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Post by nathanp on Jul 26, 2017 21:29:10 GMT -5
If TPS is stored in a freezer, it can last 50 years. Typically if left in poor environmental areas, probably only a few years. If you are interested in keeping it longer than a few years, it would be best to store it in a fridge or freezer after it dries.
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Post by reed on Jul 27, 2017 3:19:31 GMT -5
I processed the second White Superior berry that had been sitting on the windowsill for weeks. I thought maybe it wasn't ripe and the seeds might not be good but they look fine and there is a bunch of them. This berry had finally started to soften and it did not stink like the the first one, it actually smelled kind of fruity. I considered tasting it but chickened out.
I crushed it up and out in a few drops of rain water but it looks like the seeds are already well separated from the pulp and they promptly sank to the bottom so I probably will just leave it a few more days till I dry them down.
The vine has completely died on the TPS plant that matured a berry so I brought it in to sit for a while. It is considerably larger and I think more mature than the others were, it stayed on the plant well over 30 days.
I dug up a few of the TPS plants and got a small bowl full of red and purple potatoes. They are all small with only a couple approaching golf ball size. I was hoping to see some bigger ones but ya get what ya get. Maybe the bigger plants in the other patch will do better. I'm gonna dig up the one that made the berry and see what it did before I forget exactly which one it was.
I'm leaving the bigger heat tolerant plants till the vines die, they are still blooming, maybe if they make it that long I'll get some berries when it cools off a little.
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Post by nathanp on Jul 27, 2017 6:25:45 GMT -5
I only consistently get medium to large tubers on TPS plants that make it until close to the last frost date. Usually that is in early October here. If I am digging at this point of the year (July), it's a mix of sizes from pea size to marbles. That doesn't mean they won't produce good size tubers next year when grown from tubers, it just means it's an early variety. I think it's unrealistic to expect TPS plants to all produce good size tubers. I probably only get those on the last 10-20% of plants. Last weekend, I dug the first dozen that went into senescence over the past month. I leave them in the ground as long as I feel like I can do so, as it is less time they need to be stored. They are in the crisper drawer in the fridge, probably until my basement cold room cools off in the fall.  |
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Post by reed on Aug 7, 2017 8:45:44 GMT -5
I had a few TPS plants that were planted a little later to fill in a row of tuber planted ones and I wanted the space back so I went ahead and dug them up. Also dug up the one that had made the berry as that vine was completely dead. The berry is there the green circle as in the picture it looked so much like a little potato. I guess I will try to keep these in the refrigerator till next year since I don't have a cellar.  I think that berry is about ready to process. **I have more than I think I need of the White Superior seeds if anyone wants a few. Since WS is not supposed to make seeds and they are such good potatoes I wouldn't mind getting some into the hands of a couple people who are more experienced in TPS growing. I'm keeping some of course but can spare 15 or so to a couple different people. Just send me a PM and let me know and include your address if we haven't traded before. |
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Post by reed on Aug 17, 2017 20:20:05 GMT -5
The berry from the purple flower plant was starting to shrivel up so I processed and fermented it a little. Seeds are large and nice but there are only 15 of them. I was really surprised by that, the White Superior berries were not near as big and they had probably 50 seeds each.
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Post by fliver on Oct 12, 2017 16:13:34 GMT -5
This spring I started some tps a little late because of a knee injury. I have one plant which is just now getting flower buds. How long does it take to get ripe berries after flowering? I doubt I have any chance at all to get any berries this year since we usually get our first frost in Oct. Hopefully, I will get some taters to plant next summer from the plants I am currently growing.
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Post by jocelyn on Oct 12, 2017 18:03:19 GMT -5
Fliver, can you pot the plant and take it in at night to get the flowers to make berries?
I just potted two tomatoes, as frost is forcast tonight. Would that work for a potato?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 6, 2017 7:58:29 GMT -5
I went had a great year for my TPS plants in 2017. I rec'd a lot of interesting seed via the KPP seed train, and I planted a lot of diploids. They really impressed me with the INSANE amounts of bloom they produced. It makes sense given that diploid potatoes have self incompatibility that they'd put more energy into attracting pollinators, but it really blew my mind how covered with blossom the diploids were, and for how long. I feel like I got higher yields of TPS from my tetraploid plants too, I think because the pollinators were so well trained to work potato bloom for the pollen. All kinds of wild bees on the potato blossoms this year. NOT honeybees, not ever that I saw. This was the first plant I harvested. Earliest plant to bloom and the first plant to dry down. 2 lbs 6 oz of tubers, red/pink skin, yellow flesh. Diploid.  Gorgeous diploid bloom.  The one problem with some of the more exotic diploid TPS I planted was much of it had essentially zero dormancy. If I found them already sprouting when I dug them then they weren't any good to me. I just washed them up and took them to market and tried to sell them as mixed potato "Adventure Packs". They didn't sell that well, but I did sell a few. Need to work on the marketing?  |
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Post by billw on Dec 6, 2017 15:39:06 GMT -5
Those look great. No dormancy is the norm with diploids. If you time it so that they are ready very late in the year, you can usually keep them alive for spring planting by storing them at about 38F. Or I can here anyway, I'm not sure how long your winter is.
I find that people around here aren't much interested in anything that looks unusual. I produce hundreds of pounds of varieties that don't get selected. Attempts to move them at the local farmer's market or even to give them away have been almost total failures. I boil them and feed them to our waterfowl and compost the rest.
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Post by farmermike on Dec 6, 2017 16:23:32 GMT -5
No dormancy is the norm with diploids. If you time it so that they are ready very late in the year, you can usually keep them alive for spring planting by storing them at about 38F. What about for eating? Are the diploids still edible if they have already sprouted before harvest? When I read "The Resilient Gardener", it seemed Carol D said that any amount of sprouting or green skin renders the potato inedible. Of course, when I search online "are sprouted potatoes edible?", most sources say to just cut off the sprouts and the green skin and they are fine. |
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Post by billw on Dec 6, 2017 16:34:33 GMT -5
We eat sprouted diploids from the cooler all winter. Diploids are generally lower in glycoalkaloids than tetraploids. The sprouts are high in glycoalkaloids, but I have seen no information indicating that the tuber itself increases in concentration. In fact, it should be the opposite, with glycoalkaloids migrating from the tuber to the sprouts. Green potatoes should generally be considered unsafe to eat. They don't necessarily have high glycoalkaloids, but there is no easy way to be sure. I just did a blog post on glycoalkaloids the other day that you might find useful: www.cultivariable.com/potato-glycoalkaloid-toxicity/ |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Dec 6, 2017 16:55:20 GMT -5
I went had a great year for my TPS plants in 2017. I rec'd a lot of interesting seed via the KPP seed train, and I planted a lot of diploids. They really impressed me with the INSANE amounts of bloom they produced. It makes sense given that diploid potatoes have self incompatibility that they'd put more energy into attracting pollinators, but it really blew my mind how covered with blossom the diploids were, and for how long. I feel like I got higher yields of TPS from my tetraploid plants too, I think because the pollinators were so well trained to work potato bloom for the pollen. All kinds of wild bees on the potato blossoms this year. NOT honeybees, not ever that I saw. This was the first plant I harvested. Earliest plant to bloom and the first plant to dry down. 2 lbs 6 oz of tubers, red/pink skin, yellow flesh. Diploid. Gorgeous diploid bloom. The one problem with some of the more exotic diploid TPS I planted was much of it had essentially zero dormancy. If I found them already sprouting when I dug them then they weren't any good to me. I just washed them up and took them to market and tried to sell them as mixed potato "Adventure Packs". They didn't sell that well, but I did sell a few. Need to work on the marketing? WOW! Look at that color! I am sooo jelous... :-) |
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Post by nathanp on Dec 6, 2017 21:38:25 GMT -5
Oxbowfarm, I've had a few discussions about selling tubers like those with Wingnut and a few others. Unfortunately, most people get scared off by foods that look like those. He's tried selling them and plain, boring white or red potatoes always outsell ones like these. The lack of dormancy complicates matters. You can pull of the sprouts and they still will look ok, but just keep resprouting. Basically as long as they aren't too shriveled, you can still eat them. Here is an album to what I will call the 'semi-finalists' of my 2017 TPS tubers to save to regrow. These are the best ~20% of what I grew this year. I will probably only end up planting about 60-75% of these. TPS tubers link |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 6, 2017 21:58:44 GMT -5
I've spent years, building up a clientele that will buy anything, specifically because it is weird. Or maybe because they trust me to have the best tasting, and safest produce available, even if it is weird.
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Post by RpR on Dec 7, 2017 13:57:22 GMT -5
You gents have my admiration and I am also a bit jealous.
Oxbow -- nice collection, some years when I spend one hundred dollars to raise ten dollars worth of potatoes I get a colored basket like that but they are old fashioned tuber planted not TPS.
As many hundreds of TPS fruit I have buried, I just cannot get the mojo to do the work you gents do with TPS.
I found the Tater-Mater site yesterday so if I had the mojo to do as you boys do, there is a lot out there to work with.
Up here, even with long term potatoes, I some times have my hold-overs near the point of worthless for new plants in spring as I still plant potatoes on May 1st at earliest because the ground is usually to wet or cold it you try earlier.
The TPS I have seen would not work well in a climate where growing season is four months in bad year and rarely, very rarely, seven months but you cannot see the long ones coming, you must put in in the ground early and replant if it rots in the ground.
Now maybe I can put it in the ground earlier as some years I can see that I missed a lot of the previous years potatoes when they come up in row.
True hard freeze winters, where frost goes down four to six feet are getting to be few and far between, which is probably good as I do not think potatoes can survive that if you miss some.
This year I left two volunteer plants in the ground to see if they are still around next year.
TPS, maybe one of these years.
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