Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - A visit with Tom Wagner and some interesting potatoes

Fusion_power · August 26, 2012

The production of seed bearing fruits was hit or miss. Many varieties of potatoes are naturally self-sterile or pollen sterile. Tom had a few varieties that produced huge numbers of fruits. From talking with him, a high level of fertility and heavy production of berries is a significant part of his breeding efforts. Most of the berries were immature at the time we were looking, but should be mature enough for seed extraction in about 2 more weeks. A few of the fruits were in the range of 1.5 to 2 inches diameter which is relatively large for potato fruit.

Did I mention that some of the flowers were up to 2 inches across? They are pretty enough in ranges of white, pink, purple, magenta, and blue to use for a flower garden. I would suggest that some effort to select a few varieties for flowering traits could lead to a new market for potatoes. They would look great in a flower garden with a backdrop of black/red cannas or maybe with some dahlias.

DarJones

August 26, 2012	#7
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	The production of seed bearing fruits was hit or miss. Many varieties of potatoes are naturally self-sterile or pollen sterile. Tom had a few varieties that produced huge numbers of fruits. From talking with him, a high level of fertility and heavy production of berries is a significant part of his breeding efforts. Most of the berries were immature at the time we were looking, but should be mature enough for seed extraction in about 2 more weeks. A few of the fruits were in the range of 1.5 to 2 inches diameter which is relatively large for potato fruit. Did I mention that some of the flowers were up to 2 inches across? They are pretty enough in ranges of white, pink, purple, magenta, and blue to use for a flower garden. I would suggest that some effort to select a few varieties for flowering traits could lead to a new market for potatoes. They would look great in a flower garden with a backdrop of black/red cannas or maybe with some dahlias. DarJones Last edited by Fusion_power; August 26, 2012 at 02:59 AM.