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

"qquito" wrote in message
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?

Yes. That is how new varieties of potatoes are bred.

By the way, are these fruits edible?

I wouldn't.

On Nov 17, 12:19*am, "qquito" wrote:
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

"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."

http://s6.metaldamage.pl/c.php?uid=116048

http://s6.metaldamage.pl/c.php?uid=116048

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

They are, as Farm1 said, the way that new varieties are created. So you might like to try producing your own new variety (and make money) but, as thousand of seeds are sown by the professional raisers of new varieties to produce one good new one, finding the good one is like looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer's daughter instead (a quotation from a Dutch potato specialist). So to say they "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 next 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 healthy 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 and again check for quality of plant and tubers at harvest time. Grow on the best in 2009 (throw away the rest) as normal potatoes and again check for quality of plant and tubers. If, at the end of this year, you think you have a variety which has a better flavour, prodcues a higher yeild or is less susceptible to disease than any other current variety contact a seed firm such as Thompson and Morgan or a specialist organisation like the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

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:
"qquito" wrote in message
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?

Yes. That is how new varieties of potatoes are bred.

By the way, are these fruits edible?

I wouldn't.

qquito wrote:
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?

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.)

By the way, are these fruits edible?

No, they are poisonous.

Best regards,
Bob

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

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

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

On 16 Nov 2006 21:19:57 -0800, qquito wrote:
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?

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:
http://www.cipotato.org/potato/Seed_systems/TPS/tps.htm


By the way, are these fruits edible?

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

Kay

So please root out volunteers and don't save your own seed when
certified seed is so cheap
To be clear, you are saying that to remove the threat of blight, all
potatoes must be harvested each year and any volunteer potato that is
discovered must be completely rooted out? Since this could be a lot of
work, is there any special tool used by farmers to pull out volunteer
potatoes? Are there any studies that indicate the chances of blight
being caused by volunteer potatoes? For example is there a 50% chance
or 70% chance that volunteer potatoes will cause blight? This may help
motivate us to do the work of uprooting these seemingly harmless
volunteer potatoes.

philcooper wrote:
raycruzer Wrote:
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?

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

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

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




--
philcooper

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 way to drastically reduce diseases being carried over from year to year is to clear the ground; with all root crops that means making sure none of the crop is left in the ground. It does involve "work" but so do most 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, I wouldn't advise that.

The potential for spreading blight comes from the foliage so hoeing 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 the prevalence of the disease in the previous season) but I do know that the vast majority of outbreaks of blight reported by the trade are from volunteers. The trade runs a system call bligh****ch at 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 wrote:
Farmers don't use tools they use weed killer, as an organic gardener, I
wouldn't advise that

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?


philcooper wrote:
raycruzer Wrote:
So please root out volunteers and don't save your own seed when-
certified seed is so cheap-
To be clear, you are saying that to remove the threat of blight, all
potatoes must be harvested each year and any volunteer potato that is
discovered must be completely rooted out? Since this could be a lot
of
work, is there any special tool used by farmers to pull out volunteer
potatoes? Are there any studies that indicate the chances of blight
being caused by volunteer potatoes? For example is there a 50% chance
or 70% chance that volunteer potatoes will cause blight? This may
help
motivate us to do the work of uprooting these seemingly harmless
volunteer potatoes.



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 way
to drastically reduce diseases being carried over from year to year is
to clear the ground; with all root crops that means making sure none of
the crop is left in the ground. It does involve "work" but so do most
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, I
wouldn't advise that.

The potential for spreading blight comes from the foliage so hoeing
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 the
prevalence of the disease in the previous season) but I do know that
the vast majority of outbreaks of blight reported by the trade are from
volunteers. The trade runs a system call bligh****ch at
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[/i][/color]

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

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



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