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Post by happyskunk on Nov 13, 2010 1:26:39 GMT -5
Just a couple photos of my TPS extractor and a brick of TPS.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 13, 2010 7:31:02 GMT -5
TPS extractor? What the heck is that? When I read this forum, I've come to expect that "TPS" stands for True Potato Seed.... that don't look like potato seed...
What is the cake for? Will it get planted? Is it for consumption or storage?
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Post by happyskunk on Nov 13, 2010 15:00:41 GMT -5
Yes, those are true potato seeds. First I put all the berries in a food processor. Then I put the goop into a five gallon bucket and fill with water. Then I let the seeds sink and skim and pour off the top. Keep filling with clean water and pouring off top a couple times to get a bunch of seeds. Seeds will be in with a extremely slimy gooey gel like liquid. I pour this into the TPS extractor to get a TPS brick and then break it apart onto an absorbent paper plate to dry the hundreds of seeds. I will have to wait till next year to see how they grow. Collected over a galloon of berries from planting just five small tubers (of Leksands Vit). This produced two bricks worth of seed but my first attempt was a big mess smearing goo on newspaper. Then I got the idea for the TPS extractor.
The TPS extractor is also known as the Aerobie 80R08 on Amazon. It also makes good coffee.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 13, 2010 16:28:15 GMT -5
Well I'll be darned. I was thinking my leg was getting pulled! That's a pretty interesting little trick. What are the white almond things in the plate?
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Post by wildseed57 on Nov 13, 2010 17:37:28 GMT -5
Ha! now that he explained it I see what he means, the things that look somewhat like a bean or almond is the potato berry. and the cake is all the seeds. I usually don't plant potatoes as I can buy them pretty cheep, but I'm so tired of eating plain old Russet potatoes as that is all just about all they sell around here, unless you get luck and walmart just happens to have some in. So I have been thinking about growing some, the seeds are a good idea as you will get a lot of plants and a good chance of finding some types that are resistant to various diseases. Several years ago i was able to get some of the colored potatoes to try out. crossing with some of them would improve on the genetics unless you just wanted a plain old white potato. Good idea with the machine I let mine ferment like tomatoes seeds then give them a quite blend then I strain out all the seeds. I never got around to planting the seeds that time, but plan to next time, as I want to grow some Irish ones along with some more colored types. George W.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 13, 2010 19:08:25 GMT -5
Heavens to mergatroid George! After eating fresh dug homegrown potatoes, I wouldn't buy potatoes unless I had to. Like we do now that we have eaten all our taters...
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Post by happyskunk on Nov 13, 2010 20:15:57 GMT -5
The white things just happened to be some potato beans I was saving. Not to be confused with potato berries that look like small green tomatoes.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 14, 2010 6:59:55 GMT -5
The white things just happened to be some potato beans I was saving. Not to be confused with potato berries that look like small green tomatoes. OH! I was going to say, I've seen a few potato berries and those sure didn't fit the memories I had. LOL I was fooled!
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Post by gunnarsk on Nov 16, 2010 16:47:16 GMT -5
The white things just happened to be some potato beans I was saving. They also looked like runner beans to me, almost like my "Piekny Jas". Of course your "cakes" or "bricks" are TPS, and maybe it's good to produce and sow them in quantity to be able to do more selection. Gunnar
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 16, 2010 20:22:34 GMT -5
They also looked like runner beans to me, almost like my "Piekny Jas". Of course your "cakes" or "bricks" are TPS, and maybe it's good to produce and sow them in quantity to be able to do more selection. Gunnar Piekny Jas? YOU have Piekny Jas? I would like to get some from you and would also like to hear more of what you have to say about them. I tried to grow some this year. A friend send me 4 seed, they didn't really produce but I'm pretty sure that I was the problem. I would really like to learn more and give them another shot.
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Post by honeydew on Nov 20, 2010 13:34:28 GMT -5
That's a lot of seed!
In 2009 we grew 6 varieties of potatoes - the purple ones (I think were called russian blue) produced enormous amounts of the seed berries. There was significantly less on the other varieties.
I saved some, and plan to grow some out in 2011. I have not been able to find much info on doing this....
What do you do when you find one you like? Save the remaining tubers and replant? If each seed will produce something different, it could take a long time to increase your seed potatoes!
Will all the true seeds from one pod produce the same potatoes in different plants?
How much longer growing time do you need to start potatoes from true seed?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 20, 2010 14:29:20 GMT -5
I have two strategies for dealing with potatoes from true seeds: 1- I plant the seeds and see what grows. I have never had anything other than a potato show up... Some plants do very poorly and are weeded out early. Some plants grow somewhat but produce few tubers. Some plants grow tubers that are too scabby and wireworm infested to be of any value. I toss them. By the time I am done tossing those that I don't like for whatever reason I end up with around 1-30 tubers from each plant that grew reasonably well in my garden and produced acceptable tubers. 2- So the next year I plant the tubers. I get about 20 to 100 tuber eyes from each seedling so it is very easy to rapidly multiply the tubers from a favored plant. If I wanted to grow them inside it would be simple to multiply one tuber into thousands of plants if I did something like rooting stems. I also evaluate tuber grown plants as I harvest them to decide which I want to plant next year. I do not try to propagate just one variety... Anything that grows reasonably in my garden is replanted... The things that grow really well are replanted in larger numbers. My definition of growing really well includes setting fruits. I plant potato seedlings indoors about 6-8 weeks before last expected frost, in a pot with about 1/2" soil in the bottom of it. Then as the plant grows I add more soil. This is done because potato seedlings have very delicate stems. I plant them out after the last frost. The seedlings also benefit from direct sunlight. In my garden I plant potato tubers into the ground 6 weeks before the last frost, so tuber planted potatoes have a huge head start over seedlings. Due to my short growing season I can't usually tell until the second year what the true potential of a seedling is. Each seed grown from a botanical seed is an individual. They usually resemble their mother and the other seeds in the same fruit, but sometimes they can be something new. Next season I am going to try direct seeding TPS. garden.lofthouse.com/botanical-potato-seed.phtml
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Post by honeydew on Nov 20, 2010 16:12:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the info Joseph.
My father taught me to grow potatoes in single rows with 3 feet between them, so that you could rototill with a homemade v-shaped attachment which would also hill them as you go, but only after I had tried growing them in double rows.
I tend to favor the double row planting, but have not kept track for production/yield.
Next year I have the small garden earmarked for potatoes, it is about 40 x 100. Likely 2/3 of that is needed for potatoes to get our family through winter based on my dad's preffered planting method, the rest is for true seed plants.
Have you found a spacing method that you prefer and why?
Marie
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Post by honeydew on Nov 20, 2010 16:17:07 GMT -5
Happyskunk,
I like this idea...thanks for sharing!
Marie
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 20, 2010 17:23:19 GMT -5
Next season I am going to try direct seeding TPS. There was TPS in a couple of the mixed flower seed packets that I received from forum members last year. They were direct seeded in very early spring and did wonderfully.
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