[Nick Ford]

Has anyone else already done this?

Last year I harvested an interesting variety (30 or so) of minitubers grown from true potato seed collected from self-pollinated Desirees the year before. This year they are due to be planted out as seed potatoes. Each set of tubers from each plant has been given its unique alphanumeric identifier and each planting will be carefully marked with its own ID and hopefully there will be enough tubers to taste as well as keep for next year's seed potatoes.

Now, my question is: would depth of planting matter? If the standard depth of four inches for an average, hen's egg-sized seed potato is relative to its size and/or weight, should my minitubers then be planted only an inch or two deep? Or doesn't it matter?

Any thoughts on the subject would be much appreciated.

Nick Ford.

[Yorkie]

I haven't done anything like you suggest, but there are immediate red flags there about ongoing risk of virus in potatoes re-used as seed tubers from year to year. 

You can't see viruses by the naked eye in the seed tuber and so it would be too risky for me.

[steven c]

along the same lines i think, we have saved some small [golf ball size] desiree potatoes from last years
we are going to try these along with bought cara seeds interesting to see how they go on  what size are your mini tubers

[comfreykid]

Interesting idea !
Re planting depth , l would think that planting at the same depth as you would do for hen egg would be best , they will certainly still grow well and you don’t want any of the crop to break the surface and turn green. 

[Nick Ford]

along the same lines i think, we have saved some small [golf ball size] desiree potatoes from last years
we are going to try these along with bought cara seeds interesting to see how they go on  what size are your mini tubers

Everything from thumbnail size, to that of golf balls.

[Nick Ford]

I haven't done anything like you suggest, but there are immediate red flags there about ongoing risk of virus in potatoes re-used as seed tubers from year to year. 

You can't see viruses by the naked eye in the seed tuber and so it would be too risky for me.

I appreciate your caution but the true seed parents were grown from certified virus-free tubers and I can see no way that the resultant seed is going to become virally infected. Thus the resultant first generation seed potato minitubers should also be virus-free. Thereafter, of course, it does become an exponentially increasing risk with some, whilst others may equally evince virus-resistant characteristics. I can't see how I'd be doing anything different from the commercial developers here... have I missed something?

[steven c]

I think it is worth a try i would have thought growers in places like Jersey would have to save there own seed potatoes and probably have to grow in the same ground and how would our grandparents and past that got on

[Yorkie]

I haven't done anything like you suggest, but there are immediate red flags there about ongoing risk of virus in potatoes re-used as seed tubers from year to year. 

You can't see viruses by the naked eye in the seed tuber and so it would be too risky for me.

I appreciate your caution but the true seed parents were grown from certified virus-free tubers and I can see no way that the resultant seed is going to become virally infected. Thus the resultant first generation seed potato minitubers should also be virus-free. Thereafter, of course, it does become an exponentially increasing risk with some, whilst others may equally evince virus-resistant characteristics. I can't see how I'd be doing anything different from the commercial developers here... have I missed something?

We had a commercial developer on here as a member some years ago, and the caution I have noted came as a result of his direct experience.

So if the caution is good enough for him, it's good enough for me.