Pruning potato plants

[TZ-OH6]

This question is related to the thread on whole or cut seed potatoes, just taken to the next level.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=13981


I'm looking at an egg-sized seed potato that has 7-8 sprouted eyes on it. Assuming that more than two of these will grow out of the ground (two eyes are recommended for cut seed pieces) I think it is not unreasonable to assume that I am going to have 1) reduced vigour in those small plants, 2) competition for water, nutrients and light as they grow since whatever breaks the soil will be unconnected plants. 3) reduced production either in tuber size or number or both.


For those of you with more practical experience than I, is my thinking correct? Would it be a good idea to either 1) reduce the number of eyes before planting, 2) Cull some of the emergent stems down to the 2 strongest?

[Tom Wagner]

This subject reminds me of the old saying-----
"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"----

and I just realized that I would have to write a whole chapter of my so-called 'book' to explain myself. I need to someday write about physiological age of seed potatoes....relating to the age of the potato plant when the vine was killed, the time and temperatures of the storage and the time for post storage up to planting time.

There are many subject matter connections that illustrate this but I like this one...http://www.cipotato.org/library/pdfdocs/TIBen5099.pdf
and if you scroll down several pages it will explain what would take me a long time to type.

Planting that egg size tuber with multiple sprouts...either as it is or by knocking off some of the extra sprouts is something I have done within the row many times...I give the one sprout tuber the normal 8-12 inches between sets and the multiple stemmed tuber about 15-18 inches of space. I get all kinds of data on this type of thing but I won't bore you too much except to say that I get single stem plants with a few large tubers and many tubers of small size with the multiple stems. It is not unusual for me to get 10 lbs of potatoes from one hill of multiple stems with about 60 tubers.

My Skagit Valley Gold is naturally smaller in size than say...an Yukon Gold....and I plant SVG whole normally and have to space accordingly...at the 15" spacing. Yukon Gold's are low setters and the tubers produced are huge by SVG standards, so cutting these large tubers just maintains the low set/large tuber phenomena. The growers up in Skagit County want Yukon Gold's with large size and scoff at my SVG's because they don't want 90% of the yield to be in the range of 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches.....they want 90% to be 3 inches plus!

Yukon Gold is a very strong upright potato plant and close spacing helps utilize the sun better and keep weeds down. Skagit Valley Gold sprawls and close spacing hurts the yield...go figure!

If one would plant egg sized Yukon Golds that aged sufficiently to develop multiple sprouts...that yield would be slightly less per acre but the number of B's...or creamers...would increase dramatically. I tend to prefer small tubers in my cooking...probably goes back to my mother's mother's style of preference since ethnic Germans had varieties that produced smaller potatoes than say Dutch or Manx eccentricities....I mean ethnicities

I remember my Mom's folks basement well.....the potato cellar would be piled with potatoes sorted by size and my grandmother's prized potatoes would be in coal buckets...tiny potatoes the size of eggs and smaller.
http://emptythegarage.com/YQuaint/coalbucket.jpg (put a few spuds in)
Imagine my grandmother's disappointment with the Kennebec variety...almost all large potatoes...and her approval of Cobblers or Early Ohios. She really liked the few Ober Arnbacher Fruhe I grew for a few years...100 % of the small size she liked and easy peel of the boiled potatoes..the skin would pop off in your fingers....yellow fleshed and aromatic!

My maternal grandmother used similar cooking venues from her immigrant German parents. and thanks to Frederick the Great, it could be said that by the end of the 1800s, "potatoes were such a regular item that smoke coming from a cottage chimney at night was almost a certain sign that inside, potatoes, bacon and onions were frying." I wonder if they were growing a Daber potato or a cross of it?

Tom Wagner

[TZ-OH6]

This is good to know, especially if I want to ensure large potatoes from a certain variety for baking.

Also good to know about plant habit. I've been gathering info on the varieties you are sending me and knew that the sarpo clones were sprawlers, but didn't know about SVG. This will be important for my spacing since they will be crowded in a single bed and mulched. I will make sure to put the sprawlers on the outside. I think I will start a thread later today with the list to find out about plant habit, as it may help others plan their spacing a well.

[wmontanez]

Originally Posted by TZ-OH6

I think I will start a thread later today with the list to find out about plant habit, as it may help others plan their spacing a well.

I am interested in the info as well.. I have already planted my potatoes but will like to know for the future.