Can the Potato Seeds Grow into Potatoes?

Hello, Everybody:

To actually grow potatoes, we chop potatoes into chunks making sure that each has at least one sprout "eye" and use these chunks as seeds.

However, I noticed that the potato plants above the ground blossom and then bear small fruits about the size of cherry tomatoes, and these fruits have small seeds in them.

What if we plant these seeds into the soil? Will they grow into potatoes?

By the way, are these fruits edible?

Thanks for reading and replying.

--Roland

Reply to
qquito
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Yes. That is how new varieties of potatoes are bred.

I wouldn't.

Reply to
Farm1

"The potato fruit are of no value to the gardener. Potato fruit, as well as the plant itself, contain relatively large amounts of solanine. Solanine is a poisonous alkaloid. The small fruit should not be eaten. Since potatoes don't come true from seed, no effort should be made to save the seed."

Reply to
told2b

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Reply to
fauger

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Reply to
fauger

The seeds are like most parts of the solanum family poisonous.

They are, as Farm1 said, the way that new varieties are created. So yo might like to try producing your own new variety (and make money) but as thousand of seeds are sown by the professional raisers of ne varieties to produce one good new one, finding the good one is lik looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer's daughte instead (a quotation from a Dutch potato specialist). So to say the "are of no value to the gardener" is not quite true.

If you want to try, sow the seed as you would half hardy annuals nex year. Pot on the seedlings into 3" pots and then plant outside in May At the end of the year lift and see which plant, if any, looks health and has produced the best looking tubers (they will be all be small) Grow these on in 2008 (throw away the rest) as normal potatoes an again check for quality of plant and tubers at harvest time. Grow o the best in 2009 (throw away the rest) as normal potatoes and agai check for quality of plant and tubers. If, at the end of this year, yo think you have a variety which has a better flavour, prodcues a highe yeild or is less susceptible to disease than any other current variet contact a seed firm such as Thompson and Morgan or a specialis organisation like the Scottish Crop Research Institute

-- philcooper

Reply to
philcooper

I've heard that volunteer potatoes or those that are not harvested can cause problems such as blight. This is a problem for farmers, but it may not be a concern for casual home growers?

Farm1 wrote:

Reply to
raycruzer

Yes. There is a potato variety -- I think the name is "Explorer" -- that is grown from seeds. But there is a reason we generally grow potatoes from eyes rather than seeds. (Because it works better.)

No, they are poisonous.

Best regards, Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Blight is spread in 2 ways, by the spores being blown on the wind an more often by aphids that feed on infected plants and then fly/ar blown onto other plants and infect them.

The spores and the aphids do not differentiate between the growers o the crops so if you raise infected spuds by letting volunteers grow o deliberately plant non-certified seed you could infect other amateur and farmers and vice versa.

So please root out volunteers and don't save your own seed whe certified seed is so chea

-- philcooper

Reply to
philcooper

Yup. They're unlikely to replicate the parent line, though. But if you've got the space, it can be an interesting exercise. In the US, most potatoes are produced vegetatively -- but CIP has been working with true seed varieties:

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Toxic. Even if they do look like green cherry tomatoes.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

To be clear, you are say> raycruzer Wrote:

Reply to
raycruzer

To reduce the risk of disease for all your crops you do lots of things the motivation is to keep your (and others') crops disease free. A wa to drastically reduce diseases being carried over from year to year i to clear the ground; with all root crops that means making sure none o the crop is left in the ground. It does involve "work" but so do mos elements of gardening - I think it is part of the hobby of gardening

Farmers don't use tools they use weed killer, as an organic gardener, wouldn't advise that.

The potential for spreading blight comes from the foliage so hoein this off, which is the normal way of dealing with weeds, is enough.

For soil-born diseases such as eelworm then diging them out the answer when the leaves are spotted just fork out the plant.

I don't know of studies on percentages (the chance will depend on th prevalence of the disease in the previous season) but I do know tha the vast majority of outbreaks of blight reported by the trade are fro volunteers. The trade runs a system call bligh****ch a www.bligh****ch.co.uk and reports outbreaks to members with the cause the vast majority of these are volunteers.

Is that motivation enough?

-- philcooper

Reply to
philcooper

I've heard that many farmers have to hand pull volunteer potatoes that are discovered in rotational crops such as onions and carrots. Perhaps in this situation the use of weed killers is not effective? For some reason, the farmers remove the entire tuber, not just the green foliage. My understanding is that these are not organic farmers but traditional farmers. This is obviously a very expensive operation because of the labor involved. Why would they hand pull the volunteer potatoes if it were not necessary for some reason?

philco> > So please root out volunteers and don't save your own seed when-

Reply to
raycruzer

I hadn't spotted any farmers hand pulling weeds in the UK, smallholder may because they are interested in higher quality crops and have smalle areas to cover. As I said, this also reduces the chances of spreadin soil-borne diseas

-- philcooper

Reply to
philcooper

The seeds can be used for propagation, Potatoes are in the solinacae family and the seeds are poisonous.

Reply to
Derryl Killan

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