Just received my TPS from Mr. Wagner...

[azgirl]

I am so excited. I just received the order for TPS and tubers from Mr. Wagner. Can someone please tell me what to do/how to grow these? I have NEVER grown potatoes before. I am clueless. I know you have to "hill" them, but beyond that...?!?! HELP!!!

How do I start the seeds?

How do I start the tubers?

How much room do they need? (Can I put in a container?)

Thank you in advance for any information. Also, being in AZ (Phoenix area) ...should I wait until Fall?

Melissa

[sprtsguy76]

Melissa- I'm no expert by any means but I'll offer what I've learned in my little experience.
I recieved some tubers from Tom as well but I didn't get any seed.Cant help you on the seed part, sorry. Yes you can grow in containers, I'm growing mine in large 50 gallon containers. Just make sure the containers dont get too hot from the sun. Only you can determine if you should plant now or wait till fall, if your temps are gonna get hot fast from here on out maybe you do want to wait. The tubers have eyes on them that will have sprouts or start sprouting in the near future. If a tuber has many sprouts on it you can cut it into pieces just make sure you have at least 1-2 sprouts on each piece. Dont over water potatoes they like a well drained soil. Good luck.

Damon

[azgirl]

The tubers I was sent are: (If I am reading the names correctly)
SVG
N.O.
Amey
Red rockies
Losighm
Mike Skinner BLue (?)

Can anyone tell me anything about any of the above? Thanks.

I guess I am going to try growing a couple in a container. (Big trash can/rain barrel type thing....with drainage.) I'll tray some now and then again in the fall. I am also going to see if my dad wants to try up north (Flagstaff) this summer, while he is there.

I'll just jump in with both feet and hope for the best. Which one should I try first? Just looking for good flavor...no particular usage in mind. Will cook it according to what I get. LOL.

Thanks for input,
Melissa

[sprtsguy76]

I sent Tom an PM regarding the varieites he sent me, he sent me back some info, I'll forward it to you. I believe some of the stuff he sent me and you are works in progress so there is very little info on them thus far.

Damon

[azgirl]

Thanks, Damon. I appreciate the info. Which one did you try or all? I only have room for one or two right now.

[Tom Wagner]

The tubers I was sent are: (If I am reading the names correctly)
SVG
N.O.
Amey
Red rockies
Losighm
Mike Skinner BLue (?)

The much need information:

SVG is Skagit Valley Gold. It is a diploid line that hearkens back to to Papa Amarilla in Peru, Colombia. It is nearly orange in flesh color, super high in the carotenoid components, cooks much more quickly than tubersosum lines, produces many smaller potatoes (one inch to 2 and a half inches) that some like for a nutty flavor.

N.O. is Nordic October. It is a rarity in potato varieties...the only red that Cornell has found resistant to Pink Rot. It is a good flavored red potato with white flesh. There will me lots of this variety available soon. It is a long keeping red that has better red skin color that does not fade even in boiling water. It is probably the best red out there, bare none.

Amey is Amey Russet. I have been testing this variety as B9922-11 before it was named in 1999. It would have been dropped and never named if I had not brought its flavor to the attention of Dr. Haynes of the USDA. Here is a brief description....

Amey is a late-maturing, russet-skinned, whitefleshed potato cultivar that yields more than Russet Burbank in most eastern United States potato production areas. Tubers of Amey are mostly oblong, occasionally long, with an evenly russetted skin. Tubers of Amey are smoother, more attractive, and have a much lower incidence of external defects than Russet Burbank. The specific gravity of Amey is equal to or greater than the specific gravity of Russet Burbank. French fries produced from Amey are lighter than or equal in color to those produced from Russet Burbank; however, tubers are frequently not long enough to satisfy the french fry industry. Baking and taste quality of Amey are excellent, and it has potential as a fresh market potato. Amey is resistant to race Rol of the golden nematode, powdery scab, and common scab. It is moderately susceptible to Verticillium wilt.

Amey Russet is one of the best flavored russets in my opinion and to the staff at Cornell. I had a cross of it to Gold Pan that I called Golden Amey that was in certification until dropped this year a seed grower here in Washington. I could not get even one tuber of it again for my collection. I believe they wanted to drop it. Golden Amey is prominent in my TPS hybrids in my inventories. I am growing the third generation of crosses from Golden Amey this year.

Red Rockies is one of my newer lines. It is a cross between my October Blue and Colorado Rose. October Blue is a cross between my Nordic October and my Azul Toro. What I am looking for in Red Rockies is a brilliant red potato with some reddish flesh. Since all of the ancestry of this clone have unique characteristics...I am expecting a vigorous yielding potato that may carry Pink Rot resistance plus a whole host of other goodies. The color of the tubers coming out of the ground are blinding in their redness.

Cosighin is the next potato clone in order. Great berry producer with bright yellow tubers with purple eyes. Yellow flesh, great flavors reminiscent of European varieties. It is a cross of PI 321620 and Tom Kaighin. I think folks would fall in love with this one if they had it. If I get a good seedling from Cosighin this year I would like to name it for one of its g.g.g grandparents Spatgold or the gggg grandparent Geheimrat Walter. The cross named Spatgold was between Parnassia and the variety Geheimrat Walter. I just have to come up with a plausible rendition of those names. Just in case you want to read about potato breeding from years ago ....here is a link..http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/29/375.pdf

Mule Skinner Blues is a flowering fool. Grow this one and you will be convinced that you are in the flower business! It is a blue skinned potato with a mix of blue and while flesh. The pedigree is significant in my breeding lines. Once again Nordic October is a grandparent and Azul Toro is too, yet is on the other family line. The exact cross is Painted Nor to Nordic All. Painted Nor is a cross of my Paint Jar and Dark Red Norland. Paint Jar was a cross of Azul Toro and Blue Blood Russet. Nordic All was a cross of Nordic October and All Blue.


Melissa...sorry I couldn't get more information to you sooner about these. Funny that you inquire on TomatoVille for more information on them....lol....but I hope you find this as entertaining as it was for me to give it to you.

Tom Wagner

[azgirl]

Thank you for that information. I replied here because this is where I found out about your TPS/Tubers, etc....and believe me, I find this VERY entertaining. My family thinks I am nuts, but I am definitely having fun.

I have reached a point that I am sick of all the "typical" things we find in the produce part of the grocery store. It is all tasteless. I grew up with my father gardening and I wasn't all that interested/impressed. It wasn't until he started gardening again two summers ago that I really paid attention. I started comparing flavors of things and REALLY noticed a difference. Then in typical fashion, I started researching and found that most of what is in the stores has been bred for ease of transportation, lack of damage in transit, etc. etc. I know I am preaching to the choir (lol), but it is what led me to tomatoes and therefore, Tomatoville. This is my second summer season to garden and my very first year growing things from seed and not buying the "typical" hybrids of everything from the big box stores. My garden this year will have NOTHING of the usual run of the mill stuff. My carrots are purple and white, my cucumbers are yellow, and my tomatoes are not red (I think I planted 16 varieties, lost 4 to beginners inexperience. Gave 9 varieties to my dad...getting him away from hybrids as well). AND...one of them is your GREEN ZEBRA. My 11 y.o. son can't wait to taste that one. He keeps asking me if HE can have the first tomato.

AND NOW....I have added your potatoes to my mix. I can't wait because I am positive that the flavor will be much better than those in the supermarket. I am going to try one for now...worried about our Arizona summer...and start one for my father to take to Flagstaff with him for the summer. Save the rest for fall. Now to choose..... Decisions, decisions!

Could you also give me some information of the TPS you sent me?
Gracie"s Harry/John Tom Kaighim
Skagit Valley Gold/Thumbel Nose
French Fingerling/Magic Molly

I've read a little about how to start them (one of your posts, I believe). So, I know I can find that information when I am ready to start. (Just have beginner's nervousness to "not screw it up").

But most importantly....THANK YOU! Thank you for sharing your experience with the rest of us and thank you for sharing your tubers/seeds. Variety is awesome!

Melissa

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by azgirl

Thank you for that information. I replied here because this is where I found out about your TPS/Tubers, etc....and believe me, I find this VERY entertaining. My family thinks I am nuts, but I am definitely having fun.

This is the best source I have found for real life info.

And with more thanks, ditto to everything azgirl said.

[Tom Wagner]

Melissa, it is good to read your rationale for gardening, and thanks for your appreciation of potato trivia. Reminds me that in England, potatoes are the number one thing folks plant in their community garden .....they call them allotments....and you would love going into a Tesco store.....the named potato marketing in these stores makes you want to buy several hundred pounds of potatoes just to try all the varieties we don't have here.

Which reminds me...the one grower that has commercialized many of my varieties yet to this day refuses to label my varieties with the real names....he just sells the Tom Boys as Yukons, the Northern October, Kern Toro, the Eye Five as La Soda, the Golden Amey as russets, the Regis Summit and Negro y Azul as All Blue, etc. Therefore, millions of pounds of my potatoes of different varieties have no identity in this country and likely never will.

Could you also give me some information of the TPS you sent me?
Gracie's Harry/John Tom Kaighin
Skagit Valley Gold/Thumbed Nose
French Fingerling/Magic Molly

True Potato Seed hybrids

Gracie's Harry/John Tom Kaighin

This hybrid is a complicated and multi-generational seed unit that will be hard to follow in the pedigree. Gracie's Harry is a cross between my Gracie Stein and NY131 (King Harry). It carries the insect barrier of trichome hairs from NY131 originally from berthaultii a few generations back. Gracie Stein is named with a mnemonic device to remember its parentage. Gracie is taken from gracilis...meaning fine stems and Gabriela. Stein because it means rock and can sound like Stina...depending on how one would pronounce Stein or Stina. Gracie Stein is a Semlo x Stina crossed back to Stina. Semlo is a cross of Bintje, an old classic European variety and Gabriela...an adigenum sub species of tuberosum hailing from Ecuador.

The Gabriela variety was also produced in Ecuador
in the past and was mostly commercialized. The main demand for this variety was for family consumption and restaurants which are the principle flow of commercialization of the wholesale markets which is the traditional sales channel.

SEMLO BINTJE x GABRIELA X STINA AMARYL x 5110
resulting in
Gracie's Amaryl x Stina = Gracie Stein

(NY131) King Harry with Jim Gerritsen ....is resistant to both races of the golden nematode.

The hybrid seed Melissa obtained from me has CPC 1673-20 (adg) as a g.g.g.g.g. grandparent and g.g.g.g parent from Gracie's Harry.

CPC 1673-20 was a resistant plant (genotype HHhh) ...nematodes .. originating from the selfing of S. tuberosum ssp. andigena accession CPC 1673

John Tom Kaighin has the same CPC 1673 on a g.g.g.g.g grandparent line. Multa is a distant progenitor of the seed Melissa has..

Inheritance, level and origin of resistance to Globodera pallida
in the potato cultivar Multa, derived from
Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena CPC 1673

John Tom Kaighin is a cross between Lump O'Gold and Tom Kaighin. Great flavor and late blight resistance from a Mexican clone used to create the Lump O'Gold which has the old Irish variety Lumper as a female parent.

Tom Kaighin goes back to Tom Boy and A81286-1 and Tom Boy goes back to my Black Hills Gold which was a cross of Delta Gold and a line that has Multa, Vokal and Butte in its background.

Anyway, the trichome hairs will be present in about half of Melissa's seedlings. About half will have yellowish flesh, the rest white. I would hope flavor and nematode resistance will be picked up by one of its many progenitors that had it.

Skagit Valley Gold/Thumbed Nose

The hybrid is 100% diploid and will segregate for yellow, white and orange flesh. The distant parental pedigree has one clone in common and it is the orange flesh line. Thumbed Nose is taken from a cross of Thumb Dinger and an an unknown diploid. Looking for high antioxidants and flavor.

French Fingerling/Magic Molly

This hybrid will be fun to watch. French Fingerling is a long red fingerling potato with yellow flesh tinged with some red at times. Good flavor and is one those fingerlings you can buy in the store.

Magic Molly is from Campbell's collection at Palmer, Alaska. It is likely a chance hybrid between Red Beauty and Purple Peruvian. The first for sure. Magic Molly, named for Campbell's daughter, is an intense purple/blue fleshed potato that we will be seeing more of.

The hybrid will include red flesh, blue flesh, some tinged with yellow, yellow flesh and perhaps some white flesh. Skin colors will be mostly red or blue, but I don't know the segregation exactly of French Fingerling....we will after this season. If we get some great fingerlings, my guess is that it will nearly prove the existence of Purple Peruvian as the grandparent of Melissa's seedlings. If all the seedlings are round then all bets are off.

Tom Wagner

[azgirl]

Okay. WOW. Lots of information. Will have to read that through a few times. You're right, I would enjoy visiting TESCO in England....just to experience the diversity. With all the work you have put in, it's a shame that we will never know when we see one of your varieties.

Kids have voted to try the Mule Skinner Blues first (Well, the girls did anyway. Didn't give their brother a chance to vote. LOL) They wanted to go with the MOST different first. AND my middle daughter LOVES purple!! Do I need to do anything special to the tuber before I plant it?

From experience (or talking to people who have grown here), when is the best time to start from seed in my area (Phoenix)? I know it's all trial and error, but a nice idea of when to start would be helpful.

Thank you for your information. I am finding it fascinating! I can't wait to get started....

[wmontanez]

This is great information! I am like you Azgirl, my dad is a gardener, never showed too much interest on gardening myself growing up but Oh boy I am glad of all that experience now! I know a lot just by being around dad and now it's paying off. I started to grow my organic vegetables since 2008 and agree 100% with you, all those store bought veggies are not flavorfull enough except for yukon golds, i like them a lot.
And also I am growing the rare, heirloom and forgotten vegetables, they are much more fun to grow and eat.

I ordered some tiny tubers from Tom's offer as well can't wait to get them to see what I got

[Tom Wagner]

Do I need to do anything special to the tuber before I plant it?

No! It is a fairly small tuber so you don't need to cut it or treat it with any fungicide like commercial growers might. I just like to make sure there is sufficient lime and bone meal in the soil media and since you are in Phoenix, you may wish to use Gypsum which will help in the hot weather you are already getting.

when is the best time to start from seed in my area (Phoenix)?

The seedlings will need some care to protect them from the hottest part of the day, therefore a sheltered area will be needed to grow the seedlings to the 2nd transplanting. My guess is that the seedlings will do better in pots out of the hot sun...the containers will get hot if the sun hits them too. You may do better with some form of screen house. The true seed should have been started back in January likely, but try some in your area and up in Flagstaff...it was 18 degrees up there lately.

I ordered some tiny tubers from Tom's offer as well can't wait to get them to see what I got

I will include a few of the same as for Melissa but a few different special lines as well.