Mixed True Potato Seeds (TPS), Diploid, High Dormancy

True potato seed information and growing instructions

This mix includes seeds derived from OSSI open source varieties.

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

Diploid potatoes are not commonly grown in North America.  They are native to the Andes.  Diploids tend to be smaller and have lower yields than common tetraploid potatoes, but they compensate for this with richer flavors, beautiful colors, and unusual shapes.  There are two very good reasons why diploids aren’t commonly grown in North America: most of them have little to no dormancy, which makes them difficult to store over the winter, and many of them have short day photoperiods, which means that they don’t produce tubers until fall.  These deficits are not universal.  Many plants grown from this mix will tuberize in the summer, although it might take them a little longer than it would in the fall and they might have other quirks like longer stolons when grown in the summer.  Still, if you grow a full packet, you can expect to get plenty of plants that will make tubers in the summer.  While most diploid potatoes have low dormancy, these belong to a group previously known as Solanum stenotomum that have good dormancy.  Stenotomum type diploids are generally considered to be the most primitive of the domesticated potatoes and they were grown at high elevations in Peru and Bolivia long before they were adapted to lower, warmer elevations where they lost their dormancy.

The seed parents of this mix are plants that I have selected to keep, so they are either heirloom varieties, varieties that I have released, or varieties that I keep only for breeding.  The mix of parents change from year to year, typically by about 20%.

The picture above is an output photo of a full bed of seedlings grown from this mix, so it will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect. What it doesn’t show are the plants that produce tiny tubers or no tubers or that died early in the season. You will always get some of those when you grow potatoes from seed.

Germination

2024

Final germination
Days to first germination	15
Days to final germination/2
Days to final germination