Pinch off flowers for larger potatoes?

[OmahaJB]

Yesterday afternoon I was actually searching on google for info on potato berries/seeds, and came across a site that mentioned removing flowers to get larger potatoes. After reading through some of the threads on here it seems berries aren't exactly plentiful for the average backyard gardener to get on their plants, so are the flowers and occassional berry really using that much energy resulting in smaller potatoes? And if so, how much smaller? 10% or more smaller?

The reason I ask is some of the flowers on my potato plants were blooming last weekend, and I'm sure there are alot more open now - will see for myself Saturday. Trying to decide if I want to pinch those flowers off, although I'd like to try to get a few berries for seed if it's not going to hurt potato size by much.

Thanks, Jeff

[Medbury Gardens]

I have a purple potato (no mame yet but will post photos soon to id)that last season yielded 8kg-12lbs each from some of the best plants but they are also a prolific producers of flowers and seed pods.if you can gain 10% in size i think this coming growing season i will remove all the flowers off one row and compare.

Richard

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Richard,

I suspected flowers & berries would not affect growth of the potatoes to any large degree. Glad to hear it does not.

Regarding the 10%, that was just a number I threw out there, thinking that's what I'd consider a big difference. The website I happened upon (forget which one) did not state what the difference would be, but seemed to suggest "if you want large potatoes, remove the flowers". I believe that was the wording used or close to it.

Thanks for the response! Jeff

[Tom Wagner]

I would not worry at all about a potato plant blooming and thinking that the yield would be reduced. You should be happy that the environmental conditions are such that they are blooming. A lot of stress can abort the blooming process.
The fact that a plant can bloom allows for a little more photosynthesis and delays the senescences that usually means bulking of the tubers. If anything, the plant producing flowers just means a tad bit later maturity of the tuber bulking.

In the old days, growers had the myth that potatoes that bloomed robbed them of yield. Thereby, growers were proud of the potato varieties that produced few or no berries. If they grew potatoes that had poor pollen characteristics and practiced monoculture with only one variety, no berries were produced at all!!!!

The heyday of the Early Rose, and resulting progenies of it, dovetailed with the growers wishes for potatoes that produced no berries.

As a potato breeder, my first selection criteria is for profusely blooming varieties that have good pollen fertility, and have super selfing capabilities with little or no self-incompatibility. Why fool with a potato that can only be asexually propagated?

Tom

[OmahaJB]

Appreciate the info, Tom. I'm pretty sure it was German Butterball I saw with open flowers last weekend. Both Carola & LaRatte had flower buds about to open, so tomorrow I may see quite a few open. I hope to grow TPS next year if I get any berries.

Thanks, Jeff

[Medbury Gardens]

Over the last twenty years of growing and maintaining a small collection i had given little thought and consideration to the flower and seed pod, then two seasons ago i noticed a few small clumps of seedlings growing were i had grown potatos the season before,at first i didn`t know what they were, till i worked it out "hay you can grow spuds from those seed pods".

The past season i had a late frost that knocked off all the flowers off all my varieties, but it was only the above purple potato that regrew its flowers and seed pods. we live along way from other potatos gardens so i`m hoping that this seed will be ok to grow from, would it be??

Thanks Tom for that web address, i`m going to contact them this week and talk spuds.

Lastly your right Tom if a potato grows a large crop while still producing a heap of seed pods, probably no point removing flowers especially after reading your last post.
Richard

[pbud]

This is year I'm growing potatoes for the first time. I'm growing Blue Victor and my plants have got tons of flowers. I'm such a potato newbie was surprised to see several little green fruit that set from the flowers. So I just was looking on the internet for info about this and checked here too (I do post tomato's here). Anyway, thanks for the info fellas - I'm glad the flowers and fruit won't diminish the potato yield. I'll do some more research on how to propogate those seeds and it'll be a fun project.

Paul

[tjg911]

past 2 years i grew all blue, yukon gold and superior.

all blue produces an lot of flowers more than any variety i ever saw.

yukon gold produces some and i was happy at that.

superior does produce some then they either abort and fall off or are eaten by some bug.

yields don't seem to matter re flowers or not. i get 1-3 pounds per plant.

all blue stores forever and that's without getting sweet in storage!

yukon gold keeps about as long but they do get sweet after 5 or 6 months.

superior doesn't store that long, i use them 1st and i think 3-4 months is about the limit.

tom

[Medbury Gardens]

Tom, i`m curious about your (all blue), the name sounds a bit like a Danish heirloom potato i grow (old blue).Are you able to post a photo of it,i would interested to compare them.

Old blue for me is the most reliable spud i have, it never gets disease, mind you i do live in a semi-arid area were high humidity is a rear event,but even now 4 months after harvest not one potato has gone off.

[tjg911]

so no digital camera. let me see if i can find a photo....

here you go lots of pictures of the tubers no plant pix

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...h+Images&gbv=2

[Medbury Gardens]

Looking at those photos on Google, all blue really does look like the same potato as old blue.

i will get some photos on here in the next few weeks and you will see what i mean.
Richard

[Tom Wagner]

The blue varieties that are genetically
identical (Synonyms) or at least very similar to each other:
Congo
British Columbia Blue
McIntosh Black
River John Blue
Sharon’s Blue
All Blue
Blue Congo
Congo Blue
Purple Congo
Nova Scotia Blue
Himalayan Black 2
Davis Blue
Russian Blue
Blue Salad
Old Blue