Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Any experience with growing out the seeds from a seed ball?

**Tom Wagner** · September 15, 2006

I have been a potato seed saver all my life, and am still picking potato berries by the hundreds of pounds every year! Why is another story.

Craig,

Thanks for bringing up the question of True Potato Seed (TPS) diversity. I will address the diversity of Yukon Gold more fully in a new post. Since I am the Tom you have referred to, it might be best to address me as Tom Wagner in the future since Tom is such a common name.

Craig, you suspect that the yield the first year from true seed would not be very good. Normally, that is true, but my years of experience have trained me how to grow seedling potatoes to obtain near comparable results as growing from tubers. I will address those procedures in a later post as well.

Keith,

Potatoes are truly the consummate heterozygotes. It is difficult to obtain anything close to homozygous clones from saving TPS. Potato species history is tied more to out-crossing than to selfing, although selfing is indeed, an option.

Keith, you stated “a selfed Yukon Gold would likely segregate out long tubers and also white flesh (characteristics of one of its parents)” My experience with OP Yukons give me mostly round progeny with very few oval/longs. I do see flesh colors of white, light yellow, and even a few darker yellow than Yukon Gold. A good part of the seedlings will have pink eyes like YG and one quarter will have white eyes. Take a look at the parental descriptions;

Female parent -Norgleam –
Primary tuber flesh color White
Tuber eye depth Shallow
Tuber shape Oval to round

Male parent-USW 5279-4

Yellow flesh
Oval to round

Keith, Early Rose is, indeed, a founding parent of many varieties. However I would offer that its seed parent Garnet Chili and its grandparent Rough Purple Chili even more historical significance. I use Garnet Chili in my breeding work and wanted to use the Rough Purple Chili I obtained from Fred Ashworth but lost it due to virus years ago.

I hope to generate some interest in the history of potatoes by putting up the pedigree of Yukon Gold on a separate post. I am a pedigree nut.

Tom Wagner

September 15, 2006	#3
Tom Wagner Crosstalk™ Forum Moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: 8407 18th Ave West 7-203 Everett, Washington 98204 Posts: 1,157	I have been a potato seed saver all my life, and am still picking potato berries by the hundreds of pounds every year! Why is another story. Craig, Thanks for bringing up the question of True Potato Seed (TPS) diversity. I will address the diversity of Yukon Gold more fully in a new post. Since I am the Tom you have referred to, it might be best to address me as Tom Wagner in the future since Tom is such a common name. Craig, you suspect that the yield the first year from true seed would not be very good. Normally, that is true, but my years of experience have trained me how to grow seedling potatoes to obtain near comparable results as growing from tubers. I will address those procedures in a later post as well. Keith, Potatoes are truly the consummate heterozygotes. It is difficult to obtain anything close to homozygous clones from saving TPS. Potato species history is tied more to out-crossing than to selfing, although selfing is indeed, an option. Keith, you stated “a selfed Yukon Gold would likely segregate out long tubers and also white flesh (characteristics of one of its parents)” My experience with OP Yukons give me mostly round progeny with very few oval/longs. I do see flesh colors of white, light yellow, and even a few darker yellow than Yukon Gold. A good part of the seedlings will have pink eyes like YG and one quarter will have white eyes. Take a look at the parental descriptions; Female parent -Norgleam – Primary tuber flesh color White Tuber eye depth Shallow Tuber shape Oval to round Male parent-USW 5279-4 Yellow flesh Oval to round Keith, Early Rose is, indeed, a founding parent of many varieties. However I would offer that its seed parent Garnet Chili and its grandparent Rough Purple Chili even more historical significance. I use Garnet Chili in my breeding work and wanted to use the Rough Purple Chili I obtained from Fred Ashworth but lost it due to virus years ago. I hope to generate some interest in the history of potatoes by putting up the pedigree of Yukon Gold on a separate post. I am a pedigree nut. Tom Wagner