Over the past 20 years it has become increasingly apparent that our heritage potatoes are in trouble, and since the introduction of the psyllid, (which brings a host of damaging viruses) the problem has dramatically worsened, and our heritage potatoes are now in real danger. 


In the Spring of 2011, we launched a comprehensive Potato Program to save our NZ heritage potatoes. We are seeking sponsorship for the individual potato cultivars from our members and supporters. The cost for this program will be $40 per cultivar. We are looking for 50 people to sponsor a potato each to enable this trial to go ahead. Individuals are being offered the chance to sponsor a heritage spud for a year....Thank you to all those who have made a sponsorship so far...our thank you list is here. 

Click here if you can sponsor a spud.
 

It is many years since serious selection work has been done by the home gardeners maintaining these lines, with the exception of possibly Joseph Land’s work. 


New Zealand soils are also now seriously de mineralised. Just as we humans can not maintain our health or the integrity of our DNA over generations if we do not feed our body well, the potatoes are not able to maintain the genetic strength they began with if we do not feed them the minerals from the rich soils they evolved with. 

The introduction of the potato psyllids into the country in recent years has been the final straw. These psyllids are adding yet more viruses into our potatoes and many people have lost entire collections, and are no longer able to grow potatoes.

Other people and organisations in NZ who hold serious potato collections (including industry growers) are endeavouring to get their collections cleaned up by ‘tissue culture’ in the lab, which is a way of taking the viruses out of the potatoes and beginning again with virus free seed. This is a costly process for each variety, and we do not believe this will strengthen the genetics of the potatoes. We have seen kumara collections lost in this way, and their tissue cultured plants are vulnerable to all the viruses and psyllids that continue to exist in the environment, when they are planted again in the real world.

What we really need is to strengthen the potatoes, nourishing them properly so that the genetic strength is improved and maintained. 

Here at the Koanga Institute, we believe that we must find an alternative solution, one that can be followed by Home Gardeners in New Zealand to strengthen and maintain the integrity of the plant's DNA. The science of epigenetics has taught us that

ENVIRONMENT DETERMINES GENETIC EXPRESSION


In this instance, this means that if we are able to supply all the required nutrients to the plants, and create a strong and healthy soil (environment) full of beneficial microbiology and minerals, then the strongest plants will adapt and survive.... and we can select from these to maintain the lines.



Our Potato Project this year will be supported by Environmental Fertilisers, who will design a biological nutrient program, including solid and liquid fertilisers, and we will follow a testing and analysis program, adjusting things as required. We will also be using our Psyllid Solution – a water soluable, very finely ground version of Diatamaceous Earth.

We will have a trial plot of 200sq m, which means that we will be able to plant 20 plants of each cultivar in our collection. (We hold around 50 varieties currently). The strongest plants will be selected at harvest, to keep for next season's seed. We will follow this process for several years.

Our goals will be to achieve production of high quality, good size potatoes, heavy crops of around 3-5kgs per seed potato planted, and be able to provide seed from these potatoes to our members and the general public.

This program will be supported by our local community, with support from Nathan Foote and Gerard's gardening crews, (who will help with the double digging) our summer Intern, and Environmental Fertilisers, who will do our soil tests.

In the Spring of 2011, we launched a comprehensive potato program to save our heritage potatoes. We are seeking sponsorship for the individual potato cultivars from our members and supporters. The cost for this program will be $40 per cultivar. We are looking for 50 people to sponsor a potato each to enable this trial to go ahead. Please help us!

UPDATE: 20 December 2011

This has been a great success so far, if we may be so bold as to say that before we have even harvested the crops! Our Potato Trial has only been possible with the generous donations from our members and supporters. We're aiming to improve the seed lines in our collection, to see if we can grow the viruses out of our potatoes by nourishment and careful management… rogueing, selection etc.




This year we've seen strong flowering (right), which we've not seen in previous years. There is still a lot of variation between lines, and we have had to rogue a lot from some lines but generally we can see.. all in just half a growing season;

    •    far stronger healthier growth then I have see for many years
    •    far more flowers, even lines of strong growth and flowering
    •    more seed pods setting than seen previously (seeds setting are a sign of healthy plants)
    •    no psyllids and yet others in our area have them
    •    no shield bugs and others have lots of them

Potato Trial December 2011

We're aware that how they look on top is not necessarily that we will be harvesting good potatoes or even any potatoes after our experience last year with the psyllids, however we can see after taking all the care we did in our trial so far, things are looking very good. Even those we have been rogueing had already set many reasonable sized potatoes.