Pulling potato plants from sprouts

[wmontanez]

OwieBrian,
That's the spirit! I tend to spread the joy of growing food very easily. Now my focus this year is with TPS and potatoes ...and that seems.... like I am spreading the madness to others. Pictures please!??

Wendy
Ps. Got 2 more sprouts forming roots and an AKT that have massive roots from a shrunken spud I used to cut an eye and left to heal. So put it into soil and voila! 2 shoots and roots already in 2 days as well.

[owiebrain]

I'm a picture-taking fool so I did take a few during today's pulling. I'll get them blogged tomorrow and slap it up here.

I'm getting confused, holding conversations between both here and Tom's place. LOL

[owiebrain]

Adventures in Potato Shaving

[wmontanez]

Loved the pics. Those are pretty big roots! SVG is a bit shy those will grow in no time I bet.

[Tom Wagner]

My opinion....those are removed too soon...they need more tops. The shoots must have leaves to carry on photosynthesis to perform well during the recovery.

[owiebrain]

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

My opinion....those are removed too soon...they need more tops. The shoots must have leaves to carry on photosynthesis to perform well during the recovery.

Thanks, Tom. That's kind of what I was thinking. The spud in those particular photos were the smallest of the batch but it's when I had the camera handy. Still, I stuck 'em in pots to see what they'd do. I won't hold my breath.

Editing to add: I edited my blog post on this to incude your quote. I don't want to steer people wrong should they stumble upon my post, looking for info.

[Tom Wagner]

If you notice those roots....there are no hair roots yet off the sides of those leader roots.

[Indyartist]

Quietly taking notes. My only trouble is it is easier to produce plants then it is to produce land to plant them in.

[owiebrain]

Indy, I have five acres so plenty of room to expand... for a couple of years. It's just finding more time for everything. I have too many irons in the fire right now and have been making more mistakes than I should. I need to s.l.o.w down and screw my head back on straight once in a while.

I think I've decided to just take those tubers I already pulls sprouts from and plant them in the ground, if you all think they'll still do something there? And I still have the other half of the tubers that I've had working on growing better sprouts. I'll continue my sprout pulling with those... after a few weeks. It's time to get busy on getting the rest of the garden prepped and planted now that we're about at the frost-free date. We're in a new house, starting a new garden from scratch, so we're behind on everything.

[Jeannine Anne]

I am not getting this.I have grown potatoes but only in the traditional way of planting them in the ground . Sorry to sound so dense Is there a thread somewhere that explains it right from the start, This thread is really interesting but I don't understand "pulling"..

So,am I right, I take a potato tuber...then...?? Bury it, dig it up,?? Does it need some activity on it before I bury it..I am really confused.

I would really appreciate the help,

XX Jeannine

[wmontanez]

Jeannine, hi.
The idea of pulling plants started in another thread talking about rapid multiplication. My interest was to start one potato named Skagit Valley Gold early on to get some plants and then harvest small tubers and plant those once my frost free day arrived. Why the trouble? Well, Skagit Valley Gold is one of Tom Wagner's creation that has a lot of good attributes like bountiful production of small potatoes of very good flavor, high levels of carotenoids, short cooking time, and short dormancy. I do live in an area with long winters and 120 days or so of growing season. It breaks dormancy too soon for me, in fact one month after harvest. That is a good quality if you live in the tropics or an area where you can half 2 seasons of growing potatoes. As a backup I sent one tuber to my mom in the Caribbean and she propagate it and send me one tuber back just now, because I was babying those tubers for months! It begun to shrivel and I was afraid to lose them. Say you only have one tuber of a rare or unique variety, by pulling plants or by taking cuttings and rooting, one can multiply the plants to get several and make a seed stock to save for next season.

I guess is not the easiest way to garden but I am learning different ways to be able to grow food reliably and making it self-sustainable.

Right now I do have about 5-6 Skagit Valley Gold potato plants growing happily and I am 3 weeks away from my frost-free day. . .

[Jeannine Anne]

Originally Posted by wmontanez

Jeannine, hi.
The idea of pulling plants started in another thread talking about rapid multiplication. My interest was to start one potato named Skagit Valley Gold early on to get some plants and then harvest small tubers and plant those once my frost free day arrived. Why the trouble? Well, Skagit Valley Gold is one of Tom Wagner's creation that has a lot of good attributes like bountiful production of small potatoes of very good flavor, high levels of carotenoids, short cooking time, and short dormancy. I do live in an area with long winters and 120 days or so of growing season. It breaks dormancy too soon for me, in fact one month after harvest. That is a good quality if you live in the tropics or an area where you can half 2 seasons of growing potatoes. As a backup I sent one tuber to my mom in the Caribbean and she propagate it and send me one tuber back just now, because I was babying those tubers for months! It begun to shrivel and I was afraid to lose them. Say you only have one tuber of a rare or unique variety, by pulling plants or by taking cuttings and rooting, one can multiply the plants to get several and make a seed stock to save for next season.

I guess is not the easiest way to garden but I am learning different ways to be able to grow food reliably and making it self-sustainable.

Right now I do have about 5-6 Skagit Valley Gold potato plants growing happily and I am 3 weeks away from my frost-free day. . .

Hi, that sounds like an excellent idea. I have quite a few single tubers that would benefit from this.

I guess I need to find the first thread as I am not sure just what to do.

Certainly sounds as if it could be away of getting round the persistant rain we have had here.

XX Jeannine

[wmontanez]

I meant to leave the link

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=14199&page=5


http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17943

[Jeannine Anne]

Originally Posted by wmontanez

I meant to leave the link

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...t=14199&page=5


http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17943

Thank you very much, absolutely fascinating, just got to havea go now.

XX Jeannine

[owiebrain]

Originally Posted by owiebrain

I think I've decided to just take those tubers I already pulls sprouts from and plant them in the ground, if you all think they'll still do something there?

We got busy with other things in the past couple of days so I ignored the tubers I had already pulled from. When I was in the basement potting up tomatoes last night, I saw those tubers had pushed more sprouts and are starting to urfurl some nice, healthy leaves above the soil line. Do I need to wait for the hair roots to form before I pull them? Or will they form after pulling as long as they've got leaves going?