Now that it is almost spring, it is time to evaluate the 2015 potato tubers for storage quality. After including storage quality as a determining factor, only 7 varieties were chosen for evaluation in 2016. Each variety was renamed for easier identification in the future. The 7 varieties are ranked in order of preference:
1) 2015 Diamond Toro (formerly Diamond Toro #2) – This variety was kept for its outstanding yield, beautiful magenta skin color and best overall storage quality. It also set a few berries on the TPS seedling plant; I’m hoping for more in 2016.
2) 2015 Amarilla (Amarilla #1) – This variety was kept for its excellent yield, gorgeous purple skin/yellow flesh coloring and good storage quality. Amarilla was another variety that set berries on the TPS seedlings.
3) 2015 Carola x Ad. Blue (Carola x Adirondack Blue #1) – This variety was kept for its good yield and excellent storage quality.
4) 2015 Skagit Beets (Skagit Beets #2) – This variety was kept due to its intense red flesh color. I’m hoping for a better yield in 2016.
5) 2015 ERD (Elongated Red Diploid #1) – This variety was kept due to its pretty yellow/pink skin and deep yellow flesh coloring. This was the highest yielding diploid from 2015. From what I understand, diploids generally do not have good storage life. See *note at the end of this blog post for how I kept this one going through the winter.
6) 2015 Pig Knuckles (Pig Knuckles #1) – This variety was kept as the prettiest fingerling potato that was grown from TPS in 2015.
7) 2015 Blue Shetland (Blue Shetland) – This variety was kept due to the unique tuber shape and flesh coloring.
*Note: As expected, both of my diploids began to sprout early in the winter. Rather than give up on them, I took one pull sprout from each variety and planted it in a pot indoors under a grow light. The plants grew from December to the end of February. Elongated Red Diploid #1 produced enough tubers to replant in the spring. Elongated Red Diploid #2 did not produce tubers using this method.
