Pulling potato plants from sprouts

[Jeannine Anne]

Originally Posted by wmontanez

Jeannine, hi.
The idea of pulling plants started in another thread talking about rapid multiplication. My interest was to start one potato named Skagit Valley Gold early on to get some plants and then harvest small tubers and plant those once my frost free day arrived. Why the trouble? Well, Skagit Valley Gold is one of Tom Wagner's creation that has a lot of good attributes like bountiful production of small potatoes of very good flavor, high levels of carotenoids, short cooking time, and short dormancy. I do live in an area with long winters and 120 days or so of growing season. It breaks dormancy too soon for me, in fact one month after harvest. That is a good quality if you live in the tropics or an area where you can half 2 seasons of growing potatoes. As a backup I sent one tuber to my mom in the Caribbean and she propagate it and send me one tuber back just now, because I was babying those tubers for months! It begun to shrivel and I was afraid to lose them. Say you only have one tuber of a rare or unique variety, by pulling plants or by taking cuttings and rooting, one can multiply the plants to get several and make a seed stock to save for next season.

I guess is not the easiest way to garden but I am learning different ways to be able to grow food reliably and making it self-sustainable.

Right now I do have about 5-6 Skagit Valley Gold potato plants growing happily and I am 3 weeks away from my frost-free day. . .

Hi, that sounds like an excellent idea. I have quite a few single tubers that would benefit from this.

I guess I need to find the first thread as I am not sure just what to do.

Certainly sounds as if it could be away of getting round the persistant rain we have had here.

XX Jeannine

[wmontanez]

I meant to leave the link

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=14199&page=5


http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17943

[Jeannine Anne]

Originally Posted by wmontanez

I meant to leave the link

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=14199&page=5


http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17943

Thank you very much, absolutely fascinating, just got to havea go now.

XX Jeannine

[macmex]

I'm in the same boat Diane
This is fascinating. I had no idea of the potential out there. Tom's breeding program is really what got me hooked. His TPS is the best "deal" for the money I've seen. I feel like each packet is almost priceless.

George

[owiebrain]

Originally Posted by macmex

This is fascinating. I had no idea of the potential out there. Tom's breeding program is really what got me hooked. His TPS is the best "deal" for the money I've seen. I feel like each packet is almost priceless.

Exactly!

Off-topic here but do you still have bees? We just got our first two packages of bees this weekend. So exciting!

[macmex]

Yes. I've expanded to about 10 hives.

[wmontanez]

Owiebrian,

I think if you cover it with soil to have the roots form gives you better chances of survival of that plant.

[Tom Wagner]

I don't have time to edit a post about bees now, but I will start a new topic soon on natural pollinators. I have some interesting data from others and data that no else would have..my own...and I will work the two realms of data into a great mini chapter for creating diversity from potatoes using natural tools/insects to get seed set with potato berries.

Tom Wagner

[owiebrain]

Originally Posted by macmex

Yes. I've expanded to about 10 hives.

Very nice!

Originally Posted by wmontanez

Owiebrian,

I think if you cover it with soil to have the roots form gives you better chances of survival of that plant.

They are & have been covered with soil. I just wondered, since Tom mentioned the lack of hair roots on my first (leaf-less) pulls, if I should wait for hair roots to form before pulling these new, leafed-out shoots.

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

I don't have time to edit a post about bees now, but I will start a new topic soon on natural pollinators. I have some interesting data from others and data that no else would have..my own...and I will work the two realms of data into a great mini chapter for creating diversity from potatoes using natural tools/insects to get seed set with potato berries.

Tom Wagner

I can't wait!

[owiebrain]

Update on my sprout pulling:

Those tubers I'd already pulled from resprouted. They sent out nice, thickly-stemmed & leaved shoots this time. So I pulled them and they did have plenty of hair roots. Gobs of root mass. I've potted them into 4" pots and have them outside to gain some size before planting out.

I stuck these new sprouts in the same pots I'd put the old, mostly leafless sprouts in. As I emptied out the dirt, I was able to inspect the prematurely-pulled sprouts. The smaller ones were, as predicted, doing nothings. However, some of the larger ones were trying to push leaves up. I don't expect much from them but I did take the hardiest-looking of the bunch and put them into one pot, just to observe.

Experimenting is cool, sometimes even in spite of screwing up.

[wmontanez]

That sounds pretty good. I haven't pull more sprouts this week I am waiting until Saturday. I agree experimenting is fun. And I like the learning process.

[wingnut]

I have a 'desiree' just starting to sprout. If I pot it inside now pull sprouts, then plant sprouts and original seed potato in a week or two will I have a greatly improved yield over just planting it now with my other seed potatoes?

[wmontanez]

wingnut,
not sure about bigger yields since I am trying this for a first time but my reason to try is to double my chances of getting a particular spud to set tubers to save for seed or to get a later crop.

owiebrian, wow! those pulls are amazing. You are definetively doing a great job. Best wishes that those take well once planted, I am sure they will.

[wingnut]

I guess I will just give it a try and find out!

[wmontanez]

wingnut That's the spirit!

I will like to see hear your findings in terms of yield too. Do you happen to have a second potato for comparison to plant as is? I got last year 14lb from one pound planted ...granted each potato was a single variety the most productive gave me 2.5lb from one walnut size tuber seed.