Potato planting kick-off

[FILMNET]

Raindrops, potatoes take 70 days or more, and around here the ones to grow are gone by June. If you get some to grow they should be in ground any day. On spring all farm in Maine sell them, they are sell fast also.

[wmontanez]

Potato Update:
This weekend I started to harvest some of the potatoes planted for eating from the TW sampler 2010. I had Amey and Adirondacksen x Kern Toro (AKT) completely die down while I was away in vacations. I got about 9lbs from 4-5 AKT plants, and from 3 Amey Russet plants got 5lbs. I have 3 SVG plants still growing so only peaked and stole few tubers. I am pretty happy with 14 pounds so far.

From this year TW sampler 2011, found Red Thumb, Muruta, India## (forgot the number), Yellow Finn and Skagit Russet die down. I took a shovel and separated the tubers but haven't got all of them yet ...not reporting weights. I think 12 in spacing was too close for some that have long stolons reached the other plant making it difficult to have them separated. Leaving Seatle and Skagit Leap died early on and they did not had a chance to make tubers. I have several plants growing well; Fripapa, CIP##(I need to check numbers) Muru and Azule Rose are some of them. None have flowers. Some berries were collected also this weekend.

TPS seedlings:
Still growing in pots, some still flowering. I am waiting until they die down to check and take pictures. I have not found any berries on them but they were neglected during my break for a month so I am happy to see them all alive and growing.

Pictures next week.

[wmontanez]

Finally got around taking pictures. Tom Wagner's sampler of 2010.

I cooked 6 of Amey so this is left for seed and 4 more for eating



I gave a friend 3# of Adirondacksen x Kern Toro, here is 6# to save for seed and the rest for eating


This weekend got to harvest the Skagit Valley Gold...I still have one plant from a pull plant that is for "seed" saving all these are for eating!

[owiebrain]

Wendy, those looks scrumptious! Got any favorites from this year's crop yet?

[wmontanez]

Owiebrian,

Amey Russet (mashed) and Skagit Valley Gold (boiled)

From the 2011 Sampler I still have a bunch to harvest and sample. I will report here my picks. Azule rose is yet to be done flowering and Muru is still green. I cooked Red Thumb very good roasted. Also no potatoes for Skagit Leap or Leaving Seattle... Yellow Finn is another waiting for sampling.

From 2010 Sampler I still haven't tried Marcy that one I got 2 potatoes and saved all for 'seed' ...this time I got more to sample and save. I still have few to dig, Lumper again refuse to die down. Lost all my 4 Reiche Tom earlier due to disease but have TPS saved.

From the TPS only one plant of Skagit beets die down and it is white skin LOL no flesh peaking yet until ready to compare them all. I have about 3 more Skagit beets growing. All the other TPS seedling are still green. Can't wait to harvest them all.

Any favorites of yours?

[wmontanez]

I have been busy with harvest but today had time to clean and select tubers for seed stock. I got 1.5 pounds per hill, and one seed per hill

Azule Rose 1 tuber seed= 2 pounds

[salix]

Well, am going to try again with the photos...

http://www.tomatoville.com/images/editor/menupop.gif

Not sure what I have or have not done correctly - but there IS a photo. That is my first glimpse of Pink Fir Apple. Very easy to harvest!

OK, now how do I get rid of the [url] http:// thingy??

[wmontanez]

Salix, there is the picture. If you want it embeded like some of mine showed above then your picture has to be in a place like picasa from google or photobucket. Stand on the photo and right click with the mouse A popout screen will open and in the bottom says "PROPERTIES" click there and another little window will open. You have to copy the URL by again right click on the address and copy the whole address will look something like
http://www.tomatoville.com/images/misc/logo.jpg (the tomatoville logo above in this forum) that is the location of the picture, you can post that as a link as well.

To have the pic embeded you have to go to the top of this writting screen and click on the icon that has the mountain

and paste the URL address in the box and click ok. Voila!

[wmontanez]

By the way... that plant has a good harvest of pink fir apple! How's the taste?

[Mark0820]

Salix,

What a great harvest. I can't believe all of the potatoes on that one plant.

[raindrops27]

Wendy,

I am patiently waiting for Tom to offer his sampler to plant next spring. My question is how do you save your potato seeds(not TPS, actual small potato seeds) to plant. You mentioned you had some from 2010. How do you store them to plant, and how long could I store potato seeds before I plant them. Thank you in advance.

Melissa

[wmontanez]

Hi Melissa,

Yes I select healthy tubers for seed and store them in a dark place, cold 45F, damp >50% humidity. I prefer tubers that are about 2-3in but if I have smaller also try those if any survive without drying out they get planted as well. Last year only few did not make it.

My cold place is the basement because I don't have a root cellar. I was reading Elliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest and he describes a way to make a "cellar" in a corner of the basement and I realized I am doing something similar. Last year I moved mine once they started to sprout to my 2nd floor unheated, northern facing room with diffuse light to have the sprouts thick and not skinny trying to reach for light in the dark.

Check Tom site often because he talked about having some seeds around Dec /Jan time. He sends it when is proper to plant depending on your zone.

[Indyartist]

I need to try a cellar in my cellar or something, as I have no unheated rooms. I also need to try and adjust my planting so that I am digging potatoes as late as possible to shorten the span of time I'm trying to keep them dormant.

[raindrops27]

Thanks Wendy for the answer.

Tom, is where you got the Amey Russet seeds right? I wish to try Kennebec, Amey Russet, a sweet productive fingerling, and something oddly different which is productive. I have seen some sites are already selling potato seeds. So, I was curious about storage.

[wmontanez]

Hi Melissa,

I got Amey Russet from Tom Wagner. Since you mention that you like big potatoes...I should mention that Angus Bull has been my biggest blue potato so far from about 5 or 6 different blues I have grown from Tom. Very good taste too.