Uploaded September 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
This was inspired by Torp Tomaten's many fine TPS potato reveal videos. In the Oxbow Farm 2018 TPS seedling plot, there were quite a few individual seedling that had matured and were ready to harvest and assess.
The seedling group shown in this video was grown from open pollinated F2 seeds collected from our 2017 TPS seedling grow out of Sarpo Mira crosses done by our friend Nathan. We acquired this seed via the Kenosha Potato Project 2017 seed train. And very fine seed it was. 4 or 5 tuber clones growing out in our 2018 potato plot are selections from the orignal seedling planting from that seed.
It is clear that many of the seedlings that matured early enough to appear in this video were of similar genetics, and were possibly from the same parents, or even the same berry. You can see as they are dug, almost all the matured seedlings had very similar skin color markings, even when they varied for yield and tuber shape and size. So although no two were alike, they were clearly in the same clan. But many other tubers from other plants pop up in the video as they are being dug, and some of them are very different from the pink and white splotched tubers harvested in the video.
We hope this video demonstrates more of the variability that potatoes grown from true potato seed will produce for you, and also the excitement you can experience by digging up a brand new variety. Especially with common tetraploid potatoes, the range of recombination of traits is almost endless. So a person can breed and grow potatoes and find something new and interesting every year.
We do try and grow my TPS potatoes with some level of seriousness, despite not having the time or money to operate a full on potato breeding program. This means that our seedlings are evaluated for yield as a top criteria, so any potato seedling that doesn't yield at least 2 pounds as a seedling is rejected for further growing. We feel that this focus on yield is important so that we are continuing to grow a crop that is capable of feeding us, even though it is a hobby amateur plant breeding project.
This was inspired by Torp Tomaten's many fine TPS potato reveal videos. In the Oxbow Farm 2018 TPS seedling plot, there were quite a few individual seedling that had matured and were ready to harvest and assess.
The seedling group shown in this video was grown from open pollinated F2 seeds collected from our 2017 TPS seedling grow out of Sarpo Mira crosses done by our friend Nathan. We acquired this seed via the Kenosha Potato Project 2017 seed train. And very fine seed it was. 4 or 5 tuber clones growing out in our 2018 potato plot are selections from the orignal seedling planting from that seed.
It is clear that many of the seedlings that matured early enough to appear in this video were of similar genetics, and were possibly from the same parents, or even the same berry. You can see as they are dug, almost all the matured seedlings had very similar skin color markings, even when they varied for yield and tuber shape and size. So although no two were alike, they were clearly in the same clan. But many other tubers from other plants pop up in the video as they are being dug, and some of them are very different from the pink and white splotched tubers harvested in the video.
We hope this video demonstrates more of the variability that potatoes grown from true potato seed will produce for you, and also the excitement you can experience by digging up a brand new variety. Especially with common tetraploid potatoes, the range of recombination of traits is almost endless. So a person can breed and grow potatoes and find something new and interesting every year.
We do try and grow my TPS potatoes with some level of seriousness, despite not having the time or money to operate a full on potato breeding program. This means that our seedlings are evaluated for yield as a top criteria, so any potato seedling that doesn't yield at least 2 pounds as a seedling is rejected for further growing. We feel that this focus on yield is important so that we are continuing to grow a crop that is capable of feeding us, even though it is a hobby amateur plant breeding project.
