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For these potato plants, life begins in the lab.  Here, the potato breeding team nurtures chosen potato seedlings and plants to life. The plants are placed in test tubes and provided with optimum conditions in which to grow. To give the seeds the best chance of life, the lab stays at a constant temperature of 18oc  and all outside contaminants are kept at bay through very strict sanitation protocol. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Potato plants undergo a process of mass multiplication in the lab.  Tigoni is just one of the varieties that is grown and studied in the labs. Well suited to the growing conditions of Kenya and consistently producing strong yield, Tigoni is often used as a parent plant to cross with other progenitors parents in order to produce new seeds.    The young plants spend about 3-5 months in the lab. When ready, the small buds which have grown on the plant are removed and cut into small pieces to be multiplied.  From one small bud 5 cuttings can be produced over 15 days of multiplication. From those 5 cuttings 25 more cuttings can be produced and so on. These cuttings are then transferred into bottles for growth – this is mass multiplication in the works.  (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Young potato seedlings take root in the greenhouse where Asrat and his team care for them.  The plants have arrived in the greenhouse either from seedlings produced in the lab or from true seeds.   The breeding team grows a range of potato plant varieties to test how the different plants grow under a range of growing conditions.  Some plants will be grown from plantlets to tubers in order to produce mini tubers (or clean tubers) which be used for seed multiplication under field condition. Others will be used for the production of tuber families and subsequent clonal selection (from seed to tubers). (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Two parent plants are crossed with one another to produce a new plant. Seeds are extracted and then germinated to produce seedlings. These seedlings are then planted in small pots and nurtured in the greenhouse until they themselves produce tubers.  The potato plants are crossed in order to create variability and to produce and select the best adapted clones for certain environments. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Asrat leads a team of researchers and scientists who work across Ethiopia and Kenya. The team works closely together throughout the breeding process and gets great satisfaction in seeing which potato plants thrive under certain conditions – to them each plant has its own unique identity!   Here Asrat works closely with his colleague Abigail Ngugi, Research Associate on the Potato Breeding team, to extracts seeds.  In the Greenhouse, Asrat stands proudly amongst the forest of potato plants, which are being grown at KEPHIS PQS with staff members Teresia and Josephine, Research Technicians who are based at the station. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Potato Seeds are carefully macerated (extracted) from the plant, placed into water and then strained through cloth. The seeds are then marked according to their plant and breed type and delicately placed in storage to dry out in the air.  Once dry, the seeds are packaged and stored.    The seeds are treated with GA3 in order to break dormancy.  They require about 6 months to germinate fully if they are not treated with chemical breaking dormancy.  The seeds are then sown on seedling trays and the CIP team monitor their growth and development over the following months. Strong and healthy seedlings are identified and then transplanted to pots to produce tubers for further evaluation. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Every day, the breeding team spends time in the greenhouse inspecting each potato plant, tracking changes in the plants and evaluating the growth patterns and developments in each of the breeds.  The staff monitor and record plant uniformity, plant vigor, checking which plants are free from disease and monitoring each plant row.  (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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The CIP team monitors growth, vigor and disease patterns in the greenhouse. CIP Staff member, Lidia stands amidst what seems to be a forest of potato plants inside the green house.  These ‘parent’ plants are raised specifically for the purpose of crossing with other parent plants to potentially produce new breeds. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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The flowers (the source of pollen for the plant) of the potato plant are usually purple or white in colour (depending on the parent of genotype of the plant) with a bright yellow stamen and a green central stigma.  The plants are cross-pollinated by insects such as flies and bees  - self- fertilisation also occurs quite often.   In the lab, the CIP team provides extended artificial light (up to 10pm each night) to the plants to encourage increased flowering of the plants.   It is cross-pollination in potato flowers that results in an increasing number of potato varieties. Following the flowering, small green fruits develop (about the size of a cherry tomato) and each one can contain up to 300 seeds.   (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Abigail and Asrat inspect the potato plants in the CIP greenhouse on a regular basis to monitor their progress, track growth, monitor disease and to keep an eye on any other changes. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Back in the office the team carefully tracks the progress and movements of the various seeds and plants via an ID tracking code.  A unique ID number is given to each parent plant to enable the team to track its progress from lab to greenhouse and back again.  This enables technicians to know which parent plant each seed and plant has come from when they are collecting flowers and pollen.  (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Kenya Karibu is just one of the parent plants that the team is currently working with.  Here the pollen from the Kenya Karibu plant has been extracted, marked, and dried for 24 hours on the pollen drying rack.  Heated lamps are used to speed up the drying process. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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An electric toothbrush is the perfect element to extract pollen from the anthers.  A staff member applies gentle pressure to the pollen to draw out the pollen from the casing, known as the anther.  The extracted pollen is then be used in the next part of the potato breeding cycle. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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Staff count and sort every single potato that comes through the lab and greenhouse. Staff grade and sort the tubers according to size and quality.  The tubers are then sent out to the field for evaluation on their performance or distributed to partner organization for them to evaluate.  The tubers are also sometimes provided directly to seed producers if it is an already released variety. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)

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All size, shape and colour of potatoes are produced in the CIP greenhouse and lab. Here are a just a selection of the wide variety of potatoes that are produced. (Credit: Sara Quinn, CIP)