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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 24, 2011 16:36:41 GMT -5
I got our second box today and it had: Agrarian Blue German Butterball Yukon Gem La Ratte Cal White Satina Pink Ox Kinigi C97.007 Collateral Protection Boyd Dude Sarpo Blade Skagit Dusk James' Lame Excuse
As of now, all our seed potatoes (including the abnormal store bought ones) are in ground and covered with a thoroughly wetted blanket of pine needles.
As for TPS, I think that all the seeds that will emerge have emerged. The final count is: Diamond Toro - 11 October Blood - 13 Suytu Vilquina - 12 Smiley Blue - 7
These are all about an inch long at the moment.
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Post by lilcows on Mar 25, 2011 19:57:37 GMT -5
3 boxes of potato tubers just arrived!!! Unfortunately it is still pouring down rain. The fields are saturated. The cows and sheep are going to be swimming if it doesn't stop. Margaret www.farfarawayfarm.blogspot.com
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Post by tatermater on Mar 27, 2011 12:16:43 GMT -5
Margaret,
Glad those potatoes arrived OK. And I know what the rain does around here...I would like to get potatoes in too, but it rains so much around here that I will only hope to get windows opening up to plant potatoes sometime in the next three months....last year it was that wet...
I am thinking about planting potatoes in series of one gallon pots just to make sure I have some increased early. But since I am sending out so many boxes of potatoes to others...I can't find enough time to do my own research and planting.
Tom
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Post by wildseed57 on Mar 28, 2011 10:13:26 GMT -5
:)Hi Tom, When is it that you are doing the project on Orcas Island? Get lots of photo's if you can Afterward take a day off to relax and do some whale watching or fishing. So you will be more relaxed when you get back to all the work you have. George W.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 12, 2011 14:35:56 GMT -5
About 1/3 of our seed potatoes are beginning to show. Ratchet excitement level up a notch!
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Post by ottawagardener on Apr 14, 2011 9:19:22 GMT -5
Wagner's TPS have grown into nice little plants for me. Waiting to put them out after last frost. I started quite early like in February but they have not produced tubercles just plants so far which is good.
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Post by garnetmoth on Apr 16, 2011 11:13:40 GMT -5
such beautiful foliage coming up from the purple and blue varieties!
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Post by wildseed57 on Apr 17, 2011 23:02:55 GMT -5
I'm hoping that Tom will get some of his larger tomato varieties set out with descriptions as I would love to get at least one that had good Blight, TMV, and spotted wilt. I know breeding all of this into a tomato will take time, I would love to try breeding myself if I can get my doctor to give me something for my shaky hands so that I would ruin the flowers and of course which varieties of tomatoes would be the best ones to get along with what while varieties I would need. I guess all of this would require me to see what I could get from the USDA, if Monsanto hasn't Black balled me from getting seeds and cuttings. They have become such a pain to get seeds from anymore. George W.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 2, 2011 6:10:24 GMT -5
A few of the potatoes have not come up. I haven't documented which ones yet, but I need to. Flowers are starting to be put out. What should I do to encourage seeding? Is there anything beyond prayer? Perhaps bagging?
I'll also be setting out the taters we've started from seed sometime this week. Those will be exciting!!!
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Post by atash on May 2, 2011 10:03:54 GMT -5
>>Flowers are starting to be put out. What should I do to encourage seeding?
Pollination. Potatoes are not self-pollinating like tomatoes.
Some of them seem to be self-fertile, some of them aren't. I don't know what all the factors are. Tom could explain but it would probably be a long story.
Not all potatoes bloom, and some are sterile or semi-sterile even if they bloom. Sometimes this is intentional, such as pollen sterility used by breeders to control pollination. To my knowledge Tom doesn't encourage this, but makes use of both his controlled pollinations, as well as uncontrolled. But, he inherits sterile and semi-sterile potatoes from upstream.
If you get berries, consider it a serendipitous benefit. Roughly 100-200 seeds per berry; you can grow out potatoes extremely fast. And you can use the seed to keep your potatoes when you decide to rotate them out in a rotation scheme.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 2, 2011 14:34:54 GMT -5
Excellent! I think I'll gather a few feathers from our chickens to create a pollen brush. Kick back and see what happens. I'm guessing that when the flowers fall off it's because they are not fertilized?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 2, 2011 21:47:51 GMT -5
Excellent! I think I'll gather a few feathers from our chickens to create a pollen brush. Kick back and see what happens. I'm guessing that when the flowers fall off it's because they are not fertilized? I hand pollinated many, many flowers last summer that proceeded to fall off just like the flowers that I didn't pollinate... On the plants that produced berries it didn't matter whether or not I pollinated them they produced berries anyway in spite of my efforts. I'm thinking that in many varieties of potatoes man has interfered so much with the berry making genes that the plant has for all intents and purposes lost the ability to reproduce by berries. Doesn't matter how much pollen they get. If a potato plant doesn't produce berries easily it gets dropped from my breeding program. It might continue for a while as a production tuber, but it won't be part of the breeding program unless it inadvertently contributes some pollen. One thing about hand pollination, you might find the right combination of mother and pollen donor to overcome some of the genetic problems that prevent berry formation. This summer I'm expecting to select for 3 criteria: Resistance to scab, resistance to wire-worms, abundantly fruitful.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 3, 2011 5:31:10 GMT -5
What is your definition of "abundantly fruitful"? I've been considering this issue but I have yet to make any real measure of weight or number.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 3, 2011 10:03:19 GMT -5
What is your definition of "abundantly fruitful"? I've been considering this issue but I have yet to make any real measure of weight or number. I'll know it when I see it.... I'd consider abundantly fruitful to be around 20 to 50 berries per plant. I'll collect berries from anything that offers them but the pikers will be collected into a seconds land-race and not actively developed.
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Post by atash on May 3, 2011 14:07:15 GMT -5
Joseph, if you want potato berries, consider signing up for Tom Wagner's newsletter (www.newworldcrops.com look for the signup on the right sidebar).
Most of his diploids are quite fertile (except for Skagit Valley Gold which is only partially so), and many of his South American heritage varieties are. Most of his own breeds are fertile as well.
Some of these are the result of friends donating potato berries on breeds that rarely produce them, then growing them from seed for a few generations until they produce flowers and berries consistently.
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