Potato Harvest 2010

[Anton]

Hello everyone!

Here's a belated report on the potatoes my family grew this year. We had 11 different varieties grown from seed potatoes, and I also grew plants from TPS, most of which I received from Tom last spring.

First, here are the varieties grown from seed potatoes:

Asterix - A late variety grown commercially in Finland, red skin and light yellow flesh. Our main crop potato this year.
Hankkijan Timo - An early Finnish variety grown commercially here.
Mandel - A somewhat famous Swedish/Scandinavian potato with a great taste. We've grown this for a few years and I've noticed in the spring when all our other potatoes have sprouted Mandel still hasn't which makes them great for eating in springtime. The annoying thing with these are that they are small, which makes it a chore to harvest them and also to eat if you're peeling your potatoes.
Blue Congo - Blue flesh. I think this one tastes great.
Rocket - Early variety. I don't think this variety is regularly grown in Finland, but it was earlier than Timo, and did much better for us.
Highland Burgundy Red - Some red flesh, but had very little color here.

I got the following five varieties from NordGen, the Nordic gene bank. I had very few plants of these.

Blaar Íslenskar
Blå Mandel
Karjalan Musta - This is the only one I've tasted of these. The taste wasn't anything special, it tasted like any basic potato, and it lost its beautiful skin color when cooked.
Köttpotatis
Sparrispotatis

The seed potatoes were planted on May 15th, and those plants were harvested on September 3rd.

Some of the potatoes after being harvested in September:


Rocket:


Blue Congo:


Karjalan Musta (purple) and Köttpotatis (red):


Blaar Íslenskar left; Blå Mandel, Sparrispotatis and Köttpotatis (again) right:


And here are all the varieties in storage now in December.

Asterix (temperatures in the basement seem to be too high as this and several other varieties are already starting to sprout):


Hankkijan Timo:


Blue Congo:


Mandel:


Rocket:


Karjalan Musta and Blaar Íslenskar:


Blå Mandel, Sparrispotatis and Köttpotatis left; Highland Burgundy Red right:


Highland Burgundy Red and Blue Congo washed and cut open:

[Anton]

Now the more exciting part, the potatoes I grew from TPS!

I grew five numbered lines from Tom, and two named Russian varieties:

331810
931810
2331810
2731810
3931810
Ilona (Илона)
Revansch (Реванш)

I also had two more lines from Tom, 431810 and 3631810, but I managed to kill the seedlings before I had a chance to plant them out, and it was to late to resow that season. I will be trying again in 2011!



The two named varieties, Ilona and Revansch, come from the Russian seed company SeDeK. They seem to be selling a lot of different TPS potato varieties. I find this very interesting. It seems TPS isn't sold at all by any North American or Western European seed companies, but in Russia several different TPS varieties are available. I've noticed the same with strawberries, several Russian seed companies sell different strawberry seeds.

I sowed the seeds sometime in May and planted them out in late June. They were rather pot bound by then, but they recovered okay. I harvested the potatoes grown from TPS on October 17th, just before we had our first frost.

The whole harvest from TPS in October:


331810 and Ilona:


3931810 and 2331810:


2731810 and 931810 - these plants produced red, blue and brown skinned potatoes:


Revansch - had poor germination and the seedlings were very weak, probably immature or old seed? Ilona performed much better:


I haven't tasted any of the TPS potatoes yet, as I planned to save the tubers for sowing next year so I can get a bigger harvest then. I have seeds left of all of these varieties, and will be sowing more seed again in 2011. Thank you very much Tom for sending me seed from your breeding projects last spring! This was the first year I grew potatoes from seed, and I did a lot of begginer's mistakes, but I think I have a much better idea of how to do it next year.

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Anton, for that timely update.

I really appreciate what you are doing and thanks for liking to try TPS and from me also.

I will have to look up those numbers.

I looked at the Russian web site .... www.sedek.ru/en/ to read at least part of it in English but cannot read all of it. But I did send an email to the Marketing director.

Of the named varieties you mentioned...I have had all but one of two of those.

I think I have solved the yield problem of Mandel with some hybrids; namely with John Tom Kaighin and my best line from a first year seedling has been named by me as 'Howie Mandel' and is a wild violet skin potato with yellow flesh. Great taste on a sample tuber....I also have true seed from it.

I know the feeling...growing seedlings from seed and having to wait until growing more of them.

[sated]

I translate site with google for English.

translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sedek.ru%2Finfo%2Fdetail.php%3FELEMENT_ID%3D2108

[thefuture]

very nice. blue congo is a beaut. did any of your plant varieties also set berries/seed?

[Tom Wagner]

Here is a rather clumsy copy paste.

Technology for growing potatoes from seed (TPS)

Grown yourself - healthy potatoes!
How to get super-elite potato plot

However, tubers accumulated annually of the disease and, therefore, often yields only slightly higher than the number of planted tubers.

Normal harvest, even in a bad year to be 5-6 times more potatoes landed, and at a good gardener, using healthy planting material and intensive cultivation technology is 10-15 times greater.

Agrofirma Zedekiah "offers you a reasonable way out - to propagate potatoes botanical seeds.

Seeds are sown in the second half of April, in drawers, in a moist Soil mixture, shallow falling asleep, and set in warm place, covered with glass. 40 day seedlings planted in open ground when danger of frost has passed. Can be transplanted into the ground, bypassing the stage of the pot.

After landing establish the arc and shelter plants lutrasilom, protecting them from temperature changes, the Colorado potato beetle, pritenyaya from the sun, keeping the moisture. . Shelter does not shoot up until sprouts are not accustomed, and robust warm weather comes.

In the first year you get redeveloped material - minituber.On one bush 150-200 g , And as early as next year's harvest from each planted redeveloped minituber will be from 1 to 3, 4 kilograms of bush depending on the technology used. Up to 3 - 4 kg! After all, you put healthy stuff!

Early varieties were gonna (light yellow oval shaped tubers) gave a record harvest in 2007 - 3460 of the bush, all the tubers are large, justified, good taste. Nearly succumbed to yield a very early variety Empress (light yellow tubers Oval) - 3200 g per plant. Such yields are possible in other species.

When growing potatoes from seed, there is a variety of shrubs that can be used to advantage. For example, when cleaning Collect the tubers that you like in shape, color, color of flesh.

This will be your grade! All club "born" grade for the next year to plant and multiply as usual.

Your grade will certainly please you good harvests: Ilona - early maturing, oval tubers, skin is light yellow, white pulp; Beauty - middle-tubers are oval shaped, red skin, flesh pale yellow; hybrid populations Lada F1 - early, the tubers are round- oval-shaped, of various colors; Milena - Early, round-oval tubers, flesh pale yellow, and white skin is yellowish-white; Revenge - a promising, early-ripening, tubers rounded, light yellow; Triumph - early maturing, oblong tubers oval, pale yellow; Farmer - very early, the tubers are oblong-oval, yellow skin.

Tubers obtained from plants grown from seed - it is redeveloped seed, free from disease, with the unspent potential for economically useful traits.

Agrofirma Zedekiah offers gardeners an affordable way to obtain healthy seed from botanical seed.

From our super-elite seed you get to multiply for several seasons and will be with good tuber yield of excellent quality and taste!

Head of Testing Laboratory "Agrofirma" Zedekiah "NI Seregina

[Tom Wagner]

For the record...Names to go with the numbers.
Anton, may I use a few of those photos to link with my potato breeding?

331810
F-3 Awol Again

931810
F-1 Blue Valley Gold x mix diploids

2331810
F-1 Lump O’Gold x Tom Kaighin

2731810
F-1 Blue Shetland x Nordic October

3931810
F-1 Gladstone x John Tom Kaighin

When I find time, I will hopefully look up the full sibs of those lines in order to take pictures of them to compare. Some will be field harvests and others tray harvested tubers.

[biofutur]

hy Anton
very interesting post indeed. Thanks

[edigrowerr]

Hi Anton
Just to say I really appreciate the bucket photos of the TPS. I'm also looking forward to growing out some similar 1st year tubers in 2011! Good luck with them. Thanks to Tom for the seed. Peace. Happy New Year to you all!

[Anton]

Dec 29, 2010 15:13:42 GMT -8 thefuture said:

did any of your plant varieties also set berries/seed?

Yes, several flowered, but only two set fruit.

Asterix - lots of pink flowers, but only one plant out of several hundred set berries!
Hankkijan Timo - no flowers
Mandel - only a few flowers, no berries
Blue Congo - only a few flowers, no berries
Rocket - lots of flowers, and lots of berries
Highland Burgundy Red - some flowers, no berries
Blaar Íslenskar - forgot to keep records, but no berries
Blå Mandel - forgot to keep records, but no berries
Karjalan Musta - forgot to keep records, but no berries
Köttpotatis - forgot to keep records, but no berries
Sparrispotatis - forgot to keep records, but no berries

Of the plants grown from TPS, only one of Tom's plants set one flower, no flowers on the rest. They would certainly have done a lot better if I didn't start them too late, and if I had taken better care of them (we unexpectedly had no rain during most of the summer, and it took me a while to set up irrigation, and just my general inexperience with growing from TPS).

Anton, may I use a few of those photos to link with my potato breeding?

Sure, the photos are free for anyone to use.

331810
F-3 Awol Again

931810
F-1 Blue Valley Gold x mix diploids

2331810
F-1 Lump O’Gold x Tom Kaighin

2731810
F-1 Blue Shetland x Nordic October

3931810
F-1 Gladstone x John Tom Kaighin

Thank you for the background information on the seeds, very interesting. Do you have information on the pedigree of 431810 and 3631810 also?

[Tom Wagner]

431810


F-1 Thumber Time x F-1 (PI 292110 x PI 292099)
which was stenotomum when I used this hybrid but now has been changed very recently to Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigenum - local market Huanuco, Peru x local market Lima, Peru.
I am thinking there has to be some mistake for this re-classification. Thumber Time is a hybrid from my Thumb Dinger which is a diploid (2n=24) and stenotomum is a diploid also. No way that F-1 (PI 292110 x PI 292099) is 2n=48. The cross would not take so readily with a 2n=24 x 2n=48 pollen parent.

Looks like I may have to call someone at the Introduction Station to find out what the justification was for a species name change.

and
3631810

oops...not listed in my pedigree book...will have to locate it later in the seed envelope container.

[svalli]

Hi Anton,
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one experimenting with TPS in Finland. I have grown potatoes from Tom's TPS 2008 and 2009. I did also get TPS seeds for so called Potato Dance, which I planted 2009.

Last year I planted seed potatoes of Lapin Puikula, Blue Congo, Peruvian Purple and eight different varieties grown from TPS.
Last spring I had problems with TPS starting and my seedlings died, so I did not grow any TPS. This year I will try again and I have the Potato Dance tubers to plant, of which we tasted just couple.

Where in Finland are you located? I live in Vaasa, but my potato field is by my in-laws in Alajärvi.

Sari

[GunnarSK]

Dec 28, 2010 12:35:46 GMT -8 Anton said:

Mandel - A somewhat famous Swedish/Scandinavian potato with a great taste. We've grown this for a few years and I've noticed in the spring when all our other potatoes have sprouted Mandel still hasn't which makes them great for eating in springtime. The annoying thing with these are that they are small, which makes it a chore to harvest them and also to eat if you're peeling your potatoes.

Mandel in December:

Mandel is very similar to my "Aspargeskartofler" and may be the same. They are also available in Norway:
[url=http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/dcb682f
b7561819c.html][/url]



Swedish Sparrispotatis are definitely different.

[Tom Wagner]

Nothing like a comment or two concerning the Mandel potato variety, aka - Peanut, etc., to get me going about the need for breeders such as myself to intervene in a world-wide quest to introduce new clones of potatoes.

Mandel has precious few offspring in recorded potato varieties. I aim to change that. This potato is known for its flavor, but is also know for its meager yields.

I have some crosses this past year with Mandel as the female parent and John Tom Kaighin as the male --Howie Mandel is my favorite so far. I am hoping Daughter of the Soil has some good clones to grow again since I sent her some sibling hybrid TPS.

Mandel is one of those potatoes that has good flavor at the high latitudes. Here where I live is about 48 degrees N. Helsinki, Finland is about 60 degrees N. and Palmer, Alaska is about 62 degrees N. Latitude. I need to get the true seed of the Howie Mandel out to the northern latitudes this Spring to test my theory that breeding for combining abilities for northern vigor is essential for improvement of popular, but difficult to grow favorites.

Another Finish variety of potato that I like is Hankkijan Tuomas. I have a cross of it with Tom Kaighin potato variety that I call Hank Kaighin. That one has TPS as well and is another must to disseminate.

Yet another variety should be exploited ---Aeggeblomme. It has low pollen fertility and the seed I have is most likely crossed to other clones. The past seedling trials has produced clones with small round yellow tubers of super high tuber counts. It has a place for classic Nordic potato flavor.

I need to hear back from my Danish friends to see how my potato seedlings have done there.

[GunnarSK]

Jan 14, 2011 3:53:35 GMT -8 Tom Wagner said:

Mandel has precious few offspring in recorded potato varieties. I aim to change that. This potato is known for its flavor, but is also known for its meager yields.

I have some crosses this past year with Mandel as the female parent and John Tom Kaighin as the male --Howie Mandel is my favorite so far. I am hoping Daughter of the Soil has some good clones to grow again since I sent her some sibling hybrid TPS.

Mandel is one of those potatoes that has good flavor at the high latitudes. Here where I live is about 48 degrees N. Helsinki, Finland is about 60 degrees N. and Palmer, Alaska is about 62 degrees N. Latitude. I need to get the true seed of the Howie Mandel out to the northern latitudes this Spring to test my theory that breeding for combining abilities for northern vigor is essential for improvement of popular, but difficult to grow favorites.
Yet another variety should be exploited ---Aeggeblomme. It has low pollen fertility and the seed I have is most likely crossed to other clones. The past seedling trials has produced clones with small round yellow tubers of super high tuber counts. It has a place for classic Nordic potato flavor.

I need to hear back from my Danish friends to see how my potato seedlings have done there.

I'm sure Rebsie is doing a good work with TPS, but of course I don't know about the Mandel crosses.
Good luck with Æggeblomme!

I'm sure Lila will send you some feedback, when she's done collecting information about your potato and tomato varieties.