Grow Your Own Magazine

Many of you have contributed to several threads regarding potato fruits and the collecting of potato seed. Many of which can be found below.


As for the actual growing of potatoes from seed some people wanted instructions so here's my account on this years potato experiment.


I harvested seed at the end of 07 by picking off the potato fruits from some king edwards and leaving them to ripen indoors (turn black) When the fruits were ripe i scooped the seeds out onto a kitchen towel and left to dry. Following this they were scraped into a manila envelope and left for 6 months.

I sowed the seeds just prior to Easter this year (march) in fine drills of multipurpose compost and left them to germinate in my cold frame. Within 14days 80% of the seeds had germinated but i lost 6-8 seedlings to slugs in the 1st week. Consequently i pricked out the remaining seedlings into 6" pots of multipurpose and left them to develop. When things were starting to look a little cramped i repotted the plants into deep 10" pots of more multipurpose but planted each seedling quite deep so that only the top leaves were visible.

As for the post care treatment these plants have largely been neglected. I have been careful not to let them dry out but that's it,

Due to my absolute fear of potato/tomato blight this year i decided to harvest all my potatoes early to ensure that there was a reduced chance of spreading blight to my tomatoes (20 odd plants). I had no idea if I would find tublets or potatoes of an edible size and i have to admit that the results have been a great suprise.




1 Kilo of potatoes the potatoes in question are firm with increadily smooth skin and nice yellow flesh i'm just dying to eat them!

What i'm most amazed aboutis that these potatoes have had no extra care and also they were grown in small pots. I hope to continue this experment next year with multiple plants in a large bag and also to compare the results of regular feeding.

So we now know that it can be done.....so who is interested in having a larger scale experiment next season?

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www.myspace.com/alexfcooke
www.outofthecool.com
http://polytunneldiaries.blogspot.com/

That's interesting...

I have some new raised beds that I filled with Rowlawn blended loam. It's suposed to be screened (which I took to mean sterilized) but I got loads of tiny potato seedlings popping up (presumably from seed) I left a few and sure enough they produced small crops of perfect tatties

With your spuds grown from seed, Duronal - if you gat one you particularly like the look of, don't cook them all at once. Save one or two and if they turn out brilliant, put those in your salad drawer in the fridge and plant them next year. You then have your own strain of seed potato that will come up the same each year. (The trick is stopping people eating the spuds in the salad drawer!)

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

Wow! I thought it would take ages to get a crop from a little seed rather than a seed spud!! Hope some of my spuds form fruits now so I can give it a try

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Excellent news! I have saved about 8 of the fruits so far and they're ripening in the shed and on a plate in the dining room (!). Look forward to growing them next year. I may even experiment and seed one over the winter, indoors. Hopefully I'll be a very smug Sluglobber in the Spring!!

It was interesting to see how you got on - thanks for posting.

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Douglas

http://www.myvegetablegarden.co.uk/ - under construction

Yes, Duronal - Many Thanks for that snapshot of your 2007-8 efforts.

It will serve as an excellent guideline for those of us trying the same next year.

Your crop looks delicious as well!

I've also PM'd pigletwillie regarding the possibility of getting a 'Special Projects' category to keep this kind of thing together - so it will be easier to find and refer to ourselves and also for newcomers having a bash.

Good stuff Duronal!

I wonder why you can't buy potato seeds from a seed merchant much as you would any other seed ?

I also wonder if you plant three to five seeds together, will this simulate potato growth utilising tubers with multiple eyes and give an increased crop?

It was on the cards last year but I never got round to it.................. but I'll deffo be having a go this year!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

At one time there was 'true potato seed' sold by Thompson and Morgan, but it said in the catalogue that it wasn't available in the EEC (shows how long ago that was). I presume it was due to the potential variability? The variety they had was Desiree.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

It would be expensive then because I remember reading that Desiree had Duke of York in its heritage which would make it a hybrid!

As it happens Diseree is my favourite maincrop and Duke of York my favourite early and my Diseree are in full flower at the moment with a few potato fruits already on my Duke of York!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

Just - wow!

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

What i found most interesting is that these plants were pretty small and yet produced very reasonable crops for a minimal effort.

I found this quite interesting as it talks about growing conditions and yields.

1 Ton of Potatoes - AllotmentTV.co.uk

But i wonder if we couldn't manage to grow our own grapevine variety, I'm sure someone said that they grew blue potatoes and were saving the seed from fruit this year........i just can't remember who it was.

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www.myspace.com/alexfcooke
www.outofthecool.com
http://polytunneldiaries.blogspot.com/

Duronal - it was I, quark - I PM'd you a day or so back as I saw you were interested in seed on another thread.

As the house 'expert' I thought it only fair to save a set of 2 fruits for you - if you're interested? - and invite you to input your expertise - which you have done - Ta.

Just let me have your address details and I'll get them off to you!

Just had a look through google and you CAN get true potato seed!

Potato Seed - Catalina Potato

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

none of my first earlies gave me any seed....have maincrop with loads of flowers on now..hope i can get some seed off them to try...

Good spot snadger! don'e worry markwcel i've got some spare fruit that shouldyield some seeds that you can have.

Send me a PM with your address and i'll see what i can do.

quark :- i'm no expert! just a fool that doesn't know when he's beaten, my mother in law told me they were fruit and the rest was essentially a child's curiosity, fruit = seeds = plants for free......! i hope we can get this off the ground and you never know we could stumble onto something miraculous. (oh the dreams of a mad man)

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www.myspace.com/alexfcooke
www.outofthecool.com
http://polytunneldiaries.blogspot.com/

I wish I'd kept my potato fruits now... I chucked em after the posts that warned about how poisonous they were and before the posts about growing from them - doh!

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pjh75

We sow the seed, nature grows the seed, we eat the seed. (Neil, The Young Ones)

http://producebypaula.blogspot.com/

I'm going to have to try this if I ever get any potato fruits. Not that this ever happens

Oh well. Thanks for the great information anyway.

Steven

I've got some potato apples on my duke of york earlies and my desiree maincrop which I hope to harvest!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I've carefully searched all my spuds this year for fruits - not a thing. Some kind grapes have sent me some. Then, I found a 'volunteer' spud hiding amongst the parsnips. It has seeds on!

There'll be lots of us at it next year, won't there?

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

You can count me in on the experiement too - I have a 'volunteer' Picasso plant which somehow evaded digging up last year - one nice big seed pod which is now ripening on the window ledge at home.

Skotch

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Artificial Intelligence usually beats real stupidity

We're going to need a whole thread of our own this time next year!

__________________
Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

Well done and a good result, but I think I will stick with the traditional method and use tubers.

Ian

Hi

What a wonderful thread - I missed this one whilst I was away.

Flummery - I am still planning on saving you some of mine; if you have enough just let me know. After this I'm going to keep the rest and try this method myself with the rest anyway.

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Newman: Hello Jerry
Jerry: Hello Newman...

my blog - updated 10th June April - Golden Sweet Yellow Podded Mange Tout and other peas, veg and flowers http://linearlegume.blogspot.com/

Heritage Seed Library- help a seed in need: http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

Founder member of the Binley Knows Best Club - Feb 2010.
Hearty Supporter of the Mojo by Mail Syndicate [Member No 3]

Holga - the best camera in the world

Let loose your spirit of adventure man! I'll still be growing from tubers but I'll try a few seeds for the hell of it!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I think I'm ok now ZAZ - use them yourself. I appreciate the offer though.

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

Exactly my thoughts Snadger. I'm going to use a few tubs so I shan't be wasting ground. What's to lose?

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

It's time to resurrect this thread because I've just finished harvesting my potato fruits for seed and thought I’d share my method.

Take a sharp knife and cut the top of the fruit off as close to the growing stem as possible. Then slice the fruit in half from top to bottom, once this has been accomplished take the knife and try to carve the flesh away from the skin. you should find that the flesh sack explodes like a tomato when squashed. Next scrape the seeds and flesh onto a kitchen towel to dry, place the kitchen towel in a warm dry place and leave for 3 or 4 days.

At the end of this period scrape the seeds from the towel into an envelope and label. (please say i'm not the only one with random seeds in packets....)

I believe that the seeds have a dormancy period of approx 6 months so if they don't grow at first be patient and try a little later on. I managed to get mine to germinate outside in a cold frame just before Easter last year so I’m thinking that a March/April planting should be appropriate.

I hope this helps

D.

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www.myspace.com/alexfcooke
www.outofthecool.com
http://polytunneldiaries.blogspot.com/

I've never managed to get a potato to fruit (they always drop off); but I've just been and mulched my Pink Firs and Roosters, and there're 4 big fat fruits on one of the Roosters ... I'm going to just ignore them, not make a fuss, and hope they manage to produce seed for me (and anyone else who's interested).

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~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkt82aeOCFo~

~ my allotment photos ~

All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips

My tray full of 'tattie apples' drying off nicely. mainly from Desiree but a few from Duke of York as well. All mixed in together!

One thing I don't understand is why they don't self seed in the garden? Tomatoes self seed if thrown in compost heap or left on the ground so why not spuds?

Anyway..............let the trial begin!

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

Just wondered............did the tatties you harvested look and taste like the King Edwards you used to get the seed?

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I've left mine at the side of the spud patch, and they will go into the shed in a few weeks, I'll do the same to get the seed out and sow next spring.

__________________
Newman: Hello Jerry
Jerry: Hello Newman...

my blog - updated 10th June April - Golden Sweet Yellow Podded Mange Tout and other peas, veg and flowers http://linearlegume.blogspot.com/

Heritage Seed Library- help a seed in need: http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

Founder member of the Binley Knows Best Club - Feb 2010.
Hearty Supporter of the Mojo by Mail Syndicate [Member No 3]

Holga - the best camera in the world

They weren't exact snadger. I had some which resembled king edwards in their red appearence but the others were just like a standard white potato. I guess they don't self seed because they simply aren't as bomb proof as tomato seeds. Maybe they rot easier...

Two Sheds - if they're about a young cherry tomato size i'd nip them off and leave them on a window sill inside to ripen. At least you should get some seed this way!

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www.myspace.com/alexfcooke
www.outofthecool.com
http://polytunneldiaries.blogspot.com/

Maybe they do self seed in the garden Snadger? I know there are always loads of the little blighters coming up in my plot and I always try to get them all out the previous year. Some are undoubtedly from ones I missed - but all of them? Maybe there are a few seeded in there but we never know.

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 25th - A Village Wedding

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - June 29th - Foraging

If my potato plants got a touch of blight, d'you think I should discard the seed pods? I did pick a couple before the blight struck, so they should be okay, I think.

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Sarah

http://www.hypermobility.org http://wixypixies.blogspot.com/