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Post by johno on Mar 30, 2008 9:30:41 GMT -5
I'm so happy - I got my potato seed sampler from Tom!
The question is: now what?! Has anyone grown potatoes from seed before?
I gather that they need to be grown as transplants, but what about the soil/soilless mix? And more to the point, what about seed-starting? Can I just treat them like tomato seedlings? Should I pre-sprout them, or should I screen some fine peat to cover the seeds with - any special instructions for getting off to a good start?
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Post by cff on Mar 30, 2008 9:46:59 GMT -5
Lucky you Johno!
What verities did ya get ?
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Post by tatermater on Mar 30, 2008 22:18:23 GMT -5
Seeding potato seed (TPS) is not much different than tomato seed.
The seed is smaller and doesn't need to covered but an eighth of an inch or so. I like to sow several seed in a cluster to force the seedling to sprout and emerge together and force a competition of sorts. The seedlings do better if allowed to nearly dry out between waterings to avoid damping off. Most of my seeding lately has been using OMRI organically appoved soil media. Using 72 or 128 cell trays works for me. I put worm castings in the base of the trays and a peat/perlite mix above.
That should be enough to get anyone started.
BTW, I believe Johno received four kinds of TPS, namely,
October Blue OP,
F-1 Skagit Valley Gold x Bulk pollen,
F-1 Sunset Minnesota X Baycan,
and a mix of 50 or more lines.
Tom Wagner
Forget to log in. No wonder I can't post other times. Hope this goes in this time!
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Post by johno on Mar 31, 2008 10:11:30 GMT -5
Thanks Tom! I wanted to get it right on the first try!
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Post by canadamike on Apr 2, 2008 15:29:05 GMT -5
Johno, here is something a guest on tatermater gathered as info, and Tom congatulated him on his research:
I should start my TPS at the same time as I start my tomato seeds.
Small potato seedlings should be transplanted same as tomato seedlings, burying them deep.
When transplanting to the garden, they should again be put into a four or five inch trench, and hilled normally. This transplanting twice and burying them deep gets the main root ball down into the same area as if you were planting tubers (seed potatoes). This helps tuber production.
If I do this right I will get almost as many pounds of tubers at harvest time, as if I planted seed potatoes.
The potatoes will be somewhat close to the mother plant in looks and taste, but showing slight differences. That is if there was no crossing between the two varieties.
I have seed from Kennebec and Yukon Gold, saved from the 2007 harvest. I would have had a lot more seed if it was not for the deer.
wood
PS; Why will this forum not allow me to type t a b l e s p o o n? It changes it to tablesthingy?
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Re: Potato's from TPS
« Reply #1 on Jan 28, 2008, 3:44pm »
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Post by johno on Apr 2, 2008 23:36:11 GMT -5
Well, I just sowed them today - one square flat for each of the four packs. I made a soilless mix from sterile components which I screened through 1/8th inch hardware cloth, hoping that that will make for easier root development. It's amazing how much fluffier the mix is when you do that... It is mostly peat, but has some perlite, vermiculite, and worm castings. I mixed extra worm castings into the bottom third. I placed two of these small flats each into two normal flats with clear lids - the lids will come off when they start germinating. I'm excited about this!
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Post by Alan on Apr 3, 2008 12:49:17 GMT -5
Glad to see this info being shared here on our site. I too still need to start my potato seed and just as of yet haven't had a chance, particularly this week since I have been I'll. Come Monday however I believe I will get them planted and they will just have to go out as a late crop, which is ok, because given the minimum numbers to take care of compared to my larger potato crops I will baby these little guys and make sure that they get plenty of everything that they will need.
Once again, thank you Tom!
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Post by johno on May 5, 2008 23:45:46 GMT -5
Minimun numbers for Alan... But this will be a big crop to me!
I will soon be repotting the potato seedlings with worm castings. Once they seem to be strong individual plants, I'll put them out in the garden. Right now they are two to three inches tall.
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Post by Alan on May 19, 2008 23:18:23 GMT -5
I never did get the TPS started, there are a lot, so that will wait untill next year, but Toms two packages of tubers did make it in the ground and emerged before my commercial crop though being planted at the same time! I hope to make these all staples of Bishop's Homegrown, thank you again Tom for all you do!
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Post by grunt on May 20, 2008 0:41:59 GMT -5
Grungy just finished planting out 6 varieties of TPS, and putting a good mulch blanket around all of them. Pics tomorrow if I can get organized enough to remember.
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Post by orflo on May 21, 2008 14:42:32 GMT -5
I just planted out my sown potatoes:
solanum phureja
solanum aucale
siquinchilla
A 16
runa
taka paka
yantar imilla
and some selections of the above,all look very promising, I'm especially interested in the disease resistance of solanum phureja , I have another variety of phureja (not sown, but tubers):amarilla pastusa, it seems Colombian, but I'm not sure about that,
Frank
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Post by Alan on May 22, 2008 21:40:41 GMT -5
I'm sure Tom would be a good source to find out info on any of those you don't know about Orflow. Anybody else growing toms tubers noticing major differences in stem thickness, heigh of the plants and overall vigour compared to other commercial sources. Tom's are monsters! Good parenting I guess you could say!
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