Potatoes setting seed

16 years ago

I hope someone can help me with this problem. My potato plants flowered (sporadically) but when I tried to dig up new potatoes there was not much there. Now, where there were flowers are now round berry type seed pods. Should they be there or not? If not, should I remove them?

Before I started my certified potatoes I double dug the bed, tested the ph of the soil, ammended the soil, and used Gurney's Potato fertilizer. Throughout the season the garden has gotten ample rain and regular waterings. I hilled up the potatoes at least 3' high yet they grew way taller than that -now they are about 3' higher than the hilling height.

As this is the first time I've ever grown potatoes I wonder if any of this is normal? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

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Comments (9)

pnbrown
16 years ago
Three feet of hilling is rather more than needed, I think. Generally, allowing potatoes to flower and set seed-fruit doesn't affect production much if at all. Sounds like possibly too much nitrogen.
jimster
16 years ago
What pnbrown says is correct.

Also, you may not have dug deeply enough to find the potatoes. Dig down to the level at which your seed pieces were planted. Many are apt to be at that level. None will be deeper.

Jim
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What an amazingly informative post! Thanks for settling the question of when to dig sweet potatoes! I have dug mine before frost most years but many of the "old timers" around here believe that letting the frost kill the vines and then digging up the potatoes the next day somehow makes them keep better over the winter. Most likely an old wives tale it sounds. Also nice to hear about curing....Last year for first time I laid my sweet potatoes out on a wire bakers rack in an 85- 90 degree attic area with a fan on them for almost 2 weeks....they kept INCREDIBLY well all winter long and I still have viable sweet potatoes I dug last October. So I can vouch for your curing statement! Also fascinating to hear that "Irish" (I thought that was just rural-speak for describing Idaho-type potatoes but is what we call them too) potatoes are closely related to tomatoes. As you probably can tell reading this thread, I have far less experience with "irish" potatoes than with sweet potatoes. I love the latter, not only because I prefer to eat them, but I also enjoy watching the vines grow so vigorously. Now I have to go research your last statement...who knew you could eat sweet potato leaves?:) Sorry if this thread has veered to far off from original question, but the subsequent posts have been so interesting I couldn't resist. thanks all.
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Well, CC, I didn't want to answer because the probable answer is something got mixed up along the way....and it happened to me, too, and I do not really want to admit that. The potato plants we grow from seed potatoes are clones of the original seed potato and should be the same color, taste, general shape, etc. They should NOT be a different color. So here's my story: I'm sure I bought Red Norlands, sure they had red skins, sure I know where I planted that variety, labeled them from day 1. Also marked the name on my garden map...and then they were not red when I dug them?!? I feel that somewhere along the line I must have missed something because I can't believe that a red skinned seed potato would produce other colored potatoes. I'd guess both of us had something going on that was not what we thought we saw. Maybe I had really soil covered seed potatoes and they only looked reddish under the dirt, maybe I grabbed the wrong bag when I planted that spot, or maybe someone snuck in and dug out the originals and replaced them with something else just to mess with me...hey gotta have one guess that lets me off the hook. Yours look like they grew well. I bet they will taste good, too. We've been enjoying ours. But they were not ready for harvest as early as Red Norlands, and that was a big reason I planted some of that variety.
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lovetogarden
Original Author
16 years ago
Too much nitrogen? That's strange since I used potato fertilizer. I would think that the people who make it would know the proper ratio.
By the way, does the fact that there's not a lot of flowers affect potato production?
chaman
16 years ago
Already there may be more nitrogen in the ammended soil at the time you planted the potatoes.Not having lots of flowers does not affect production.Are the berry type pods green in color? If so then remove them.They contain Solanin which is not good for consumption.Remove green potatoes also.
How do you know that they are seed pods?
lovetogarden
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Chaman - I don't know if they are seed pods. I'm assuming they are. They are round and green. I'm also assuming that I should treat them like I treat bulbs. In other words I wouldn't let the flowers of tulips go to seed because I want to keep the bulb producing. Is it correct to do the same with potatoes or does it even matter?
digdirt2
16 years ago
The thread linked below has an excellent picture of potato seed pods. Just scroll down to the pic. ;)

Unless you want to save the seeds for some reason (some do), remove them just as you suggested one does with bulbs. The energy going to them isn't needed and they ARE poisonous.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Potatoes
chaman
16 years ago
Hi lovetogarden: Yes they are seed potatoes.
Thanks Dave for Potatoes link
I Googled for more information where I found an article about potatoes on Wikipedia.org confirming the same thing.
digdirt2
16 years ago
they are seed potatoes...

Then perhaps I misunderstood you original post? Are the green pods growing in the picture I linked above what you have?

The green pods growing where there were some blooms are seed pods full of potato seeds. That isn't the same thing as seed potatoes. ;) Big difference.

In the pods, if you leave them to dry, will be lots of little seeds that can be planted to grow plants that will eventually develop small "seed potatoes".

Seed potatoes are bought at the farm center/store or ordered from seed catalogs and look like small potatoes with tiny sprouts on them. They get planted in the ground to grow potatoes.

Make sense or only add to the confusion?

Dave
chaman
16 years ago
It should read they are "potatoe seed pods" instead of they are "seeds potatoes".
Thanks Dave for pointing at the mistake.

Potatoes setting seed

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