Potato from potato seeds

LaurieLovesLearning
LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
edited October 2020 in Vegetables

I had bookmarked instructions from a lady on the Canadian East Coast (Prince Edward Island/PEI...potato country!) years ago, but unfortunately the site is no longer active & I never got her personal contact information, which I now regret. Anyway, she started her seed indoors in Feb (I think) to get the best start & transplanted it in spring.

You will not get the same variety of potato, but something different, especially if you have another variety around. But, you might get something better & more suited to your soil & climate of that year. You should get something more hardy. If you pick well for the potatoes that are most resistant to bugs and disease, over timeyou could create a wonderful local variety that could prove to be quite popular.

Planting potato seed will save you from introducing any new disease into your garden.

I think that it can take 2-3 years to get anything worth harvesting from them and can require digging it up for storage.

This lady used a dedicated blender (not food use) to extract the seeds from the ball of seeds (what is that thing called?) that looks like a tomato & is at the top of a plant. She would put water in with it & blend. She would extract the seeds. I think she would then put them into the fridge, in a moistened paper towel in a bag (watch for mold) to stratify them. In February, she would pull them out & plant them (most likely under lights). In spring, she would transplant into the garden. In fall, she dug the tiny potatoes up, cured them & carefully stored them. She planted them again the following spring.

This is all that I remember. Has anyone here done this successfully?

Comments

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    I am here, because I absolutely LOVE potatoes and I absolutely want to plant them in my garden (14x12), for I understand they will bulk up your soil, much improve it!

    I cannot help out, having little experience, but love learning, even ..just a start, where to get my starter potatoes? I have 'french fries' -in my air fryer, so very often.

  • Shelba
    Shelba Posts: 13 ✭✭✭

    I purchased potato seed, which looked a lot like tomato seed, around 5 years ago. It had a decent germination rate. The plants grew and the gophers did not like them any better or worse than plants started with seed potatoes. The potatoes from the "potato seed packet" were small with less potato, by weight, than the regular potatoes. I found some of that seed when I was cleaning out the other day and will likely use it next spring, since our potato consumption is going down.

  • erikawinterton
    erikawinterton Posts: 98 ✭✭✭

    So, I did some research on this this past week since I "strangely" produced potatoes seed this season. Climate alone is what makes starting potatoes from seed difficult to begin with. You have to have a seasonally prime area for potatoes to produce seeds. I am in the Midwest and we had a strange June cold spell when my potato plants where around 3 ft high.

    This doesn't normally happen in my climate so normally I plant from a small spud split in two to allow for one eyr each.

    The potatoes berries are poisonous which is likely why the lady used the "non-food blender", you mentioned, to extract seeds.

    I am unsure what to do with them after that, but I plan to save them just like I do other seeds.

    I can let you know how it goes for next season!


    I imagine the variety would be strange due to serial things. I have a yellow planted next to a purple. They are likely cross pollinated. I also am not sure ehat to expect from the tubers.


    Like I said, I can let you know next season!

  • MikeF
    MikeF Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    @Jannajo If you are new to growing potatoes and want to successfully grow edible potatoes soon, then you should use "seed potatoes" instead of "potato seed". :) I have been growing potatoes for a few years. This year the weather has been oddly cool, so my taters did more flowering and look to be forming seed balls/berries. I am thinking about trying them for a challenge. As another poster said, I also expect weird mixed cultivar results from pollination.


    This year, I got my seed potatoes from The Maine Potato Lady. These taters were better quality than what I got from my previous vendor. https://www.mainepotatolady.com/productcart/pc/home.asp


    M

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @erikawinterton A cross between purple and yellow potatoes sound fascinating. Hopefully we we hear a report next year

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited July 2020

    @Shelba If you took those small potatoes from your first year, cured them & replanted them the next year, my source said that then the potatoes would be larger in that second year. Although, some may just stay small depending on what genes are present.

    @erikawinterton Yes, those berries are poisonous. I should have mentioned that! These are something that our plants produce each year. I should have also mentioned to let the plants fully due back before harvesting those berries.

    I think that my source also used gloves when processing them, just to be on the safe side.

    You dry your seeds like any other, but they should be stratified by giving them some time in the fridge before planting. I am sure that I put them between moistened paper towel in a zip top bag.

    Your variety will be a cross of whatever those potatoes were, with the added factor of whatever types were used to make them in the first place.

    Next season reporting would be great!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited July 2020

    @Jannajo There are many places that seed potatoes can be bought in Canada. Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Walmart, seed supply companies (like Veseys in PEI or William Dam Seeds in ON) & garden centers should have seed potatoes (not potato seeds). These are essentially small potatoes that will be sold in a small cardboard box or paper bag. These will have holes for air access.

    Here are a couple online Canadian sources for you.

    This first one has a good question & answer page:

    Here is one with a large & interesting variety, but from a small potato farm in AB:


  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    @Laurieloveslearning, this is the info I am truly looking for, my wish will soon come true, and u r the very one to help me with this -my little potatoe patch, whooopee! Thanks, Laurie, u do learn well, and know how to pass it on also, hugs!

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    @MikeF -potato lady it is, tu

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @Jannajo I am so glad that you are happy. Please let us know how it all goes (grows) for you next spring & fall! 😄

    Colored potatoes are so fun. We like the Russian Blue. They keep their color when cooked. The blue/purple ones with the white ring under the peel doesn't stay colored. I have heard good things about the banana types.

    Norland is what we buy for our main potatoes. I find that they are good for baking, boiling & mashing. Many people like the Yukon gold for things like fries as it is a drier type.

  • erikawinterton
    erikawinterton Posts: 98 ✭✭✭

    It will definitely be an experiment! I am up for a fun challenge too. Hopefully I end up with plants to know, lol.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @erikawinterton no matter what happens, you will learn something from your experiment

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This year I am growing Yukon Gold, Caribe, Reddale, and All Blue. All four are doing well, but the Reddale and All Blue are producing a huge amount of flowers, while the Yukon Gold and Caribe are producing none. The first two types are also producing much taller stems.

    Definitely try different varieties to see what does well in your climate. You'll probably have more luck saving and planting (tuber) seed if you live in a cooler climate where disease is less of a problem. As far as I know, all certified disease free potato seeds come from cool climates.

    I'm hoping to get some true seed from the potato fruits (which are poisonous, do not eat them) of my flowering potatoes this year. That will be a small-scale experiment to see if I can create a new variety. For my regular eating supply, I will save some of my tubers this year in case seed supplies are short again next year.

    If you're new to growing potatoes, don't worry. They are easy to grow. Start with certified disease free tubers from a supplier like Maine Potato Lady or Wood Prairie Farm. Don't plant them in the same bed where tomatoes or potatoes were grown the previous year. And don't worry about true seeds when you're getting started. That's an advanced topic.

    Happy potato-growing!

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    I want Yukon gold myself, I heard amazon will send these (or was it costco?) but I have yet to find them, might have to start my own, but the colored ones seem a gd choice as well, it is fun learning more and more of the spud (which I love so much).

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @VermontCathy Lucky you getting Caribe potatoes. We had them for a couple of years, many years ago but haven't seen them for sale locally since. Loved them! Big and beautiful; purplish-red skins and a pure white flesh. Not as moist as most reds.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning "Colored potatoes are so fun. We like the Russian Blue. They keep their color when cooked."

    I grew Adirondack Blue a couple of years ago, but wasn't happy with them. They were nowhere near as productive as the Yukon Golds and Caribes that I grew the same year. So although they tasted fine, I haven't grown them again.

    Living in zone 4, I focus on quick-growing early season tomatoes and potatoes. But I couldn't find an alternative blue potato that was listed as early, so I'm taking a chance and growing the later season All Blue, which seems to be popular.

    The Wood Prairie Farm catalog is an excellent reference on types of potato and what makes them different (early, late, scab resistant, etc.). It's well worth checking out even if you buy your potatoes elsewhere.

    https://www.woodprairie.com/virtual-catalog/

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @VermontCathy My rule is much the same, as I live in zone 3. Sometimes I can squeak in zone 4 if I am very lucky.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @VermontCathy and @LaurieLovesLearning I have potatoes growing for the first time in a few years. We usually buy them from a local grower. However, I bought seed potatoes for someone this year but they had already found some elsewhere, so we planted these. Russian Blue, which we had done before and a newer one that I have never seen before called Ambrosia. Red skinned and red fleshed. Like the Russian Blue in the picture except red. I am very curious to see how they turn out. With all this discussion of potato seed, I might try to save some this year if they develop enough and see what kind of creation I get from these two species and their ancestors. Maybe a rainbow potato. Ha-ha.