Pulling potato plants from sprouts

[wmontanez]

Ok. This is my first attemp to augment my Skagit Valley Gold plants by pulling sprouts.

Procedure was to put a tuber in a tray with soiless media and cover it with about an half inch of moist media. In 2 days I had 5 sprouts rooting and elongating so I pulled them without taking pics. I returned the tuber to the soil and left it there for a week...after 3 days already had grown new eyes/sprouts and one was ready to be pulled today, 4 are developing roots. The bottom of the tuber got dark and soft but I will continue until there is life in that seed to see how many lil' plants I can harvest.

[wmontanez]

Only let me add 2 pics before so next pictures are separate

[Indyartist]

You experiment is interesting. I've read a little on this but it is interesting to see it visually. I wonder what the difference in yield is between planting whole potatoes to cutting potatoes to pieces and that compared to pulling sprouts and also the difference in these yields to plantings from TPS. I'm just getting started with growing potatoes so it is all adding to my learning curve.

[David Marek]

Neat. I did not realize they could come off with roots intact. You can really get up close and personal with the potato plant this way.

Originally Posted by Indyartist

You experiment is interesting. I've read a little on this but it is interesting to see it visually. I wonder what the difference in yield is between planting whole potatoes to cutting potatoes to pieces and that compared to pulling sprouts and also the difference in these yields to plantings from TPS. I'm just getting started with growing potatoes so it is all adding to my learning curve.

Amen. I should have learned how to grow potatoes first, then begin experimenting. This year should be better.

[wmontanez]

Well that is basically it for experiments this year as spring is here and lots needs to be done once I get plants in the garden my afternoon free time get's tied up with chores like weeding, staking etc. I 'll add few more picts until they are ready to move out to the garden.

[Medbury Gardens]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

. I wonder what the difference in yield is between planting whole potatoes to cutting potatoes to pieces and that compared to pulling sprouts and also the difference in these yields to plantings from TPS.

I cant see it making a lot of difference really,the seed potato's role is to enable it survives the winter and regrows in spring,once the pulled sprout has developed roots and is growing on its own,is it not then independent of the tuber.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

I cant see it making a lot of difference really,the seed potato's role is to enable it survives the winter and regrows in spring,once the pulled sprout has developed roots and is growing on its own,is it not then independent of the tuber.

My question on yeild is in part due to this publication by Purdue University, an agricultural college about 1 hours drive from me here in Indiana. In this article it says that yield from growing from seeds (TPS) is lower, "Yield is typically low compared to cultivars started from
tuber seed pieces, making true seed cultivars mainly of
interest for container culture rather than high production."

So, if that is the case then where do pulled sprouts lay in the yield range in the different methods of propagating potatoes?

Here is the link to the Purdue potato planting guide:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-62W.pdf

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

My question on yeild is in part due to this publication by Purdue University, an agricultural college about 1 hours drive from me here in Indiana. In this article it says that yield from growing from seeds (TPS) is lower, "Yield is typically low compared to cultivars started from
tuber seed pieces, making true seed cultivars mainly of
interest for container culture rather than high production."

So, if that is the case then where do pulled sprouts lay in the yield range in the different methods of propagating potatoes?

Here is the link to the Purdue potato planting guide:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-62W.pdf

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

I cant see it making a lot of difference really,the seed potato's role is to enable it survives the winter and regrows in spring,once the pulled sprout has developed roots and is growing on its own,is it not then independent of the tuber.

I agree, by the time you get to the point of using single- eye pieces of seed tuber, there is not that much of an energy store, anyway. If the sprout is from a high yielding clone/ variety, production should still be good. I would actually be more comfortable about sticking an already growing plant in the ground, but the labor of growing a bunch would add up. Still treat the transplants like a regular potato plant once they are in the ground. That is, hill up the dirt around the stem as it grows, or keep adding mulch, whichever method you prefer. From my experience last year, never let potato transplants become potbound.

The commercial seed variety Zolushka F1 outpaced my other TPS- grown plants last year (that's what it was bred to do), but I can tell some of the other varieties have some real potential for this season. The awesome variety of TPS we are dealing with here from Tom can hardly be compared to the few commercial varieties available in the U.S.

So far the stems on my plants from cuttings are much more sturdy and thick than the thin, floppy TPS seedlings, so they should be easier to deal with. I am wondering how the timing will translate, though, compared to planting tubers.

[owiebrain]

Wendy, thanks for the pics! Due to lurking the pulling & cutting threads here and at Tom's, I shallow-planted a few tubers myself over the weekend. I'll be trying pulling the sprouts.

Did you literally just pull them off, though? Or did you do a little digging of the actual spud so as not to break off the sprout & roots?

Thanks!

[wmontanez]

owiebrian,
I push to the side and upwards with a bamboo skewer or toothpick at the base of the sprout to snap it and lift the plant roots are intact... not digging into the flesh and the same eye will sprout again. It is difficult to take a picture thou I need an assistant

[owiebrain]

Thanks, Wendy, for the clarification. Now if my tubers will just get their butts, er, eyes in gear...

[Tom Wagner]

Went to the greenhouse to see how my seedlings and transplants were doing....way too cold to grow tomatoes...they are just hanging on....but the potato transplants from TPS are doing fine although not growing much after a couple of weeks. The jewel of the greenhouse was the Azul Toro variety of potato tubers that I potted up over a month ago.....72 little tubers...marble size to golf ball....and these tubers had hundreds of very leafy plants growing up...I made 288 pull plants from 19 little tubers. At this rate ....
15 times 72 = 1080 pull plants on the first pull event.

I should easily get another cycle of pull sprouts as i put the tubers minus the sprouts back in the soil media...the tubers being very turgid and eyes ready to sprout more shoots again soon. I should end up with at least 1500 rooted plantlets to put out in the field once it is warm enough to safely transplant them ....maybe in a couple of weeks. I will need to fertilize heavily when I transplant to encourage lush and rapid growth. My goal is to get a minimum of 2,000 lbs. of Azul Toro.

The tubers had sprouted out from every eye and had an average of 10 or more shoots from all the eyes. The pots were about 4 inches deep with a heavy feeding at the bottom one inch of soil media with blood meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, rock phosphate, lime, cottonseed meal, greensand and fish/bone meal. The roots had penetrated the entire pot and were quite vigorous. The leaves were a deep purple green, showing the beneficial effects of the feeding and the natural purple pigments of the blue potato type. The 4" deep pots are in trays of 24 inserts. The three trays together was a mass of two to three inch tall plants....wish I had a picture...very healthy plants.

The Azul Toro is a very shiny blue skin...blue fleshed potato that is a cross of my Negro Y Azul variety crossed to Kern Toro. The tubers were from a June harvest of last year of little tubers in a small shoe box kept at ambient temps.

I just about lost this variety due to a number of unforeseen events and I hope the rescue effort works.

Tom Wagner

[owiebrain]

I'm just up from the basement where I dug up the tubers There were great masses of roots coming from the shoots but the shoots themselves were still little nubs in most cases. I pulled some and planted and left others to see how long it takes them to get more mature like Wendy's pics.

I guess I was just surprised at how large most of the roots were coming off of tiny, just-sprouted shoots. Has anyone had luck pulling those? Or should I next time wait for the shoots to get larger before shallow planting for the roots?

Another question: Some of the larger shoots were two and three to a bunch, coming out of one eye, but each with their own roots (and, I assume, some shared ones in the jumble). Do you all split those or plant them as one?

[Tom Wagner]

As long as a potato sprout/shoot has some roots...separate it for an individual transplanting. Once the transplant is growing good...one, two , three weeks later...take to the field.

The idea of course, is to get quite a few roots to support the transplanting shock. I find the shoot takes off better if there is a fair amount of green leaves to balance the new growth.

BTW, speedkin.com seems to show some very familiar TPS lines. I am finding more and more photos on the web since I have been foisting TPS to anyone who wants to try growing potatoes from the true seed.

I rather like the tandem approach that is so apropos on this TVille topic......growing potatoes from TPS and multiplying potatoes rapidly by sprout pulls. I would love to see folks finding a 'One in a million' potato hill from TPS and reproducing it 100 fold the next season by sprout pulls.

Tom Wagner

I encourage folks to try TPS and it is not too late for this season to get some seed and try it clear into late summer. I may list several hundred new TPS lines on my TPS site yet this Spring or Summer to promote more diversity of potato varieties...

Tom Wagner

[owiebrain]

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

BTW, speedkin.com seems to show some very familiar TPS lines.

They should seem familiar since they came from you.

Thanks for the input. I did end up separating most of the larger multi-clumps but left the smaller bunches as one. I didn't have my old fart glasses with me so was afraid I'd kill them trying to separate.

I'm terribly afraid that this year's obsession with potatoes is turning into a more permanent one. I can see it quickly escalating to the same level as my tomatoes and chiles.