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Post by homegrower on Feb 13, 2014 13:41:58 GMT -5
What are some of the best tasting true potato seed varieties to grow?  |
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Post by billw on Feb 13, 2014 14:29:12 GMT -5
The best tasting aren't always the best all-around. Probably the best tasting that I've tried was Squat Orange, but they produced almost no berries and kept poorly as well, so they quickly went extinct. Partly my ignorance; if I knew then what I know now, I'd still have some.
My favorite all-around TPS variety is Muru. I'm growing a big patch of them in isolation this year so that I can stash away a lot of seed. Various potatoes out of Muru also figure in a lot of my crosses. I wouldn't describe it as one of the best tasting potatoes, but it is very good. They are also generally vigorous, high yielding, disease resistant, store well, and set lots of seed. White & blue skin and flesh mostly.
Enfula is another good variety and probably a bit tastier overall. The tubers don't store quite as well. Orange/yellow skin and white to yellow flesh.
Boyd Dude was a favorite from last year. I haven't grown them from tubers yet, but they appear to be storing well, so I'll be planting them back out soon. Yungay is also in this category; great flavor and looks promising for growing from tubers.
Phyto Phyter is very good. Not the world's most exciting potatoes, but big, happy, disease resistant plants and high yields of white potatoes.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 13, 2014 21:07:29 GMT -5
Joesph's yellow potato is pretty good. And I like Maris Piper too.
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Post by littleminnie on Jan 5, 2015 21:55:00 GMT -5
How much do potatoes cross when saving seed?
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Post by DarJones on Jan 6, 2015 1:03:17 GMT -5
That depends on the species and on the reproductive type. Some are self-fertile, some have sterile pollen, and others self-incompatible. My experience is that most of the varieties I've grown from Tom Wagner tend to cross about half the time. Self-incompatible varieties cross nearly 100% of the time.
I concentrated over the last 2 years on identifying the best adapted varieties for my climate and producing seed from as many of them as possible. The best so far is a purple skinned potato that I brought back from a visit in August 2012. It is a good general purpose boiling/baking/frying potato with decent flavor. I collected about a tablespoon of seed from 3 plants in 2014. That may not sound like a lot, but consider that potato seed are the size of a grain of sand and you will see that I got several thousand seed. It was planted beside Chellan which is a very good white potato I also got from Tom. I expect a significant amount of the seed will be from crosses to Chellan. The other variety I grow is Azul Toro which is just nearly as productive as Kennebec... and that is saying a lot given my climate. Unfortunately, Azul Toro appears to be self-incompatible and rarely sets seed. I got one single berry in 2014 with about 25 seed even after repeated attempts to get viable crosses.
For good flavored potatoes, Tom's Skagit Gold deserves mention. He also has Amey Russet which is very good flavored, but unfortunately, not adapted to my climate.
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Post by ottawagardener on Jan 6, 2015 6:51:46 GMT -5
Following. I have some concerns about tuber crops and alkaloids but I'm VERY interested in TPS. Grew out a batch this winter and kept 12 seedlings. They are mixed seed from an enthusiast so we'll see what I get.
Muru sounds interesting.
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Post by littleminnie on Jan 6, 2015 19:41:20 GMT -5
I have saved and traded off Magic Molly for the last couple years. I have no idea how much they cross with the other varieties.
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