TRUE POTATO SEED (TPS) GERMINATION EXPERIMENT

[Tom Wagner]

The following is a study being made by one of my cooperators. I will let folks know about the progress. Tom

TRUE POTATO SEED (TPS) GERMINATION EXPERIMENT
Fanuel Kwashie
ZIMBABWE

SEED SOURCE: TOM WAGNER SEEDS
4 LINES: -MURU- blue & white, great late blight resistance, virus Y resistant
-YUNGUY- round, yellow red eyes, yellow flesh
-ENFULA- light red skin, yellow flesh, excellent blight resistance

INTRODUCTION
TPS is genetic seed derived from the small green/purple potato berries. The seed is dormant just after harvest and this period is determined by length and conditions of storage. However the dormancy can be broken by a treatment with gibberellic acid. TPS technology serves as a need for genetic diversity and combines the advantage of rapid propagation from tubers and clean healthy seed.

AIM
Establish the germination potential of each line under room temperature +/-25dc
Determine the degree of dormancy
Effect of darkly coloured seed on germination time and seedling vigor

OBJECTIVES
To give each seed line 2 treatments- 1.gibberellic acid (GA3)
2. No GA

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Small 200ml plastic ice cream/yoghurt containers (5 seeds per container)
Sand, plant compost, soil- 4:4:1
Gibberellic acid- 1500ppm, seed treated for 24hr before sowing

NB: I would have loved it as follows; each seed variety + GA3 + 15 degrees Celsius
Seed + GA3 + 25 degrees Celsius
Seed + GA3 + 30 degrees Celsius
Seed – GA3 + 15 degrees Celsius
Seed - GA3 + 25 degrees Celsius
Seed – GA3 + 30 degrees Celsius
(Germination temperature)


I have just tried to keep it simple here, no replication!
NB: no fumigation of growing media

This piece of work is dedicated to my Mom, Dad, Tom & Pam Wagner! And my friends.
Tom Wagner. Thank you so much for the seed, info, inspiration, may God bless you abundantly!
Fanuel

[DarJones]

Magic secret to break dormancy on potato seed. Pluck a bag full of ripe berries and toss them into the veggie crisper of your refrigerator for 2 months. Clean the seed out of the berries. Let them dry for 6 weeks. Plant them. I got 85% germination in 8 days.

DarJones

[fanuel]

wooww Tom i can't believe my piece of work is on this great platform, thank you so much, remember it's you who made it possible Tom...I've just sown my special seed today, can't wait to jump!! if i see those 'guys' peeping from the trays in some time to come. Snickeringbear wow thats great, i believe the refigerator low temperatures keep the level of absisic ascid (ABA) low by inhibiting its build up yet raising the seed's gibberellic acid levels which triggers the germination.

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Fanuel

Since you have relatively new TPS as to the extraction date....your tests may be of interest to more than just a few. Your research is needed to give this forum some gravitas.

Tom

[joseph]

I extracted a batch of potato seeds this winter in the blender about 3.5 months after I picked them. Then I fermented the rinsed seeds for about 3 days. Then dried them for about a week. Then winnowed. Then ran a germination test at about 65 degrees under 12 hours per day of fluorescent light. The germination rate was 82% after a week. I get better germination at 65F than with a 65/85 daily termperature swing.

This is what the mother looked like:

[fanuel]

wow! Joseph, beautifull potatoes. Tom, thanks much, i'm enthusiastically closely monitoring the experiment,this is my first time sowing TPS, it's not a common practice here in Zimbababwe, but i love it! and guess what! most of the seeds have significantly fully imbibed and some have emerged radicles already across all treatments in just four days of imbibition. Just now hoping for seedling emergence. I have also included a 4500ppm gibberellic acid seed soaking treatment and a 3ppm GA incoperated into the sowing media.

[f. kwashie]

:)I want to be honest I ended up with almost 100% emergence of all my TPS lines though Muru emerged sooner than the others. The dark seed of Muru had no bearing on germination, but just a phenotypic trait of dark seed, acoording to Tom, its an indicater that the tubers are colourfull. Tom's TPS proved to be very very viable wow, even the seed untreated by soaking in gibberellic acid germinated well. Tom thank you so much, you made it possible, i'm yet to continue experimenting in various conditions. My first seedlings though did not make it they got killed by a high salt concentration in media which I had applied as a drench, I almost cried. but I plant few seeds at a time so I re-planted and got the same germination.

[Mimi]

Hai,

I'm a newbie in true potato seed world. I read some articles about true potato seeds germination. Unfortunately, I always get below 50% germination. I tried to grow them in 24 deg. C with 50% humidity. Can you please share more of your experience about growing true potato seed?

[DarJones]

Start with high quality seed start mix that is thoroughly moistened. Put the mix into cell trays, do not use other types of cups such as peat pots, etc. (why not? Because peat pots wick water away from the seed)

Use a flat object to make a flat surface on top of the seed start mix. The flat surface is important, potato seed do not germinate very well if planted more than 1/4 inch deep. With a flat surface, you can control how deep the seed are placed.

Place up to 30 seed per square inch on top of the seed start mix in the cell trays. Crumble up enough of the seed start mix to cover the seed between 3/16 and 1/4 inch deep. Do NOT put any more! It MUST be finely crumbled! Use a sprayer to saturate the top of the soil mix which settles it down around the seed.

Place the seed tray on top of a heat source that hits between 68 and 85 degrees (20C up to 26C). Put a good light source above the trays and turn it on the third day after the seed are planted. The light is very important, potato seed germinate much faster if exposed to light before they break the surface.

Maintain moisture in the cell tray by adding water in the tray, NEVER over the top of the seed. The only time it is acceptable to water on top is when the seed are first planted to settle the soil. From then on, water goes in the tray.

When the seedlings are about 2 to 3 inches tall, pot them up to individual cells and let them get to about 6 inches tall. Handle them like tomato or pepper seedlings from that point.

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks Dar, the sowing and transplanting of TPS was one of the more popular How To do its during my workshops in Europe. I had power points and video to back it up.

[celticwarrior67]

I am a newbie having harvested Seeds from my 2014 backyard crop here in Ontario Canada. I had planted Chieftan Organic and Yukon Gold. I think my seeds came only from the Yukons through natural pollination. I had no idea what is was doing as a novice gardener and first time potato grower. My Irish father would be proud though as we got a nice crop of praties (potatoes). The pods were a bonus. I had no idea what they were but researched online. Even with some insight I made further mistakes.
I carelessly left the pods on a tray below the window all winter. They dried out like raisins. I thought I had blown my chance of seeing any TPS now I knew what a little treasures I had. This spring I re-hydrated the pods and then squished them by hand and patiently released the seeds. I used kitchen towel to sieve and separate the seeds from the the pods debris and got about 300 very small seeds.

GERMINATION RESULTS
I planted two batches on April 9 2015. One group of 21 inside on window sill in those little jiffy pucks. Ten days later I have 67% germination. I Still have hopes for the rest. Of course my seeding techniques is far from perfect in that I have double seeds in some of the jiffy pucks but I have excluded them in my calculations. So for clarity 21 pucks of which 14 have produced 1or more seedlings. LATER UPDATE- OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEK THE GERMINATION INCREASED TO ABOUT 75% BUT I WAS TOP WATERING  THE SEEDS SO MAY HAVE PREVENTED A BETTER PERFORMANCE OUT OF IGNORANCE

I also planted a further nine four inch pots with seeds but these I put outside in a cheap plastic greenhouse. None of these seedlings have germinated yet. I don't know if the is significant as our spring has been mostly horribly cold and damp.

I know this particular post is looking for more scientifically accurate information but I thought I would share anyway. Nature clearly allows for silly boys like me who did not know the best way but still managed to get some of these babies to grow.

I have to tell you I am so excited and I have been spreading the word about TPS to anyone who will listen. As someone who is Irish by origin, Scottish born and raised and now a Canadian citizen I still feel a strong connection back to the terrible times of the patatoe blight the caused the famine. Of course their were political factors too but that is another story.

Sadly my oldest Irish relative just passed away this week at close to 100 years old. My people are from Connaght which was one of the worse affected areas of the mass starvation and emigration. A very dear Irish friend here in Canada also passed away this morning age 84 years young. He was like a favourite uncle to me and a main of great wit and wisdom.

As you can imagine this is a very reflective time for me. I am sorry if I shared too much but I guess strong emotion is also part of my Irish gene pool. it made me realize that when you think in terms of individual life times, rather than years or decades, then the Irish potato famine was not so long ago.

Getting back to the topic I have my little bag of seeds so if someone can tell me some way I can assist in extending our collective knowledge of TPS then let me know. On the assumption that there are more capable gardeners than myself walking on this subject I will just continue to satisfy myself by being an enthusiastic suburban amateur who seeks out the escape from my chaotic life that a precious spring and summer hiding in the garden provides me.

I always think of my dad when I am out there. I was one of the youngest of the nine children but he made us all feel special. I wish I had spent more time in his garden with him when I had the chance. He is gone but now it's my chance to share his love of gardening.

Someone once told me the newest convert is always the greatest zealot (in the positive sense of the word).

Thanks for everyone's knowledge and willingness to share. Particularly Tom of course.
Regards
Desmond

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Desmond, for your post. Late getting to read it as I have been busy.

Every topic relating to TPS, no matter how personal is welcomed here. I like the stories about your Irish backgroud. My grandfather Kaighin was born on the the Isle of Man and was a native Manx speaker although not as good as his oldest brother and two sisters who were very fluent. The Manx were as crazy about potatoes as the Irish were.

I am hoping that the newest convert is always the greatest zealot when it comes to TPS. I did a reading and research paper in college that summarized my TPS work with Irish Cobbler many years prior to the 1960's

[celticwarrior67]

Hi Tom, Thanks for your response. I have visited the Isle of Man myself a couple of times and in truth not many people can say that! I have a dear friend who still lives there and while I lived in Dubai I dated a girl with Manx origins. Small island with a mighty reach!

Re Potatoes I will add whatever results i get from my TPS this year. Certainly my indoor little seedlings look pretty happy but there no sign of life from my semi covered outdoor batch. That said the weather has been miserable in Ontario and we must be weeks behind a normal spring season. I am sure that is true of lots of other places in the northern hemisphere this year. I am just about to plant a late red potatoes from certified potatoes (clones) as well as some Yukon potatoes i saved from last year years crop. Hopefully i will be lucky enough to get more seed pods.

I would love to plant some irish Cobbler in the future but I think i may have my hands full for this year as I am getting a little carried away sculpting a sq.ft. garden in my raised beds.

Best Regards
Desmond

[celticwarrior67]

TPS UPDATE My indoor and outdoor seed starts planted on April 9 2015 here in Southern Ontarion Canada are both growing Very slowly. The outdoor ones were placed in a cheap little pop up greenhouse. They were the last to germinate and in truth I thought they were never going to rise. But surprise, surprise not only did they pop up but they are now notably taller than the indoor germinated seeds that were moved outside before the outside ones had broken ground.
We had a cold spring so I moved them all in and out of the greenhouse. We are now at about 7 weeks and the largest seedlings are about 1 inch tall. Are they normally this slow to grow?
For the record the germination seeds outdoor in small potting pots was about 90% which I was very impressed with. As I said above these outdoor seeds also seem to have become the hardier plants. They are all still in very small 3-4 inch pots. When should I transplant them? I layered some potting soil around them today because although they are showing about 6-7 leafs they were looking a little leggy. Any tips to get them moving along? I know it's early to be thinking of the end of the growing season but I would hate the heavy frost to come before the plant has grown enough to produce tubers.
As an aside my seed potatoes (clones) are growing like weeds. In fact the late variety (which was also planted later) has shot past my earlies. I am growing both in various pots and containers as I did last year with success. Today I bought some sweet potato vines so let's see how those grow in my pots. Looking forward to an exciting summer. Hope my TPS update is helpful.
Regards
Desmond

[jayb]

A mine of information