How a potato plant grows!

[journey11]

I am a little confused on this myself and perhaps it warrants another potato experiment.

Steve, in the excerpt, regarding the number of eyes, are they saying that a particular seed potato with many eyes will always produce small potatoes?...as in, are you planting that whole potato with say, 12 eyes on it into one spot. Or if you cut it up, and got 6 pieces (with the recommended 2 eyes each) to plant, spacing them all out as you do 12-18"; is it the fact that the original seed potato had so many eyes that makes them inferior? Or is it inferring that putting so many plants in one space, causing crowding, affected the size of the many tubers produced? I would assume that the little bit of nutrients the eyes initially get from the seed potato wouldn't make that much of a difference, even shared between so many in getting the plant off to a good start. Of course, crowding too many plants into a space would limit the nutrients available to each. Conversely, are they saying that seed potatoes bearing less eyes per spud are superior and produce better crops? (Take for example onions, where when you select your sets, the smaller bulbs are preferable because they grow a bigger bulb and are less likely to bolt.) Is this saying how to choose good seed potatoes that will give you more bang for your buck?

ETA: I always cut mine up either way. The biggest potatoes I've ever harvested seemed to have been helped by the addition of blood and bone meal to the soil before planting.

 

[thistlebloom]

Steve, the information you provided makes sense to me and seems to be what's going on with my harvest as I have been planting mostly whole potatoes, only cutting the really large ones. At any rate, I'm going to be paying attention to the # of eyes next season and recording my results for future reference.

I really would appreciate harvesting some larger spuds! Those little guys are not quite as much fun to use, and I'm always happy when I'm getting to the last of them and can begin using the big ones.

 

[Durgan]

There is nothing new for me in those articles. In fact both are a bit wishy washy and one was plagiarized from the other.. I was in contact with U of M several years ago. At that time they didn't even know how a potato plant grew. There was absolutely nothing on the internet except nonsense. The commercial machine planting machines use cut potatoes all the same size, almost like small rocks. The home gardener has the possibility of growing potatoes as they should be. I know from experience and carefully studying over about ten years exactly what to expect. University research is rather limited usually produced by some Master student trying to get a paper out.

The biggest variable is moisture. Chitting from scratch in LIGHT for about six weeks is best. The dark produced roots are not good in my opinion.Space of one square foot in good soil for the plant is almost perfect. As much vegetation as possible not hilled too high is ideal. The vegetation produces food for the new tubers.
This means about four eyes in my opinion. Often some eyes do not produce stems. A normal plant produces a variety of sizes. I have less than 100 plants and often grow different varieties each year. I study them and keep track of the production, and often grade them. It is easy to separate the small from the large by screens. That crap sold in supermarkets are often of poor quality. Also there is nothing uniform even of the same plants year after year. The weather is often a deciding factor as to the production.

 

[digitS']

. . . are they saying that a particular seed potato with many eyes will always produce small potatoes?... .

Different varieties have differing eye development, Journey. Something like a Yukon Gold tends to have few eyes. Seed pieces are often quite large for that variety. There is some advantage in having a good amount of carbohydrates for quick growth of the plants. Also, there is the danger in mechanical cutting of missing an eye completely and planting a piece of tuber that will grow nothing.

It may be that the university specialists are just there to stay warm until retirement but they use terms like "generally" and "potentially" and "many other factors," a good deal.

There are few absolutes in life and growing things in a garden or farm field is always about life. About most things in life, God is silent.

Steve

 

[Durgan]

As a parting shot. I consider the potato to be a food of the gods. There was an interesting article produced by National Geographic about 20/25 years ago, which was truly enlightening. The main point, that always stuck in my mind, was that most of the nutrients are just under the skin, and ever since them I don't peel and usually bake whole. I usually ingest one per day with only a bit of butter for a condiment.