TPS True Potato Seed.

[soladragon]

Hi guys. I have been thinking lately how I would like to try true potato seed to grow my potatoes.

I am aware that they can produce completely different plants with each seed and I quite like the idea of increasing plants blight and disease resistance.

I don't mind having lots of different potatoes to try

Could anyone explain anything I should know and point me in the right direction to getting some of this seed?

[woody21]

I would like to save some seed from the potaoes im growing this year to try the same thing.

The little i have read makes it seem very interesting, there is possiblility of huge variations in the plants grown from seed which could be very interesting. if you find a keeper you can make your own seed potatoes then to preserve the specific strain youve grown.

heres a great blog i have read which has a lot of interesting information, its well worth a read.
Daughter of the Soil: Woohoo! My potatoes germinated

if i end up with a load of seeds myself i will offer some out on here for anyone else who wants to have a try.

Soladragon, send me a pm saying free potato seeds or something and then i will be able to find you later in the year and get in touch with you to send you some seeds if i get any that is.

[zazen999]

Me and the two guys on either side of me at the lottie are saving Amorosa TPS and growing from the resulting tubers; and we are intending to keep saving each year so that we can pick the best potatoes and breed a variety that is best suited to our region.

I in fact have a large tray of them in the greenhouse at the moment, I didn't want to leave them outdoors whilst it's so wet. We will share out all the tubers we get next spring, and all grow some and keep saving.

[Snadger]

I think Flummery had some success with this and is growing on her own named potatoe?

I myself grew some real seed from Desiree pots and got inferior versions of Desiree.

Desiree, even though its a maincrop, has Duke of York in its heritage which is one of my favourite earlies.

Desiree = Urgenta X Depesche

Depesche = Duke of York X Imposant

Mine weren't as good as the original Desiree so got the boot!

The European Cultivated Potato Database

[poly]

I'm a big fan of growing TPS, I just love the diversity. It's possibly too late but if you can give them protection or bring them into the house later on to tuberise (sp?), it may be worth sowing a few now, to produce some mini tubers ready for next season. Pm me if you would like some seed.

[Two_Sheds]

I harvested my home-made spuds (seed originally from Druid). The spuds I dug up were small and not very good at all: after 2 years of work!

For me, it's too much of a faff to continue with: I don't have the space, time or the soil to do the experiment justice. In fact I've scaled my spud growing right down, because of scab. I'll just grow a few favourites in tubs of leafmould or MPC in future.

[solway cropper]

I suppose if you have the time to keep up with a long-term experiment it could be interesting but from what I know of hybridisation the great majority of the offspring will be inferior to the parent plant. Seedsmen can spend decades refining a strain until they get something that has the qualities they want so have a go by all means but don't set your hopes too high.

It might be worth having a look at the British Potato variety database which gives the parentage of all the varieties commonly grown in the UK. You may get some idea of what to expect.
The British Potato Variety Database