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Post by garnetmoth on Mar 11, 2011 18:42:59 GMT -5
I just received my 1 lb sampler pack- WOW! I am totally blown away by the variety. And they are all labeled with a printed sheet with their names on them (so if the sharpie is a little hard to read, there is a paper copy) Ill be making them up their own tags so I dont mix them up, and am SO glad I got a bunch of burlap bags last week to make grow bags! A++ would recommend
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 12, 2011 20:18:34 GMT -5
I just got my 1 lb box today. Yea, BLOWN AWAY! Question... some have no eye development. Should I try to get development before planting or can I just dump them in as is?
Just to show interested parties what sorts of taters I got, in my pack I got one each of the following: Skagit Valley Gold Red Calf Black Steer Inked Ox Snarky Snake Pkinkie Khalaam Long Tom (Dakotah x John Tom Kaighin) Tommy Kaighin (my 8 year old, Tommy, figures this is HIS tater! ;o) Dakotah Eleanor Rose Garden Frost zone Red Ox Ozette Period Romp Purple Leg Fripapa Muruta
I feel a GREAT tater year coming on folks! I'm wondering what your supplies are looking like about now? I'm hoping to get a second 1 lb sampler before the end of the month if the money holds out. Think you'll be able to fill the order?
OH yea, I'm really grateful that your offering the 1 lb box as well as the 8 lb. I'm willing to bet money it's harder for you, on the other hand it's way more affordable for me. I really appreciate it.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 12, 2011 20:26:47 GMT -5
I plant potatoes whether or not the eyes are developing. They do fine.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 13, 2011 3:06:32 GMT -5
Excellent. OK, next question... Mike is in love with breaking up the soil into fine dust... I'm thinking that we need to weed the patch, dig small holes for the potatoes, drop them in, then cover with a layer of mulch. I'm also thinking of using wheat straw as mulch. I'm thinking of using the wheat straw because it's not hugely expensive, it's available, it's "clean" in terms of weed seeds. Making sense or am I off base?
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Post by tatermater on Mar 13, 2011 4:18:08 GMT -5
It is kinda funny that I am jealous of my own packing of potato tubers...as I want to plant them too! Those one pounders are a tough deal for me since I have to find small tubers in pack into the pound video box...and then I want to get as many varieties in as possible. I want those one pounders sent for $15 to be worth it and in some ways I sacrifice some of my most rare varieties to put in them. Planting those tubers with no sprouts showing..just eyes...is not a problem. Yes they will grow like crazy put into the soil now as long as it is potato planting time. As a comparison with mnjrutherford 's list of potatoes...here is garnetmoth 's potato sampler list: Skagit Valley Gold (SVG) Red Thumb Yellow Finn Fiesta Rose Ozette “A” Cosima/Tom Kaighin Inked Ox La Ratte Muruta Leaving Snohomish Casa Blanca Khalaam Tommy Kaighin Victoria Adirondack Magic Ukama Toro Awol Not planned but about 7 or so are in common....which makes a compare and contrast for members to share notes and since I have them all from both lists makes me somewhat lucky. A smart way that I should look at the last two recipients of my potato varieties is to use the Venn Diagram www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/Venn.gifas a perfect way to extract pertinent information from a wide ranging distribution of many varieties of potato tubers. Each one pound box is different but similar too. By having these samplers scattered across the nation....I may learn more about these new clones than I could by myself. Obviously, I will have all of the various varieties sent out but each participant will observe details that I might miss. One of the things I am trying to keep constant for the one pounders is to include Skagit Vally Gold as a 'must' so that it can be compared with Snarky Snake in New Mexico. Black Bull was sent to NM and it will interest me to compare how it does in NM to contrast with how Inked Ox (not in NM) does elsewhere. As I send out hundreds of varieties this year my Venn Diagrams will be quite complicated but I need to record the resultant values for making the sampler boxes better and better. One of the areas I am doing a more concentrated Venn Diagram is on Orcas Island. Orcas Island is 57 square miles with 70 miles of shoreline, approximately 90 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Tuesday my coordinators are picking up samples of my potatoes to grown at 8 or 10 locations on the island. They will compare my varieties with about 23 varieties of potatoes from Irish Eyes. You would think that with such a small island that the soil and climate will be very similar...but no...the soils will vary from glacial till loam, to sand, to clay, to rocky. I am planning on putting out a 20 ft. by 20 ft. plot of TPS seedlings near Eastsound (Orcas) as a local source of new locally adapted breeding material. I've already talked personally with about 1% of the population of Orcas directly about my goal of helping them have sustainable potato varieties created with the island in mind. Part of my goal with Orcas is to help them have food security on the island...potatoes, grain, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, beans, squash, sugar beets, etc to go along with the ample deer population and dairy to prove that the island community can grow their own food as a common sense approach to health, rising food costs, rising fuel costs, and a vulnerable ferry system. I have offered my time this summer to help build root cellars on Orcas Island....not totally innocent of selfishness as I wish to have alternate sites to winter store some of my potato varieties. If I get enough cooperators...I will have enough potatoes from there to share with others across the nation. Actions speak louder than words.... I am not a preacher...but I can say I know gardening/farming fairly well, but if I am indifferent to the needs of other gardeners, my actions contradict my words, and actions speak louder than words. “Give a man a potato variety; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to grow that variety; and you have fed him for a lifetime” Potato breeding is an odd place for the Golden Rule to apply, but I just can't worry about what others do unto me. When I am busy with my potatoes and tomatoes, I am thinking, "Do unto others as you would do unto myself" and this seems to work for me. If I can share a potato or tomato variety with somebody else the same one I want to grow again...I feel a natural sense of gratuitousness. I.....Asked for the task of plant breeding , and it was given me; seed and seek, and I found new tomatoes and potatoes; knock on wood, and it shall be a box of potatoes or tomato seed opened unto you: Tom Wagner
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Post by garnetmoth on Mar 13, 2011 10:09:27 GMT -5
Ill gladly report back- Im keeping a garden notebook this year. I may have a tiny house/yard area, so its more important in a way for me to get varieties that do well here (usually in containers) and give us a chance to produce well here.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 13, 2011 12:03:01 GMT -5
Kelly, I wish you well with the notebook! This is the first year I'm working without one. Why? Cause it never gets finished... ah well.
I DID; however, just get finished sowing a 72 cell tray with potato seeds. I've got 18 each of October Blood, Blue Smiley, Suyutan Vilquina, and Diamond Toro. In particular with the Diamond Toro I noticed that there were "black" seed and "white" seed. So I did 9 of each color.
QUESTION: How long should I wait for the seed to sprout and should I plant another seed in the cell if the original seed fails to sprout?
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Post by tatermater on Mar 13, 2011 13:52:59 GMT -5
TPS germinates with a sporadic rate. Some may germinate within five days, most closer to 10 days and some months later. I suppose one could re-seed the cubes but I normally just start a new tray and if a line is slow to germinate the first time...I seed heavier the next time. I fully expect some of the TPS seed pkts to have lower germination rates than I would like. Many factors are involved...seed too new...TPS does better if over a year old but some storage conditions slow down the germination if the seed is five years or older. If I ever get more organized with my TPS sales I may do a germ test that lists the year grown and the germ Here is a sampling of some Solanum jamesii received this past week Year grown 1988 germ 50% 1986 75 2002 81 2003 94 2004 87 2009 50% If you notice....the newest seed germinated at a low 50% and improved after a few years. Even 25 year old seed did as well as new seed and sometimes better. The USDA packs and stores their seed a bit different than me and I will eventually adopt their procedures someday. When I talked on the phone with John Bamberg recently, we shared our observations of S. jamesii. We both had grown jamesii from tubers and often the mother tuber never sprouts in the ground all year and we have to save the mother tuber for another year's storage before the darn thing sprouts. His collections in the wild are among the ones I am growing this year. Not so long ago, John had jamesii tubers in the cold storage facility in Wisconsin that would last up to 8 years. The problem with jamesii tubers is that they are so small...the tubers may dry out before they will sprout. However, I am going to test a sampling of 6 accessions to use in breeding with other diploids, especially phureja which has a dismally short dormancy. By breeding into phureja to get the flavor and tuber types of it along with the dormancy of jamesii.....I should be able to get hybrid lines that I can cross then into tuberosum to get longer dormancies. The S. jamesii I have to sow are originally from Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Obviously, I want to incorporate the heat tolerance and drought tolerance and if I can only get hybrids that produce golf ball size tubers .....I will be happy. Dr. Bamberg did not think anyone else was going to do this type of breeding...so wish me luck. Tom Wagner Bamberg, J. B. 2010. Tuber dormancy lasting eight years in the wild potato Solanum jamesii. American Journal of Potato Research 87:226-228. www.wnmu.edu/academic/nspages/gilaflora/solanum_jamesii.jpg
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Post by nuts on Mar 13, 2011 15:42:05 GMT -5
I'm so happy to have my tps seeds.Even for france the shipping cost is included!
Well,I have them in my greenhouse,like my tomatoes on a kind of slightly heated tray. temp of the trays is about between 18 and 28C (64 and 82F).For my tomatoes this rocks.But Tom noted on the etiquette that potatoes 'grow a little cooler'.Does it mean that I put them to hot? What's the best temp?
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Post by tatermater on Mar 14, 2011 1:38:17 GMT -5
72 to74 F
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 14, 2011 11:06:05 GMT -5
Tom, last year I got 100% germination from TPS. I wrote about it, but you might have missed it. Don't get to excited about it... Someone on the board sent me a packet of mixed flower seeds and there was a single potato seed in it. It did produce berries, but they fell off and I couldn't find them. It didn't produce a lot of tubers either, but I do recall that they were very sweet.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 19, 2011 12:19:45 GMT -5
I placed my order for a second pound! =o)
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Post by bunkie on Mar 19, 2011 13:33:39 GMT -5
last year we did the potatoes and the TPS. the potatoes were extremely close to a 100 percent germination. many had no eye development either, but they grew very well and the production was wonderful.
we're doing the TPS this year again. we had very close to 100 percent germination last year. will report of it soon. i'm thinking in the future that it would be easier to save TPS than keep the potatoes from sprouting. haven't managed to set up a decent spot for them yet.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 20, 2011 10:44:25 GMT -5
So, here is some data for y'all. I planted the first set of seeds last Sunday, March 13. Today, March 20, we have some germination.
October Blood and Diamond Toro - 2 of 18 Smiley Blue - 3 of 18 Suytu Vilquina - 12 of 18
These are sown into cells that are, I'm guessing, about 1" x 1" and 72 cells to a tray. I'm using a mix of approximately 50/50 Miracle Gro potting soil and vermiculite with a touch of dish soap for wetting.
This tray is part of a "greenhouse kit" I purchased but never used a couple years ago. It also has a clear plastic lid which I used for the first 3 or 4 days following sowing.
We will probably get our seed potatoes sown later today or perhaps tomorrow.
QUESTION: I realize that the best possible mulch for the taters is oak leaves. We don't have oak leaves. We do happen to have a whole lot of pine needles. Will that work for now or will it cause more harm than good?
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 21, 2011 8:47:23 GMT -5
TPS germination rates as of day 8: Diamond Toro - 5 of 18 October Blood - 8 of 18 Suytu Vilquina - 13 of 18 Smiley Blue - 6 of 18
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