How Do Potatoes Reproduce?
- The primary means of reproduction in potatoes consists of planting a section of the underground tuber. This produces a plant identical to the parent plant. Certified seed potatoes are grown under strict regulations — including several inspections for the presence of disease — and sold to gardeners, who in turn cut the tubers into blocky sections that contain at least two eyes. The eyes — small dimples in the flesh of the potato — send up new shoots that develop into a potato plant.
- Many potato cultivars produce small balls at the top of the plant that look like miniature green tomatoes. These contain the true seed of the potato and can be harvested, dried and replanted in the spring. The downfall of potato seeds is that the resulting plants are not identical to the mother plant. Some cultivated varieties of potatoes have been bred to produce nonpollinating blooms and do not produce seeds.
- Cutting a section from the terminal end of a potato plant and rooting it produces a new potato identical to the parent plant. These cuttings can be overwintered in the home and planted in the garden in the spring. To try your hand at starting potatoes from stem cuttings, dip the bottom 1/2 inch of them stem in rooting hormone and pot them in perlite or moist sand.
- Growing potatoes from seeds is risky, as the results may not be desirable and may exhibit characteristics you do not like. However, you may discover a potato that you prefer — in which case you can save tubers for next year's crop. However, saving tubers from potatoes grown in your garden also poses a risk, as many diseases that affect potatoes can overwinter in the tuber and infect your new crop in the spring. Cuttings may not be practical, as growing them inside during the winter is difficult unless you use grow lights. Planting certified seed is the safest method for planting potatoes in your garden.
