Potato Seedlings

May 01, 2010

I am quite pleased that some of my potato seeds have germinated, they are tiny. The germination was quite sporadic, mainly near the centre of the tray where there was the most moisture. It took a couple of weeks sitting on the heated sand bench for anything to show. The fruit got quite frosted in the winter, so i don,t know if that helped or hindered germination. The seed leaves looked just like small pepper plants. I can,t imagine these giving me any edible potatoes in one season as they are so small compared with what you would get from a seed potato. I took the seeds from the fruit of last years sarpo mira potatoes. It will be interesting to see if they have retained any of their blight resistance.

Glenn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Allotmentmanyork

I have been a keen organic kitchen gardener for longer than i care to remember. I have an allotment in York, England where i grow as many different fruits and vegetables as the climate will allow.

Comments

Joel LeGrand

Sun, 05/09/2010 - 19:38

Are seed potatoes like onion seeds? How hard are they to grow? Nice photo. Joel

Allotmentmanyork

Tue, 08/24/2010 - 12:55

Hi Joel This is the result of one plant from one tiny seed sown earlier in the year. The seeds look like tomato seeds but are about a quarter of the size. Germination was sporadic, but they kept on germinating, as seedlings kept coming up in other pots as i reused the compost. The potatoes are very similar to their parents and have lost none of their blight resistance. I grew the small plants on in 3" pots then planted out as if they were well sprouted seed potatoes. I have dug this plant up early, the other plants have about a month to go so i think the potatoes will be a lot larger by the time they have finished growing. It has been an interesting experiment, to find out whether the seeds would produce an edible crop in a season. The only advantage to this process i can think of is cost. You save yourself the cost of buying seed potatoes which can be quite expensive. The disadvantages are the uncertainty of knowing if the saved seeds will germinate. A couple of the potatoes have sprouts on them so i think i will plant them in the greenhouse and try for a Christmas crop.

Jessica Still

Thu, 08/26/2010 - 14:54

And enjoyable! Thanks, Glenn! Cost, as you say & a backup on self-sufficiency. Your photos are a pleasure & an inspiration!

Maggie

Thu, 08/26/2010 - 15:29

Hi Glen, I remember way back when you planted those potato seeds and wondering, like you, if they would grow. Well the potatoes look delicious I shall tell our gardening group about this, as this is the first time I have heard of growing potatoes from seed. We have lots of curry leaf trees and passionfruit vines we have germinated from seed. We have lots of fruit trees growing from cuttings. We have a friend who grows all sorts of unusual trees and plants to sell and he grows everything from seed. He claims that the trees are much healthier if grown from seed. Happy Gardening Maggie

Allotmentmanyork

Fri, 09/24/2010 - 10:08

This is a picture of my potato harvest from the seed sown potato plants. The size and the quantity of the potatoes is totally pathetic. The only saving grace is the variation in colour. Both Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona are red. I have some reds, some whites and some whites with pink eyes. I think all have retained their blight resistance. I also had some plants with both red and white potatoes on the same plant. I was quite exited about this at first, but i have come to the conclusion that i may have planted two or more seedlings together, as they were very small when i pricked them out. They have grown into a tangled plant so it is difficult to tell if there are two plants together. As usual with me i am not methodical enough and do not keep any notes. Does anybody know if it is possible to grow red and white potatoes on the same plant. I am going to eat one of the whites with pink eyes and plant the rest next year. I want to give the pink eyed whites a name as they are different from their parents. Does anyone have any ideas.

Jessica Still

Fri, 09/24/2010 - 13:46

- maybe you should eat that one of the whites with pink eyes first. It may have a different name-able quality! What fun!

You can grow your own food. We can help.

Comments

Add comment

What's Growing On:

About us:

Join our mailing list:

Connect with us:

Contact us:

Search our site:

Search form

FAQs

My Links

Information