Received Tom taters sampler today!
 

I am very excited to grow Tom's potatoes. I prep'd an area today of 8ft by 10ft for Tom's taters to put them next to My TPS seedlings raised bed, they are doing good but I haven't put them in the soil yet. I have a raised bed of 4ft by 8 ft for 12plants and Yukon Gold and the unknown mother of my TPS. It might be too much to fit in that small area... let's see how they look but I only have limited space. My weather is MA is being from rainy to hot to cold again so I am waiting until the end of April beggining of May to plant the seeds. Anyway I can't wait to grow them, I got Skagit Valley Gold, Nordic October, Amey Russet and Mule Skinner Blues. And also Blue Rockies,Lumper Nordic, Reiche Tom, 225710 Sarpo Finger and some others like [I]Boy Pig x Red Thumb[/I], [I]Adirondacksen x Kern Toro[/I], "A" that is clone of [I]Cosima x Tom Kaighin[/I] and a Lumper. :yes:

Ps.I copied the info on SVG, Amey, NO and MSB from other post to AZgirl, Tom is any thing else you can tell me about the others? Thanks!

I got mine last week, all carefully labeled, and planted out on Saturday, near the new moon like my dad learned from his dad and which is almost certainly superstition, but I like the tradition. The cut potatoes covered the whole kitchen counter, which my wife surveyed with either wonder or concern. She was struck speechless, so it must have been in admiration of Tom's work. We will have to all compare notes as the season progresses.
Lee

Certaintly! I would like to compare notes :) I am a potato newbie

Moon planting has some true to it... my adventure with a gigantic pumpkin plant with not a single fruit is testimony...my dad told me "did you planted in new moon?" And I looked into my notes and there it was: EXACTLY on the day I sow the seed and a month later transplanted it EXACTLY on the new moon day. According to him "3 days before or after crescent moon" was better for it... will try this year to see the difference myself.

For some reason I seem to be guilty of this witticism....There is no such thing as a [I]stupid question[/I], just stupid people who [I]ask[/I] [B]...questions!
[/B][quote]cut potatoes covered the whole kitchen counter, which my wife surveyed with either wonder or concern. She was struck speechless,[/quote] I have asked so many questions to myself that I am not surprised is someone is struck speechless.....Why in the world would one create such.....?

Now if I left cut potatoes in the kitchen ...my wife would not be struck speechless, let me tell you....... and admiration is the furthermost thought in her head. lol.

[quote]225710, Sarpo Finger and some others like [I]Boy Pig x Red Thumb[/I], [I]Adirondacksen x Kern Toro[/I][/quote]First of all I like the [URL="http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/acchtml.pl?1181434"] PI 225710 - Solanum phureja subsp. phureja - CCC 278 - Cauca, Colombia [/URL]
It is a selected clone out of the above accession either through sib mated seed or closely related PI numbered crosses. It came from a garden in Colombia back over 62 years ago and represents one of the best of the phureja type potatoes. It keeps well and the color is fun...purple skin with ....

Adirondacksen is a cross of Adirondack Blue and Redsen, a cross I made 6 years ago. The cross of Adirondacksen crossed to Kern Toro was made 4 years ago. The true seed was grown out as seedlings two years ago and I like it because the skin is so red and the pink flesh is appealing.

Boy Pig is one of the crosses I made 6 years ago between one of my Boyd series of reds to a POR02PG9 seedling line that now combines tetraploid and diploid pedigrees. It was a light red skin, very yellow flesh potato with unique flavors. The cross to Red Thumb was just another attempt to get unique fingerlings into the fray. I sent a yellow clone to a member here and a red clone to Chris C. who may be a member here also.

Sarpo Finger is pronouced Sharpo Finger and it is a mauve/pink skinned fingerling with some noted Late Blight resistance. The mother of it is Sarpo Mira and I think there is some wild species in the background of Mira because of the fingerling shape!

Enough of the background of these lines...I know I am boring some people to the nth degree!

Tom Wagner

thanks
 

I will never be bored of knowing or learning! I specially enjoy every minute while reading your posts.

I am very interested to taste now the phureja and knowing this goes back 62 years into your breeding efforts make me feel "special" to have a piece of it.

I will take good notes and pics in case you want some information of how they do in New England. Last year we had the late blight and most of the potato and tomato from Maine down to Conneticut was devastated. Mine were not affected since I collect the TPS and grow my tomatoes from seed.

Anyway...I am very grateful you send me a red one inside!

WENDY,

Thanks for your post. I am going to build up my red fleshed potatoes this year, therefore, many new lines will be available next year.

Tom Wagner

Count me in on the comparing notes as well! I have mine started in containers (garbage cans). First time with trying potatoes. I'm waiting a little while to start my TPS. It's starting to get too hot here.

Also, count me as one who enjoys reading the information you provide, Tom! I am learning a lot from your posts.

Got my potatoes from Tom yesterday and am anxious to plant them.
Thanks alot Tom...I am sure this will be an interesting adventure!
Chris

[SIZE=2]AZgirl, I got some the same as you. For sure will like to compare notes. Our weather is very different. Will be fun, I am a little behind starting. First time with TPS also (I saved my own, that is how I found this forum I had no idea of TPS before finding the berries). [/SIZE][SIZE=2]I started some more in April they are about 1/4in inches tall. Try some now and some later until you find your perfect seeding time frame for your area. [/SIZE]



[SIZE=2]F[/SIZE][SIZE=2]armette and Goodwin which ones did you get? [/SIZE]

[SIZE=2]I would you like to compare with all of you. I will be adding the progress once they start growing. [/SIZE];)

Wendy

Planting Tom Taters
 

Planted Tom Tater's this weekend in 2 rows of 18-24in apart and 12in spacing. Once they grow to about 6in tall then I am starting to hill them, the cinder blocks are to give me access to the plants and the raised bed at the end of the rows.

Hi there!
I got:
Boy Big X Red Thumb red
Blue Rockies
Adirondacksen X Kern Toro
Amey
Mule Skinner Blues
Reiche Tom
Clone of Cosima X Tom Kaighin
Lumper
Lumper Nordic
Marcy
Skagit Valley Gold
Nordic October
Sarpo Finger

Haven't planted yet. Rained all weekend. I am hoping there is time, but it has been years since I planted potatoes, so I am just guessing.

Hello Farmette, we got almost the types, the only diffent in your list is Marcy and I have a 225710 (phureja). We could compare pictures and notes. I am in zone6 what zone are you in?

I am in zone 5. And I think I have the 225710 that you listed also.

Oh good. I will keep you posted here of the progress. Really looking forward to this growing season :) I am also planting some of the potato tubers from my TPS plants. I have about 10 seed tubers and few more TPS seedlings to go directly in the ground. For that I am waiting probably to the first week or second week of May. The weather in MA is erratic in spring, some days 85F and the next day 40F and wet.

[quote=wmontanez;166625]Oh good. I will keep you posted here of the progress. Really looking forward to this growing season :) I am also planting some of the potato tubers from my TPS plants. I have about 10 seed tubers and few more TPS seedlings to go directly in the ground. For that I am waiting probably to the first week or second week of May. The weather in MA is erratic in spring, some days 85F and the next day 40F and wet.[/quote]I'm growing potatoes from TPS the first time this year, and I had good germination on both Tom's TPS (not directly from him) and the ones from Durgan at Idig (Russian Blue growout with no crossing, but I will be on the lookout for purple tubers), and no tubers or plants will go into the ground before the second half of May (frost risk). Any results (especially interesting ones) will be posted at this site.

I planted my sampler tubers on sunday between the rains. The big storms went around us. Some I have not seen mentioned yet:
Russian Banana,
Rose Valley,
Sunburst Falls,
Thumbed Nose, (I love these names!) and others. I have yet to inquire about some of the letter names: BP x RT, BR, CB, M, LN, L, 423658, and 225710 and A (mentioned above). Referencing a book, the phureja types usually sprout right away, but they are heat and wet tolerant (I'm predicting a warm summer here) so I'll watch the 225710 closely. Sounds like a good clone.

Everything is labeled with those flourescent marking flags. Nice and big and they come out to be about 8 cents each.

I might plant the TPS seedlings (second batch sown mid February) after the frost happens tomorrow night. They are very ready...

Interesting to see these TPS lines traveling the world. Four generations ago in Poland, my relatives would be getting ready to plant their potatoes.

[quote=wmontanez;166489]Planted Tom Tater's this weekend in 2 rows of 18-24in apart and 12in spacing. Once they grow to about 6in tall then I am starting to hill them, the cinder blocks are to give me access to the plants and the raised bed at the end of the rows.[/quote]

I like how you are using concrete blocks,you could even add a second row through the season and keep adding more growing median to increase your yield dramatically .

Thanks for the idea Richard! I took your advice of 18in , with 6in cinder block in between rows once I start adding the soil to hill them and mulch around... I could remove those blocks like you suggest for increasing yield. Nice ;)

I probably would not add another row in between other that some allelopatic plants to scare away the bad bugs or some quick growing leafy greens.

This is a big scale up operation for a second timer. I went from 3 potato plants on 2009 to aprox 32 this year so... I need to see how I handle them before adding more ;) Really looking forward to see them growing and flowering, keep all posted.

David,
I dont have the first 4 in your list, 423658 and CB, the rest are the same. Perhaps those are more suitable for your area. Let's see what Tom says.

The others are:

BPxRT= Boy Big X Red Thumb
BR = Blue Rockies
L =Lumper
LN =Lumper Nordic
M =Marcy?
A = Clone of Cosima X Tom Kaighin


I agree love the names! Which reminds me that I got to think of names for my TPS potatoes. For now they have 1, 2, 3... I know nondescriptive, playing in my head with names once I cut them open in fall... if its a red, blue or purple ring I shall call them Coloaro C[I]olarada,[/I] Coloaro A[I]zul[/I] or Coloaro [I]Lila[/I].....colo-aro it's an invented name buy means in spanish "colored ring" and "colorada" means red in my home country, azul=blue, lila=light purple...just a though :twisted:


[quote=David Marek;166717]I planted my sampler tubers on sunday between the rains. The big storms went around us. Some I have not seen mentioned yet:
Russian Banana,
Rose Valley,
Sunburst Falls,
Thumbed Nose, (I love these names!) and others. I have yet to inquire about some of the letter names: BP x RT, BR, CB, M, LN, L, 423658, and 225710 and A (mentioned above).

Here's an update.
1 week later after planting the tubers Mule Skinner Blues and Scagit Valley Gold has growth above the soil level. I am fascinated by the folliage color of MSB is almost black! See pics below.

6 week update
 

Tater progress, week 6 after planting

They are coming on well :yes:

Yes:yes: . Also some are flowering: Skagit Valley Gold has a flower, Mule Skinner Blues, Amey Russet, Reiche Tom and Nordic October started forming the clusters of flowers as well as the Yukon Golds.

Here's a picture of the first SVG flower

hi -

Yes, mine are starting to flower as well. Not the Mule Skinner Blues, but the others I have. This is a photo of the Nordic October blossoms - really handsome.

Lee

That's a beauty Lee. Here's my Nordic October flowering a week or so behind yours. Also I have in bloom Reiche Tom, Mule Skinner Blues and Amey Russet. Some others are forming the flower clusters. I have all kinds of colors going on ...no berries yet

My Amey bloomed and set berries before everything else. I collected as much pollen as I could and have been trying to make crosses, but nothing has taken, even from the later varieties to bloom. I think it was because of hot weather. We just had a week of unseasonably cool temps and I collected pollen at the end of that, and will try some more crosses at the end of the current hot spell.


I've done a couple of dozen Thumb Nose x SVG crosses, but none have taken so far, luckily the plants are blooming fools so I have many more chances.

The other potatoes in bloom a week of so behind the other plants.

My plants started to die down. Pig Boy x Red Thumb is almost completety dead, Nordic October is next and the rest are slowly wilting. Few are still in bloom. I also collected the berries I found in the plants. All are OP, some did not set berries. Nearby where Yukon Gold, Blue? and my own TPS seedlings which none of them set berries yet :evil:

I've had horrible luck with berries. Amey set a half dozen right off the bat and then I pollinated dozens of flowers on the other 4n plants with no results. My Skagit Valley Golds were full of flowers and I pollinated many many many with Thumbed Nose and only got three berries. Its been dry and hot off and on so the plants are most of the way down now.


Potato beetles hit my katahdin TPS plants hard and some of the Peanut next to them but didn't touch Tom's varieties, which were only a few feet away

Well I cleaned the TPS seed from Tom's Tater sampler (see picture below ) some did not set berry in my area. And also dug up those dead potato plants and harvest a lot of little potatoes from Skagit Valley Gold, 2 big Amey Russets, 2 good size Marcy and about 5-6 nice size Cosima x Tom Kaighin, also a good amount of 2.5 to 3in long Adirondaksen x Kern Toro, and not so many of the Boy Pig x Red Thumb. Those are small and round not a fingerling as I was thinking and one good size and few small Lumper Nordic. Probably will save the biggest for seed. I am not sure wether or not to cook a Marcy and a Amey yet but will cook some of the nice SVG and AKT. I did a taste test today on one of each :)

Some are still dying down like Sarpo Finger , Nordic October and Reiche Tom. There are plants still green like Lumper and 225710, Mule Skinner Blues and Blue Rockies so few more weeks until I tally the final amounts.:D

Here's a pic