Permies' Potato experiments

Nancy Reading wrote:a blue early that I can't remember the name of.

Ac Baker wrote:The first early purple potatoes that I'm growing have now got an official name, 'Vitanoire'.

I've just got my seed potatoes delivered this afternoon in fact (see picture).

Maieshe Ljin wrote:I have also been in general beginning a winter-hardy self-seeding landrace potato project and let the seeds fall onto the garden soil. They should come up as weeds now. So far the project has been successful, with all the seed-grown potatoes surviving the winter before last. They all came up late spring/early summer, when the soil had warmed.

Nancy Reading wrote:That is really interesting Maieshe. So you just let them seed around? I'd love to do that here, but I suspect they will need a bit of help getting started. I gather they need a reasonable season to be able to form a tuber for overwintering. I certainly haven't managed to collect all my potato-fruit, and there is no sign yet of a weed problem. I do have some berries from last year, and that reminds me to decide what to do with them. Since my propagator is full of tea Camellia seeds, I may just ferment the seeds out of the berries and save them for next year. I'm pretty sure I read that the seeds actually have better germination the second year than the first, which seems odd which is why it stuck in  my mind. I think it was from William Whitson at Cultivariable.

Thom Bri wrote:By accident I planted 13 potatoes this week. I was digging some stones out of my garden soil, and found a bed of potatoes that I missed last fall. They are in good condition and still dormant, so I just separated them and planted each in it's own hole. Normal potato planting time here is late April, but leaving them in the ground through even very cold winters doesn't seem to hurt them, so they should be Okay. So I guess this is sort of an accidental experiment.

This plot is intended as a corn field, but that won't get planted until May, so the potatoes have a good chance to get going well before the corn is too big and shades them.

Thom Bri wrote:By accident I planted 13 potatoes this week. I was digging some stones out of my garden soil, and found a bed of potatoes that I missed last fall. They are in good condition and still dormant, so I just separated them and planted each in it's own hole. Normal potato planting time here is late April, but leaving them in the ground through even very cold

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:

I'm not sure where you're at, Thom, but I'd bank in Il. zone 6?

N Illinois, near Rockford.

I have no idea what kind of potatoes these are. Random white flesh/brown skins. I plant a mix of whatever, and harvest whatever makes it. Potatoes are low priority, I plant them more for fun. Enjoy digging for them, like a treasure hunt. Last year was one bag of commercial seed potatoes, a bag of store bought 'golden', and a bag of mixed colors mini potatoes. All produced something, but I should have bought them a month early and prepped them for planting. Probably would have had better germination.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Hello Permie experimenters!

I'm trying potatoes again. Success has been elusive. I have some pre-chitted organic potatoes from the grocery store. But how long should these chits be at planting time?
This is 4 days after purchase.

Anne Miller wrote:How are these potato experiments coming along?

Has it gotten warm enough in your part of the world to plant outside?

I am noticing trees and plants budding out.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:How wet is wet? Here is what I did to fix my soggy area.

My potatoes would end up as microbe feasts. I am trying again this spring. First spring with potatoes since we fixed the soggy.