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

[quark1]

My Salad Blues will be started again as they were much too weedy. I might just save the one remaining strongest and see what happens.

The Roosters are much more vigorous and, like Maureen, mine have a few mini tubers - around the size of those coloured tops they sometimes put on sewing pins.

Having seen what happens from my first attempt I would strongly recommend that the seed is placed at least one inch below the surface in order to aid the stolons to get a better grip within the earth. Mine are shooting these anchors out and down from about 1-2 inches above ground and it is these which will bear the tubers in due course.

I shall try fewer seeds (1-3 max) in the next trial and use pot noodle-sized (a secret vice!) containers to get them going which will hopefully make transplanting to the final containers a lot easier.

This is turning out to be a fun project and it will very satisfying to see the results later in the year. If you are lucky enough to get tubers from the Salad Blues I provided do save some tubers for next year as they are more expensive than ordinary varieties to buy. They should be 'fairly' true to type as only the Blues were in flower at the time and in close proximity. Some were also helped along with a make-up brush for pollination assistance!

I am also going to try and see if the first lot of seed remains viable next year to test if it has but a short shelf-life or is useful for saving longer term.

Am trying to sort out some pics for later.

Happy growing.

[Snadger]

I have 2 photos for you.

Firstly is my potato from seed, lacking in space this year I have tended to the first seedling and pretty much let the others get on with it - but my first one will be repotted today but before I do here is a photo.

Secondly, there is my potatoes from the bits cut off sprouting shop bought potatoes, these are roosters. Just a sliver cut off, and then planted into the roottrainer. Again, these will go into pots [all bound for the greenhouse when it arrives], but they are coming on nicely.

Didn't know you could buy 1 inch pots zazen?

I agree about the experiment being exciting, as you don't know what you're going to get!

[zazen999]

1 inch pots...wot you on about?

[Snadger]

1 inch pots...wot you on about?

Photographic relativity!

[zazen999]

You disrespectin my spuds???

.......I could mention about the trouble with men and their 'size' issues.....but I'll let it lie. It was at least 6 inches tall today, but rest assured it is now buried up to it's head in manure.

[Snadger]

Potted on 66 of my little darlings from a total in pot of about 4000! These were all from my first sowing which the majority of, germinated late.
60 went into a plug tray and the other 6 which were more established went into individual 3 inch pots. I thought they were leggy but it appears to be there natural growth, sending rhysomes underground and stolons on top! This makes them a bugger to pot on, but I got there in the end!

The other pot full of about another 4000 seedlings may need a bit of sorting.
What I propose to do is transplant the stronger seedlings in the hope they will produce stronger more productive plants!

Flying by the seat of the pants stuff this...........but I love it!

[Demeter]

I don't have that many seedlings, but I do have a lot!!

Was thinking of selecting a no more than 4 of each of the three varieties. They are in a module tray, 4 cells per variety, many seedlings per cell. So from what you have said that I reckon I will just pinch out all but one seedling per cell and pot on what is left!

If I plant them up in 26l trugs how many plants do you reckon I should put in each one - I was thinking two or three plants on the basis that I would probably have put 2 or 3 seed spuds if growing in these containers? But then how will I know which plant produced which tubers when deciding what to save? Maybe I should grow them individually in buckets instead?

Decisions decisions.

[MaureenHall]

I'm really loving this experiment too All 3 of my buckets that I put outside look healthy and are growing well

[Duronal]

Just for completeness i've attatched some photos of my TPS below. I wouldn't worry about the thin seedlings zazen just pot them deep and i'm sure they'll broaden out eventually.

[zazen999]

Just for completeness i've attatched some photos of my TPS below. I wouldn't worry about the thin seedlings zazen just pot them deep and i'm sure they'll broaden out eventually.

Did I miss something?

[Duronal]

Agh nooo i meant quark.....

as usual zaz you're on the money, it's me that's lost my marbles!

[quark1]

Duronal - I've just seen msg 'pour moi' - 'fraid I've dumped my own SBs but will separate and pot on to final positions my Roosters.

Starting SBs afresh this week.

[Phreddy]

Found this posting on another site. Thought that you might be interested:

10-02-2007

Quote:Note that Yukon Gold is a hybrid, and since potatoes are diploid, you can get unbelievable variations in subsequent generations.

Morgan, most commercial varieties are hybrids, but Yukon Gold and most other commercial varieties are tetraploid, not diploid as you stated. Tetraploids are like two plants in one, and the variability in the selfed and/or hybridized seed is even more unbelievable.Diploids have 24 chromosomes, tetraploids have 48!

Quote:This is why getting good TPS is so hard. It takes years of selections and crossing to get viable TPS of varieties worth growing year-to-year.

It is not as difficult as you may have read. If you want perfect potatoes, and super high yields, and high specific gravities, and a certain type of skin, and a specific pathogen resistance, and on and on....then the odds are against you. But if you are tolerant of a wider diversity of potatoes that don't have to fit a preconceived idea of commercial acceptance, then you have most of the BELL CURVE of OK potatoes. It's the template upon template upon template that eliminates some otherwise fine potatoes.

Quote:Stable, good TPS is the holy grail and it's been tried with mixed success in S.E. Asia.

If you mean (stable, good TPS) that produces a very narrow type of potato where each seedling has to be a dead ringer for a Russet Burbank, then you may be right. But accepting a variety of russetting, with round, oval, oblong, and longs in the mix, then you may be much more obliging.

Most TPS seed for sale is either OP or hybrid lines that will throw 100% white skinned potatoes. There will be some yield differences, but the tubers can be marketed as a group.

TPS is a great way to get new varieties of disease free potatoes. If the first generation of tubers from a mixed sibling base is screened for type, saving only the 1%, 10%, 25%, or more of the bulk harvest, the selected prototypes can be replanted for a one time harvest. This way is best if you want every tuber to be yellow fleshed, or red skinned, or fingerling shaped, etc., with a wide diversity of traits in other ways not so visible.


With my fifty some years of selecting potatoes from true seed, I have some quite stable genetics within parental lines. I've made berry setting a priority, so that multigeneration progenies later, I have lines in all colors and classes that make for good potential hybrids.
My information and clonal potatoes are mostly in house, so you may not be able to google TPS and see my results. The industry in the USA is against TPS simply because they want a Katahdin, a Cascade, a Red LaSoda, a Yukon Gold, a Ranger Russet, a Banana Fingerling, a Caribe, and if it is not exactly that...they don't want it, and they think the market place won't want it either.

I am looking forward to the day when people will respect diversity rather than scorn it.

Tom Wagner

Tom is an expert on tomatoes and potatoes, Phreddy

[Snadger]

Interesting article Phreddy!

[Demeter]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
I am starting to have dreams about TPS you know.
I was wondering the other day whether it would be such a VERY bad thing not to know exactly what kind of spuds you were going to dig up, or if it would be a bit like having a baby and not knowing what kind you were going to get. I'm sure we would love our non-cloned potatoes just as much as our non-cloned children... (and then I woke up)