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Comments

Rebsie Fairholm

Brilliant that you're trying this, John! I lost mine when the cat knocked them over but will be trying again.

Fermenting them as you would tomato seeds is a good idea. It's difficult to get the pulp off them any other way, as you've probably noticed. They are of course related to tomatoes, so a lot of the same rules apply.

And you're right, even if they are self-pollinated Cara seeds, they won't produce a Cara replica. Potatoes are tetraploid (they have double the normal number of chromosomes) so every seed is a genetic lottery! Fun!

Very best of luck with it.

miss hathorn

Hey, you too. Terrific, we can compare notes. I've just done a little test germination of a couple of dozen seeds (pre-cooled in the refrigerator) and they've all come up. I think I'll grow them on in the greenhouse just to see how far they get.
By the way, I can't make that link work to the 'article'.

Ottawa Gardener

This is so neat. It makes me want to try it too. I didn't grow potatoes this year but I think I might simply to try growing them from seed. Thank you for this informative article. I love you all in the European Gardening community!

Patrick

Hi John,

I think I still have some seeds saved from the Charlotte potatoes I grew last year, do you want them? I don't see getting around to trying them myself anytime soon.

Leigh

It's like christmas time when you dig up your first grow out of potatoes from true seed. We have kept two varieties from doing this about 12 years ago, one a purple skin, yellow flesh with a purple ring; the other a rosy red skin with yellow flesh and red ring, and both delicious. They were from the same parent and the best of a dozen seed grown plants. I'll post some photos on The Extreme Gardener when we dig them up in the next week or so.
Don't be discouraged if the potatoes are rather small the first year - it's usually worth giving them a couple of seasons to see their real potential.

Adrian van Leest

I'm having a great time growing some TPS I collected from Royal Blue potatoes last year. Some 2000 plants came up and I had to thin them to 250 plants over around 3 square metres. The plants are now almost as high as the tuber sown potatoes. I'm looking forward to harvesting the perfect potato from this experiment. I'll keep around 10 and refine the selection as I clarify my preferences.

Jamie

Hi there - I am desperate to get a hold of some King Edward Potato seeds (it is the only way I can legally import them to my country) and I simply cannot find them anywhere. Do you think you might know where I might be able to find them? I will happily pay for them to be sent :)

anne

great blog. Years ago I went to a workhop with this remarkable plant breeder who was breeding for plant resistance. He planted out millions of these spud seeds and then drenched them in blight solutions. Most would be wiped-out, a few would survive. He would then raise those plants, save the seeds and go at it all over again until he reached a disease resistant plant.
Anne

Matron

Fascinating stuff! I look forward to following your progress!

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