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Duronal's Potatoes from Seed Experiment '08 and into '09

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  • quark1
    replied
    I'm afraid I have to report a 'death' in the family - of this experiment - the Roosters were planted out into a flower bucket and some darned nocturnal creature dug the lot up - RIP Rooster!

    I will start again - deeper and straight into flower buckets - keeing inside until VERY big!

    Staring again this weekend - will keep you updated.

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  • Flummery
    replied
    Mine are about 6" above the pots - the pots are just a tad smaller than a flower bucket.

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  • zazen999
    replied
    I've got 2 in the greenhouse, both in big pots. They are coming to the top of the pots now so will earth up to the top and just leave them be, only watering when needed.

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  • Duronal
    replied
    My largest is approx 12", unfortunately i managed to kill off two of my plants with ambitous earthing up. I'm assuming that they died as they didn't have enough of am energy store to shoot through the soil. Still I've had a proper stomp about the foolishness of my mistake, i'll chalk it up in the memory to avoid doing the same next year.

    The remaining 15 plants seem to be growing well, my fingers are crossed so i hope that i get some tubers.

    Cheers

    D

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  • Snadger
    replied
    Originally posted by Demeter View Post
    how big are everyone's plants?

    I did sow mine a bit later than most (22 March) but the plants are all still tiny! I potted loads up into 3" pots a week or two ago, and they are pretty much all still at the 2 or 3 leaf stage with a few straggly roots (a couple did have those teeny tiny embryonic tubers on though, which was dead exciting - and I noticed a bit of blue on some of the blue ones!)

    Am I way behind or is anyone else wondering when their spuds will actually take off??

    Will definitely sow earlier next year!
    Mine are only 3 or 4 inches tall but well established in the allotment soil!

    Leave a comment:


  • Demeter
    replied
    how big are everyone's plants?

    I did sow mine a bit later than most (22 March) but the plants are all still tiny! I potted loads up into 3" pots a week or two ago, and they are pretty much all still at the 2 or 3 leaf stage with a few straggly roots (a couple did have those teeny tiny embryonic tubers on though, which was dead exciting - and I noticed a bit of blue on some of the blue ones!)

    Am I way behind or is anyone else wondering when their spuds will actually take off??

    Will definitely sow earlier next year!

    Leave a comment:


  • zazen999
    replied
    Not half Flum.

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  • Flummery
    replied
    I potted up my 6 into their big flower buckets and pots the other day. Some had the thick roots on which will swell into tubers, so they're doing the right thing! I potted them well down so just the top tuft of leaves show. Exciting eh?

    Leave a comment:


  • zazen999
    replied
    I've got 2 in buckets, from seed and quite a few in roottrainers from cut offs from sprouted shop bought. The 2 from seed are in the greenhouse and are being earthed up. One was planned, after being sprouted from seeds in kitchen roll but the other started growing in a pot with a tomato....I can only assume that it bounced out at the transfer stage of kitchen roll to module and found its own feet so to speak. It was transferred to the bucket at the weekend.

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  • Duronal
    replied
    As long as light doesn't get in and turn them green it should work Snadger.

    I finished planting out all of my TPS today, I grew some in Rootrainers to make life easier and it was well worth it. I found several spudlets whilst removing the books with the longest being 1 1/2 inches long. I can also confirm that i will have some BLUE potatoes as a noticed some wonderful flashes of purple peeping out of the roots.

    I can honestly say that i'm delighted and i hope you all enjoy your crops.

    Thanks for giving this a go.

    D

    Leave a comment:


  • Snadger
    replied
    I've got loads of potatoe 'plugs' in a tray hardening off. I intend borrowing an idea from the leek growing fraternity..........that is, dibbling a hole about 5 inches deep and dropping each plug in a hole. As with planting leeks , I'll then just fill the dibber hole with water and this should save me from ridging up and hopefully allow any spuds I harvest to be well below ground!

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  • Demeter
    replied
    Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
    I am starting to have dreams about TPS you know.
    I was wondering the other day whether it would be such a VERY bad thing not to know exactly what kind of spuds you were going to dig up, or if it would be a bit like having a baby and not knowing what kind you were going to get. I'm sure we would love our non-cloned potatoes just as much as our non-cloned children... (and then I woke up)

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  • Snadger
    replied
    Interesting article Phreddy!

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  • Phreddy
    replied
    Found this posting on another site. Thought that you might be interested:

    10-02-2007

    Quote:Note that Yukon Gold is a hybrid, and since potatoes are diploid, you can get unbelievable variations in subsequent generations.

    Morgan, most commercial varieties are hybrids, but Yukon Gold and most other commercial varieties are tetraploid, not diploid as you stated. Tetraploids are like two plants in one, and the variability in the selfed and/or hybridized seed is even more unbelievable.Diploids have 24 chromosomes, tetraploids have 48!

    Quote:This is why getting good TPS is so hard. It takes years of selections and crossing to get viable TPS of varieties worth growing year-to-year.

    It is not as difficult as you may have read. If you want perfect potatoes, and super high yields, and high specific gravities, and a certain type of skin, and a specific pathogen resistance, and on and on....then the odds are against you. But if you are tolerant of a wider diversity of potatoes that don't have to fit a preconceived idea of commercial acceptance, then you have most of the BELL CURVE of OK potatoes. It's the template upon template upon template that eliminates some otherwise fine potatoes.

    Quote:Stable, good TPS is the holy grail and it's been tried with mixed success in S.E. Asia.

    If you mean (stable, good TPS) that produces a very narrow type of potato where each seedling has to be a dead ringer for a Russet Burbank, then you may be right. But accepting a variety of russetting, with round, oval, oblong, and longs in the mix, then you may be much more obliging.

    Most TPS seed for sale is either OP or hybrid lines that will throw 100% white skinned potatoes. There will be some yield differences, but the tubers can be marketed as a group.

    TPS is a great way to get new varieties of disease free potatoes. If the first generation of tubers from a mixed sibling base is screened for type, saving only the 1%, 10%, 25%, or more of the bulk harvest, the selected prototypes can be replanted for a one time harvest. This way is best if you want every tuber to be yellow fleshed, or red skinned, or fingerling shaped, etc., with a wide diversity of traits in other ways not so visible.


    With my fifty some years of selecting potatoes from true seed, I have some quite stable genetics within parental lines. I've made berry setting a priority, so that multigeneration progenies later, I have lines in all colors and classes that make for good potential hybrids.
    My information and clonal potatoes are mostly in house, so you may not be able to google TPS and see my results. The industry in the USA is against TPS simply because they want a Katahdin, a Cascade, a Red LaSoda, a Yukon Gold, a Ranger Russet, a Banana Fingerling, a Caribe, and if it is not exactly that...they don't want it, and they think the market place won't want it either.

    I am looking forward to the day when people will respect diversity rather than scorn it.

    Tom Wagner

    Tom is an expert on tomatoes and potatoes, Phreddy

    Leave a comment:


  • quark1
    replied
    Duronal - I've just seen msg 'pour moi' - 'fraid I've dumped my own SBs but will separate and pot on to final positions my Roosters.

    Starting SBs afresh this week.

    Leave a comment:

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