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Post by nicollas on Feb 14, 2014 3:16:29 GMT -5
Hi,
i understand why restoring fertility in potato is a good thing : * no/less virus transmitted to following generation * breeding perspectives / better diversity * long term and mass storage * international trades facilitates
But growing potatoes from true seeds every year isnt a lot of trouble wrt potato tuber seeds ? If you are interested in TPS, have you made an hybrid strategy, like :
* growing a part f your crop from tuber seeds and a small part from true seed and save some seeds each year * save true seeds, and usually grow potatoes from tuber seeds except every X years when you grow all this year crop from true seeds * grow from tuber seeds but getting attention to not loosing fertility and grow all/some from true seeds when the fertility is declining ?
Thanks for your input. i was deeply interested by perennial, vegetative propagation, etc, but this board is infecting me with landracing and true seeds, so i hope to combined the best of the two world.
(This discussion should be relevant to other root/bulb crops, such as garlic, potato onions)
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Post by richardw on Feb 14, 2014 4:45:48 GMT -5
My TPS strategy evolves around only growing one Maori potato called moie-moie which i think is the best tasting potato ive ever grown,problem was it never produced a single berry till one cold summer three years ago,thankfully i managed to get enough TPS that year to kick start my interest in been able to restore moie-moie,thus restoring fertility along with breaking the virus cycle. I have three slightly different strains,one is my original strain that ive had for 20+years the other two are from cesarz,there's only a small difference in skin colour and shape between the three. The following growing season i grew out this TPS but only two plants did any good,but unfortunately both grew massive long runners(3m)and again they have done similar this summer but not as long,only one be grown next growing season because,one,it has the taste and colour similar to the parent tubers and two,i want this clone to help pollinate the original three tubers for which i plan to keep growing each year with the hope i can still get at least some to grow berries. At the moment i have only two original tuber grown plants that have produced a few berries,one is my own and the other is one cesar's,so ,next growing seasons plan is to grow all three tubers,the one remaining TPS clone and as many plants from this summers berries. I hope in time that all my plantings will be done from TPS,but its a matter of taking each season as it comes.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 14, 2014 8:32:40 GMT -5
Richard, have you seen the amateur potato breeders manual? There's a really interesting section on procuring TPS page 20. He recommends grafting scions of potato vine onto tomato rootstock. This forces flowering even in clones reluctant to flower. Since you've already gotten Moie Moie to flower and fruit once, it sounds like this would possibly work. Then you could do the backcross to moie moie.
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Post by nicollas on Feb 14, 2014 10:32:21 GMT -5
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Post by billw on Feb 14, 2014 12:07:18 GMT -5
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Post by richardw on Feb 14, 2014 12:55:13 GMT -5
Richard, have you seen the amateur potato breeders manual? There's a really interesting section on procuring TPS page 20. He recommends grafting scions of potato vine onto tomato rootstock. This forces flowering even in clones reluctant to flower. Since you've already gotten Moie Moie to flower and fruit once, it sounds like this would possibly work. Then you could do the backcross to moie moie. No i had not seen that before Tim,thanks,what a fantastic manual that is,in it it hits on the idea of starting up breeding clubs which in a way cesarz, myself and a small number of NZ based gardeners have started doing by setting up www.sentinelsgroup.co.nz/,but not only just with potatoes.There's three of us within Sentinels who are working with our own TPS lines of potatoes and one other fella maintains a large collection of old clones that we could call on at some later stage if need be,thats where the idea of grafting comes in as all of the clones he's got dont produce berries and that could be a great way to reinvigorate,he's not a member here of HGG so i'll send on that amateur potato breeders manual to him,he's a better grafter than i am too. For me the key is the two single plants that have a few maturing berries at the moment,from these i need to get as many seedlings as i can next spring and if next summer turns out to be cooler than normal like the last three summers have been the three moie moie clones may well produce more berries again.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 14, 2014 13:31:56 GMT -5
But growing potatoes from true seeds every year isnt a lot of trouble wrt potato tuber seeds ? If you are interested in TPS, have you made an hybrid strategy, like : Replanted tubers tend to produce higher yields than first year seedlings, so I use a hybrid strategy. Regularly growing new varieties from seed, and regularly replanting the most suitable tubers from previous years. I separate a few clones, but most of them end up in the general mixed population. That gives me the best of both worlds.
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Post by richardw on Feb 14, 2014 13:40:18 GMT -5
I like in your blog Bill where you write 'why not let nature roll the dice a little bit?',and that is so true.
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Post by raymondo on Feb 14, 2014 16:43:26 GMT -5
I hadn't been interested in TPS until fairly recently. Now I'm quite keen to pursue a similar strategy to Bill and Joseph. Producing potatoes from seed has the advantage of better adaptation to local conditions.
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Post by richardw on Feb 14, 2014 16:50:04 GMT -5
It will be interesting to see how well they will do with your move north Ray.
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Post by raymondo on Feb 14, 2014 16:52:31 GMT -5
Yes Richard. I'm hoping growing from seed will help me develop some spuds that flourish in the subtropics.
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Post by steev on Feb 14, 2014 21:02:06 GMT -5
What temperature/climate conditions are "subtropics", anyway?
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Post by greenpond on Feb 14, 2014 23:01:25 GMT -5
Most of Florida is subtropical and believe it or not so is Sochi Russia.
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Post by steev on Feb 14, 2014 23:25:58 GMT -5
Waaay subtropical, I should think.
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Post by templeton on Feb 22, 2014 17:19:35 GMT -5
Yes Richard. I'm hoping growing from seed will help me develop some spuds that flourish in the subtropics. I'll post you up some of my TPS when you get settled, Ray. Pretty sure I've got a few old seeds in the Solanaceae shoebox. T
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