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Post by misshathorn on Dec 7, 2012 1:59:28 GMT -8
Thanks Tom. This was certainly the most fun I had in the garden last year. Other crops were very poor what with no sun and too much rain. And the bought tubers I planted succumbed to blight and had to be dug up early. Of the new seeds I grew this year, Minnie's Pig and Boy's Pig were the most successful and I've saved a few tubers and some TPS from them for next year. One thing for sure, the TPS varieties so far are much more resilient and less affected by blight. I was able to keep them in the ground until late October!
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Post by Tom Wagner on Dec 7, 2012 3:49:02 GMT -8
I hear you when you say too little sun and too much rain....sounds like the Pugot Sound area all over again.
Except fpr isolated spots...it is hard for me to grow tomatoes outdoors..having to wait til October to pick a few tomatoes...I did much better in the Portland, OR locations.
Potatoes do well for me here but as you say commercial varieties succumb to late blight....however my specialty varieties and TPS lines do well...and I am still digging potatoes now into December. I am getting so many clones that survive the blight that it is a big job just to dig them all. Woke up at three in the morning a few minutes ago from a dream of potatoes that had yet to dig and plant from about 15 years ago in California.....tough to get back to sleep when your body wants to work.
The seedlings from Minnie's Pig and Boy Pig should throw some great flavors. Hope you can increase them again next season to be able to enjoy many meals from them. The parental stocks of those varieties have early maturing traits good for the Oxford location.
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Post by Tom Wagner on Dec 12, 2012 22:59:10 GMT -8
I need to follow up with the tray of potatoes that I started from the seeding date of August 15, 2012. Earlier in the topic here I have pictures at different dates post emergence. I have some of the TPS seedlings down in Portland in a greenhouse in gallon pots and the picture here is from a greenhouse here in the Seattle area. I almost forgot about them for the last two months. I will harvest these soon as most of the plants have died down and there will be hundreds of little mini tubers to gather from the small cubes. These tubers will break dormancy next spring in time to plant outdoors. The list below shows what was sown 1 F-1 Joe Kaighin x Tollocan 2 F-1 320373 x 97H32-6 3 F-1 Lone Ranger x Ashley's Troops 4 Papa Cacho? 5 Freckled Adora 6 LT-7 7 Russet Nugget 8 Karina Wagner 9 Owl Eyes 10 Diamond Toro 11 Northern Can Do 12 La Pan 13 Redder Blood 14 yungay 15 Summitter 16 Gold Thumb 17 F-2 Smiley Blue 18 F-2 Nordic JT I will post pictures of the tubers as I harvest them.
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Post by Tom Wagner on Dec 13, 2012 7:20:23 GMT -8
The picture below is labeled correctly...an F-2 of Nordic JT. The single plant was pulled out of the first tray seen on the previous post. The plant had died down naturally and had 6 tubers on just the one plant. Note that the cube...part of a 72 cell tray is barely over an inch is width and maybe two inches in depth!!!! The tubers measure from 1/4" to 3/8". The penny is 3/4". If I plant these tubers out next spring....I will probably start them in trays also and transplant to the field...easy enough to produce maybe 12 pounds of potatoes from this one clone. Six tubers on a single plant in the cubes is a high number for any tuber set. This trait will likely hold true in the field as well and will likely set 12-20 tubers next year. The recombination of the red Nordic October and the yellow John Tom Kaighin parents...is throwing the expected ratio of 1 to 4 yellow/white skin. The tubers look like they are pale yellow and are very round like the Nordic Octobers. This new variety will be tested next season for its segregation for resistance to Pink Rot, Late Blight, Scab, Rhizoc, and for yield, flavor, and keeping ability. The shiny skin already means it will be an attractive candidate for a commercial test.
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Post by misshathorn on Dec 16, 2012 2:46:21 GMT -8
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Post by Tom Wagner on Dec 16, 2012 3:43:38 GMT -8
Note that I modified the post...at first I could not see the tubers...somehow after the edit there are two identical images.
I hope I can find my records of the number eleven...however, they look like diploids.
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Post by misshathorn on Dec 16, 2012 8:21:52 GMT -8
The original seed I got from you was No.11, described as Bolivian Landraces Pirampo x Khuchi Akita. This is seed saved from the berries of one of those plants. I read that diploids can be identified by their leaves. The leaves of these two plants were small and fine, about 1/4 the size of some of my other plants. They do seem to have great resistance to late blight and light frost! I've been reading through some of the other threads here and am inspired by wmontana to keep better records from now on, including how they store, taste, etc. I've got so many on the go now plus Hinden North, Fiesta Gold and F3 Skagit Magic to try next year and I don't have your photographic memory.
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Post by Tom Wagner on Dec 16, 2012 11:45:34 GMT -8
The tubers are F-3 (sib mated)...cool...and I noticed the two colors....very reminiscent of the Pirampo, (pinkish red with yellow spectacles and the Khuchi Akita (purple skin with slight traces of purple flesh).
I think it is significant that we can grow facsimiles of these old landraces...stenotomum types. Since I will be growing new starts from tissue culture next year of Khuchi Akita, maybe I can use pollen from it to reinforce the supply of TPS of related lines or descendancies. Since I cannot self Khuchi Akita...backcrosses of some sort offer the next best opportunity to preserve the bloodlines.
I am not surprised to read about the resistance to late blight and frost...I have seen this for so many years now.
Tom Wagner
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Post by misshathorn on Dec 18, 2012 15:43:13 GMT -8
I think that next year I will start some seed in early July and see if I can get some good sized tubers by end of November. They do seem to need short days to produce, ones I have started in March and lifted in September have had very poor results. Have you ever tried tricking some by covering them up in the evening to shorten the daylight? I suppose it's not really sustainable and one is ultimately trying to find types that will perform well in the local conditions.
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Post by mariol on Mar 12, 2013 20:22:36 GMT -8
The Complete Book of Potatoes suggests planting multiple TPS plants (2-3) in one mound. Woudl that make sense? Would that help if we are trying to maximize yield give a limited planting area?
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Post by Tom Wagner on Mar 12, 2013 23:09:58 GMT -8
Planting two or three plants of TPS together is something I do quite often, especially if I don't transplant the seedlings earlier in the 72 cell trays. Since I generally always sow several seed in a clump...the competition is good because it gives me at least one strong plant or two. It is also a lazy way to get lots of seedlings out to the field. Many times too...I plant individual seedling TPS so that I can be sure what berries are from which tuber line. I can't tell you how many times when I have multiple seedlings within a cube of soil media going to the field...I cover up totally the smaller seedlings leaving just the taller of the cluster showing above ground. When I was sowing 100,000 TPS at a time...my cell cluster may have upwards of ten seedlings. If I was selecting for intense red or blue...it made it simple to select and save only the deepest colored ones. I prefer to plant individually to ascertain the fullest expression of a seedling the first year out....yield...shape...and flavor since I can sacrifice a single tuber for eating right away. Under ideal conditions such as the photo below...I place the single seedlings fairly close together on a raised bed with plastic.
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Post by verdeperto on Apr 12, 2013 1:34:22 GMT -8
Hi there,
am currently growing your skagit valley gold hybrid (with whatever was on the field at that time) and the mixed colours diploid. As expected, they allready show a lot of diversity... should I look for something in particular, are there any revealing traits I should be aware of? Like, is the colour of the stem related to the tuber's? or broader plants produce more? or hairy plants have better... something? or slimmer plants have smaller root sistems? For the record I'm in a mediterranean 10a zone.
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Post by Tom Wagner on Apr 12, 2013 9:57:59 GMT -8
Yes,
Growing the hybrids made from SKAGIT VALLEY GOLD means that I don't know all the possible male parents in the mix. It could be one or many male parents since these will all be diploids...an obligate out crosser.
Yellow to gold flesh potato vines will appear in foliage that is more yellow green rather than a dark green....just a linkage factor that I have seen repeatedly. Fine (slender) stems usually occur in high numbers and are smaller vines in general and have a more compact root system. Red midribs, or red edges of leaves often mean red skinned tubers. Purple stems or coloration in the leaves usually means violet to blue skin.
I could go on and on but there are exceptions...I am sure..and each plant needs to be fully described...which means you must write about the vines way before the harvest. I could do that but have too many clones to fully document this linkage of vine traits to tuber traits.
Am I right to remember that you are in Brazil?
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Post by Tom Wagner on Apr 13, 2013 6:24:41 GMT -8
There are undoubtedly many photos that I could post, link, but the following is a good example of leaf coloring and tuber skin color. A special thanks to daughter of the soil for the use of the photo above. Rebsie used to post here quite often.
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Post by mariol on Apr 13, 2013 16:55:42 GMT -8
Stem coloration seems like a fascinating topic...
One question: How deep are the flats you use for the seedlings?
(Sorry if I missed that in the thread, I am a bit sick and exhausted at the moment)
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