TPS- a silly question

[yotetrapper]

I feel silly even asking this, and I'm sure its been discussed on here but I cant seem to find it.

If you grow potatoes from TPS, can you then dig them, save them, and plant them the next year as seed potatoes? Can anyone give me a link or anything for more info on this?

[Worth1]

What is TPS the only thing I can think of is Too Many Potatoes Syndrome.
Worth

[yotetrapper]

True Potato Seeds

[Worth1]

I am no potato expert but a person would think that they would be clones and come out exactly like the original potatoes.

Worth

[Tom Wagner]

The great thing about growing potatoes from true seed TPS is that you find all those colors, shapes, flavors, etc that you could never collect as tuber lines. Once you select those few from the many seedling tuber hills, it is just a matter of planting back the next season those that are your must haves.

Tom Wagner

[svalli]

I have grown TPS plants during two seasons and have saved all of the first season tubers as seed potatoes. You can read about my first try with TPS here:
http://www.netikka.net/vallinmaki/po...02008-2009.pdf
Photos show the harvest from TPS plants and the second season harvest.

[darwinslair]

Originally Posted by svalli

I have grown TPS plants during two seasons and have saved all of the first season tubers as seed potatoes. You can read about my first try with TPS here:
http://www.netikka.net/vallinmaki/po...02008-2009.pdf
Photos show the harvest from TPS plants and the second season harvest.

Very nice.

So far as I know, even the pea sized ones will give you full sized potato plants. Just takes one eye on a pea sized tuber to give you a full clone plant of the original.

Tom

[yotetrapper]

I guess another thing I was wondering is about how best to save the tubers to use as seed potatoes the next year? How to store them, if they sprout too early, etc.?

[darwinslair]

Originally Posted by yotetrapper

I guess another thing I was wondering is about how best to save the tubers to use as seed potatoes the next year? How to store them, if they sprout too early, etc.?

I think you said it without realizing you did.

If they sprout too early, dont save them.

Select for what you want in a potato.

Tom

[Medbury Gardens]

I agree Tom,if they dont store well there's no point persevering with that particular variety unless it has an outstanding flavor.

Richard

[Tom Wagner]

A good number of points are being brought up here.

Since every tuber produced by a seedling potato hill will produce, (for the next season), a full sized potato vine, albeit a bit longer perhaps by a few days or weeks, I rarely discard even tubers the size of lentil seed. If I want to really increase a hill by a hundred fold, I may cut up tubers into four the diameter of a ping pong ball or even much smaller. One of my seedling hills from Thumb Dinger, a red skinned, yellow/orange fleshed clone, produced 239 tubers on one hill during its seedling year production. The tubers ranged from a thumb sized fingerling down to a crescent shape peanut tuber and I planted 620 hills the next year. That is the exception but you get the point.

A seedling tuber is grown from the seedling started from TPS. The first year tuber hill is grown from a seedling tuber hill saved from the previous year. I usually denote the hill as such:

1st year seedling
1st year tuber hill or (2nd year seedling hill)
2nd year tuber hill so on. or (3rd year seedling hill)

It isn't until the 2nd year tuber hill family increase that I start getting unacceptable levels of virus, etc., which may reduce yields for that clone. Obviously if it succumbs any number of maladies in an increasing number of hills for that clone, you may wish to discard the entire clone, or select for just the healthy hills. I try to select for those clones that never seem to succumb to anything for the next year and years after.

Sari has it right! She planted back all the seedling hill tubers regardless of color, size, etc. Many times it isn't until the so-called 1st year tuber year that one will fully realizes the potential of a clone. In my work I strive to produce good plants and tubers from the 1st year seedling crop in order to improve on the genetic advantage to be seen in that early generation. I feel that it is important, as a potato breeder, to identify those families that have good combining ability to prove themselves during the 1st seedling year.


When Darwinslair stated that you might not want to save the tubers that sprout too early may be fine if you are looking for long dormancy. However, that may be throwing away some early maturing clones, those which matured earlier in the season, thus reached the sprouting stage simply because of their earliness.

There is so much I could relate to all of this but it must be in stages. No one is going to read a 10,000 word post.

Tom Wagner

[salix]

Tom W. - I would bet that many here would read a 10,000 word post of yours on potato growing from TPS...

In fact, I would print it out and keep it handy for reference!

[Tom Wagner]

I have no dominant role in pushing for TPS experimentation and for the goal of growers raising their seed potatoes from true seed. I am not recognized as an authority with very many in the potato industry. That said, I do have the following disadvantages to say what I know about TPS:

1. Bred potatoes from TPS for 57 years
2. Have been a cooperator of growing seedling potato clones from many state and USDA sources.
3. Have had many varieties in certification, i.e. Kern Toro, Tom Boy, Negro y Azul, Regis Summit, Nordic October, Skagit Valley Gold, Northern October, Golden Amey, Blue Tom Cat.......
4. Have grown my own varieties as a certified potato seed grower, nuclear generation from mini tubers
5. Have squirreled away vast amounts of TPS from thousands of number clones, named varieties, PI numbers, and in house selections.
6. Have established success growing potato seedlings from seed to good tuber yields within the same year.
7. Have an extensive database DOS prompt with 5,000 + clones with pedigree analysis.
8. Have clones of unique traits, high berry set, high flavors, intense flesh colors, fast cooking times, Late Blight resistance, major and R gene differentials, virus resistance, low sugars, low carbs, special raw potato usage, (Oh, wait! This is where the 10,000 word discourse comes in).

I have Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 software that automatically types out what I say into a microphone. I am still trying to get it more accurate since my dialect has to be matched to a broad vocabulary with an accuracy practice center. I have to type in spellings for words the computer doesn't understand and I have to learn how to say plurals that end in (s) since apparently I am in exasperation trying to pronounce plurals....I am hard of hearing....always have been....but it is forcing me to speak better.

So much of what I know is in my head and I will be going through my seed inventories reading off the seed envelops and field data in order to preserve a comprehensive, easily understood description, history, and expectations of my seed units.

My so-called book effort is still in infancy. When I get more info down on word documents it may be enough for my "Beyond Luther Burbank" manuscript. I have what I can only describe as SELECTIVE LAZINESS! In other words, don't lie awake waiting for it!

Tom Wagner

[yotetrapper]

Wow lots of info here! I still though, have one more question. How do I best store the tubers from the 1st year seedling hill for replanting the next season?

[svalli]

I keep mine in my in-laws' root cellar.