TPS Snookie

[jayb]

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all the Snookie tps plants, germination was really good and quick. I've planted some up singularly others are several to a module and the remainder, I'm not sure about, I think I'll pop them in a pot and let them fight it out!



Hoping for lots of lovely waxy fingerling types

[Silverleaf]

Looking good! I like to make them fight for space myself too, makes it really easy to pick out the most vigorous.

I have Snookie and Cara TPS under lights right now but they aren't as advanced as yours and I haven't pricked them out yet. Soon...

[jayb]

Mine are out in the greenhouse, the weather should slow them a little bit.
How many are you going to have space for?

[Silverleaf]

Maybe 12 of each, maybe less.

[jayb]

12 sounds a good number to get a selection from. I don't know why, but I think Snookies will be quite similar in looks and taste, whether they can come up with the same level of production...?
When I grew a selection of Cara tps I had some really good tasty results, quite a few pretty ones with nice splashes of colour, harvest size did vary somewhat between plants. I'm thinking you will have some keepers with these

[Silverleaf]

Yes, I'm thinking I'll select the Snookies for earliness and productiveness because I reckon they'll all taste good like you say. Well, a little bit more early would be nice!

Caras are growing faster, and I'm going to look for nice strong colours and productiveness.

I honestly have never tasted a potato I didn't like (I'm even happy to eat the bland ones, they all taste nice to me) so I don't think I could select for taste. I cooked and ate samples of last year's TPS shortlist (I'd already picked them for productiveness or appearance) and wrote little notes for all of them so I'd member what they tasted like. Every single one tasted good - all different, but all good. I'm exaggerating here, but I pretty much just wrote "tastes nice" for each one.

[jayb]

Earlier would be smashing Fingers crossed someone will find this.

You are so lucky, I find some potatoes quite bland, while others are just gorgeous flavour! Some shine at one type of cooking and others are great tasting no matter what you do. Bintje potatoes were a revelation last year, so so as boiled or mashed, but roasted, wedges or chipped they were stunning!

I like the waxyness (sp) of Snookie and how they bring a little bit of Summer new potato taste right in the middle of winter. They are great at staying together in a casserole or curry type dish.
For me I found a few Cara tps were a bit on the dry side when boiled/mashed but lovely roasted or wedges. Others were just too good boiled and so good just eaten plain or with a touch of butter and sprinkle of salt and pepper. Flavour was good to very good regardless of cooking type.

[Silverleaf]

I think I just like any potato because even if they are bland you can cover them with butter or herbs or spices or make potato salad. I like to add garlic or horseradish or mustard or chives to mash sometimes, so I don't need a strong flavour for that! I still like them all anyway, even on their own.

I only ate a couple of Snookies last year as I planted it really late and it didn't produce that much and I needed to save tubers for this year. It tasted really good! I like the idea of a winter "new" potato, yum.

[Galina]

I wonder how much variability there will be between these Snookie tps plants. Hope most of them will be the very long, yummy type.

[Silverleaf]

It will definitely be interesting to compare results if we're all growing from the same seed. I love that every single seed is genetically different but of course we don't know how much variety there is hidden in the parent in the first place...

I'd be very surprised to see any coloured tubers in the offspring, because I think that colour would have showed up in the original Snookie if it was carrying any genes for coloured tubers.

As for everything else though, who knows?

[jayb]

I wonder how much variability there will be between these Snookie tps plants. Hope most of them will be the very long, yummy type.

I'm hoping so too

I think good chances, some of the other Kifli crosses I've grown seem to throw longer than average type tubers.

[jayb]

It will definitely be interesting to compare results if we're all growing from the same seed. I love that every single seed is genetically different but of course we don't know how much variety there is hidden in the parent in the first place...

I'd be very surprised to see any coloured tubers in the offspring, because I think that colour would have showed up in the original Snookie if it was carrying any genes for coloured tubers.

As for everything else though, who knows?

Hopefully nothing too big and lumpy as I think they trace back to the original Sarpo Breeding.
Yes interesting they are white skinned as they have PFA as a parent and although Kifli are white I suspect a pink is close in the background.

[jayb]

It will definitely be interesting to compare results if we're all growing from the same seed.

Forgot to say, I'm growing from seed I saved not the Circle, but unless cross pollinated I wouldn't have thought they would be different?

[Silverleaf]

Forgot to say, I'm growing from seed I saved not the Circle, but unless cross pollinated I wouldn't have thought they would be different?

Of course, yes, my brain isn't in gear!

Your Snookie tubers and the one you gave me last year will be clones of each other, and genetically identical to each other. So my seeds and yours will effectively be just like they all came from the same plant.

Of course, the seeds aren't identical, but the parent plants are.

Crossing of course is a possibility, we might get a few surprises...

[jayb]

Yes, I don't know how much a variety 'acclimates' to an area, but it would take time and not really an issue in this case.
My tps came from the plants grown for my aunt in her raised veggie bed. Also growing in the same bed, Violetta, PFA, Elizabeth and Abbot (possibly one other).

I'm all for surprises