Can I Still Grow a Plant from a Fuzzy Potato?

[Steven Ellet]

TL;DR Summary

Can I grow a fuzzy potato?

I put a russet potato in a clear plastic container with a dish of water. It had sprouted potato tubers(I think that's the right term) but I waited too long... it now has roots and white fur. Is there a reasonable change I can still get a plant out of it, or should I just start over?

 

[BillTre]

A potato usually has several "eyes" on it which can sprout into a new plant.
You can cut up the potato and each "eye" can sprout.

Assuming your fur is fungus, it may be too late for your potato, but you light be able to cut off the fuzz.
Potatoes are easy to grow, but they like good drainage not sitting in water.

 

[Tom.G]

Potatoes also like dim or no light to start the sprouting. I have seen potatoes that were forgotten in a cupboard to grow sprouts over 18 inches tall! That seems to be around the growth limit before running out of their retained water.
(YMMF, Your Mileage May Vary)

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Rive]

Potatoes also like dim or no light to start the sprouting

Erm... No. Potatoes needs moisture and temperature only: lack of light just makes the sprouts actively seek for light and grow (uselessly) long, while depleting its reserves.

it now has roots and white fur.

Likely it'll still survive if you plant it, but .... you know... it was OK as an experiment, but potatoes does not really require any preparation: you are supposed to just plant them (smaller pieces are preferred for planting) as a start and wait patiently till they do their potato-thing

By the way: is that 'fur' is like this?

(source)

Lengthwise the fine root hairs of single rye plants add up to 11,000 km ensuring the effective uptake of water and nutrients even under dry conditions. ©B. Hackauf/JKI

 

[Steven Ellet]

is that 'fur' is like this?

No, I planted it already but the area around the sprouts looked like a scared cat

but white

It was also starting to look like a prune.

 

[Janus]

Growing up, we grew our own potatoes. In the fall we'd dig them up, and put them in a large bin in the basement, using them throughout the winter.
Come spring, we'd take the potatoes left in the bin, cut them in half and replant them for the next year's crop.

 

[Steven Ellet]

I just checked, there are multiple sprouts pushing through the soil. Once I have a plant, how can I get seeds? Or can I?

 

[Tom.G]

The "eye" of a potato is similiar to a seed. They can grow to be a root or a stem.

Ask Google What is a tuber.

 

[Rive]

In theory, it's possible to get a potato growing till it produces seeds, but it is not really a common or trivial task: usually just the smaller potatoes got recycled as planting material instead of actual seeds.

Is it just a sudden idea or curiosity?

 

[Steven Ellet]

Is it just a sudden idea or curiosity

Some types of seeds can be stored for years...I really doubt the "Eye" can be stored long. Plus, seeds allow for selective breeding.

 

[BillTre]

This is from this review of potato genetics (which surprisingly is open access):

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), in a further contrast, naturally reproduce by both sexual and asexual means. The natural pollination of potato flowers by insects capable of buzz pollination results in true (botanical) potato seeds (TPS) in berries. The genetically unique seedlings that arise from these seeds produce tubers which can sprout and grow into new potato plants, giving rise to a complicated mixed sexual/clonal system of reproduction. In the late nineteenth century, potato breeders started to switch from using natural open-pollinations to planned artificial hybridizations, to generate genetically unique seedlings and their clonal descendants from which to select new cultivars for tuber propagation. Hence, after the initial hybridizations, no more sexual reproduction was required to produce a new cultivar and therefore, in a sense, no knowledge of genetics was required. As a consequence, any impact of genetics needed to be through the production of parental material of known genetic constitution and predictable offspring. This included making use of the many wild tuber-bearing relatives of the potato in Central and South America, as well as the abundance of landraces in South America. The numerous potato-collecting expeditions to Central and South America, pioneered by the Russians in the 1920s, led to the establishment of a number of potato germplasm collections (gene banks) worldwide, including those established in Europe and North America in the 1940s and 1950s, and the world collection at the International Potato Centre (CIP) in Peru in 1971. The book by Hawkes, The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, provides a useful summary of the germplasm that had become available to breeders by 1990, and the relevant knowledge that had accumulated to aid its utilization (Hawkes 1990).

Sounds like the strains of potatoes you might get as food are probably not good at breeding with flowers.
Tetraploid means that a potato cell as four copies of each gene (and chromosome). This makes breeding for traits more difficult. Goldfish are also tetraploid, but they have been breed for a thousand years.

 

[Steven Ellet]

This is from this review of potato genetics (which surprisingly is open access):

Sounds like the strains of potatoes you might get as food are probably not good at breeding with flowers.
Tetraploid means that a potato cell as four copies of each gene (and chromosome). This makes breeding for traits more difficult. Goldfish are also tetraploid, but they have been breed for a thousand years.

Bummer. Regardless, I appreciate the help. Thanks

 

[Rive]

Some types of seeds can be stored for years...

A potato seed is small. I would be really surprised if they would do any better than - for example, as its relatives - tomato or pepper seeds for storage in usual circumstances. And that's only a few years, with sprouting chances progressively worsening with each year.

seeds allow for selective breeding.

Sure, can be done, but with not every kind of potato and it's not trivial and beyond the usual gardening experience (related to potatoes).

Also: I know that there is a trend brewing around true potato seeds now, but since potato is a poisonous plant by default (especially the 'fruit') I would suggest not taking such project without further studies and careful consideration.

Every official new type of potato is tested for solanine content before releasing it for the public (and then the usual method of growing it maintains this property), but unknown crossbreeds might be tricky and are clearly in the 'on your own risk' category.

Ps.: popsci, but a good read anyway: The case of the poison potato

 

[Steven Ellet]

potato is a poisonous plant by default

I was aware that green potatoes were bitter and could make you sick, but I didn't know about it having that poison all the time.

only a few years

1-2 years is all I was interested in (for use the following spring or the next spring)

 

[JT Smith]

Nightshade family. There are toxins present in some concentration. I think "by default" means that wild potatoes are a bad idea to consume.

 

[Rive]

I think "by default" means that wild potatoes are a bad idea to consume.

I meant that potato plant is poisonous.

Part (tubers) of the plant (some varieties, in proper conditions, usual preparation) has low enough poison (solanine) content that they are considered edible.

But once somebody is out of the 'some varieties, in proper conditions, usual preparation of tubers' box, then it's no longer a given: regardless the negligence, it never was.

 

[jim mcnamara]

According to the National Capital Poison Center

green potatoes are not safe to eat. When chlorophyll increases in a potato, turning it green, it's likely that the compound solanine has also increased. A higher level of solanine causes potatoes to taste bitter and can even lead to health problems

Greening of edible potatoes occurs in improper storage conditions: warmth, exposure to light. Ex: sitting in a clear plastic bag on a table top near a window.