++ ungood

well it's not all ungood...the yema de huevo on the right in the top photo has turned into the plant in the second in a matter of a few weeks...which is a good thing near as i can tell...the next three photos are definitely not good...while i was doing a routine check of the seed potatoes i found that one of the red pontiacs i got locally had gone bad...it was soft and slimy to he touch and when i cut i open the stench was unpleasant and the flesh of the spud had begun to liquefy...a virus? i don't know for certain yet 9 more research ) but i do know that this one went into the garbage, not the compost, and the rest of those seed pottaoes will be watched closely...i have a few of these in a couple of beds...they looked fine when i cut and calloused them but that may not tell the story..if the remaining three in the basement don't go bad between now and the time i am ready to plant them ( or they tell me to do so ) they will be going into containers, not a bed...they will be isolated just in case....further research says it may be blackleg rot caused by the bacteria Dickeya dianthicola...the list of symptoms are very similar...i treated the shelf where the potato was with hydrogen peroxide per usda recommendations

spuds 2017

after i got back from the community garden i went out to a local farm market and bought eight pounds ( approximately ) of seed potatoes..half each of red pontiac and yukon gold...i cut enough to make seventeen plants and will be putting them in at the community garden and in my back yard tomorrow after they have calloused...add in eleven tubers that were chitting away merrily and we are up to twenty eight plants that will need homes...i put the chitted ones in peat pots to let them develop until after the danger of frost has passed...the smaller ones i left downstairs under the lights with the yema de huevos to get a bit bigger and the ones that were further along went out into the real world on the deck where they can be covered or brought in depending on the frost forecast...there was potting today...tomorrow will being real planting outdoors and in the soil...stay tuned..

government spuds

mu government spuds from the usda potato introduction station in sturgeon's bay wisconsin arrived today...five varieties...two unnamed accessions from canada ( top two photos ) which come with intellectual property rights attached that basically say i cannot "commercialized" without written consent from "canada"...i will not be selling spuds...our neighbors to the north can breathe easier...the third photo is of two blue shetlands and the fourth is of more early blues...those have produced an abundance of fruits in the past and i am hoping for more...the fifth photo is of the two yema de huevos they sent...they are"unimproved" primitive cultivars and, as i suspected from past experience, the arrived chitting away...so i prepared a couple of peat pots and planted them under the lights straight away...i am uncertain of how viable the small one is ( the fifth photo is of them in my left hand to give some sense of scale )...however it has sprouted and so i put it in in hopes of a plant...these will be going to the community garden at iu northwest sometime next month...there will be more on these as things develop.

potato landscape

the top two photos are of potato seedlings in the same pot...the top photo has the central plants in better focus and the second has a much clearer view of the plant at the back that has not yet extracted its leaves form the seed case..the third and fourth photos are of more of the fifteen seedlings now up and running in the two clay pots...that's a 62.5 % germination rate...a bit on the low side ( at least for me...i was hoping for an unrealistic 100% but expected something in the 90% range ) but there is still time for more to pop up...by comparison the plant in the fifth photo is yet another yeme de huevos that has sprouted from a tuber...a much more robust plant and an indication of why propagation form tubers is the preferred method...given the size of the seeds ( sixth photo ) one wonders how a seedling as large as the ones there are can develop...yet the plants, at some point, must have come from seed...the tubers are, after all, the product of artificial selection..between seedlings and tuber based plants there are a total of thirty-seven plants down there right now...moving towards spring ( 68 days! )and outdoor planting..more as it develops.

something of a complication

there are twelve potato plants from seed up and running ( top two photos ) this balmy january morning ( at 22 degrees fahrenheit it is 24 degrees warmer than it was this time yesterday...everything is relative and most things are derivative )...that represent fifty percent of what i planted on the second of the month...one hopes for more...one will take what one gets and run with it...this has started the day off on a positive note...along with the twelve sprouts from seed a couple of yema de huevos tubers have come to life in peat pots and will need to be transferred to a container soon enough ( third and fourth photos )...some yema de huevos tubers can be quite small...3/16" to 1/4" in diameter in some cases and they can be difficult to keep track of...clearly this is the case in the fifth photo as one has erupted alongside a northern tepehuan teosinte plant...and in what can only be considered as a complication it has rooted right next to the teosinte complicating its removal to a separate container...i will be trying, i think. although, since maize and potatoes cohabited so successfully in the community garden last season it might be interesting to see if they are allies...or, at least, tolerate one another...there is some risk involved going in either direction but a decision has to be made directly...more as it comes up.

christmas population explosion ( sort of )

the seed potato project is moving along...the craigs snowwhite has reached two feet in height ( top photo )and the growth should be moderating a bit...the early blue in the second pot back ( second photo ) should begin setting tubers any tine now and should be done by the end of january...the purple valley in the third photo has easily topped the container but wont begin setting until the end of next month...there are spuds all along the life cycle down there...there is a yema de huevos just coming up in the fifth photo and an ollala in the bottom one...as of today there are seventeen plants up and running and more chitting away...it's almost the end of the year and late chitters may well be just planted in march rather than put under the lights...they move to their schedule, not mine and frankly it is getting crowded down there...another light fixture is on the way but space is limited.

spuds

the purple valley in the top photo is coming along well...small rosettes of potato leaves reaching towards the light and a close look at the photo reveals more on the way...that plant has kin for company now...the purple valley in the second photo joined it this morning in a potato planting frenzy...a new container was prepared and the olalla in the third photo and the yema de huevos in the fourth all found a home for the winter...that's six varieties of spuds under the lights now so, with a bit of work and some luck, we will be having diverse seed potatoes come spring...the craigs snowwhite that was about eight inches tall ten days ago ahs doubled it height in that time...the leaves at th e have begun to fill in and it's time to begin filling the container with soil and compost to "hill" the plant and get some space for tuber to set established...that won't be happening for another forty or fifty days but i want to send the plant a clear signal about expectations...i have not watered any of the plants yet...they are very touchy about that...i brought in bags of top soil and compost to mix and use to fill the containers...the mixture was moist...from some condensation as well as residual rain water that has frozen...the moisture from that mixture alone was enough to yellow the lower leaves on the early blue and have them begin to fall off...i might water potato plants twice in a season down there...even then some will be lost to fungus...even with heat and the fans that run non-stop.

solanum morphology II

the leaf in the top photo is on an early blue plant and the second photo is a wild potato...even though the leaves cluster differently on the stem it is easy to see a physical resemblance between the two...at least some heritable characteristics at work here...the third photo is of a yema de huevo leaf and comparing it to the fourth photo of a wild potato the difference is as plain as the previous likeness...until recently yema de huevos were classified as soalnum phureja rather than solanum tuberosum and that may exalain part of the pronounced morphological differences.

non-wild potatoes

we have devoted enough air time to wild potatoes for the nonce...these are some photos of the robust domesticates sharing the plant room downstairs with their wild cousins...first: early blue...second: some early blue foliage...third: a sprouting ollala...fourth: some yema de huevos...looks good for seed potatoes for the community garden in a few months.