in the same row or separated by 6" of space in the same bed. I'm not near my garden notes to check specifics but I believe that, with identical planting dates and conditions, the Killarney Red consistently matures 1-2 weeks later than the German Brown.

I'm trying Bogatyr this year for the first time and I've grown Siberian for the past couple of years so the experiment should be interesting after a couple of seasons.

I agree that some of the "identical varieties " are not Identical on our farm. Persian star and metchi have different harvest times here _metechi much later- Metchi is also much hotter raw also the persian star doesn't seem to like our southern locaton as much as Metchi