Potatoes growing 2 feet above the ground

[Teddybaby]

Hi
After growing vegetables for 50 years+ I never saw potatoes growing out of the ground like a tomato. I'm wondering why this happened. There are 2 types of potatoes doing this yukon gold and red pontiacs. Thanks for any input.

[Teddybaby]

Update looks like the potatoes formed from the flowers.

[applestar]

Ah ha! That’s what I was wondering.

Potato flowers set fruit and form hard tomato-like fruit. If allowed to ripen fully, they contain viable seeds.

Since it’s the potato varieties that are closer to the more ancestral wild genome that will tend to bloom and set fruit, some people have made a hobby out of growing out the resulting seeds to see what kind of new potato varieties the segregates possess.

I tried growing potatoes from these “True Potato Seeds” or TPS (as opposed to the cut up or small tubers that are often also referred to as “seed potatoes”) for a while, but it basically takes two seasons to get them to grow to size — first year to grow tiny marble to funball sized tubers (this part, I could do), and 2nd year to grow full sized tubers that can then be continued as usual. (But that assumes you can store the tubers to use as “seeds” until planting time.

It’s not very easy here in Zone 6 where the ground freezes solid to a foot under during the winter, and we have less than half the year of frost free weather.

[Teddybaby]

Thanks so much for your advice. Everyone told me I was crazy and this never happens. Will try and save these seed potatoes even though I live in northwest New Jersey. I planted my potatoes in April and it seems like they are almost done producing. Is it possible to try and replant these seed potatoes this fall say around late August as an experiment? Thanks for any input.

[applestar]

Mature viable True Potato Seeds need to be saved and stored, then started around mid February to early March to grow to size for planting out after last average frost date in spring. (Probably around late April to mid May in northern NJ).

Those fruits on the potato plants will fall off when touched when ripe (seeds inside are mature) — kind of like many cherry tomatoes do. (They don’t necessarily turn bright color or become soft like tomatoes.)

Method to save the seeds for starting next spring is basically same as tomato seeds — mash, add less than half as much volume of non-chlorinated (like saved rain) water, cover lightly and allow to ferment for 2 to 3 days, then pour out floaters and strain the tiny seeds with something like a tea strainer and rinse well, then dry on paper plate or coffee filter.

Here are a couple of threads in which members have discussed about growing True Potato Seeds (click on the up arrow next to their name to jump to original post … nevermind, I created links to their thread titles )

OK, lets start a thread about growing TPS True Potato Seeds - HelpfulGardener.com

TZ and I had started a conversation about this very topic last week:
viewtopic.php?p=143363#143363

Then the subject came up again this week:
viewtopic.php?p=144942#144942

TZ, I hope it's OK to continue our conversation here in this thread.
I wanted to let you know that I've discovered that the All Blue potatoes from the Maine Potato Lady is prolific in making berries. There are lots, both in my main potato bed as well as both of the Potato Silos. As I mentioned before, the ones in the MPB are probably self-pollinated due to distinct flower timing of of the three different varieties planted there. In the Potato Silos, however mostly the All Blue and Adirondack Blue are flowering together, and both are producing berries, All Blue more than Adirondack Blue. Some Rose Gold were planted there and I'm pretty sure there was a brief overlap in All Blue and Rose Gold flowering, but I'm sorry to say I was too late in determining the first All Blue berries, but maybe it will become apparent based on first fruits to ripen.

All Blue flowers are light blue while Adirondack Blue flowers are white so right now, I am able to differentiate the two host plant of the berries. I suppose I should get out there and mark them somehow before all the flowers fall off....

True potato seed experiments - HelpfulGardener.com

This will be my second year of playing with TPS. This year I grew some tiny potatoes from seed and also some "regular-size" (none of them large) ones, by planting the tinies I got last year.

Here's a picture of this year's tinies (all from a single seed-pod):

TPS tinies.JPG

The ones I grew to edible size this year are quite a mixture. One in particular is unusually hard - grainy or crunchy like a hard apple when raw and makes very crunchy fries. If cut too skinny they cook up more like thick potato chips - "crisps" if you like.

I've noticed that some of my "regular" potatoes never make flowers and even of the ones that do flower, very few make seed pods. Does anyone know why this is so?

[applestar]

I missed the last part of your post — yes some people doing these experiments have found that you could start the seeds in fall and grow small plants in containers INDOORS UNDER LIGHTS during the winter so that you would have tiny tubers that could be planted at regular potato planting time in spring.

I was going to try this but at the time (1) had too many indoor plants during the winter (2) got caught up in project trying to/learning to over winter pepper plants (3) was trying to grow tomatoes indoor in winter to experiment with crossbreeding projects (4) had outbreaks of russet mites, two spotted mites, broad mites, and/or cyclamen mites that wiped out my winter indoor solanacea AND spring started seedlings until I learned how to control the mite outbreaks

…if you started them in August (and that’s if these seeds will sprout then — you may need to cold stratefy them first) you would still need to bring the plants inside before first frost.

If my winter tomato experiments are any guide, by my best GUESSTIMATE, true potato seeds started in August will not grow potato plants to maturity until about January.