A couple of my potato plants appear to have what look like ball
shaped seed pods (green coloured), amongst the flowers.Â
Is this normal, as I have never seen anything like it before.
Debs ???
They are the fruits of the poato, if they look like tiny green tomatoes. You can't eat them.
My neighbours tatties had loads of those on last year so I think, (but don't really know) its normal.
It's definitely normal.
When you plant a "seed" potato, its not the seed, it's a tuber. Potatoes are stem tubers.
If the plant flowers, and the flowers are pollinated, fruit/seeds will grow.
You could gather the seeds, plant them, and eventually get potatoes (but not the first year). It's a lot quicker to plant the tubers as we normally do. Also, you may not get exactly the same potato, as if the flower was fertilised with pollen from a different type of potato, you would get a cross.
Thanks everyone.
Debs :)
Quote from: jennym on July 09, 2005, 22:01:35
.....You could gather the seeds, plant them, and eventually get potatoes (but not the first year). It's a lot quicker to plant the tubers as we normally do. Also, you may not get exactly the same potato, as if the flower was fertilised with pollen from a different type of potato, you would get a cross.
I was talking to a Dutch potato breeder yesterday who said that to produce a "good" new variety takes a lot of luck, he raises thousands each year and if he has 2 varieties that still look good after 7 years that is a great success!!
On the potato fruits, some varieties are much more likely to produce them than others (the same is true of flowers). If you don't want to wait for years to see if you have created a new King Edward, then remove the flowers as soon as you see them as they take energy away from the plant which it would otherwise put into tuber production.
Phil
Phil
So should we cut off the flowers on our spuds, or maybe reduce the foliage?
Would this increase the size of the tubers growing in the ground?
As I have huge potatoes from those grown on the allotment yet only small and less numbers from my garden, all from the same seed potatoes, it would be a bonus if the flowers being taken off would increase the size.
TB,
The foliage of plants provide it with energy, flowers (on vegetables where we don't want the fruit) take it away.
So remove the flowers but NOT the leaves - and give them a good watering or even better a foliar feed after you've done it
Phil