Monday, October 04, 2010

Adventures with Potato Seed


This year I've been growing some potatoes from true seed obtained from breeder Tom Wagner via Patrick. Although I got started a little late they have now developed into large healthy looking plants. But, what with all this rain and cooler weather around the corner, I'm getting increasingly anxious about disease, pestilence and the like. So as not to have all my potatoes lost in the same basket of blight, I unearthed the above yesterday. The still small but perfectly formed tubers of No.16 (French Fingerling x Magic Molly) and No.21 (John Tom Kaighin x Negro y Azul). Yet to harvest are No.25 (Wild Species x Thumbertime) and No.6 (F2 Pam Wagner) & No.11 (Pirampo x Khuchi Akita) which are just now flowering and setting fruit. I'll leave them for another couple of weeks with fingers crossed. Now, how best to store? I've read 5-10°C and 95% humidity. Is packing in wet sand as you would carrots and beets a good idea? Or perhaps the refrigerator? The plan is to chit and set out next spring for a full crop with taste testing a year from now.

2 comments:

Patrick said...

The pictures look great! Thanks for sharing your experiences on the TPS. I'm glad you were able to get them in this year.

Anonymous said...

Great to see that my little packages of TPS can generate such cute fingerling potatoes.

Tom Wagner