TPS, Qoyllu

True potato seed information and growing instructions

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

Qoyllu is a Bolivian heirloom variety.  It is a small, round, red diploid potato.  Qoyllu is a Quechua word that translates to something like “bright white,” which I assume refers to the flesh color. Qoyllu was provided by the USDA Potato Introduction Station as PI 595444.  I like this variety a lot and find it useful for breeding, so it will probably remain in the catalog indefinitely.

Reproducibility Score: 20

Practicality Score: 30

Culinary Traits

Qoyllu is a starchy potato, with light, dry, white flesh. It has the mild bitterness that most people describe as a strong “potatoey” flavor. This is a good potato for roasting or baking. It has thin skin and fairly shallow eyes, so it is easy to prepare.

Agronomic Traits

Qoyllu is a short day variety and performs somewhat differently when grown in summer vs. fall. In summer, the plants remain relatively small, perhaps 16 inches tall, the stolons can be as long as 16 inches, and the tubers skew toward the smaller end of the size range, topping out at about 3 inches. In fall, the plants grow larger, the stolons are usually very short, and the tubers can grow larger, occasionally reaching four inches in diameter.  Summer maturity is about sixteen weeks under our conditions.  Tubers are mostly in the 2 to 3 inch range and yields are about a pound per plant.  Qoyllu appears to have strong resistance to late blight here, remaining mostly untouched even when surrounded by blighted varieties.  This variety has very good dormancy and will overwinter without any sprouting from even a summer harvest.  With sufficient pollination, it will set a perfect crop of berries.

True Seed (TPS)

TPS was collected in 2018 through 2021 and was open pollinated.  It grew in a block with other high dormancy diploids and would guess that the majority of the progeny will be round reds or yellows with good dormancy.  The seedlings that I have grown were mostly round, reds, blues, yellows, and bicolors with a mix of white and yellow flesh.  Some had very good yields.  Most had very short stolons, but surprisingly, a few had long and tangled stolons.  All were strong flowerers with excellent berry production.  Great flavor and a texture decidedly on the floury/starchy side.  The main image for this page shows a selection of the seedlings.

1 gram packets contain approximately 1,100 seeds.