Veg I Rooted A Potato Shoot

R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I chitted some potatoes and while I was handling one a long shoot broke off. Just for the heck of it I put it in a shallow bowl of water and it is getting roots.

I'm going to put it in a small pot and baby it along and see what happens.

Have any of you done this before?
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
It will make more potatoes. If you buy a whole bag of them early in the year and let them sit you will see the eyes starting to grow and you take each potato and cut it in half and some you may be able to cut it three or four times and you want two or more eyes to each cut and let them sit for a few days to form a crust over the cut.
Setup a string line in the garden and take a spade hoe and drag out a trench four inches deep following the string line and spacing them a 12 to 15 inches apart in the trench.
Once you have them set in place fill in the trench and build it up a mound about 10 to 12 inch high and 12 inch wide and keep them watered, they like water but don't want wet feet all the time.
Once they start to flower keep the water coming and put it them until they stop flowering then you can let up on the water until the vines show they are dying off them stop with the water altogether.
When the vines start dying give it about two to three weeks before you dig them up and set them out in the sun for an hour or more to harden them off for storage and don't wash them but leave them as is for storage.
 
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M

Martinhouse

Deceased
Rabbit, I've never tried to grow a potato sprout that had broken off of the potato. Be sure and let us know what happens to yours.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
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It will grow, but they generally don't do well... the baby plant gets nutrition from the potato until the root system develops well. Optimum size for seed potatoes is 2 ounces... smaller potato pieces (with a live eye/shoot) will grow, but usually aren't very productive.

Summerthyme
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
summerthyme said:
It will grow, but they generally don't do well... the baby plant gets nutrition from the potato until the root system develops well. Optimum size for seed potatoes is 2 ounces... smaller potato pieces (with a live eye/shoot) will grow, but usually aren't very productive.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...

Would it do better if she fertilizes it heavily?
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
I'd expect maybe a little clump of pea-sized potatoes from the sprout, but then those could be planted and maybe produce a few marbles. The biggest marbles might produce a couple of golf balls and then the following year you might get some eggs, and then away you go!

So in four years, you might get some real potatoes if the whole strain hasn't just sort of played out.

If would be kind of fun to do this, but who has time? Or could remember to keep up with it?
 
R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Martinhouse said:
I'd expect maybe a little clump of pea-sized potatoes from the sprout, but then those could be planted and maybe produce a few marbles. The biggest marbles might produce a couple of golf balls and then the following year you might get some eggs, and then away you go!

So in four years, you might get some real potatoes if the whole strain hasn't just sort of played out.

If would be kind of fun to do this, but who has time? Or could remember to keep up with it?
Click to expand...

LOL!
 
Raggedyman

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
summerthyme said:
It will grow, but they generally don't do well... the baby plant gets nutrition from the potato until the root system develops well. Optimum size for seed potatoes is 2 ounces... smaller potato pieces (with a live eye/shoot) will grow, but usually aren't very productive.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...

I would add to this that potatoes grow along the "stem" of the plant - which is why you hill them. as others have said here you'll get a few marble sized taters but nothing to speak of. why not find a spot in the yard - or a larger sized clay pot - and plant some eyes? cover it with a few inches of dirt and continue to do so as the the plant grows - burying all but the top few leaves every time the plant gets about 8-10" tall. you'll have taters all down the stem - for as long as you continue to cover the tops
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Raggedyman said:
I would add to this that potatoes grow along the "stem" of the plant - which is why you hill them. as others have said here you'll get a few marble sized taters but nothing to speak of. why not find a spot in the yard - or a larger sized clay pot - and plant some eyes? cover it with a few inches of dirt and continue to do so as the the plant grows - burying all but the top few leaves every time the plant gets about 8-10" tall. you'll have taters all down the stem - for as long as you continue to cover the tops
Click to expand...

I did not know this, no wonder my potato plants did horrible
 
Raggedyman

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
packyderms_wife said:
I did not know this, no wonder my potato plants did horrible
Click to expand...

ya gotta pull that hill up packy - a huge PIA (without the right tools on your tractor) - but a good hoe and a cool morning are the perfect time to get lost in your thoughts and the concept of "mindless production" :D - I hill mine three times - from the sole of my boots that hill will be above the knee - not quite to mid thigh
 
R

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
summerthyme said:
It will grow, but they generally don't do well... the baby plant gets nutrition from the potato until the root system develops well. Optimum size for seed potatoes is 2 ounces... smaller potato pieces (with a live eye/shoot) will grow, but usually aren't very productive.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...

Good information as usual from you Summerthyme. I always wondered if those leftover marble size potatoes were worth trying to plant.

Update on the rooted shoot. I put it in a pot in a sheltered spot and it got nice and leggy then died.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Thanks for the update...

When we harvest our potatoes (we're not huge growers, but generally grow between 1000-1500# a year), we spread them out under tarps (to keep light off) and let them dry and cure for 2-3 days. Then we sort them... any rotten ones go directly into pails while we're digging them (and are immediately burned). Any tubers showing a damp spot after curing go to the burn pile as well.

Small tubers are set aside for animal feed... our son has half a dozen hogs on pasture, and he cooks the potatoes for them. They love them!

We sort out the seed size potatoes and store them separately... easiest way to figure what is the right size is they should be the size of a large hen's egg.

"Number 1" tubers (good sized, but not giant, and fairly uniform in shape... no cuts or damage) are put in baskets and crates and stored in the root cellar. Outsized tubers, or those with slices or damage from digging, as well as weirdly shaped ones, are usually offered to a neighbor with a big family. A few years ago, I took them 4 bushels of "culls" for their pig... the Mom took one look at them, said, "no way are those pig food", and promptly took them to the house! I guess if you've got 12 kids, there are enough hungry mouths... and hands able to trim and peel even the awkwardly shaped ones...

So far, our potato plants look really good this year. Hubby has been spraying them every 10 days with copper, to keep blight from starting. They are in full bloom now, so in a week or so, I'll start scrabbling under the hills for the first new potatoes. If the heat hasn't ruined the peas (they don't set pods if it's over 90... and they are in full bloom right now as well), we'll be able to enjoy buttered new potatoes with peas and sweet onions... yum!

Summerthyme
 
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