Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Basic recipe for a 10% Trisodium Phosphate solution. For one cup of water 24 grams of trisodium phosphate are required. For folks without an accurate gram measuring scale, 1 level teaspoon of trisodium phosphate is about 6 grams. So you can make a 1 cup quantity of 10% trisodium phosphate with 4 teaspoons of trisodium phosphate and a cup of water. You also can make a smaller quantity at the same concentration with 1/4 cup of water and a single teaspoon of trisodium phosphate.
It also needs to be said that cleaning your true potato seed doesn't require the use of trisodium phosphate. It is true that trisodium phosphate is a polluting chemical when it is allowed to enter into our surface water. When soluble phosphate compounds like this are poured into surface waters, the result is algae blooming due to the phosphorus fertilization. Dispose of your trisodium phosphate solution safely in the soil, vis down the drain. Soil is highly reactive with trisodium phosphate and will rapidly bind the soluble phosphate ions into insoluble phosphate compounds which will be available for plant nutrition over long time scales.
The main benefit of using trisodium phosphate to clean your true potato seed is that it is capable of extremely complete cleaning of the mucus and germination inhibitors present in the gel surrounding each potato seed. The more gel that remains on the seeds, the more they stick to one another as they dry, and the more difficult they are to germinate effectively. It also does this cleaning very rapidly. TPS dwell time in the trisodium phosphate solution is only 20 minutes, so multiple batches can be processed quickly. This becomes incredibly useful when you have large numbers of berries to process, and/or large numbers of small batches of berries that need to be individually processed. As it happens, this year I have BOTH, and trisodium phosphate has been a fantastic tool for keeping me ahead of the rotting berries and the mummifying berries.
Basic recipe for a 10% Trisodium Phosphate solution. For one cup of water 24 grams of trisodium phosphate are required. For folks without an accurate gram measuring scale, 1 level teaspoon of trisodium phosphate is about 6 grams. So you can make a 1 cup quantity of 10% trisodium phosphate with 4 teaspoons of trisodium phosphate and a cup of water. You also can make a smaller quantity at the same concentration with 1/4 cup of water and a single teaspoon of trisodium phosphate.
It also needs to be said that cleaning your true potato seed doesn't require the use of trisodium phosphate. It is true that trisodium phosphate is a polluting chemical when it is allowed to enter into our surface water. When soluble phosphate compounds like this are poured into surface waters, the result is algae blooming due to the phosphorus fertilization. Dispose of your trisodium phosphate solution safely in the soil, vis down the drain. Soil is highly reactive with trisodium phosphate and will rapidly bind the soluble phosphate ions into insoluble phosphate compounds which will be available for plant nutrition over long time scales.
The main benefit of using trisodium phosphate to clean your true potato seed is that it is capable of extremely complete cleaning of the mucus and germination inhibitors present in the gel surrounding each potato seed. The more gel that remains on the seeds, the more they stick to one another as they dry, and the more difficult they are to germinate effectively. It also does this cleaning very rapidly. TPS dwell time in the trisodium phosphate solution is only 20 minutes, so multiple batches can be processed quickly. This becomes incredibly useful when you have large numbers of berries to process, and/or large numbers of small batches of berries that need to be individually processed. As it happens, this year I have BOTH, and trisodium phosphate has been a fantastic tool for keeping me ahead of the rotting berries and the mummifying berries.
