It is useful to know how many potatoes will be produced by one seed potato when calculating how many seed potatoes to plant in the vegetable garden.
The number of potatoes produced by each seed potato varies according to:
The new potatoes, in the photo below, all came from one root, or one seed potato.
Any number of new potatoes, from 2 – 10, can be produced from one seed potato. But most vegetable gardeners would expect at least 6 and preferably 8 -10 new potatoes from each seed tuber planted in the vegetable garden!
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How to Chit Seed Potatoes
- Place the seed in an egg tray.
The scar-side (point where the tuber was attached to parent plant) down, with rose uppermost.
- pot-chit-7day
- The majority of eyes (buds) will be around the rose, and so pointing upwards.
- Place the tray is on a north-facing, light, frost free window sill.
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The chits (shoots) need to grow slowly.
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The light keeps the shoots short, fat and green.
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4 degrees Celsius is ideal, but the temperature should not go above 10 degrees, neither should it reach freezing.
Some vegetable gardeners are concerned about their seed potatoes which
are developing long chits.
Seed potatoes want to be put in as cool a place as possible with plenty
of light. If the seed is on a windowsill, the sun may be coming through
the window & heating the space up, or the room may be too dark.
If possible put the seed outside, under glass, in a light place. Bring
them in at night if it looks like a frost.
They need a lot of light, but a very cool temperature!
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Potato seed has been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Bank – not
the immature tubers planted by vegetable gardeners, but true seed
produced by potato flowers.
When The Svalbard Global Seed Bank was opened at the end of February, Jim Godfrey, Chair of the International Potato Centre, was present.
Click on the image to enlarge the photo, which shows Jim carrying true
seed potatoes into the vault, from the International Potato Centre in Lima.
JEG_delivering_potato_seed_
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Saxon is a good all-round potato variety to grow in the vegetable garden,
suitable for mashing, baking or chipping.
potato-Saxon
Saxon:
- second early potato variety
- has stored well this winter
- superb tasting variety
- white skin and white flesh
- firm, moist texture
- suitable potato for boiling, baking & chipping
- resistant to Potato Cyst Nematode
Saxon
The second-early potato variety Saxon is well worth growing in the vegetable garden, suitable for mashing, baking or chipping, it also stores well.
2 Comments »
We are currently eating Saxon and can confirm the reports about them, excelent mash.
Comment by Johnny Norfolk – September 29, 2008 7:08 am
When choosing seed potatoes for the vegetable garden, determining what seed to buy is a difficult task. Here are ten factors to take into consideration:
1. How many potatoes do you normally use? Do you cook potatoes every day or once a week? It is a shame to fill the garden with more than you can possibly eat!
2. How much space is there in the vegetable garden for potatoes? Think about the other vegetables you are hoping to grow, and work out how long the potatoes will be taking up their allotted patch. Perhaps other vegetables should take precedent over potatoes?
3. Look at your diary and note the time that you will be away from home. If you are on holiday for two weeks in early June, you will not need early potatoes for those two weeks.
4. Would you like to store some main crop potatoes over the winter? Do you have space to store them, and the right conditions?
5. Are you an experienced potato grower? If not, don’t jump in at the deep end and grow masses of potatoes, of different varieties etc – it could be
overwhelming and put you off gardening for ever. There is nothing like success to give a sense of achievement, so if you have never grown potatoes before, just try a few, and spend time looking after them and learning how they grow.
6. Calculate how many seed potatoes to buy, bearing in mind the above points.
Work out how many early potatoes you would like, and how many main crop potatoes it is sensible to grow.
7. How do you like your potatoes cooked? Mashed potatoes tend to be more floury than salad potatoes which are waxy. Bakers need to be larger than salad potatoes, and some varieties are particularly good for chips! Do you like to ring the changes – and try several different sorts of potato, or do you prefer to keep it simple and just grow two varieties?
8. Choose the early varieties and main crop varieties that will give you the
characteristics needed to satisfy item 7
9. Where will you source your seed potatoes from? The Internet or your local garden center? There are plenty of vegetable seed catalogues to look through for ideas. Whichever you decide, it is important to buy certified seed.
10. February and March is the time to buy seed potatoes in the UK. This will
give them plenty of time to chit.
Give it lots of thought.
Like all these things there is a large amount of trial and error and often you
will find yourself constantly changing your numbers and gauging the ratio of potato varieties to plant in the vegetable garden. The more you think about your reasoning behind your selection of potato variety, the easier your choice will become.
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early-potatoes
It is useful to know how many potatoes will be produced by one seed potato when calculating how many seed potatoes to plant in the vegetable garden.
The number of potatoes produced by each seed potato varies according to:
Potatoes-King-Edward
The new potatoes, in the photo below, all came from one root.
new-potatoes
Any number of new potatoes, from 2 – 10, can be produced from one seed potato. But most vegetable gardeners would expect at least 6 and preferably 8 -10 new potatoes from each seed tuber planted in the vegetable garden!
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new-potatoes-lifted
When calculating how many Seed Potatoes to buy, gardeners have to know what space is available in the vegetable garden for growing the potatoes.
Potatoes are grown from ’seed’ potatoes, which are small, immature potatoes or tubers.
Seed potatoes are sold ‘loose’ in old fashioned hardware shops and garden centers, but it is more common to find them in small, sealed packets.
To work out how many potatoes to buy, decide where the potatoes will be planted and measure the length of the rows available.
Early Potatoes are planted:
So if the row is 6ft long, you will need 6 potatoes (remember that if there are only 5 seed potatoes in the packet you can divide the largest potato into 2).
space-potatoes
Main-crop potatoes are planted:
-
35cm (15in) apart
- in rows 75cm (2ft 6in) apart
If possible, rows should run from North to South so each plant gets it’s full share of sun.
maincrop-potato-row
Growing potatoes takes up a lot of space in the kitchen garden, and if space is at a premium, early potatoes take precedence over main crop, because:
The first steps for growing potatoes are:
It is easy to calculate how many seed potatoes to buy when you consider what space is available in the vegetable garden for growing the potatoes. Remember that unblemished, clean, certified seed potatoes are worth the investment!
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Large seed potatoes may be cut into several pieces, as long as each piece
contains at least one eye. The ideal seed potato is the size of a hen’s egg.
The eye of the potato is a leaf scar with a depressed lateral bud. This bud will
grow into the shoot, which appears above ground, and also produces the new tubers below ground. When the eye first starts to grow the new shoot is called a chit.
How to Divide, Cut or Split Seed Potatoes:
- divide potatoes a day or two before planting, so they have time to heal
- use a clean knife, to prevent spreading disease from one potato to another
- cut when sprouts/chits are 1/4″ long pieces should be about the size of a small egg.
- cut pieces should be block shaped, with at least one eye or sprout, but two are preferred. Thin slices of potato are no good.
- cut lengthwise, across the top, to divide the chits that usually group there.
potato-chit-day20
MBard-potato-chit-day20
- part of the center core of the potato should be in each piece.
- cover the cut potatoes with powdered limestone, to dry the cut up. Or sprinkle with flowers of sulphur, to stop any disease entering the cuts.
- let the potatoes “heal” by storing them at 65-70 degrees with fairly high humidity. The humidity is important to stop the potatoes dehydrating. The cut surface will develop a protective coat that can help prevent seed decay. Covering the box with clear plastic film will also stop dehydration.
There are pros and cons to cutting seed potatoes into several pieces before they are planted.
The advantages of splitting seed potatoes are:
- large seed potatoes are utilised to the full
- less tubers are produced per seed, so each tuber harvested is bigger
- apical dominance is broken, releasing more eyes to sprout
- expensive seed potatoes go further in the vegetable garden
- saves buying another packet, if just need one more seed to finish the row
Disadvantages of dividing seed potatoes are:
- bacteria & pathogens may be spread between the potatoes on the cutting knife.
- Large seed potatoes may be divided up into several pieces, as long as each piece contains at least one eye, to achieve the ideal seed potato size, equivalent toa hen’s egg.
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Hi Top Veg,
Just to answer your question about my signal box.So far I have relied on the
p-lants seeding themselves, some of the plants are taking over so this year I
will have to split plants up and move them around a bit.I wil also add seed
this year to introduce a bit more variety.
Cheers Mark
Comment by Mark – January 15, 2008 7:52 pm
Hi Mark
That is amazing – so good to know they are reseeding. Do you have signal box
open days?
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