My first year growing TPS: what should I expect?

[oldmobie]

I WinterSowed them, and they're up now. I suspect the big ones are the ones I got from Joseph Lofthouse, & the little ones are what I was able to save here.

Whenever I try to read up on this, I find the term mini-tubers. Is that all I should expect this year, and need to replant them to get "food" potatoes next year? Or will they grow full sized this year? Or does it depend on conditions in my garden?

Also, should I expect fruit and seeds from them this year?

[flowerweaver]

Last year was my first year to plant them. I planted both from seed grown plants, and from TPS grown tubers I got in a trade. Both went in later than I would have liked for my area. I think many of the seedlings were too small when I put them out, and the majority of them perished. This year I started them a month earlier, potted them up twice, and they are now in the ground doing very well. Most of last year's tuber grown TPS produced small mini-tubers. I did not see flowering or berries form. I figured this was because I had put them in a couple weeks late.

Last year I harvested mini-tubers--most of them the size of my thumb, a few larger--and put them in a plastic bag in the house and promptly forgot about them. After many years of trying to grow regular potatoes, this was our first real harvest. After planting out my TPS seedlings this year, I began to wonder where I'd put those tubers. To my shock, they had not rotted, but were all vigorously sprouting! There were over 40 plants. I probably could have just directly planted them, but I went ahead and potted them up until leaves began showing, then planted them out. All totaled I have about 60+ plants in the ground. There were about five potatoes I must have missed harvesting which sprouted in the field on their own.

So, it will be interesting to see which of these will do the best, if any of them reach flowering stage, and if any of them make a larger tuber.

[jondear]

You might enjoy having a look at Kenosha potato project on Facebook...


Last year was my first time growing plants from tps. I got modest yields of potatoes. Most were about the size of a walnut. A few were larger and a few smaller. I have read here and elsewhere, that some varieties can grow tubers comparable to tuber grown plants. I fully intend to get some cooler varieties to try, but I figured I'd practice growing them from my own saved seed first.

It's been fun to experiment with them, but I wouldn't rely on seed grown plants for this years food. Save the tubers and plant them next year as usual. I figure growing some new seedlings each year will keep me in fresh seed potatoes.

[richardw]

The Moie moie TPS ive grown in the summer just past have grown full size tubers,the first frost of the last few days means i may as well dig up the plants and see how much of a crop ive got.