Comments on: TPS Potatoes: Who’s Yer Daddy?

By: Wesley Hayden

Wesley Hayden — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:46:29 +0000

Bookmarked!
Been trying to find as many TPS grow diaries as possible, this is a good one!
I’m hoping to try this out this season with some Chaposa & a freebie pack named Hedge Rose TPS (Thanks Tom, your a living legend!).
Its all about the surprise element for me, not knowing what beautiful variation will arise from these tiny little seeds.

Best of luck to you Leigh and everyone else giving TPS the time to grow.
Wes

By: Extreme Gardener

Extreme Gardener — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:06:38 +0000

Hi Gayle!
Yes, it’s an ongoing battle for me in the garden – not wasting anything, which is genetically hardwired in me, vs. the ruthless plant breeder/gardener mode. These days while planting, I’m trying to force myself to give plants more space…
The spuds keep their color when cooked, although the vividness of the flesh colors is muted compared to when you first cut into them.

By: gayle

gayle — Sun, 08 May 2011 01:17:17 +0000

That looks like a fascinating experiment! Though I’d be so tempted to try to grow out each and every one of the seedlings. (There’s the double whammy of my grandmother’s ‘Waste not, want not’ echoing in my head and the too egalitarian view that every plant has a right to live…)
Your potatoes are beautiful. Do they keep their color when cooked? Or are they like purple beans that revert to green when exposed to heat?
(BTW, I seem to have lost your blog when I transferred from Bloglines to Google Reader. I’m going to fix that now!)

By: Ottawa Gardener

Ottawa Gardener — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 23:51:50 +0000

Those are gorgeous. I love the almost black/blue colour of #4 and you are giving me hope about my teeny weeny TPS. Good to know about tightly spaced, leggy seedlings too because mine are on the window sill too this year. Again, this blog is an inspiration.

By: Niki

Niki — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:16:09 +0000

Wow.. what a fantastic blog! Thanks for sharing all this.. I have grown potatoes from seed in the past with very good success.. but I’m looking forward to reading and learning more about this from your blog..

niki

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:47:29 +0000

I managed once to collect and grow a few TPS from a potato that was growing in the garden when I moved in. It produced some nice tubers.
I’m hoping to collect more this year having four different spuds on the go – Nicola, King Edward, Cranberry Red and Pink Kiss. A neighbour has loads of Sebagos growing and I’m hoping to get some TPS from these as well.
It makes vegetable growing a lot of fun.
PS I enjoy your blog and like your style of gardening.

By: lieven

lieven — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:38:37 +0000

I grew some of Tom’s TPS this year & can’t wait to grow them again next year: there are lots of different colours & shapes – I haven’t tasted any tater yet. Apart from that, I’ve got loads of (Sarpo Mira x Vitelotte Grande) F1 seeds (no TPS). Funny how a red x purple cross yields unexpected white skins too – 2011 will tell how well each of these unique tater babies performs.
Personally, I also admit crossing plants for the sheer surprise adrenalin, as well as for the fun of sharing genes & stories. Feel free to choose goodies from my have lists on my website & lmk if you’re in for a trade.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:47:29 +0000

We saved the actual seed from a few of our choice potato plants this past summer and hope to start growing out a few new varieties of our own too. My hope is that in doing so we will keep our plants vigor up over time as we use all of our own potatoes as seed potatoes for the next years crop. I enjoyed hearing abut how you grow yours and congratulations on the successes you have had.

By: Tom Wagner

Tom Wagner — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:19:37 +0000

Thanks so much for mentioning me as part of your inspiration to grow TPS. Amazing, isn’t it? The fun one can get from just a few seedlings.

Just imagine that during my lifetime, I have sown over a million TPS and grew out favorites again and again, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands per year.

I have used many heirloom types of potatoes but rely on breeding work to get the huge number of potato berries on many of my creations. One of my hybrids this year had 353 berries on one single plant (Skagit Magic) and the true seed put away from that one numbers well over 50,000 seed! I will certainly increase that hill of potatoes for next year.

Keep up the good work and best of luck in your search for the perfect potato. Next year will start my 58 year of breeding potatoes, and God willing, I will continue for another 30-40 years!

Tom