Here are the links to my test results and how to save potato seeds. Pruning Potato Blossoms Part 2: My Test Results: kzread.info/dash/bejne/hIJrlLafitvdl5c.html Saving Potato Seeds from Potato Berries: kzread.info/dash/bejne/iJx-mo9uj8nJZpc.html

Thanks for getting right to the point and not just talking a lot about nothing like some other youtubers do! I wasted 20 minutes yesterday listening to someone yak about potato flowers who didn't really know what they were talking about. Subscribed!

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I also appreciate that feedback. Many of my older videos were much longer as I can tend to ramble a bit myself. 😀 Last year I concentrated on keeping videos under 15 minutes for the most part and trying to keep to the point. I'm still working on improving the videos as I go so I always appreciate the constructive feedback. Thanks for subscribing!

For those of you who are not convinced, why not trim the blossom from half the crop!... Harvest time will prove or disprove the practice. Happy Gardening and Thank You for Video..

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Great advice! I like doing the home experiments. Plus if you save half, you can always save the seeds from the potato berries you get for seeds for a hybrid crop next year.

Quick and to the point. Much appreciated.

I grew up in southern Idaho. work for potato farmers in the summer and fall and we never even thought of trimming the flowers off. thats genus!!! but we got potato's and not the size you see in the supermarket. the were as long as your lower arm could not get both hands around them. ( we sold them to Ore Ida ) jost a lot of water and some urea

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Was it a synthetic urea fertilizer? I was just reading about a farmer who making a natural one from urine, but I think the synthetic ones are made of anhydrous ammonia and some other ingredients.

I skipped a head until I saw the shears in your hand and cutting off the flowers. That was enough for me.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

But then you missed all my engaging commentary! :) Thanks for the feedback though!

That was very helpful! I want bigger potatoes, so l will keep an eye on the flowers. Thank you 🌱

Very good info. I have not had mine bloom to that degree before. They are pretty.

I have no idea what happened in this video, as I was pleasantly distracted by the cockerel in the background - he sounds sooo cute!

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Lol that's Doug, our Bantam (porcelain d'uccle) Rooster. He loves to crow constantly when I'm filming a video. He's a good looking boy, but he's a bit of a jerk. 😄

Thanks brother ...first year growing potatoes ( upstate NY)....learned what I needed to know...just subbed

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I hope you have a great harvest!

Good video informative thanks

Great timing. My potatoes have flowers and I didn't know if I needed to do anything. Now, I know. Thanks.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I hope you get a lot of big potatoes this year!

@Godsdesignforhealthyliving623

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld thanks

Great video, thanks.

Good video. I also would like to see a side by side comparison test. This makes sense, but I have never thought of trimming the potato blossoms. Thanks.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I do plan on doing a follow up video later this season with a comparison.

Excellent video very informative

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Good job thanks

Agreed about not wasting time getting right to it. Good info. New subscriber and glad to be here!!! Really like the shirt too- molon labe

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

thanks

If the plant wants to flower, pruning the first flush will only encourage it to try again and divert more energy from the tubers.

We never kept the flowers on the potato plants..as soon as they appeared we cut them off, had always three rows each row over 285 ft long..always had a much bigger potato. And lots of them...also we hilled them...

I found several scientific articles supporting flower removal. Here's one: "The results clearly indicated that the highest total tuber yield (30.96 ton ha-1) was recorded from flower bud removed potato earthed up at 15 days after complete emergence. Therefore, flower bud removed potato earthed up at 15 days after full emergence was better in terms of all yield contributing characters and tuber yield." Gebregwergis, F. H., Gebremicheal, M., Gebremedhin, H., & Asefa, A. (2021). The effects of flower removal and earthing up on tuber yield and quality of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Belgrade, 66(2), 121-137. And another, studying several factors using mini-potatoes: "According to the results, the mini-tuber size by 15 and 25 mm and planting in furrow and flower removal produced highest number of tubers and tuber weight per plant, marketable tuber yield and total tuber yield." Goldust Jelodar, M., Khorshidi Benam, M., Hassanpanah, D., & Azizi, S. (2012). Evaluation of the Effect of Flower Removal and Size of Mini-Tuber on the Yield and Yield Components of Agria Potato Cultivar by Using Two Methods of Planting. Journal of Crop Ecophysiology, 5(20(4)), 67-80. Anyone can find these and many more at scholar.google.com. The scientific language can be daunting, but reading the abstract will usually give you the information. I found one study that showed a difference with flower removal one year, and no difference the next year; they attributed it to weather factors. I did not find a review article or a meta-analysis (which examine the results of a large number of studies.

@suemaillard2130

Жыл бұрын

Of course, the best way to find these things out is by growing your potatoes in identical situations for a period of years and comparing crops. Four or five years will give you sone idea if you use identical methods and identical potato varieties and an identical water regime, though an inside controlled environment might be required to get any real sense if accuracy. But as a rough rule of thumb, maybe a couple of years in your own garden might give one a rough idea in your own garden, lol. 👍

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for posting this info!

Great ,some flowers are pretty tho

I pinched off the buds on my potatoes by hand yesterday. I hill up my potatoes with compost so every single plant of both white and red potatoes was blooming.

My flowers never make the berries. Yukon gold, reds, blue. What breed do you grow that make berries? I would like to try to get some seeds.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I've done Russett, Yukon Gold, Red, etc. However, the berries forming have to do with temps and water, instead of the variety. In many cases, the blossoms will just dry and drop off before forming berries. Berries normally form when you have cool nights and a decent amount of rain. Longer periods of hot weather tend to keep your potatoes from forming the berries.

thank you!

I had some russet potatoes start spouting. So I put them in the ground. On May 2nd they came up above ground. Today is June 15th. They're 28" tall and starting to get blossoms. I've never grown potatoes so I'm going to clip them in the morning. The soil there in I grew a crop of medical Marijuana in before putting it out in the garden so it probably has alot of nutes. Will that be a problem for me.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I don't have experience with that, so I can't say for sure. However potatoes are listed as a good companion plant for marijuana, so I would imagine they would be fine.

Great video, many thanks. I was worried about my crop of Tators (Red Pipers) as here in Scotland even though it is near the end of June 2024 we have had several frosts in the morning, I will be cultivating them soon though as they were my first crop so fingers crossed. Frosty Mornings in June, I thought we were supposed to be heating up?

@oneseedoneworld

7 күн бұрын

Scotland is on my bucket list to visit! That's crazy you are still having frosts, is that normal for you? We have in been in the high 90's F here with high humidity so the heat index has been running over 100 to 108 F. I don't want frost, but a little bit of cooler weather would be welcoming. I hope your tater crop does well even with the frost!

@ScottieScotland

7 күн бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld Thanks for the reply. Yes my Red Pipers survived a particularly colder June than normal, and it is normal in Scotland to have a cool June, when I was a kid we had Snow one day in June and the further North you go in this country the less rare that becomes. I have watched your video again and have memorised your advice for next years Potatoe Crop. I hope you get to Scotland one day but avoid July and August as those are the Tourist Rip-Off months, in September for example everything becomes a fair price again.

@oneseedoneworld

Сағат бұрын

@@ScottieScotland Thanks for the tip on travel times. Hopefully one day I will be able to make the trip. I hope your potatoes do well for you next year!

I have tall potato stems with a good amount of leaves but no blossoms. Should I trim them back the leaves at all or just let them grow over the container?

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

No need to trim the stem/leaves. It's beneficial to add additional loose organic material (soil, straw, mulch) up around the plants periodically. This will help them produce more potatoes on top of the existing ones that are already forming underground.

@Dion82866

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld Awesome! I really appreciate your quick response and advice! Thanks so much!

Hi. When should I stop watering my potatoes? Mine have started to flower and wilt. Do they still need watering?

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Water potato plants until the foliage starts to turn yellow and begin to die back (normally about 2-3 weeks prior to harvest).

I’m 70 years old, and my grandfather was a potato farmer. On towards Fall time he would kill the tops, and then when the tops got dried the potatoes were ready to pick. So, same idea as the man who posted on here to smash the tops, but I don’t think you do that until late towards fall. Grampy and others here in Maine did the same. I can’t speak for other states but that’s how we did it here.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I had read about Canadian potato farmers doing vine killing, but they were doing it chemically. Something about timing it right so that it made the skins tougher/better for storage. I hadn't heard of the stepping down/smashing them until the comments on this video, so it was nice to learn something new (and also a way done without chemicals!).

I have three rows of taters planted, think I'll trim the flowers off two rows and see how they fare and compare.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Great idea! I am going to do a follow up video later this season with a comparison as well. My plants are still putting off blossoms, so I'll stop trimming them on one row.

love it when humans tell plants what they "should " be doing

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I dont think plants are watching KZread. 😆

True Potato Seeds are fun. Some varieties of tubers (clones really) can no longer make potato fruits and seed so they're lost to us to get their DNA into any new potatoes. But if all a gardener wants is clone tubers cut em. I like to do both, grow some seed potatoes (clones) and grow some true potato seeds new plants to see all the interesting colors and tuber shapes I get. Anything I like I just plant its tubers like with the regular seed potato clones.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I have a couple of plants going from the seeds I saved last year. I started them way too early though so most didn't survive. But I have 2 small ones that are looking healthy (although tiny) so I'm hoping to get something from them this year from my test batch.

@pd8559

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld don’t stress any not surviving that’s natural selection removing dna that won’t perform in your soil type and climate. Those that do will be the stronger ones that if you like how the perform replant their tubers. If you don’t like them just eat them 🤣 a whole lot of eating. If you want a bunch of working TPS going to seed has them.

It makes sense, but I, we, as the audience would love to see an experiment to prove this. Like two separate potato plants where you trim the blossoms off one and not the other and compare the harvest.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I am planning on doing a follow up video later this season with some updated results. I still have blossoms coming in on my plants, so I'll leave some of them and trim the rest to compare.

@Togidubnus

Жыл бұрын

I have conducted this experiment, and so have others, and I can state categorically that it makes no difference.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

@@Togidubnus I'm doing one this season and will have a follow up. According to some studies by a couple of University Ag Depts., there have been differences. Although, it seems that its still a pretty well debated topic in the gardening community, and I'm sure there are probably many other factors (soil, weather, etc.) that play in that can have different results.

@justgivemethetruth

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld > I'm sure there are probably many other factors (soil, weather, etc.) that play in that can have different results. That is why a controlled experiment is necessary - keeping all the other factors the same across examined test runs.

@justgivemethetruth

Жыл бұрын

@@Togidubnus That is what I suspect - it probably makes little to no difference, but people have a way ( at least on KZread ) of always screwing up the experiment in some way, or mostly on KZread of not doing the experiment at all and making videos to push some idea that will attract clicks and comments.

Something likes the leaves of my potato plants turning them into swiss cheese. How can I deter them? I sowed some green onion seeds along the bed and chopped up last years green onions and tossed them on.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

There are several pests that will eat potato leaves. The potato beetle is probably the most common, but other things like flea beetles, leafhoppers and cutworms will munch on them too. You could try a neem oil application, as it will stop many of those types of pests from bothering your plants.

Did anyone notice your shirt sign? - Thanks for wearing it! See you on the other side.🤠

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

One other person commented about the shirt 😀

This is the fifth or sixth video I've seen that recommends trimming off the flowers and I can assure you that this is NOT the best way to proceed with potatoes. We've been growing potatoes in my family going back to the 1890's in Ireland and the best method is "stepping down" your plants. When they begin to flower, the plant is almost finished it's cycle. At this point, simply step on the main stalk of the plant so that it is crushed but not severed. This allows ALL the nutrients from above ground to migrate to the tubers, resulting in them being 20-50% bigger than normal. This technique has been used for centuries and is tried and true, PS: The exact same technique works for your onions as well.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Appreciate the info! However, when you state that when the plant begins to flower it is almost finished its cycle, what are you referring to in the cycle? Since the potato plants generally have many more weeks to go after flowering before harvesting full sized potatoes.

@Martin.Wilson

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld When plants are stepped down, they don't die for quite a while. It's during this period that the nutrients are directed to the tubers as opposed to nourishing the green part above ground. It's basically the same idea behind trimming the flowers except it involves the entire plant.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

@@Martin.Wilson Gotcha, thanks for the additional explanation. I had not heard of this before. With the stepping down, is this done after they have been hilled, and do you still hill more after the stepping down, or just let them go from there?

@Martin.Wilson

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld No hilling is require...just let the plant continue to wither until all the leaves are yellowed and it becomes apparent that no more photosynthesis is taking place. You can harvest anytime after that. Try it with your onions as well....same principle, same results.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

@@Martin.Wilson Interesting. I'll have to try that in the future. Thanks for all your input and explanations. I learned something new today!

Has anyone made tests with and without flowers for comparison?

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

I have not done a test myself within one year to compare. My personal observation was that last year I did not prune blossoms and had smaller potatoes and a smaller crop, although I also grew in bags last year, so it could have been other things affecting. I think this is still an overall debated topic in gardening. Some tests were done by the University of California and they had some information on it as well.

@finnjacobsen684

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld Thanks. I have read some information that seems to indicate that pruning will give a larger number of smaller potatoes. The risk of introducing illness by hurting the plant was also mentioned. Any experience with adverse effects?

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

@@finnjacobsen684 not as yet! This year is probably the heaviest pruning of blossoms I've done, but we're still early. I'll try and do a follow up video on this later in the season to show harvest and cover any other things that may pop up (hopefully no illness!).

@finnjacobsen684

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld Thanks. Looking forward to that. I don't think professional potato growers prune. Probably too much work?

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

@@finnjacobsen684 I am not sure if large scale potato farmers worry so much about the blossoms, although some do use a method called vine killing. There is an article about Canadian farmers using it here if you are interested: spudsmart.com/vine-killing-timing-is-everything/ However, I doubt this is something that backyard gardeners would need to do (although I guess a few home tests would always be interesting).

50-60 years ago, my folks grew hundreds and hundreds of pounds of potatoes. I never once saw them prune off the blooms on their plants. I never heard of doing this until recently. As far as that goes, you don’t always seen potatoes full of blooms either, and the blooms rarely produced seed balls. I think we say that happen on just a very few plants one time. As suggested, if you are interested in this method, test it. Just remove the blooms from a 1/3 or 1/2 of your crop. Then when you harvest record how many spuds you got from each plant, how big they were and how much each plants harvest weighed. Make sure to keep growing conditions / watering consistent for the whole tator patch. Then share your results! : )

@oneseedoneworld

3 ай бұрын

I did a test last year and had a follow up video. My results had both pruned and unpruned having about the same amount in pounds harvested. I am going to do a 2nd test this year as well. My potatoes normally always get blooms, although I agree get the seed berries are rare. I've only had them once here in the last decade.

@ritalouise4786

10 күн бұрын

​@@oneseedoneworld😊

I pruned my potatoes this year for the first time after I watched a few videos on KZread about the great results I should get if I do. I had the worst yield ever this year. I have a small garden for personal use and ended up with mostly marble-sized potatoes. I'll never prune again!!!

@oneseedoneworld

7 ай бұрын

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it. I had one other person state they had a similar experience, although many others said they had a positive experience. I had such a large response to this initial video, I did a follow up video this summer and did a test of my own. I pruned one row and didn't prune the other. My results were almost the same for overall harvest weight between the two rows. It is possible that you may have had other environmental things that affected the harvest outside of pruning.

@NewfiePete

7 ай бұрын

While my experience may be coincidental I will continue the old-fashioned way and let nature take its course. Whatever works for others I encourage you to continue. May your crops be plentiful! @@oneseedoneworld

Show the miniature rooster that's crowing in the background

@oneseedoneworld

6 ай бұрын

lol that's Doug! I think he is on a couple of my videos, probably in the more recent videos in my Backyard Chicken Playlist. He is one of three (the other 2 are hens) porcelain d uccle bantams we rescued about a year and a half ago. I'll need to include him more in some future videos. He loves to crow constantly when I'm outside making a video, and he also is a bit of a jerk. 😄

I never trimmed my potatoes back until this year, and I won't do it again. I got the worst yield ever.

@oneseedoneworld

10 ай бұрын

That's too bad! Were you trimming only blossoms or were you pruning back vines as well?

no i would,nt prune best potato crop i ever got was from my first time i grew potatoes and didnt know you have to prune then i watched youtube vids telling how i gotta prune send energy to the tubers ,and every crop since has been small with small potatoes and do you know why the plant deos,nt grow as long after pruning, but you get an extra ,6 weeks of growth on plants while its going through flower to seed grapes and tubers keep growing so i,m back to letting the plants do its own thing

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

Definitely keep doing what is working for you! When you pruned previously, were you pruning stems as well, or just the blossoms? That could potentially make a difference. My potatoes last year were much smaller (and smaller crop overall) when I didn't prune blossoms had let berries grow. However I also was growing in bags last year, so for me that may have been a main factor over the blossom pruning. I plan on doing a follow up video later this year with a comparison, as I am letting some keep the blossoms and prune others.

@theresnobodyhere5778

Жыл бұрын

@@oneseedoneworld it was in the builders bags i got my best crop unpruned hard work though watering every night ,i had been pruning about an inch down from flower stem before i went back to letting plants do there own thing and only use liquid tomato feed ,20 seed potatoes will produce same yield weight as 40 pruned seed potatoes i found also tried things like chitting or sprouting with 3 sprouts get smaller potatoes but only one sprout on each seed will give huge potatoes but still by weight 3 or 1 sprout equals same weight yield ,some of my bags contained only Two huge 4or5 pound potatoes when i planted with only one sprout on the seed

Scientific method would require a control group. Even though a method sounds plausible doesn't mean it's true. Some plants respond to flower removal by blooming again and again, devoting the energy you refer to to repeated attempts to flower and eventually make seed. Further, there is no relevance to what was produced in past years. Weather and fertility change. I was initially intrigued, but soon realized it was nothing more than a working theory. There are no supporting data to make any conclusion.

@oneseedoneworld

Жыл бұрын

There are some studies done on this by several AG Depts, at different Universities. I am doing my own test this year, and will do a follow up video on results later this season. I also hope to include some of the more scientific method type study results in the follow up video.

Never seen such large blooms on taters before!! Cut those things off.

On odsece samo jedan cv’et !ko ce verovati

@oneseedoneworld

17 күн бұрын

Prikaz jednog je samo primjer za video.