RIVER SERIES OF POTATO VARIETIES

[Indyartist]

I have dug two varieties from the 1lb Sampler that I purchased from Tom Wagner via New World Seeds and Tubers. I will re-re-iterate that this season was very tough growing conditions for the garden in general and for potatoes in particular. My planted rows for this sampler were first flooded with standing water, then decent growing conditions followed by severe heat (90+ for the last 16 days in a row). I lost three tubers / varieties which never produced a plant at all.
I have dug , first "Escanana River" which from a single tuber produced 6 potatoes which I will save all six to plant in 2012. This plant, "Escanana River" was the smallest of the remaining 14 varieties and considering this I am reasonably happy to have six tubers after all. Secondly, I dug "Red Thumb", this single tuber produced 17 + potatoes weighing in total a little above 3 lbs. I have separated the largest 8 potatoes out for my beautiful Greek wife to cook in what ever fashion she chooses. I will save the remaining to hope to plant next year. I also have harvested berries from "Red Thumb" which is a wonderful bonus as well.

[raindrops27]

Here I am with more questions. Excuse my ignorance. But, what is the best way to save potatoes you just harvested, for next seasons planting Indy?

[Jeannine Anne]

Hi, I lost all but one of my river series sadly, odd as most of the other varieties are doing well?

XX Jeannine

[salix]

OK, dug some of my potatoes yesterday. Was not very impressed with La Pan, quite small and all looked very similar. Will save from the three hills which were the most productive and had the largest tubers. Designer Roses were simply beautiful, several different shades of pink and rose. Most plants were fairly productive and had reasonable sized tubers. Will save and plant tubers from each of the plants. Of 14 other of Tom's varieties - WOW! Really need to learn how to post pictures! Will limit my comments here to just a few. 'Pointe aux Chenes River' - glowing (almost fluorescent) dark violet tubers. 'Au Sable River' - medium sized roundish tubers of the most unusual appearance, pink with curving cream coloured patches, like an orca or pinto horse. 'Cosighin' - good size and production, pale yellow/cream with violet eyes. 'Pink Fir Apple' - hugely productive and all tubers firmly attached to base of plant, very easy to harvest! 'Toro Dude' - not very productive (with tubers), fairly large, very dark purple and an absolutely massive production of berries. Also got berries from Designer Roses, Saturna and La Pan. Also have a 2 pound bag of "TPS berries of unknown origin". Don't really know what to do with them as I do not have the space (or, it must be confessed, the stamina) to grow out even a small percentage of them.

Also noted that there were quite a few volunteers from last year's fallen berries.

[Indyartist]

Here are some pictures of one variety I received in Tom Wagner's 1lb Sampler. This is a variety named "Milakokia River". The single tuber was planted on 4/26/2011 and harvested on 10/5/2011. The total weight harvested was right at 10lbs. This variety has by far produced the greatest total volume of potatoes from one tuber planted. I haven't yet tried them for taste but I was very excited to see such a large harvest from one single tuber.

[wmontanez]

Stunning! I've been dissapointed with my containers but this truly brings my hopes up again.

[Indyartist]

Well, Wendy I don't want to send you back into disappointment but the "River" series were planted in the ground. With my 1lb sampler, I have now individual tubers that produced, in this case, 10 lbs and others that only produced 3 tubers. I'll keep posting results of each variety from my sampler as I find time.

[loeb]

Indyartist, could you tell something about Brevoort River? I have ordered TPS and this is one of the varietes

[delltraveller]

Originally Posted by loeb

Indyartist, could you tell something about Brevoort River? I have ordered TPS and this is one of the varietes

Loeb, that's one of the varieties of TPS I selected, too. I hope Indyartist can give us a few clues about what we might see. His seed potato in the pictures in post #4 appears round, smooth, with skin that has some purple/blue.

[loeb]

This is my first time growing potatoes from seed, it's like an adventure delltraveller, great to hear you have them too, we can compare our results

[Tom Wagner]

Brevoort River is a cross between Michigan Purple and likely Nordic October.

What is nice about this cross is that Nordic October has had great scab resistance and Michigan Purple supposedly has a problem with that.

The TPS of Brevoort River is either selfed or perhaps back crossed to Nordic October again, since they were side by side during the berry formation.

I would say Brevoort is very similar to Michigan Purple but perhaps more like a red potato for usage. I am hoping customers with the Brevoort River TPS will tell me soon what colors they are coming up with this season. I will be focusing my work with the actual cross of Brevoort River X Nordic October to compare the OP seed to determine if the TPS seed I sent out is the same as my purposeful cross. I am determined to find some violet-reds in the progeny.

BTW...about the Michigan Purple the grandfather of the TPS Brevoort River you may have....I must find my own pictures of Brevoort River.
http://potatobg.css.msu.edu/Potato%2...pleProfile.pdf

[/IMG]http://i.imgur.com/k9ROn.png[/IMG]

[loeb]

It looks nice, and it should be tasty I wonder how it will work under my growing conditions.. I think that I should have separate notepad, register, something like a logbook just for potatoes, and the second one for tomatoes, to organize and keep together all this data.. I feel like a victorian traveller in to a totally new world.

[Indyartist]

Here are the pictures I took last year, in October, when I dug the results of my single "Breevort River" tuber. Last year, here in Indiana, the weather was potato un-friendly. It was too rainy in the Spring which left the rows with these potatoes completely submerged in water for at least 24 hours. In the second half of Summer we had a record amount of consecutive days above 90 degrees.
Having said all that, Breevort River's single tuber still produced 5 lbs. of tubers.

[salix]

Thought I'd try to post a couple of pictures:

DSC00519.jpg

DSC00527.jpg

[Tom Wagner]

Al, I see that you have some scab....and I was hoping I could get resistance over its parent Michigan Purple. Maybe I will get some resistance/tolerance in the TPS generation.....