Some 2014 potato photos

[tickledtoad]

Finally got around to getting some photo files shuffled around from having taken them about a week ago. Here they are with a few limited notes. It was a sunny day when I took these shots, so the detail isn't as good as it should be.



View one of the best of 22 Muruta TPS plants...measurements of about a week or so ago were a bit over 40 inches tall by about 34 inches across. It seems I've cropped the bottom of the photo off (oops), so am hoping the next shot has some of the missing detail. Still trying to get used to the photo manipulation tools I'm now using.



View A of the same Muruta plant (the other side).



Photo of some of the young berries from this plant...the crosses I have attempted so far have not taken, so will have to try again next year with clones (if the tubers are nice) or pull sprouts...and although there are not a large number of OP berries on the plant, there are a fair number (about a dozen or so).

I'll try to get a few more pis added to this thread over the next few days as I get the photots downsized and a bit more organized on my computer...unfortunately the end of the day tired and beat-up feeling grabs me before the tasks of the day are finished...and it seems I've been grabbed for the evening. goodnight all.

tickledtoad (Ron)

[Tom Wagner]

Muruta seedlings should be so valuable segregation for x and Y virus resistance along with late blight resistance and frost resistance. Tall upright vines should be competitive to weeds. Finding the yield factors will be the ultimate game along with taste of course.

The parent line was bred by CIP in Peru but the clone was named in Burundi. I don't know where Ron lives but if we can get some temperate adapted clones for maturities..that would be nice to have. Burundi is one of the poorest countries on earth and it would be great to get some F-3 collected to send there someday.

[tickledtoad]

I'm from bit north of just about dead center Minnesota...looking at a map, I'm about 25 miles south of Lower Red Lake (the lower of the very larger circular pair of lakes that make up a fair portion of the Red Lake Nation of the Chippewa first nations people (also known as the Anishinabeg or Ojibwe), so will hopefully be able to glean a few temperate adapted clones from this or future Muruta TPS grow-outs and/or grow-outs of resulting TPS with Muruta progeny as one of the parent lines.

Here are a few more pics, beginning with another of the better Muruta...there are five more very comparable to the first photo shown. Of the 22 plants, one died young...2 were not at all good growers...2 fair to medium growers have just recently succumbed to late blight...the 5/6 best show zero to extremely minimal blight symptoms...the remainder have some spotting on the leaves from very minimal to almost a medium range.




The next photo is of a bed of three Mt. St. Helens and 10 Squat Orange TPS plants. The Mt. St. Helens are all clear of late blight symptoms. One of them has red/purple stem and leaf coloration, the other two do not, so am expecting the tubers to be of both the red and white skinned strains.
Of the 10 Squat Orange, one has just succumbed to late blight (unfortunately a very good berry producer)...the remainder show zero to very minor leaf spotting at this time. Of the crosses I attempted this year, very few of them "took" on this group, but the OP berries have the siblings and the Mt. St. Helens very close by, and Muruta, 473276, Howdy Boys, Hedge Row, Yellow Finn, Kern Morn, and Agrarian Blue TPS plants within 50 ft. or so, so a nice group of potentials for OP crosses.



The last photo of the night is a cross that did take on the only white flowered (and earliest flowering) Squat Orange TPS plant. The male pollen came from a Skagit Valley Gold Double Hybrid Clone (Skagit Double Prism or Skagit Twin Wizard...haven't chosen a firm name for this one yet, , another promising SVG Dbl. Hyb. clone I've kept is called Skagit Double Spectrum. At any rate, these are two berries of only a handful of intentional crosses that panned out on the Squat Orange...still, more than enough to play with, trade, and give away).



Poor typing skills and adding these notes for the pics add up to more time than I allow myself in the evening to spend here before my eyelids start slamming shut, so will get back tomorrow with a few more pics, notes and such of this years plants....Enjoy!!

Ron

[Tom Wagner]

Ron, thanks for letting me know where you potatoes are grown. Also kudos for the info on late blight....people need to read this stuff. We all get tired and I am doubly so with gout swelling my left foot to where i need to be carted around in a wheelbarrow. Kidding of course. I have hundreds of clones to dig and harvest berries and I will pay for it later when the rains come every day.

[tickledtoad]

I sure would like to say I don't have a clue about dealing health issues, but without meds and injections I wind up spending way too much of the day in bed or on the couch... Playing in the gardens is wayyy more fun, and being a very stubborn Swede...........well......enough of aches and pains..here are a few more pics:

The first is a small group of TPS plants from Agrarian Blue x Unknown. I got the orignal tuber from Tom 3 years ago in a small sampler. Last year gave me the first and only berry so far, and felt fortunate to get that as there is very little pollen in the anthers for crossing...4 of this years plants have the same scant pollen issue. None of the plants are showing any but the most minor of blight issues (as an aside, this is the worst year...by far...that I have seen of both the more common Alternaria blights (early and late, with one group of carrots (Juwarot) being nailed very hard by the late version...another carrot, a yellow (Jaune Du Duobs has barely been touched, proving great resistance in the adjacent raised bed).

As a group...all this years plants are strong and healthy...one ("C"...not pictured) being a bit smaller, with more rugose leaves


Very dark stems...lots of leaf color


Larger plant...lighter stems...slightly lighter leaves


I can only add 3 photos per reply, so will be right back with a few more.

[tickledtoad]

A few more, starting with another Agrarian Blue TPS plant:

This one also has very dark stems and gorgeous blueish leaves which have a downy look and feel. All of the Ag. Blue progeny have large blooms, some having the bi-color star in the center of the bloom which the "mom" has. The prettiest of this years plants...no berries so far on 4 of the 6 plants, but I can still hope...and of course next year I can try again with other male partners.


Next are a couple of examples of 473276 TPS plants. The first photo is of the largest and most issue resistant. It is slightly lighter in leaf color than most of its sibs (all but one), with all those with darker leaves being more susceptible to problems. This one is 46" tall as of about 10 days ago, and the second flowering has produced a few berries. It also has a glut of small stems at the base of the plant...an incredible number...looking like a mini forest (makes me wonder about tuber amounts and size with such an inordinate stem count (not much more than three times the size of a toothpick...so picture at least 30-50 of those at the plants base).


The last pic for the night is another 473276, which by the end of July showed a marked attack by what appears to me to be Leaf Roll Virus. I left the plant in the ground...how can we gauge the resistant plants if they are not exposed...right? At any rate, this one has gotten much worse, and the 3 nearest plants show some damage, with 3 of the other sibs showing zero or extremely minor scorching at the leaf edges...For those plants that may show tuber promise, I plan on propagating with pull sprouts to hopefully fend off any LRV next season. None of the other varieties I'm growing this year are showing any similar leaf damage...just the 473276.


I hope to be back with a few more pics/notes tomorrow night...and with any luck at all, will have more shots of the tubers when they get dug to add to the plants and berries shown.

[tickledtoad]

These next three photos are a mix..the first is the best of only 3 Kern Morn TPS that germinated this year for me. In fairness, I only planted 6 or 7 seeds, and given potatoes sporadic/erratic germination, that is an OK percentage with me. This plant looks great... healthy and disease free in every respect. One of the other 2 is a smaller plant, but blight free, and the last has a small amount of leaf damage so far, with a tuber poking out of the ground on the plant w/ some damage looking absolutely gorgeous, I am hoping the tubers of this best looking plant compares with the the tuber on the slightly diseased plant.


Next is a mixed planting with the second best of 7 Howdy Boys plants, and the best by far for accepting pollen, so is a good female parent...am hoping it has nice tubers as well....this was also the earliest bloomer by at least 2 weeks...also little if any blight issues, and no LRV signs so far, even though the 473276 right to its left has been affected to a significant degree (the 2nd most susceptible of the 473276 group)...in the right background is a Mt. St. Helens...also no disease issues noted at this juncture, but stingy with its blooms and those flowers that did open were not st all accepting of my pollen introductions.


Last for the night is a close up of the Howdy boys in the above photo with a few of the successful crosses attempted this season (as memory serves, there were 5/6 successful crosses with different male pollen for each).


Let me know if you would like me to load any more pics for now...the rest of the photos I've taken are primarily of the better clones of the last couple of years and/or the berries and crosses associated with them. I sure will if there is a desire from anyone to check the growth habit of the plants or berry counts, etc. Otherwise, I'll wait and add more photos after I start digging this years crop to compare the tubers with the plants/vigor/dis-ease/berry counts, etc. and affiliated notes.

Have fun treasure hunting...the excitement of uncovering those new spuds is right around the corner for me...another 3-4 weeks or so and I'll have a few of the first ones dug...and those new flavors...Oh My...WHOOPEE!

Ron

[Tom Wagner]

Ron, please keep the photos coming. I want the tatermater forum to be a place for people to come for many years. Having all of these obscure potato TPS names is music to me. How many folks have, or will have, Kern Morn or Howdy Boys? These are complicated crosses that incorporate some great chances of having beauty, flavor and disease resistance bouncing around. Each person reporting in allows a fuller picture of how potatoes can be a part of companion planting and/or candidates for crossing. Like I say those pictures are priceless!
Tom

[tickledtoad]

Thanks for the encouragement Tom, I'm more than happy to oblige.

A few more, starting with a generic photo of spuds and some beans...I had mentioned in another thread how well this works as a collaborative planting, especially with the addition of a mulch to keep the Colorado Potato Beetle at bay. I have very honestly found (and removed) one single CPB from my plantings...and that was this year. I'm guessing that one showed up only due to not having planted beans along with ALL of the spuds (although they were for the most part mulched...only neglecting a mulch where I am experimenting with integrating other species near the spuds to ascertain their effectiveness as a CPB control agent.

Although there are effective chemical controls...in addition to the one mentioned in the CPB thread folks could also grown a bit of the perennial Pyrethrum Daisy (even perennial in my gardens 3 of 5 years), the more garishly colored Painted Daisy (also called a Pyrethrum) or the more common Oxeye Daisy (a weed most places around here)...all have enough of the active ingredient to be an effective poison...the key word being poison...just because you grow it doesn't mean it doesn't kill (so watch out for the beneficials and treat is with respect). Growing a bit of Nicotiana...either the ornamental flowers or one of the Indigenous Peoples Ceremonial Tobacco, or even regular smokers Tobacco also could work well as a control...just watch your drift and spray when you will do the least harm to the beneficials (infected Tobacco may cause some Tobacco Mosaic Virus, so pay attention).

As you may guess by now, simply because I'm aware of what to grow and how to effectively mix use these plants by no stretch implies that I do...I haven't sprayed anything for many, many years...much preferring to opt for bio-diversity and the inherent bio-mechanical means that come from my feeble attempts to be alert to the different plants characteristics and who they may get along best with...spatial considerations being equally interesting aspects of who may get along with whom in the plant world....Enough rambling, here are some pics for tonight...here is the first shot of Spuds and Beans.

The Potatoes are 473276 and Muruta...the beans are Tounges Of Fire in the foreground, with the pole bean being Rhum Von Vorgebirge ( A German introduction of 60 or more years ago... the original seed was accessed by me from USDA GRIN ARS a few years back and I was (and am) very impressed with it),



Next in line is Clone "B" from SVG Double Hybrid TPS, which I've named Skagit Double Spectrum, along with a few of its berries. It is a fair mother having accepted crosses from a sibling and from at least one tetraploid (a Suytu Vilquina TPS plant that I was very pleased with and have kept as a clone) and a fair number of Open Pollinated berries yet to be harvested. An important note on this clone and the other SVG Double Hybrid progeny I have kept a clone of is that they both stored quite well in very poor storage conditions. I plan on sending Tom tubers from both (and TPS) as he is one of the very few (actually, the only real expert in this area) that can taste whether their flavor is consistent with what he is looking for in a longer storing Skagit. It will be at least another 3 weeks to harvest...depending on a killing frost to get some vine die-down.



Last for the night is a shot of one I've called Hard Luck Finn (a clone I've kept from Yellow Finn x Unknown ) with very upright, strong vines and decent blight resistance so far. Berries are regular, albeit not in abundance and accepts crosses decently. It is planted next to the Skagit mentioned above, a clone from Quarter Master TPS, a clone from Suytu Vilquina TPS, and a clone from Red, White and Blue TPS, so have some high hopes for the result of the OP crosses (and will have lots of berries or seed to share from most of these).



That's it for tonight...I hope to get a few more on soon.

Ron

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Ron,for the detail news about your potatoes. Boy, do I ever enjoy reading those familiar names I gave potato clones years ago. I was digging seedlings today with my son video taping me talking about potato berry crosses, corn breeding, and what not. We dug about twenty different hills of TPS seedlings, many with fruit..some as high as 100fruits. About half were Skagit Valley Gold hybrids. I now have TPS of backcrosses to Skagit Valley Gold that is now 7/8th SVG. I earlier in the year trained some local interns how to breed potatoes and I have a collection of hybrid seed that I cannot begin to tell you about.