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A potato puzzle

Posted on August 16th, 2006 – 11:25 AM
By Jaime Chismar

Do potatoes go to seed?

Because we eat (and plant) only the tubers, I always assumed that potato plants reproduced exclusively under the soil. I mean, aren’t most planting potatoes clones of other potatoes? (This is also why the Irish potato famine was so catastrophic — all spuds were clones of the same spud.)

Then my potato plants blossomed with pretty white flowers. And now, they bend with the weight of hard, little green fruits. (When I crack’em open, they look like eggplant inside– full of tiny seeds surrounded by tight white flesh.)

Piecing together what I remember from my 11th grade botany class, it

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 11:25 am and is filed under Potatoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to "A potato puzzle"

Lorika says:

August 16th, 2006 at 4:02 pm

Well, I’m just talking out of my, er- well you know, but I think they may be like tulips. Tulips go to seed too, but it takes forever to grow a tulip from a seed, so we just plant the bulbs. Perhaps a potato is like a potato bulb? I would imagine that they couldn’t use the seeds to have potatoes during the famine because you wouldn’t get potatoes for a few years?

Just taking a stab at it.

June Varner says:

August 16th, 2006 at 8:59 pm

Greetings: Yes, they are potato ’seeds’ keep an eye on them and as the potato vines dry, save them. You can start potatoes from those seeds if you do it a month or so earlier than putting potatoes in the ground.

The potatoes are ready to harvest [dig]when the potato vines are dead. All of the varieties that were planted are not real sensitive to sunlight so they won’t turn green. When you take them out of the ground put them in the shade, keep them dry and let them ‘age’ or dry slightly for several days.

Wipe the dirt off them, do not wash, and if they are aged enough, they will keep in a cool place like a basement most of the winter. The earlier varieties will start to sprout first. If you keep them from getting too interwined you can plant them, sprouts and all next spring.

Since they are done blossoming, you can eat a few of the potatoes before the vines die; dig carefully along the base of the plant and take one or two from each and you will not harm the plant. If you keep the dirt hilled up over the base of the plant they may make a few more potatoes.

Laurie says:

August 16th, 2006 at 10:47 pm

Good advice harvesting and storing potatoes.

Do not eat the potato fruits (the seed things). They are toxic. Not sure how much, but real eggplant is probably much better.

The potato seeds will not necessarily be the same as the plants that produced them. Potatoes are started as clones, because they frequently cross with others in the garden. Clones are the only way of assuring a consistant crop.

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