Selection/grow out process

[Nematode]

So last August I planted tps and harvested the bb's and marbles after the haulms died off.
The little taters survived in the vegetable crisper with minimal losses and are now sprouting in moist perlite.
What next?
Should I plant them as is or is there a benefit to sprout pulling?
Eventually I would like to select for favorable traits but just need to get some good eaters first.
What is a good spacing for plant out? I would prefer lots of smalls(golf ball or smaller) to a few large.


Seeds were:
SVG
Boyd dude
Magic dragons.

Thanks,
Nematode

[NathanP]

If they are that small, you are probably better to plant them out. Pull sprouts work best with larger tubers.

[Nematode]

Potato spacing guidelines never made sense to me in the context of seedlings / microtubers.

Finally found a potato planting guideline that made sense to me. 20 stems/square meter for large maincrop, 30 stems/square meter for seed potato and 25 stems for earlies.

Armed with this new (to me) information I decided to use it to make the best use of my 4x4 raised beds. Seedlings, pulls and very small seed potato will get 8" spacing, 36 stems per 4 x 4 raised bed.


Nematode

FYI
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAZ273.pdf

[joseph]

I tend to plant potato seedlings about 18" apart. That allows me to evaluate each genotype as a specimen, and most times not get the tubers jumbled up together while digging. That makes it easier to decide which varieties to cull.

[Nematode]

Do you emasculate/pollinate or just let 'em rip and choose berries from the best for next years crop?

I think I am going for a 2 year cycle, plant seeds late, harvest mini-tubers, store and grow out the tubers next season, collect berries from the best and start over. I dont expect to do any real breeding, ill leave that to the bees.
Does this sound reasonable?

[joseph]

I plant both tubers and seeds each year. I'll plant a particular clone for as long as it remains productive for me, or until I inadvertently lose it. Some years I might do something dumb like forgetting to water the potato seedlings, so they die, and I don't get new clones that year. Or I forget to dig a favorite clone. Sometimes I get clones jumbled up. That's OK. Potatoes tend to produce more seeds if different clones are growing close together.

I allow natural/promiscuous pollination. Bumblebees like potato flowers in my garden. Some years ago I heavily culled my potato clones, and got rid of every clone that wasn't producing clouds of pollen when the flowers are jostled. I culled every clone that doesn't produce lots of berries.

Mini-tubers have been hard for me to work with, so I tend to plant potato seeds first thing in the spring, about the same time as I start my tomatoes. Then I harvest mature tubers in the fall and overwinter some of those for replanting.

[Nematode]

Thanks thats really helpful, the mini tubers are a pain.
Sounds like a casual process which certainly fits my garden style.
I am curious, and not sure how to word it, maybe what percentage of TPS seedlings vs tubers do you plant and what is their relative yield?
Thanks.

[joseph]

I grow seedlings so that I can get new and interesting clones to plant as my production crop.

This year I planted 2 rows of clones and one row of seedlings. It was a mild winter, so I am also growing about one row worth of volunteers that came up from tubers that got missed during harvest and didn't freeze during the winter.

I'm expecting the rows planted as tubers to be much more productive. They got off to an earlier start because they had a huge food reserve in the tuber. The seedlings take quite a while to get established well. And I don't dare put seedlings out in frosty weather, but I don't mind putting tubers out when it's chilly.

The first year when grown from seed, the tubers tend to be smaller than they get the second year when grown from tubers.

Also the first year I get a lot of duds: Varieties that I cull because they are too scabby, or attacked by insects, or are not productive enough, or they don't produce berries. At first I tried to save almost every clone. These days, I only save about the top 20% of clones to replant next year.

Here's a photo of my first attempt at growing from True Potato Seeds. I think that only one of these clones is still with me.

Entire harvest from each first year plant is in one basket.


2nd year. Harvest from one plant. 2nd row down all the way to the left.


2nd year. Harvest from one plant. Top row. Third from the left.

[Nematode]

Thanks for taking the time to share. That's super info helps me a lot.