[Tom Wagner]

TZ has it right when he says most potatoes are deterinate. A potato that is late maturing and indeterminate would work much better. A potato variety that sends out new stolons on a regular basis would work splendid.

Many years ago I tried the variety McINTYRE
and had good results. Not even sure that variety is available anymore....oh, wait a minute...go to this site to see a picture of the vine...http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/...yre/142e.shtml

I have a number of clones from around the world that would do well in a barrel and hundreds more out of my collection of personally bred lines. That makes me think...... maybe I should interest one of my friends to help me put together PDF files of potatoes for barrels, along with pictures, varieties, and available potato tubers to maybe even buy for such barrels.

I have a number of lines whose first stolons emerge out many feet from the original seed piece and those new plants begin heavy tuberization as the days get shorter, all the while creating hundreds of blooms creating a virtual flower bed from a single tuber in a stack of Farmall H tractor rear tires.

My supposition is that folks would like a variety of tuber colors produced from a barrel or stack of tires. I wonder if anyone would like a combination of red, red flesh, blue, white, yellow, fingerling potatoes all designed for a barrel?

Since I specialized in TPS (true potato seed) for so many decades (6) I could demonstrate on a PDF how to construct a quasi cold frame out of a tire with true seed dispersed and covered with plastic, polycarbonate panels, glass frame, etc., early in the Spring. As the seedlings grow, soil media is added to half of the seedling height each time, until more and more tires are added. The tallest plants would survive this practice and the short ones would be buried. One could start with say one hundred seedlings and end up with the most vigorous 6 or 7.

The fun thing I see about this is that it would establish growing potatoes in a barrel/tire as an evolving venture. Participants could trial brand new varieties, TPS, and report back on the experience. Too many folks think that potatoes are a waste of time and space for their small garden, patio, balcony, and retail shops. If I could...pick out a word....(inspire, accelerate, amaze, animate, astound, awaken, delight, electrify, elicit, energize, feed the fire, induce, intensify, jolt, kindle, rouse, vex, or whet) a Renaissance of home grown potatoes....it would be worth it.

I am very partial to blue flowered potatoes, and my Blue Rose potato variety is not disappointing me again this year. The TPS of Blue Rose gives a range of colors from purple to blue. They also seem very indeterminate this year and If I would not dig them would bloom til frost. This history of Blue Rose is that it will have fully mature potatoes under the hill even as new tubers are bulking and new stolons are initiated. This would be an excellent source of germplasm for barrel/tire production of potatoes.

Typing this discourse made me think of another vexing problem people have with barrels and tires. Way too many varieties die down too soon, succumb to early blight, late blight, verticillium, etc., therefore the success of a dedicated provider of potato varieties to this project will have to have the best disease tolerance possible. Tearing down the barrel/tire potato bed could be done at any time after a goodly number of potato tubers are formed...and still the plants could be green and blooming instead of yellowed and spotted.

According to Cornell Univ., I have one of the most resistant PINK ROT resistant red potatoes ever. Pink Rot resistance is important as potatoes in a wel environment are subject to soft rot. This red potato is in many progenies. Another problem with some varieties is that they have prominent lenticels. Here is a picture that shows the enlarged areas that are important in that....

Diffusion into the potato tuber of oxygen for respiration takes place only through lenticels, and not through the rest of the periderm

and many problems could be averted with potatoes with more workable lenticels for pot culture.

I have some other ideas of how to grow potatoes.... in a tall tunnel bag.... and harvest tubers from the lower levels and allowing the top parts of the potato vine to continue growing and producing tubers. Could be another project for a PDF.

Tom Wagner