Funny Harvest: Mouse Doll Potato

I was harvesting my Red Norland potatoes the other day when I came across this hilarious looking potato. It looks like 4 potatoes that were conjoined during the growth process. There's a fat torso with a head and big ears attached. There's even a little tail where the stem was attached! Trust me, there was no glue or tricks involved here - this is truly the way it came out of the ground. My first thought was that it reminded me of Mr. Bean's teddy bear, but upon further review, it looks more like a mouse doll. I think my potato (right) looks more like the mouse in the middle, rather than Mr. Bean's Teddy (left) Seems like every year I pull something funny out of my garden. Last year it was this odd looking tomato. NEW  LushGreenVA's aStore - powered by Amazon Clutter-free shopping for vegetable gardeners. Every product hand-picked and smartly categorized by me, H. Mikael - many are similar to one's I use myself, including: Composters, Raised beds, Greenhouses/Cold Frames, Rain Barrels, Rear-tine Tillers and Cultivators

Taking Advantage of the Rain & Mud: Supporting Fallen Potato Plants

Well if you're like me and have 2 to 3 foot maturing mounded-up potato plants, your plants may be in need of support - literally. Almost daily these days, I walk around my rows of potatoes constantly adjusting and re-positioning my bamboo sticks to keep some fallen potato plants standing upright. But it doesn't seem to be enough. Potato Plants, some fallen over, before supporting w/ muddy soil Monday morning while I was doing my daily ritualistic walk in & around my garden, two things came to me: 1) I need to till in between rows to rid these grass & weeds, but can't due to the day-after-day rains (another day/another blog post), and 2) Some of my potato plants need some helping standing straight. Then it occurred to me: Why don't I take advantage of this mud, get dirty, and pack some of it around the bases of the potato plants. BRILLIANT! Off I went. Mounding wet dirt around potato plant base for support Just because potato plants fall over, it does not mean that they're dead or that they can't continue to grow or prosper. I personally choose to keep them upright because it gives me peace of mind, makes my garden look tidy, and allows me to till better in-between my rows. If there is a downside to this, it's that water might opt to run off rather than soak into the soil due to the excessive packing of the soil, but that's a trade off I'm willing to take. Potato plants now standing upright Hopefully this will be enough to keep the potatoes standing up straight until they're ready for harvest, but I seriously doubt it. If not, you know where I'll be after the next heavy rain -- gettin' dirty again.

What is this? There are fruits growing on my potato plants!

Yesterday while propping up some fallen potato stalks, I noticed something peculiar -- two green cherry-tomato-like fruits dangling from one of my bushes. Actually - just weeks earlier - I had read that some potato bushes actually produce these berries, so I kinda knew immediately what these were. So what are these? Anyone who grows potatoes knows that some potato plants produce flowers and some don't. Even more rare (but not unusual) is a potato flower that produces a tiny fruit. Each little fruit (poisonous - do not eat!) are the bearer of several dozen or so tomato-like seeds. They are actually called 'True Potato Seeds' or TPS. These are not the same as "Seed Potatoes," the store-bought (or home prepared) spuds with vines already growing from them - which most people use to grow their own potatoes. Here's the strange part As better explained in these Daughter Of The Soil blog posts (here and here), these seeds are not related to the tuber the flowers grew from. These seeds actually produce a variety of potato all its own: "... TPS is not the tuber, but the actual seeds - which come from the plant's flowers and fruits. As seeds are produced by sexual means, a coming together of egg and pollen from different flowers or different plants, they represent a genetic recombination. In other words, they are not genetically identical to the parent plant. They are newly created individuals ..." If I grow from seed, what should I expect? As for the process, potatoes from TPS are sowed much the same as you would tomatoes or other plants - start growing indoors and transplant them outdoors some time in Spring. To extract the seeds, you would need to mash these little fruits up real good, place them in a glass of water for a few days. Wait until the seeds separate and sink to the bottom, dry out and save for next year. The resulting harvest yield will be minimal, at least during the first year. Your first TPS harvest is likely to yield fewer & smaller potato spuds as opposed to growing by traditional means. However, if you save your best potatoes from your first harvest & plant those the following year, your potato harvest should improve. Repeat for several years and who knows, perhaps you have created your very own prized new potato variety. My Potatoes, 6/15/11 So, what's the verdict on TPS Growing from TPS is not for everyone. However if you have extra garden space, are willing to put forth more effort, you love experimentation, and are willing to spend years crafting your newly created potato variety, this may be a fun endeavor. Personally I have not decided whether to pursue this path -- for now I will extract the seed, preserve them, and decide my course of action later. NEW  LushGreenVA's aStore - powered by Amazon Clutter-free shopping for vegetable gardeners. Every product hand-picked and smartly categorized by me, H. Mikael - many are similar to one's I use myself, including: Composters, Raised beds, Greenhouses/Cold Frames, Rain Barrels, Rear-tine Tillers and Cultivators