I know that seed potatoes are tubers rather than seeds, which raises the question of whether potatoes produce real seed at all.
My interest is storage. Tubers take space, need the right conditions and do not last indefinitely. If there is a true seed, it would presumably store like any other vegetable seed and take up almost no room.
Do the plants set seed, how would I collect it, and is growing from it practical?
There is a real and growing use for true seed that is worth knowing about, though, because it addresses the problem you were trying to solve.
Seed carries far less disease than tubers. The viruses that accumulate in a tuber line generally do not pass through true seed, so seed-grown crops start clean. In places where certified seed tubers are expensive or hard to obtain, and where storage conditions are difficult, growing from true seed is a serious approach rather than a curiosity.
There are also modern hybrid true-seed varieties bred to produce reasonably uniform plants, which removes much of the lottery problem. They are a relatively recent development and worth looking for by name if this appeals.
The trade is time: seed-grown plants usually spend their first season producing small tubers, which you then use as seed the following year.
The catch, and it is a large one for your storage plan: true seed does not come true.
Tubers are clones, so a variety propagated by tuber stays exactly that variety indefinitely. True seed is the product of sexual reproduction, so every seedling is genetically different from the parent and from its siblings. Potatoes are also highly heterozygous, which means the variation between seedlings is dramatic rather than subtle — different sizes, shapes, colours, flavours, maturity times and disease resistance, all from one fruit.
So you cannot store true seed of a named variety and get that variety back. You get a lottery.
That is exactly why breeders use true seed — it is how new varieties are created — and exactly why growers do not.
One practical note: many modern varieties flower poorly or set fruit rarely, and some barely flower at all.
So whether you can collect seed depends heavily on what you are growing and on the season — hot dry weather tends to reduce fruit set. If your plants have never produced berries, that is normal rather than a sign anything is wrong.
If you specifically want to try this, look for varieties known to set fruit readily, and expect it to be an experiment rather than a supply.
@tuber_tunc · 6d ago
They do. Potato plants flower, and if the flowers are pollinated they set small green fruits that look like tiny tomatoes — which makes sense, since the two are close relatives.
Those fruits contain true potato seed, and it stores exactly as you hoped: small, dry, viable for years in a jar. A single fruit contains a great many seeds.
Important warning first, because this catches people out: the fruits are not edible. Like the green parts of the plant, they contain compounds that make them unsafe to eat. They look inviting and small children have eaten them. If you are collecting them, say so out loud to anyone else in the garden.
To collect: let the fruits ripen until they soften slightly, mash them in water, let the good seed sink, rinse and dry thoroughly. Same process as saving tomato seed.
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