Posted by Susie Baxter on July 10, 2010 at 10:07am
If I buy ordinary supermarket potatoes and let them sprout for planting, will they grow successfully? I am wondering at the merits of buying the more expensive seed potatoes from garden centres.
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I'm experimenting with growing on the laterals from the potato plants I already have from certified seed spuds. Does anyone have any experience with that and, if so, what are the management/ cultural factors that make for success?
I cut the sprouting eyes out of supermarket potatoes and plant them with good results
Sometimes I think that supermarket potatoes are tougher because they have been breed to grow with the least amount of problem I have found that the eyes are thicker and stronger than other varieties of potatoes not bought at the supermarket.
I have kept the peelings from potatoes and planted them with a very successful crop resulting. You just need to be careful to ensure the 'eyes' are still intact.
Wow! I wouldn't have thought that would work! There's enough competition for potato peelings at our place as it is, between the worm farm and the chickens!
Depends where you are think Caroline,in some areas of NZ there's no bugs that attack our potato crops so that's why i don't think it really matters.
You say you had a crop which had hatched some kind of bug inside the your potatoes,thats sound yukk,i would say that the eggs were in the spuds even before you bought them because a bug's not able to distinguish between a certified and supermarket spud.
Hi Susie ,There's no reason at all why you cant grow supermarket spuds,if you buy now you avoid buying potatoes that in spring are coated with a growth inhibitor.Breeders will tell you that you should to buy ONLY certificated seed potatoes because of the risk of virus,but the supermarket spuds themselves have been grown from these low virus seed potatoes anyway and are still likely to be 99.99% disease free.
For the real keen garden ,growing from the TPS (true Potato Seed) is the cheapest way to grow your own seed stock that is 100% virus free
Susie Baxter > Richard WatsonJuly 11, 2010 at 4:14am
Thanks Richard for the comprehensive reply. Don't think I'll try the seed growing yet, but will sprout some supermarket potatoes now ready for spring.
Susie
The most common reason for buying seed potatoes from garden centres is that they are certified disease free, so there shouldn't be any problems growing them. You can't always be so sure with supermarket spuds.
I have only tried growing supermarket spuds once, it had been a while since I had planted them and nothing was happening so I decided to dig them up and see what the problem was, it turned out some bug had layed eggs and thier babies had hatched, there was just a wriggling skin of the potato left. It was both gross and amusing to watch. I know some people do have success with supermarket spuds but since then I have only grown spuds from seed potatoes.
Susie Baxter > Caroline GillJuly 11, 2010 at 4:14am
Replies
Thanks to Megan for the pointer here.
I'm experimenting with growing on the laterals from the potato plants I already have from certified seed spuds. Does anyone have any experience with that and, if so, what are the management/ cultural factors that make for success?
Sometimes I think that supermarket potatoes are tougher because they have been breed to grow with the least amount of problem I have found that the eyes are thicker and stronger than other varieties of potatoes not bought at the supermarket.
You say you had a crop which had hatched some kind of bug inside the your potatoes,thats sound yukk,i would say that the eggs were in the spuds even before you bought them because a bug's not able to distinguish between a certified and supermarket spud.
For the real keen garden ,growing from the TPS (true Potato Seed) is the cheapest way to grow your own seed stock that is 100% virus free
http://www.curzio.com/N/Potato_starting_from_seed.htm
Susie
I have only tried growing supermarket spuds once, it had been a while since I had planted them and nothing was happening so I decided to dig them up and see what the problem was, it turned out some bug had layed eggs and thier babies had hatched, there was just a wriggling skin of the potato left. It was both gross and amusing to watch. I know some people do have success with supermarket spuds but since then I have only grown spuds from seed potatoes.