Seed Potatoes tor Home Gardeners

Northland Age, Volume XII, Issue 43, 5 August 1943, Page 3

Seed Potatoes tor Home Gardeners

The Department of Agriculture has issued the following circular in regard to potifto planting by home gardefiers: Last year home gardeners were faced with extreme difficulty in obtaining supplies of seed potatoes for planting in their private gardens, the shortage being brought about by the necessity of lifting the commercial acreage in the 1941/42 season from an extremely low acreage to a figure rather above normal. A similar position may possibly face home gardeners again this season, not because of the failure of last year’s effort, but because of a recent notification from the American authorities of greatly increased requirements by their armed forces. New Zealand is being called upon to do her share in feeding the the fighting men of the Allied Nations and in one respect every private gardener can assist. This is in relation to seed potato supplies. When seed potatoes are in short supply, it must be the private gardener who suffers firs. This is not because he is entitled to less consideration than the commercial grower—on the contrary he deserves every consideration. He is however, in a much better position to improvise, and while his individual efforts may seem negligible, the total effort of all private gardeners amounts to considerable | proportions. It is the considered opinion of Mr. J. H. Claridge, Seed Certification Of- ; ficer of the Department of Agriculture, that in times like these every private gardener can and should make j himself independent of the usual source of seed potatoes and at the same time make an indirect but very important contribution to the war ef-» fort. Apart from direct purchase of seed potatoes, Mr. Claridge suggests the following ways by which sufficient sets for the ordinary home garden might be obtained. Briefly these are: 1. —Sort over your supplies of table potatoes and put the smallest aside for planting. Put them out to green and sprout and by the time you are ready to plant them you may find they can be cut into two or more pieces, each with two to three sturdy shoots. 2. Approach your neighbour (especially if he was fortunate enough to have an appreciable area in potatoes last season). He may be able to supply you with some spare tubers which you should handle as above. 3. —Purchase some table potatoes. Cut the rose end (i.e. the end with the cluster of eyes) off each. The cut should be made one to one and a half inches back from the rose end according to the size of the tuber. Instead of separating the pieces, however, place the cut surfaces into contact again and set aside carefuly in a dark place for a week or two. By this time the cut surfaces will have suberised (i.e. produced an artificial protection) and will not develop rots. The rose ends can them be put Out to sprout and perhaps later cut again, while the balance of the tubers can be put into the pot. As an alternative to complete severing of the pieces, the cut can be made almost but not

completely through leaving a little tissue to hold the pieces together. This can be broken away later when separating the pieces. 4. —For those wishing to experiment, place a few potato tubers in a box of wet sand and cover them to a depth of about four inches. Place the box in a warm place—a seed frame is an ideal spot. When the sprouts are through the ground lift the tubers carefully, break off each sprout where it is apart. They should be planted attached to the potato and plant them out about nine inches so that the green tip of the shoots come just above ground level. Later the plants are moulded up in the usual way. The tubers themselves may be replanted to obtain a further crop of shoots, or in dire necessity find their way into the kitchen. Heavy yields should not be expected by this method, but up to seven shoots have been obtained from the first striking, with more later, so that the number of plants produced from each original tuber is considerable. When cutting potatoes for seed purposes, it is desired to stress that the ! tubers should be planted immediately after cutting, but the soil must be in good condition —neither too wet nor too dry. As an alternative to immediate planting, the cut surfaces should be kept in contact for a week or two until the surfaces have suberised and thus received protection from drying out.