Duronal's Potatoes from Seed Experiment '08 and into '09

[Duronal]

Good spot snadger! don'e worry markwcel i've got some spare fruit that shouldyield some seeds that you can have.

Send me a PM with your address and i'll see what i can do.

quark :- i'm no expert! just a fool that doesn't know when he's beaten, my mother in law told me they were fruit and the rest was essentially a child's curiosity, fruit = seeds = plants for free......! i hope we can get this off the ground and you never know we could stumble onto something miraculous. (oh the dreams of a mad man)

[pjh75]

I wish I'd kept my potato fruits now... I chucked em after the posts that warned about how poisonous they were and before the posts about growing from them - doh!

[nerobot]

I'm going to have to try this if I ever get any potato fruits. Not that this ever happens

Oh well. Thanks for the great information anyway.

Steven

[Snadger]

I've got some potato apples on my duke of york earlies and my desiree maincrop which I hope to harvest!

[Flummery]

I've carefully searched all my spuds this year for fruits - not a thing. Some kind grapes have sent me some. Then, I found a 'volunteer' spud hiding amongst the parsnips. It has seeds on!

There'll be lots of us at it next year, won't there?

[Skotch]

You can count me in on the experiement too - I have a 'volunteer' Picasso plant which somehow evaded digging up last year - one nice big seed pod which is now ripening on the window ledge at home.

Skotch

[Flummery]

We're going to need a whole thread of our own this time next year!

[gojiberry]

Well done and a good result, but I think I will stick with the traditional method and use tubers.

Ian

[zazen999]

Hi

What a wonderful thread - I missed this one whilst I was away.

Flummery - I am still planning on saving you some of mine; if you have enough just let me know. After this I'm going to keep the rest and try this method myself with the rest anyway.

[Snadger]

Well done and a good result, but I think I will stick with the traditional method and use tubers.

Ian

Let loose your spirit of adventure man! I'll still be growing from tubers but I'll try a few seeds for the hell of it!

[Flummery]

Hi

What a wonderful thread - I missed this one whilst I was away.

Flummery - I am still planning on saving you some of mine; if you have enough just let me know. After this I'm going to keep the rest and try this method myself with the rest anyway.

I think I'm ok now ZAZ - use them yourself. I appreciate the offer though.

[Flummery]

Let loose your spirit of adventure man! I'll still be growing from tubers but I'll try a few seeds for the hell of it!

Exactly my thoughts Snadger. I'm going to use a few tubs so I shan't be wasting ground. What's to lose?

[Duronal]

It's time to resurrect this thread because I've just finished harvesting my potato fruits for seed and thought I’d share my method.

Take a sharp knife and cut the top of the fruit off as close to the growing stem as possible. Then slice the fruit in half from top to bottom, once this has been accomplished take the knife and try to carve the flesh away from the skin. you should find that the flesh sack explodes like a tomato when squashed. Next scrape the seeds and flesh onto a kitchen towel to dry, place the kitchen towel in a warm dry place and leave for 3 or 4 days.

At the end of this period scrape the seeds from the towel into an envelope and label. (please say i'm not the only one with random seeds in packets....)

I believe that the seeds have a dormancy period of approx 6 months so if they don't grow at first be patient and try a little later on. I managed to get mine to germinate outside in a cold frame just before Easter last year so I’m thinking that a March/April planting should be appropriate.

I hope this helps

D.

[Two_Sheds]

I've never managed to get a potato to fruit (they always drop off); but I've just been and mulched my Pink Firs and Roosters, and there're 4 big fat fruits on one of the Roosters ... I'm going to just ignore them, not make a fuss, and hope they manage to produce seed for me (and anyone else who's interested).

[Snadger]

My tray full of 'tattie apples' drying off nicely. mainly from Desiree but a few from Duke of York as well. All mixed in together!

One thing I don't understand is why they don't self seed in the garden? Tomatoes self seed if thrown in compost heap or left on the ground so why not spuds?

Anyway..............let the trial begin!