Journal February 9, 2015 - Cerignola seedling

Above is a photo of a Cerignola olive embryo that was removed from the seed and placed in tissue culture protocol.   The protocol contains no hormones, only dilute nutrients and sugar.  As I had only three seeds to work with, and this is a rare variety, I am going all out to get one of these to grow.

Shortly after placing the embryo in protocol, I noticed the cotyledons beginning to split.  That had me baffled, as I had not damaged the embryo, or, have I seen this before.  As the radicle, or tap root, began to grow,  I noticed that there were two of them.  At this point I have no idea of what the plant is doing, however, as a precaution I have removed it from tissue culture, placed it in a horticube and planted it in media under a humidity dome.  It appears that two plants are developing from a single embryo.  If true, that would be weird, for sure.  The question is: would they be identical, or Siamese twins?

The Bella di Cerignola, better known simply as the Cerignola, is an olive cultivar from Italy. Cerignola olives are very large, mild in flavor, and may be served either green or cured black. The variety, which originates from the Southern Italian province of Puglia and is named for the town of Cerignola, is popular as table olives. 

This is another example of why I want this variety:

Imported from Apulia, Cerignolas are the largest olives in the world. They have a fruity, mild, clean taste, but their most impressive feature is their size and resulting meatiness. Biting into a Cerignola is almost like biting into a plum. Festive red in color, serve them as an appetizer with cocktails. Packaged beautifully in a keepsake Italian glass jar with mini-handles on either side.

 

The Florida Petite has so many tomatoes that I decided it would be prudent to give it some support.  This is a great variety for indoor cultivation, which makes me wonder why the seeds have all but disappeared.  Saving seed is definitely going to be on the agenda at the end of this project.