Received Tom taters sampler today!

[Tom Wagner]

Can I start the TPS like toms inside and what would be the latest time do you think

I started in late Feb and have sown TPS every month since and will through June.

[platys]

I have potato shoots up above the ground, as of yesterday. All this rain and cold apparently didn't bother that one variety. Of course, I was so excited I forgot to look to see which one came up.

[Jeannine Anne]

Wonderful, mine just arrived..thanks Tom...likle Chriswtmas day opening the box and yes you did get me the Harlequin , the one you mentioned I should have earler

Saturna
Cosighin
Papa Cacho
Sarpolov
Fiesta Gold
Manistique River
Toro Dude
Dakotah John Tom
Kingston
1-1038
Sarp eye
Muru
Anya'a |Dream
Red Thumb
Chieftan
Sarpo Rolly
Mackinac River
Front Man
Au Sable River
Capt Kern
Nordic JT
Aggieblue
Druis Eire
Howie Mandel
Skagit Laverton
Atlantic
LB-1
Reiche Kaighin
Harlequin
Cal Whie
Banana
Escanaba River
Pointe aux Chenes River
Brevoort River
Agrarian Blue
Pigs Don't Lie
La Ratte
Pink Fir Apple

Tom, I am in awe, goodness only knows how you manage to maintain so many varieties and I know this is just the tip of your iceberg of spuds.

Please tell me how Pigs Don't Lie got it's name?

Thank you again

XX Jeannine

[platys]

I checked when I got home, and my first variety up is Skagit Valley Gold. So, if you live in an area where it never stops raining and is cold, apparently this is the potato for you.

[Tom Wagner]

Jeannine,


Thanks for the opportunity to write about PIGS DON'T LIE....


I like to talk about potato pedigree information because it demonstrates that potato varieties have to come from somewhere and since I am the breeder of PIGS DON'T LIE....my little discourse may shed some light on how someone like me comes up with seemingly silly names for vegetable varieties.


A number of years ago I collected a sample of MN 19298 to use in breeding. This yet unnamed clone was a winner in my book; large red tubers with yellow flesh and early. One of the many clones I used for making hybrids on its flowers was a full sib of my Skagit Valley Gold...a yellow skinned, orange fleshed line I called '8-12 high orange pigmented'. One of the better clones out of this cross was given the name 'Minnie's Pig', the name indicating the direction of the cross...Minnie for the female parent (Minnesota) and Pig for the male parent. There are cartoon characters with the names Minnie Mouse and Petunia Pig.


Here is a link to a drawing of Petunia Pig...
http://www.polarblairsden.com/cartoonspetuniag01.jpg

Minnie's Pig is a potato with red skin and deep yellow flesh...almost orange and Petunia's clothing is thus. However, if you look at Minnie Mouse...
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...EG6h0vHriXKWjy
I don't see the clothing colors representing this potato so well. Besides, I remember my great aunt MINNIE (BECKER) ZIGLER and when she paraded her pet pig during a family reunion. It was a red Duroc.


On my website I have TPS of 'Minnie's Pig', nevertheless, I grew out a few years ago some of the selfed TPS of it. One of the more prolific clones was one I called "Pigs Eye" and this one had impossibly red eyes. The tubers were yellow with deep red eyes and near orange flesh. I was reminded of one of those idioms that linger in one's mind....

IN A PIG'S EYE - "Never, highly unlikely.

I crossed Pig's Eye with pollen from Red Thumb....and one of the best selections was one I called 'Pig Knuckles'. It had red skin with a mix of red and yellow flesh...with a tuber shape that reminded me of real pig knuckles/hocks/feet...and I was trying to come up with a fingerling name and color parameters.

When I seeded TPS of Pig Knuckles..... I put the transplants in a couple of areas within the state of Washington. The one area that was instrumental in shining the light on one seedling was in the Upper Skagit River area. It froze deep that winter of 09/10 with temps down around 9 F. It froze 10 inches or more into the soil and maybe deeper. Digging in January...looking for a few survivors ....I found about 7 clones within thousands of clones that survived the freeze. This one tuber was broken out from around the frozen soil and appeared unscathed. I looked at the eyes to check for the tell-tale blackened necrosis....there was none! So imagine the name that went through my head...something that links to Pig's Eye....

When pigs fly

Idioms like this are used to indicate that something is highly unlikely ever to happen, or that it will never happen. You may have come across this little ditty...

When pigs fly / and pigs might fly.
When hell freezes over.
On a cold day in hell
Not in a month of Sundays.

But going from Pig's Eye to When Pigs Fly didn't fly with me....this is not a potato signifying hyperbole but the truth...hmmm..

Have you ever looked a pig in the eye?
And know that Pigs Don’t Lie?

When I name potatoes or tomatoes, I often resort to adynata, hyperbole, or humorous combining of words to finally settle on a name. You may scoff at my over-ambition but since I am an individual with a reputation for failure but sometimes succeeding, I expect my readers/customers to sarcastically claim to quip...("Hey look! A flying pig!")


I found the link below to illustrate how a name may tie in with similar phrases and this one made me look for dove-tailing relationships...

http://www.alsearsmd.com/pigs-dont-lie-2/

You should see the e-mails I’m getting about “Pigs Don’t Lie.” I never knew pigs were so popular…
Have you heard about this? Researchers took a group of pigs, fed them one simple nutrient, and the pigs dropped their fat and got lean from that one change only.
It’s a nutrient you probably don’t get enough of, but everyone needs. In fact, your body uses it to:
• Keep weight off
• Gain lean muscle mass
• Normalize your blood sugar
The good news is, I’m going to show you how you can use it for yourself.
If you haven’t heard how the fact that “Pigs Don’t Lie” can help you melt off your body fat....

Pigs Don’t Lie
If I would just keep using humic shale....I have a 50 lb bag ready to use on my potatoes and especially Pigs Don't Lie.....I can be assured of getting enough...Chromium into my potatoes!

If you want to fight fat and keep a lean, muscular body, you can try going to the gym and spending hours and hours lifting, running, spinning…
…or you can use chromium.
Did you know that one study took commercial pigs and fed them chromium, and measured significant fat reduction? They changed nothing else about the pigs … all they did was give them chromium and they got lean.1 Not only that, but they had an increase in muscle, as well.
Another study at the University of Kentucky found much the same thing. They added chromium to the diet of pigs and got an “increased percentage of muscle and decreased percentage of fat.”2
But it’s not just pigs telling the tale of chromium. An Austrian study gave one group of people a calorie-restricted diet and another group chromium for 26 weeks. The people in the chromium group lost just as much weight as the people eating almost nothing. And, like the other studies, they had increased lean muscle mass.3
And it gets better. They then gave chromium to the people who had dropped weight through calorie restriction, and those people were able to increase their lean muscle mass without gaining weight back.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t get enough chromium through what we eat.
Some of the reasons are:
• Modern nutrition advice – It tells you to eat mostly grains and lean meat, which gives you little chromium. One study showed that 90 percent of Americans aren’t getting enough chromium through our food.4
• Junk food – Most of the snacks available are full of sugar which can form phytic acid. This binds to chromium and prevents it from being absorbed.
• Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides – These are used on our crops and deplete them of important trace minerals like chromium.
• Stomach medications – Antacids block chromium absorption.
• Age – As you get older, it gets tougher to retain chromium.5
Meanwhile you need chromium because it handles one of the problems of why people become obese. That’s because it’s a co-factor for insulin. Chromium makes your insulin more efficient because it helps insulin take sugar and turn it into energy.
That helps you decrease your insulin production, so your body doesn’t take sugar from your bloodstream and store it as fat.
But a lack of chromium is just one reason why people are overweight.
For instance, you might just have a problem with leptin. Leptin is a hormone that does two things: It sends out the “I’m full” signal to your brain, and it tells the fat inside your cells to break down, so it can be burned as energy.
But foods containing high fructose corn syrup, for example, make you pump out so much leptin that your body eventually ignores the constant “full” signal. Your body thinks it needs to keep eating and storing more fat because it thinks it’s out of energy!

The following minerals occur naturally in humic shale:

Boron, Calcium, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Silver, Sodium, Sulfur, Zinc

Chances are that many of you have heard about chromium. The name of this mineral has been tossed around quite a bit lately as a supplement that may aid in weight loss. The jury is still out on whether it is truly useful in that area, but we do know that chromium is an essential micro-mineral. In other words, we need it! An element is considered essential if a dietary deficiency of that element results in suboptimal biological function. In this case, chromium plays a critical physiological role in the body’s use of sugar and insulin. Chromium helps insulin transport glucose (sugar) into the cells. It is also involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
Role in the body
Chromium initiates a bridge between insulin and the insulin receptors in our cells. This affects the cells’ uptake of glucose and its use of carbohydrates and lipids (fats). Inadequate intake of chromium has been linked to “glucose intolerance”. This is a condition where the cells are not able to utilize glucose efficiently. In addition, chromium is involved in fat metabolism and may play a role in preventing heart disease.
Deficiency
The typical American diet is deficient in chromium. One culprit is processed foods, because the refining of food results in much chromium loss. Ultimately, chromium deficiency can lead to problems with blood sugar regulation and lipid metabolism. This cluster of symptoms is seen in “metabolic syndrome," an insulin resistance condition that often progresses to type II diabetes.
Include it in Your Diet
Do yourself a favor and stop by your local farmer's market to pick up a bundle of whole foods today! Good sources of chromium.....include.....potatoes

Why would PIGS DON'T LIE mean anything to anyone? I just laid out the sustainable feature of this potato..freeze resistance...potato tubers that can be left in the ground until use. With the carotenoid xanthophylls as the usual source of bright yellow to yellow-orange and flavonoid anthocyanin producing the red-purple in red potatoes......we may just have the right potato for the right reason.

Anthocyanins are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that may appear red, purple, or blue. Anthocyanins are derivatives of anthocyanidins which include pendant sugars. Just thinking about sugars means some level of antifreeze potential? I should add that the pedigree of PIGS DON'T LIE include varieties that grew at very cold temps above 10,000 ft. elevations in the Andes. Perhaps I have introgressed this freezing resistance with flying colors.

Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants in vitro. This antioxidant property may be conserved even after the plant which produced the anthocyanin is consumed by another organism, possibly explaining why fruits and vegetables with colorful skins and pulp are considered nutritious. Research continues to be underway as to the potential range of health benefits from...

Anthocyanins are found in the cell vacuole in stems...potato stems can be tubers..... In these parts they are found predominantly in outer cell layers such as the epidermis and peripheral mesophyll cells.

I have other varieties of potatoes that may have even more value than PIGS DON'T LIE but I should build this variety up using the humic shale for the necessary chromium uptake. Maybe I should grow tons of this variety and sell them on line as a natural health food.

Tom Wagner

[Jeannine Anne]

Tom that is priceless,very technical too but I love the whimsy, and indeed it does make sense..my mind is racing ahead of you now for follow on names. I envy you very much.

Still a lake here on our gardens, very frustrating but after watching the news last night and hearing about the dreadful losses in the South from the tornadoes it kinda puts everything in perspective, so my dripping wet veggie patches are of little consequence in the larger picture.

However at this rate we will be planting potatoes in August!!

XX Jeanninp

[Jeannine Anne]

Tom, I have searched all over the forum and found wee bits of info here and there but is there anywhere that gives a description of the varieties I bought from you. They are planted in a long, large raised bed grid fashion . I have made a map of what is planted where but it would be extremely useful at harvest time to know what the individual tubers should look like. I know a few of them but the ones that are special to you I haven't got a clue and I don't want to mix them up too much if I can help it.

Some that had duplicates I have are separate in large pots so they are OK. It is the ones in the raised bed I am concerned about, just colours and shapes would be useful,, very basic. If you have time please.

Sarp Eye
Kingston
Sarpolov
Anya's Dream
Sarpo Rolly
Aggie Blue
Escanaba River
Druid Eire
Manistique River
Atlantic
Brevoort River
Muru
Agrarian Blue
I 1038
Cosighin
Saturna
Dakotah John Tom
Front Man
Reiche Kaighin
Nordic JT
LB 1
Red Chieftain
Skagit Laverton
Papa Cacho

Actually of anyone who has harvested and can help I would appreciate it.

I can see me at harvest time trying to figure out what is what.

Thank you
XX Jeannine

[Tom Wagner]

I provided a quick partial description and performed a spelling check. The Sarpolov, Sarpo Rolly, and Front Man are obscure clones even for me and they are either pinkish or white, but I will have to dig for records.


Sarp Eye-light red
Kingston-white
Sarpolov-will look up
Anya's Dream-white
Sarpo Rolly-will look up
Aggie Blue-blue
Escanaba River-red skin red flesh
Druid Eire-white
Manistique River-red skin red flesh
Atlantic-white
Brevoort River-violet
Muru-white with blue splashes
Agrarian Blue-blue
I 1038-white
Cosighin-yellow purple eyes
Saturna-light yellow
Dakotah John Tom-light red
Front Man-will look up
Reiche Kaighin-yellow
Nordic JT-red
LB 1-white
Red Chieftain-red
Skagit Laverton-lavender with yellow spectacles
Papa Cacho-long red...red flesh

[platys]

My sampler potatoes are HUGE. I have them in 15 gallon smart pots, and they started about 3 inches deep in the pot. They are now about my height. Of course, I'm only 4'10. There are blossoms on about half of them.

[wmontanez]

Platys, Jeannine and Tam how did it go last year with the sampler? Are you gals growing some this year?

[wingnut]

I trapped a couple dozen adult deer mice in my potato storage area last year. I have four traps ready and set to go at all times.