Help Settle a Fight

[Nyboy]

Last night at dinner 2 friends got in to a fight over growing potatoes. Can they be growen by seed?

 

[so lucky]

A quick search says that they can be grown from the flower seeds, but even if self pollinated will not be true to parent. That's why most are just "cloned" from tubers. It would take longer, too.

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks I never tried growing them but thought all plants must be able o grow from seed.

 

[flowerweaver]

Yes, they can, and I grow them that way. Potatoes that are grown vegetatively from eyes on tubers are clones of clones of clones and are more susceptible to disease because they lack genetic diversity. Most commercially grown potatoes have had the ability to flower or set seed bred out of them. Yet, there are a number of people working with plants that still do.

When a potato flowers it makes a little berry, like a small tomato that is full of tiny seeds. Because tubers are called 'seed potatoes', potatoes grown from seed are called TPS potatoes, or True Potato Seed potatoes. Because the seeds are the product of both a male and female flower, the resulting seeds have a higher genetic diversity. In planting seeds there is no transmission of disease.

TPS are started before the season in trays just like tomatoes, only they are a bit more fragile. TPS plants grown from seed can be just as productive as 'seed' potatoes in one season. They also offer the ability to breed your own unique potato as the genes recombine. Once you have one you like you can continue to keep it true by going back to vegetative propagation.

There is an excellent new book by Resbie Fairholm:


The Lost Art of Potato Breeding (Garden Alchemy)

You can purchase seeds from Tom Wagner at:
Tater-Mater Seeds

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks flower I just emailed this to my friends last night. Dom who I don't think ever planted a thing in his life was right. You know what they say, even a broken clock is right 2x a day lol

 

[Smart Red]

I knew potatoes can be grown from seed, but until I started growing heirloom potato varieties, I had never seen a potato plant produce seed. Yes, my potatoes would usually flower -- a sign that new spuds could be harvested from time to time -- but I was shocked the first time I spotted a few of those tiny tomato-like seed pods hanging from the plants.

It is possible to grow spuds for many years (I did) without ever seeing a seed so it is not unusual for someone not to think seeds can be planted.

 

[flowerweaver]

What a lot of folks do is save tubers from the TPS grown potatoes and plant half a field with them, and half with the new TPS plants. That way you can mix the genetics up even more, and perhaps create something unique. Just as it is a good survival strategy for a plant to be able to self-propagate by both tuber and seed, it's also a good strategy for the grower too!

 

[catjac1975]

I knew potatoes can be grown from seed, but until I started growing heirloom potato varieties, I had never seen a potato plant produce seed. Yes, my potatoes would usually flower -- a sign that new spuds could be harvested from time to time -- but I was shocked the first time I spotted a few of those tiny tomato-like seed pods hanging from the plants.

It is possible to grow spuds for many years (I did) without ever seeing a seed so it is not unusual for someone not to think seeds can be planted.

Red? Are you always the peace maker?

 

[catjac1975]

NYBoy-I love this thread.

 

[catjac1975]

Yes, they can, and I grow them that way. Potatoes that are grown vegetatively from eyes on tubers are clones of clones of clones and are more susceptible to disease because they lack genetic diversity. Most commercially grown potatoes have had the ability to flower or set seed bred out of them. Yet, there are a number of people working with plants that still do.

When a potato flowers it makes a little berry, like a small tomato that is full of tiny seeds. Because tubers are called 'seed potatoes', potatoes grown from seed are called TPS potatoes, or True Potato Seed potatoes. Because the seeds are the product of both a male and female flower, the resulting seeds have a higher genetic diversity. In planting seeds there is no transmission of disease.

TPS are started before the season in trays just like tomatoes, only they are a bit more fragile. TPS plants grown from seed can be just as productive as 'seed' potatoes in one season. They also offer the ability to breed your own unique potato as the genes recombine. Once you have one you like you can continue to keep it true by going back to vegetative propagation.

There is an excellent new book by Resbie Fairholm:


The Lost Art of Potato Breeding (Garden Alchemy)

You can purchase seeds from Tom Wagner at:
Tater-Mater Seeds

As a daylily hybridizer I would why I never thought to do this? I am going to try the next time I find seed. How do you harvest and save the seed? Great info Flower.