Potato, Happy Banana

True potato seed information and growing instructions

Potato products and sizes

True potato seeds are classified as breeding seeds and germination is not guaranteed.

This is an OSSI open source variety. Click for more information about open source seeds.

Phytosanitary information

TPS is produced every other year. In vitro plantlets and tubers may be offered occasionally.

Happy Banana is one of two selections (Happy Red is the other) that I made from the cross of BS278 x Bloody Banana.  BS278 is a dihaploid developed in Canada.  It was developed as a tetraploid potato and then reduced to a haploid, which makes it diploid.  This makes it possible to cross a diploid potato like Bloody Banana with a potato that has been heavily selected for more mainstream commercial traits, normally found only in tetraploids.  Of all the seedlings from this cross, this one came closest to the goal of combining the color and flavor of Bloody Banana with the better production of a commercial potato.  The name is a mnemonic  – Happy refers to haploid and Banana comes from Bloody Banana.

Culinary Traits

Happy Banana is a delicious potato, very similar in flavor to Bloody Banana.  The texture is waxy and the flesh has moderate density, giving it a moist, almost creamy texture when served warm.  The flesh becomes more yellow when cooked and the red ring disperses, so that the flesh can become partly orange.  The skin is moderately thick.

Agronomic Traits

This is a late season potato in my climate and might be mid season in a warmer spot.  Yields have averaged just about 2.5 pounds per plant at full maturity.  Tubers are mostly in the 3-6 inch range.  Dormancy is on the short side, about three months.  Happy Banana is male sterile due to its commercial potato ancestry, but it is quite a good seed producer when pollinated by other diploids and has very large berries.

Fertility:  MF0, FF7

True Seed (TPS)

TPS of Happy Banana is open pollinated and will be 100% outcrossed.  The nearest neighbors were Trippy Banana, Melosilla, Blue Spruce, and Valparaiso.  The results should be extremely diverse.  My guess is that we will see quite a lot of yellow flesh from this seed, but it will be hard to predict beyond that.  It should be a good source of higher yielding diploids.