Kifli x Pink Fir Apple

[jayb]

Some mini tubers of sister lines to Hot Dog and Snookie. Hoping to save these and grow some out next year, nothing startling but some quite nice long looking tubers, if they are like their siblings they should be tasty! Maybe one will be a bit earlier to produce. More than I can grow if anyone fancies growing any of these lines?

[Galina]

Would love to.

[jayb]

Great, any preferences or perhaps one or so of each?

[Galina]

One of each would be very greedy, but I would love it. But please keep the bigger ones for your own garden. I can easily grow them up over a year or two. Thank you so much

[jayb]

Brill, it'll be fun to have some one to share them and compare notes I was thinking of one of each too! They are all pretty small to be honest, so two in a pot together might be a good idea.

[Silverleaf]

You're tempting me now! If only I had more space!

[jayb]

Lol, I know you're going to have your hands full next year! If you change your mind your're very welcome to some

[jayb]

I potted up my little mini tubers yesterday, several had really long shoots on and would have benefitted from me being a bit more prompt! They are now in module trays, spacings are a bit tight and they wont hold for long but protected space is a premium. I've also got a K x P7, it was the only one from that particular tps, perhaps an indication of cropping ability or not?



In addition to the K x P's above I have several mixed mini tubers which I think are either Pink Fir Apple or PFA x something. I've potted them up as well!

[Hector1]

Will watch this one with interest. PFA is a real favourite, so a long tasty one sounds fab.

( same with Ratte cross)

Ps, just got a great wee book " Lost Art of Potato Breeding"

[jayb]

The sister lines, Hot Dog and Snookie, are lovely and really productive, so I've high hopes for some of these

It's a nice book, although a shame there isn't more on the actual breeding, traits and selection.

[jayb]

I mean't to take a picture of these today as they have really started to make progress, hopefully if I get a chance I'll do it tomorrow.
This is how they looked on 20/03

[jayb]

Kifli x PFA mini tuber's have gone into grow mode, they have been out in the poly-tunnel since March 14th, I also cover them with a cloche at night, They are growing on faster than I anticipated!!!!!

[Galina]

Also quite a few differences in plant size, Jayb.

[jayb]

Yes, some have leaped ahead, be interesting to see if it evens out over the season?

[Galina]

I have started planting them out here and not before time it seems. Kifli x PFA 2 fitted nicely under bottle cloches, the plants were very small. Today the biggest #6 and #5. They are both already showing tubers in their little pots #6 more so than #5. #6 had two very thick solid stems on each of the tubers, #5 has 4 or 5 thin weedy stems (where did they all come from on these tiny tubers?). Both are clearly early and most likely much earlier than Snookie. We have to see how they compare later in the season.

Just wanted to add, both plants #6 and both #5 were very similar to each other in earliness..

[Galina]

#4 were unremarkable, multiple stem foliage, one tiny tuber forming on one of the plants. There were 3 off #3 tubers and two of them were tiny. However they grew into sizeable plants nevertheless. One has a single stem, the other two have two or more - these plants are a little different from each other. The larger plants both are developing tubers, the smaller plant on the left not yet. Just #1 left to plant tomorrow. This is the most dissimilar. One plant very small and tried to shoot out of the bottom of the pot, the other is a sizeable, single stemmed plant.

[Galina]

All the developing tubers were yellow, guess the pink colour must happen later when the tubers are larger.

Forgot to say that each mini tuber had its own pot, because it looks like the multistemmed potatoes might be from more than one tuber.

[Galina]

If I was a betting person, I'd say #5, #6 and #1 (not the weird #1 plant) are going to be fairly early. Then #3 followed by #4 then #2. Just going on development at planting out time.

Now the frostproofing starts

[jayb]

I'd have said the pink tubers would be evident even at an early age?

From the first picture we should both have had 3 whites and 3 pinks, which would look to be the same in post 6, shame I jumbled up the numbering, it would have been easier to have had them in the same order as the initial post. Plant 5 should indeed be a pink and I think would have been the 3rd selection in the first photo (top to bottom and left to right)

Number 6 looks to have been the first one and a white.

[Galina]

I had the #5 tuber out for a couple of days wondering what to do with it. In the end I decided to plant it up as it isn't probably too late to grow it this year. If you look at it in a certain light, it does look like there was a pink hue developing over the yellow base colour. It definitely was pinker than when I took the photo.

[jayb]

That's good to know and interesting that some colouring is later than others.

[jayb]

So cool to be seeing mini tubers forming in your pictures

[Silverleaf]

I don't know if this is a universal thing, but my Desirée TPS plants had pale tubers for ages last year, but some turned out to be red. It was really hard to tell when the tubers were tiny.