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

[Snadger]

Many of you have contributed to several threads regarding potato fruits and the collecting of potato seed. Many of which can be found below.


As for the actual growing of potatoes from seed some people wanted instructions so here's my account on this years potato experiment.


I harvested seed at the end of 07 by picking off the potato fruits from some king edwards and leaving them to ripen indoors (turn black) When the fruits were ripe i scooped the seeds out onto a kitchen towel and left to dry. Following this they were scraped into a manila envelope and left for 6 months.

I sowed the seeds just prior to Easter this year (march) in fine drills of multipurpose compost and left them to germinate in my cold frame. Within 14days 80% of the seeds had germinated but i lost 6-8 seedlings to slugs in the 1st week. Consequently i pricked out the remaining seedlings into 6" pots of multipurpose and left them to develop. When things were starting to look a little cramped i repotted the plants into deep 10" pots of more multipurpose but planted each seedling quite deep so that only the top leaves were visible.

As for the post care treatment these plants have largely been neglected. I have been careful not to let them dry out but that's it,

Due to my absolute fear of potato/tomato blight this year i decided to harvest all my potatoes early to ensure that there was a reduced chance of spreading blight to my tomatoes (20 odd plants). I had no idea if I would find tublets or potatoes of an edible size and i have to admit that the results have been a great suprise.




1 Kilo of potatoes the potatoes in question are firm with increadily smooth skin and nice yellow flesh i'm just dying to eat them!

What i'm most amazed aboutis that these potatoes have had no extra care and also they were grown in small pots. I hope to continue this experment next year with multiple plants in a large bag and also to compare the results of regular feeding.

So we now know that it can be done.....so who is interested in having a larger scale experiment next season?

Just wondered............did the tatties you harvested look and taste like the King Edwards you used to get the seed?

[zazen999]

I've left mine at the side of the spud patch, and they will go into the shed in a few weeks, I'll do the same to get the seed out and sow next spring.

[Duronal]

They weren't exact snadger. I had some which resembled king edwards in their red appearence but the others were just like a standard white potato. I guess they don't self seed because they simply aren't as bomb proof as tomato seeds. Maybe they rot easier...

Two Sheds - if they're about a young cherry tomato size i'd nip them off and leave them on a window sill inside to ripen. At least you should get some seed this way!

[Flummery]

Maybe they do self seed in the garden Snadger? I know there are always loads of the little blighters coming up in my plot and I always try to get them all out the previous year. Some are undoubtedly from ones I missed - but all of them? Maybe there are a few seeded in there but we never know.

[SarzWix]

If my potato plants got a touch of blight, d'you think I should discard the seed pods? I did pick a couple before the blight struck, so they should be okay, I think.

[daylily]

I was just planning to do this, glad I found you experimenting people.

Sarz,from what I have read on this, you don't want to save seed from any that are suspicious of having a touch of blight.

[Snadger]

If my potato plants got a touch of blight, d'you think I should discard the seed pods? I did pick a couple before the blight struck, so they should be okay, I think.

As blight is a fungal disease it shouldn't affect the seeds? I would just give the tattie apples a soak in a fungiscide of some description........I used Armillatox last year to save my broad beans from fungal attack!

[quark1]

My Vivaldis have been in flower for around 2 weeks and every last bloom has been blown off, rained off or hailed off!

One remaining set of blooms survived and a few days ago I took this last opportunity to use a fallen flower to pollinate what was left. It looks as though at least one has set and is swelling nicely - there's hope then for the other 3 blooms! I just hope tomorrow's bad weather doesn't ruin my attempt - I'll be gutted if the set fruit drops now!

Judging from Duronal's pics of seeds being taken from the fruit - I reckon the Salad Blues I distributed earlier this year should be ready. I popped open one which looked dodgy as though the skin was parting company from the main body of the fruit. The insides look OK, if a touch gloopy, and the seeds are looking to be 'browning' a little. So I'm going to open up half of what I have and see how they go tomorrow.

[Wren]

I'm in. I have saved tattie apples from my main crop 'Robinta'.

Wren

[daylily]

As blight is a fungal disease it shouldn't affect the seeds? I would just give the tattie apples a soak in a fungiscide of some description........I used Armillatox last year to save my broad beans from fungal attack!

Depengs, what fungus, some go down the seed. Anyhow, I'm interested in this for the biological diversity of open pollinated stuff, unreliant on Mon*****and the likes and giving possibly more reliable gen pool.Potato Breeding Overview

[Demeter]

In the articles I've read about true potato seed, the idea is that this will be great for developing countries precisely because the seeds will not be infected by blight even if the plant was. No personal knowledge, just repeating something I read on the internet...

[Snadger]

Depengs, what fungus, some go down the seed. Anyhow, I'm interested in this for the biological diversity of open pollinated stuff, unreliant on Mon*****and the likes and giving possibly more reliable gen pool.Potato Breeding Overview

I see where you're coming from daylily, and if you are trying to develop a blight resistant tattie it would be best to collect seed from plants that aren't affected.(not a major pre requisite for me as I don't live in a blight affected area!), but only if they were NOT affected whilst tuthers around were!
As this is the first saving and sowing of our own seed, the new potato varieties that are grown could be weeded out by the individual to give desirable qualitities to suit their personal needs!

Interesting article btw!

[daylily]

What an enviable situation you are in Snadger! Me on the other hand...hardly a year without blight . So I thought, there wasn't much to lose and I should give it a good go.

Demeter, I think you are right about this particular pathogen, I'm saying there are fungi that invade the seed, like Phytophthora capsici, for example. But, as Snadger says, I'd like to save from healthy, strong plants.

Unfortunately, Phythophtora strains seem to be worse with tomatoes here, had some years when only the tomatoes were diseased and not a single potato was. And that includes so called 'resistant' ones, like Legend.

[Lizzy]

You are all lucky to have potatoes, I planted 11 row, only got one out, the rest got blight. They were not long enough in the ground to grow, only marble size. I have lost the lot. They were sprayed but it did'nt make any difference.

Liz

[Two_Sheds]

Unfortunately, Phythophtora strains seem to be worse with tomatoes here, had some years when only the tomatoes were diseased and not a single potato was. And that includes so called 'resistant' ones, like Legend.

My Tamina tomatoes have now got blight (but not Sungold).
My spuds were unaffected (all the foliage died back last month from old age, so missed any blight that might have got them)