Skagit Magic full of blooms

[Indyartist]

Thought I'd get some pictures of my Skagit Magic potatoes which are flowering like none other in the garden.
I'm not sure if I have potatoes flowering or flowers potatoeing! The pictures don't quite do them justice but it shows at least to some degree the amount of flowers this variety is producing. I would have preferred them to be planted in the ground but it was too rainy when they needed transplanted so they ended up in these 5 gl nursery pots.
I'm hoping for berries but I'm not sure if my containers will be perfect enough conditions to produce them.

[Goldie]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

[TZ-OH6]

Why haven't they fallen over yet?

[salix]

Indy, last year I had a small (4 x 8) bed fairly densely planted with Tom's TPS. They flowered non-stop for almost 2 months. It was a solid mass of beautiful purple blossoms and eventually an overwhelming number of berries. Probably could have filled a bucket with them. This year the plants resulting from those tiny tubers are very vigorous plants and were the first to bloom, probably a good month ahead of the rest of this year's planting of mixed varieties.

[Tom Wagner]

The containers that Indyartist has could easily produce berries. I would, however, follow up with a liquid feeding now and again in two/three weeks. I am impressed. My Skagit Magics are still trying to grow....temps getting down to about 45 tonight....waiting for summer sometime to happen.

I put out another 40 varieties of tomatoes thinking it might be warm enough...I was wrong.

Salix, your commentary about a 4 by 8 patch of potatoes blooming for two months is great to hear about. I want people to know that I am closing in on providing potato diversity and flowers to boot.

[wingnut]

As a professional landscaper/gardener first, I must say that many of the plants from Tom a VERY worthy of a place in a floral bordert planting.

[renny1]

First time trying pictures and hope it works. Was pleasantly surprised to to find Escabana River blooming today.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by renny1

First time trying pictures and hope it works. Was pleasantly surprised to to find Escabana River blooming today.

Bravo! Fantastic shot!

[renny1]

Thanks, I kinda like it myself!! My notes say that I planted a dark purple tuber but Tom says red skin with red flesh. I will defer to Mr. Wagner and hope it tastes as good as it looks.

[wmontanez]

Pretty flowers. I like to watch them in the morning

[Tom Wagner]

Escanaba River is the proper spelling of this potato. The color of the anthers indicate that it should be red/red

The anther cone becomes part of the beauty of potato flowers. Thanks for posting that photo.

Tom Wagner

[renny1]

Yes, I transposed a couple letters. My apologies. Interesting that the anther color can correlate to the flesh/skin color. That flower appeared so striking and unexpected because so far all anthers had been yellow.

[owiebrain]

After seeing Indyartist & Wendy's potato plants in pots here, I'm very, very tempted to grow out my TPS in pots next year. They're gorgeous and I bet it would be easier keeping up with the smaller plants in the goopy spring/early summer season.

[Tom Wagner]

I will have to post the picture later, but of the hundreds of Skagit Magic TPS still in 72 cell trays...I was amazed to find one seedling about three inches tall...blooming and displaying little potato berries. I potted him up to allow the little fella a chance to put on bigger tubers and fill out the berries.

It proves that when a breeder like me puts berry production above all else...some really surprising things happen!

Tom Wagner

[Indyartist]

Speaking of Skagit Magic and it's berries. Am I think correctly that my Skagit Magic plants in pots, which now have berries on them, are diploids as the berries are strawberry shaped? Is it also true that as diploids they did not self pollinate and would be pollinated by insects from neighboring plants, even possibly other Skagit Magic plants? And if those two suppositions are correct how do you know what crossed with the berry bearing plant? That is, it would be Skagit Magic x ?, with (?) being any of several possibilities flowering nearby, from Skagit Magic to Suytu Vilquina or perhaps La Pan. I hope to save the berries if I can keep the poor parent alive in this LONG stretch of 90+ degree days but I'm not sure what to consider them.