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Post by billw on Jan 6, 2015 13:46:12 GMT -5
I have a lot less since I came to rely on a weed burner for keeping the garden clean in the winter, but I still get quite a few in the trenches between the rows. Our winter weather seems to be really good for germinating potato seed, but we get frosts just often enough that they usually don't make it.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 6, 2015 14:06:37 GMT -5
I haven't yet consciously found volunteer potato seedlings in my garden, or even intentionally planted ones. Once in a while I find volunteer potatoes, but I usually attribute them to a tuber surviving the winter. A few minutes ago I planted several hundred seeds in the soil in the greenhouse floor. I suppose they have a better chance of surviving there than they do in pots with me allegedly taking care of them.
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Post by ferdzy on Jan 6, 2015 17:47:44 GMT -5
I don't think so, although we do have missed spuds coming up all over the place. Nobody told me when I started this gig that potatoes are pretty much a weed! We do get quite a lot of potato seedballs, with Russian Blue, Alaska Sweetheart and Envol producing about 80% of them. We too have taken to planting our potatoes in the fall. The first year they did wonderfully, last year not very well. Early rainfall was strangely intermittant, and I think that was the problem. I didn't think to do extra watering that early.
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Post by ferdzy on Jan 24, 2015 10:45:49 GMT -5
True Potato SeedlingsOkay, posting photos still does not work for me, but links work fine. Anyway, there's our batch of potato seedlings. Quite a lot of Alaska Sweetheart in there, lots of Russian Blue, maybe some envol... they are looking very good, the best we have achieved so far, and there is a surprising amount of variation. Three or 4 have quite narrow leaves, and are very compact, and then you get ones that are vary long and rangy with lots of aerial roots shooting out, plus lots of in-between forms. Quite excited to see what comes out. From pulling out the plugs and looking at the potatoes starting to form, it looks like many of them will resemble Alaska Sweetheart.
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Post by ottawagardener on Jan 25, 2015 8:41:18 GMT -5
You would think it would happen. I haven't seen it but I'm gong to pay more attention.
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Post by ferdzy on Jan 27, 2015 15:25:50 GMT -5
I'm curious - I have pulled up a few rootballs to examine them and yup, potatoes. What's odd is they ALL look a lot like Alaska Sweetheart, including the ones I didn't think were anywhere near Alaska Sweetheart. Has any one grown seed from Alaska Sweetheart before, and if so, were they so consistently Alaska Sweetheart-like?
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Post by raymondo on Feb 16, 2015 2:02:10 GMT -5
I have plants descended from TPS grown plants which I had hoped would be fertile. Alas, masses of flowers but nairy a berry. I've just sown some Pentland Dell tubers which are listed in Rebsie's book as fertile. It's too late to expect ripe berries but I'll have plenty of tubers to grow next spring. I have some other TPS (thanks T) which will be sown in spring too so maybe next season will see a garden full of seed-filled potato berries.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 18, 2015 12:47:59 GMT -5
Ferdzy, are you potting your's up from that last photo?
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Post by robertb on Mar 6, 2015 11:58:29 GMT -5
If I'm growing TPS varieties next to each other, will I need to hand pollinate, or will they get pollinated naturally? Is there anything to watch out for?
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Post by ferdzy on Mar 6, 2015 14:34:33 GMT -5
Ferdzy, are you potting your's up from that last photo? Nope. It's "do or die", in the little trays. I don't have space to be mucking about with potting up potatoes. And since we now seem to have an outbreak of aphids, looks like it's "die"; or at least, "die down". There's lotsa little taters in there, so it will be into the fridge with them, and then they should get planted out around July 1st. I just tell myself that I'm selecting for production under adverse circumstances! Yeah; that's what it is.
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Post by flowerweaver on Mar 7, 2015 15:13:27 GMT -5
I've potted mine up. They were getting leggy, something's off with my new bulbs. I just coiled them around in bigger pots, and now they look great, have tripled in size.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 7, 2015 15:23:42 GMT -5
This year I planted true potato seed directly into the soil of the walk in cold-frame (greenhouse) during deep winter. They have germinated and survived many nights of freezing temperatures. I keep thinning them, leaving only the quickest growing and the most cold tolerant. One nice thing about growing them this way, is that they didn't get leggy like they typically do for me.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 7, 2015 15:32:57 GMT -5
If I'm growing TPS varieties next to each other, will I need to hand pollinate, or will they get pollinated naturally? Is there anything to watch out for? In my garden, bumblebees are frequent visitors to potato flowers. I presume that they are pollinating them. I screen my potatoes against what I think of as "clumpy pollen". The pollen is carried in a gel-like substance inside the anthers. Seems like it wouldn't come out of the flower when buzz pollinated. Seems like it wouldn't attract bees. I wonder if it would even move onto the style. I select for potato flowers with dusty pollen. If I go out around noon, and flick the flowers with my fingernail, a cloud of pollen pours out of the flower... Seems like that would be highly attractive to bees. Also, I can pick a flower and take it to another plant and flick it over other flowers, and pollen pours out onto the other flower. Dissecting flowers not required. Some varieties of potatoes may be self-incompatible. In those cases, having several plants close together can help with natural pollination.
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 7, 2015 17:43:42 GMT -5
This year I planted true potato seed directly into the soil of the walk in cold-frame (greenhouse) during deep winter. They have germinated and survived many nights of freezing temperatures. That gives me hope for the ones I WinterSowed this year.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 7, 2015 19:31:12 GMT -5
When I do germination testing it seems to me like potatoes germinate better in colder conditions. Here's what mine looked like today. The lowest temperature I remember in the greenhouse since these germinated was about 24 F.
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