Spuds for 2009 have been planted

[phicks48]

are you going to hand polinate some of those flowers?---- Paul

[svalli]

I have not collected any TPS myself and would not know how to do any crosses. If I knew what to do, it would be interesting to cross Peruvian Purple with an earlier variety with bigger tubers. Right now I get enough exitement from growing new plants from crosses made by Tom Wagner.

[phicks48]

did you polanate any by hand ? Paul

[svalli]

No, I have not pollinated any potatoes. If any berries form, it happens naturally.

Sari

[phicks48]

just take a small soft brush and take pollen from one flower and add it to another flower paul

[phicks48]

onnea tho kanssa poatoes paul

[svalli]

I harvested all my in ground potatoes yesterday and now it hurts all over my body. I dug up most of them by hand. DH was helping his parents with the potato harvesting machine on the field and I let him try it on one of my rows, but in my mind it got too much of the skins off, so I kept digging with hand tools. The machine they have shakes the tubers on the top of the ground and then they go and pick them by hand.
This is what I got.

[svalli]

I wrote report with photos about the TPS potatoes. There are photos of the first and second season harvest side by side for each variety.
File is here:
http://www.netikka.net/vallinmaki/potato%20project%202008-2009.pdf

[Tom Wagner]

Sari,

Thanks for the link to your work with potatoes grown from true seed TPS.

I will have to look through my docs. to find the pedigree of some of those potatoes. Meanwhile I am too busy prepping for my two long workshop tour to do much else.

Sari, if you don't mind I would like to link to your pages so that others like you can enjoy potatoes from TPS.

Tom Wagner

[svalli]

Hi Tom,

Mywriting is not really well made. I was going to write all the detail notes about the plant growth habits etc., but in lack of time and knowledge of the proper tems, I thought that the pictures will tell the tale. If I get time, I may add to the document . Feel free to share the link with other potato growers.

Potato number one was really good producer and the bright purple skinned tubers looked like jewels in the ground. I was really excited, when I found them. Taste was nothing impressive, but there are so many of them, that we will do later taste tasting to check if the taste improves in storage.

Sari

[Tom Wagner]

Sari,
I wouldn't worry about the writing. I know my writing is sloppy at times. But the example of being excited about the different colors and flavors in digging potatoes grown from true seed is precious. I grow thousands of seedlings each year, and I am only truly excited about the top 10% of them. But taking those top lines and crossing them together and creating another top 10% is just part of the game.

I specialize in a rapid confluence of clones or varieties of potatoes with annual pairings of many complicated breeding schemes. By subjugating each generation of the top lines to the various climates, soil conditions, insect pressure, fungal infestations, organic fertilizer usages.....there is an acquired wisdom as it were for the future generations of potatoes.

Therefore, when I use a variety that is 200 years old in breeding, I am re-acquiring something forgotten along the way.

Tom Wagner

[phicks48]

Sari how about the ones you have in buckets ? Did they make any thing? Paul

[svalli]

The bucket potatoes have still green stems and some are blooming, so they will not be harvested until frost kills them. TPS plants seem to grow much longer than the ones grown from tubers, so I'll let them grow as long as the weather here allows. Our city yard stays frost free much longer than the fields; last year the killing frost in the city came in beginning of November.

Sari