Looks like I will be growing some small 2-3 bit size tomatoes next summer. Both are from fellow you tube channels.
Orange Roussollini - Tomato (80 days)
This one Luke was sent seed for from one of his viewers. He put the seed up for sale and I got 2 packs.
He said this is the sweetest tomato he has ever tasted. It was sent all the way from Italy, a family heirloom. Grows in a very lush bushy plant, with so many fruits per plant! Heart shaped, very prolific producer
. This was sent to MIGardener. I paid $4.48 including shipping.
This is his video showing his harvest.
The 2nd one is a praxxus cherry tomato. From Praxxus55712
I won it for free on a You tube give away.
It was very kind of him to give to 300+/- people.
He has many videos with this plant in it.
I have seen so many post on Face book, saying. What are these ball's or berry's on my potato plant? Answer:
They are fruit like, you would find on a tomato or egg plant.
Tomatoes and potatoes and egg plants are all in the Nigh shade family.
I see people reply to them. It is Poisson or toxic berry's.
Yes, they are right. They are not food to eat. There only purpose is to produce seed to grow new potato plants. That is how we get new variety's.
Please do not destroy them. Give them to someone who wants to save the seed from them. Many times I want to write. SEND THEM TO ME! LOL :)
The purple flower in this photo created my first berry this past summer.
This post will not deal with potato breeding. Just what to do with the berry's
1. Let them stay on the plant as long as possible.
2. If the are not soft like a tomato, store them in a paper bag, or let them sit on a window sill to continue to ripen.
How to process the True potato seeds (TPS)
I will include a video and photos here to show you what I did with today's ripe berry's. I have also done one in the past with an over ripe berry. I will add that one on here too.
This is what you need, ripe berry's, knife to cut open, a container to soak the seed in, yeast to help remove the gel coating on the seed
The berry's in the photo show different stages of ripeness. The darker the color and harder the berry the fresher it is. The lighter the color and softer it becomes the ripper is it. You want ripe seed,
Like most tomatoes, the berry has seed on each side of a center cavity. The outer skin will come off easy. But all you want is to squeeze out the seed. removing it from the flesh of the berry.
I am using a small jelly jar I added 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to half a jar of warm water. I will let this sit 24 hours. Then fill the jar up with more warm water. It will set another 24 hours.
The seed is smaller than tomato see, So I will add a coffee filter to my strainer.
I will then run under water and rinse the seed.
I can let the seed dry on the coffee filter, or transfer to wax paper, paper towel.What ever you prefer to let your seed dry on. The seed will stick more to a paper towel. But that is not really an issue for me.
The purpose of this fermentation like process, is to remove the gel coating. It will inhibit the growth of the seed.
I will let this seed air dry for a week or more.
I them store it for next years use.
Labels are important.
I find if I do not write the name on the filter/jar I will forget what the name was.
Video 1 is processing ripe berry's / fruit
Video 2 getting seed from an over ripe berry/fruit
Note, The berry's processed in the photo and first video or from The potato plant called Riverwood. Medium-large round Irish potato tubers, white flesh, huge yields, many berry's. Tetraploid. May have a have a high starch and low moisture content, meaning they bake well, are fluffy when mashed and make excellent French fries.
Or turn into a Potato starch or potato flour, made by grinding cooked, dried potatoes,
this would be a gluten-free thickening agent. Be careful not to boil a preparation
once it has been thickened with potato starch
Riverwood potatoes are very resistant to PVX, PVY and PLRV; good heat tolerance; good
processing quality; good combining ability attributes; adapted to
lowland tropics GRIN: PI 607501 Coad: C89.315 CIP 388972.22
I know it is fall and time to put the garden to sleep. LOL. I have been ordering and planing next years garden the last month or more. I think I had spring fever all summer long. I was happy with my potato harvest this year. But, I want productive plants.I have seen many Youtube videos showing great harvests in the United Kingdom. Charlotte in one potato, I have been looking to add to my collection. It is the first bag on the left of this photo. These are all 1 pound bags.
You can judge from the tuber that the potato is a good size for cooking. The Huckleberry potato is close in size. Skin color is a maroon-beet red and the flesh is dark pink with white marbling. So this potato may be full of antioxidants. When you find things with colors like purple they somehow have more nutrients and health benefits. So I am also looking to add and keep potatoes like this growing. Also I want plants that can produce potato berry's. Because, I want to breed my own potatoes. Or collect seed from them. If they are tetraploids, nature will take care of them and the bees will pollinate them. But they have a good chance of being male sterile. Like most commercial potatoes, that do not produce berry's. Where Diploid requires another plant to cross pollinate with. They are harder to work with.
I also receivedRose Finn Apple fingerling.(beige skin and deep yellow flesh) Even though it is a small potato, it looks like it produces many per a plant.
It is a late-season 105–135 days heirloom variety. I thought would be interesting to try. I have read reviews that they have stored well. So that is another trait I want in my potato collection.
Covering plants can give you 2 to 5 degrees F protection. The covers can be laid right over the crop, or can be supported on stakes. The difference being that protection is less wherever the cover touches the plant. Any material can be used to cover the plants, however woven fabrics are better insulators then plastics or paper. The best time to apply covers is in the late afternoon after the wind has died down. Remove covers the next morning before the sun hits them.
Irrigate during the potential frost Many people claim that watering the frost off plants prevents frost damage. This is partially true.As mentioned above, watering plants helps raise their temperature and the air around them to that of the water. In addition, as water freezes, heat is released; 80 calories for each gram of water that freezes. Therefore,watering plants before they are injured from frost can help keep their internal temperature above freezing. A single application at the coldest part of the night (generally just before sunrise) may be enough on 30- to 32-degree F nights. On colder nights it may be necessary to apply overhead irrigation for an extended period of time, allowing actual ice formation on the plants. In this case, irrigation must continue until morning temperatures rise above 32 F and the ice melts. It is important to note that once frost damage occurs, watering does not help. If this is cold enough to break cell walls or disrupt cell constituents beyond repair, damage, wilting, and
death will occur in affected tissue How much cold will kill a plant?
Some plants can survive sub-freezing
temperatures for months. while others cannot take temperatures below 50
F. (10 C.) more than two or three hours.
Damage to plant tissue can be detrimental to plants.
Light frost typically will not cause major damage, unless it is a very tender plants, A really hard frost, will freeze
water in plant cells, causing dehydration and damage to cell walls.
Cold injury can then occur when the sun comes up, because the plant defrosts too quickly, killing leaves
and stems.
