Subject: AD: Botanical Potato Seed, is it worth the extra time and effort ?
From: "Potato Products International" <potato@inreach.com>
Organization: University of Guelph
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 11:04:42 -0800
Message-ID: <MOD$971211.2713@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
AD: Botanical Potato Seed, is it worth the extra time and effort ?
The potato plant can be multiplied in two ways: (a) vegetatively, by means
of tubers, tuber cuttings, the eyes of the tuber and plant cuttings (b)
sexually by means of the botanical seeds that is formed in the potato berry
that grows out of the potato flower. Vegetative multiplication is the
dominant practice for potato production throughout the world. Tubers are
planted at a rate of 2000 kilo/hectare (1750 pounds/acre). the advantage of
using tubers is that they are relative easy to grow, the "seed" potato
contains a lot of reserves to help the potato plant get started. The
disadvantage of vegetative multiplication is the fact that several hundred
potato diseases can easily be transmitted through the "seed" potatoes. This
means that growers often have to rely on chemicals or accept lowers yields.
The alternative of growing potatoes from botanical seed has long been seen
as the wholly grail of the potato grower. Precisely because the botanical
potato seed is the result of sexual reproduction it can transmit no more
than four potato diseases. If these disease are kept out of the fields in
which the parental plants grow, its becomes relative easy to produce
disease free starting material for the potato at a low cost. Another
advantage is that one only needs about 160 gram of potato seed per hectare
( 2.2 ounces/acre), which virtually eliminates the use of fossil fuel that
is currently needed to store and transport large quantities of bulky "seed"
potatoes. Growing potatoes from its botanical seed is more difficult than
from the much larger "seed" potatoes, and requires a growing seasons that
is four to six weeks longer.
I work for a seed company that is producing botanical potato seed and
would be very interested to hear your opinions and suggestions about the
potential use of botanical potato seed by home gardeners in the USA. The
last time that botanical potato seed was sold in the USA was in the early
1980s. Do you think that there is an interest from home gardeners to grow
potatoes from botanical seed, even though it will take them more time and
effort to harvest a crop than to just plant a potato tuber. The home
gardeners themselves will not directly see the environmental effects of a
distribution network that ships potato planting material per envelope
rather than per box. But you can imagine that it will easily add up when
you consider that there are several tens of millions of home gardeners that
grow potatoes. For more information on botanical potato seeds please visit
the web site listed below.
Many Thanks for your attention,
Hans Renia
E-mail: potato@inreach.com
Web: http://home.inreach.com/potato/