Potato Products and Sizes

Seeds

True potato seeds are the primary offering at Cultivariable. This is different than most other companies, which primarily offer tubers. True potato seeds were collected from the parent variety.  They may be self-pollinated, cross-pollinated, or a mix of both.  Potato seeds never grow true.  Each seedling is unique, although each will have many traits in common with the parent.  With most varieties, there is a picture in the product gallery that shows an example of tubers grown from the seeds.

Tubers

Potato tubers are rarely available. My growing field has been invaded with powdery scab, which makes it impossible to offer tubers due to the prospect of transmitting this annoying disease. I will probably bring another field into production in the future, which will allow me to offer tubers again, but tubers have always been a secondary product to TPS, so I’m not in a rush to make this happen.

I offer small, pot grown tubers that are excess from my own seed increase.  These are not a regular or predictable offering.

In Vitro Plantlets

In Vitro Plantlet Instructions

Plantlets are small plants from tissue culture.  They are delivered in plastic tubes or bags, rooted in agar gel.  This option has not worked out as well as I hoped, as customers typically find plantlets difficult to work with. These are now offered only occasionally and in small batches,

I can produce and ship plantlets at any time of year, although they are vulnerable to freezing like any live plant.  The freezing risk with priority mail is low as long as you get the package as soon as it is delivered.  Plantlets are shipped separately from other items you order (and usually separate from one another as well) and must be shipped in a rigid package, which is part of the expense.

The major advantage of plantlets is that they are established in the lab from a disease free source and are therefore as clean a product as I can produce.  They also allow me to continuously offer varieties even when I am not growing them in the field.  Disadvantages include the expense and the fact that it takes extra work and care on your part to transplant them to pots and get them established before planting them out.  If you have a choice between plantlets and tubers and you plan to grow and save your own seed tubers for many years, I recommend starting from plantlets.