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Post by gilbert on Mar 16, 2016 20:28:28 GMT -8
Hi everyone,
I'm Gilbert. I have a long and rambling thread over on Home Grown Goodness about my great potato tower idea.
Basically, I'm trying to grow the most calories possible in the least possible space. Potato towers seem like the way to go.
But potato towers as advertised don't seem to work, or at least not consistently.
The layered ones see like the best bet. So I will be experimenting with tower types.
But I also want to start breeding a true tower potato, one that can be continuously hilled up and produce a huge yield of potatoes in a small space, filling the tower from top to bottom.
Any advice would be welcome! Especially, any advice on sources for tubers or TPS that have valuable traits for either my tower type experiments or my tower potato breeding experiments.
Thanks!
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Post by gilbert on Mar 26, 2016 15:09:10 GMT -8
Can somebody stop this constant spamming of the board?
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Post by wmontanez on Mar 28, 2016 10:58:25 GMT -8
Gilbert,
Look Curzio's Kenosha potato catalog for description of "tall vines" or "set tuber high" you could select a better candidate for the tower. Anything potato commercially grow in USA is not a good choice since they are bred to be uniform in size and maturity. You want a potato that grows tubers at different times to harvest the bottom first and let the rest grow I suppose.
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Post by robsher on Jul 15, 2016 10:32:03 GMT -8
Something weird is happening in my potato garden. I like a number of you have tried my hand at growing a potato tower to very disappointing results. So this year I just grew potato in regular row with a white seed potato I picked up at the hardware store. All the seed potatoes developed normally, underground, except one. This one has developed normally underground but I noticed that small inch size potatoes developing up the vine at every leaf notch. They're green, due to the sun, and have formed small leaves. The plant seem healthy so I will be collecting and saving these potatoes, ones from under the ground and those from the stem/vine and using them in a tower next year. I didn't save the name of this variety but when the store sells this variety next year I`ll post the name.
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Post by nathanp on Jul 15, 2016 13:47:30 GMT -8
They are called aerial tubers. The can sometimes form as a result of stem damage, but I have seen others do this. It is potentially a trait to breed for if that variety can consistently perform that way, and will do so if you bury the aerial tubers and they grow afterwards under the buried soil.
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rajungardener
New Member
Livin it up in South Louisiana
Posts: 21 
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Post by rajungardener on Jul 15, 2016 16:14:15 GMT -8
Post a picture so we can be sure of what you're describing. Are the plants flowering?
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Post by robsher on Jul 19, 2016 16:33:53 GMT -8
Any ideas on how to attach a photo to a post on this forum. Other than that I did a search for aerial tubers and they look similar to those growing in my garden. They did bloom however no seed pods. I planted the seed potato 5 to 6 inches deep and then added 2 inches on top after the buds broke the surface. The aerial tubers are clustered mainly within 6 inches to the ground's surface and extend 18 inches up the vine. I will be planting the aerial tubers in a tower next season along with underground potatoes from this plant and will report back.
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Post by robsher on Jun 19, 2017 16:53:28 GMT -8
A year later. I planted some of the aerial tubers from last year a only one of them grew importunately the slugs got to it. I did manage to save a number of seeds from last year but my organizational skills are suspect and only one of this year's crop is showing signs of developing aerial tubers. Luckily it was planted in a 10 litre pot. I've since created a wire cage around the plant and created a make shift potato tower. I will isolate the tubers from this plant and replant next year to see if the trend continues. I am not allowing this plant to flower forcing the energy into tuber development.
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