seed potatoes
 

We came across this site this afternoon, and will be putting an order together soon.

http://www.ronnigers.com/index.html

This is the potato farm featured a few years ago on 'dirty jobs'. Some interesting varieties for sure, and potato onions and jerusalem artichokes seem like they would be great survival garden faire. They also have a nice selection of garlic.

Re: seed potatoes
 

I've ordered from ronnigers several times, and I've always been happy. I received an order in November and the plants are thriving in my mild climate. Should be digging up a spud crop by the end of March.

Re: seed potatoes
 

is there a difference between the seed potato that you might obtain by saving the potatoes that sprout in the pantry, and the kind that Ronniger's sells ?

i have a fridge bottom full of slowly sprouting spuds. i was going to plant them in about a month.

Besides being all mixed up different varieties, are they basically the same thing ?

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Yes.....the only thing about seed potatoes is they are certified to be disease free.

We also plant our "leftovers" year to year, and never had a problem with them, though it is a possibility ( ala Irish potato blight ).

Armed Peasant gave us some Yukon Gold seed potatoes he had left over last year, and that was my first experience with them....slightly yellow colored flesh, no real taste difference from white.....so I couldn't tell much difference until they had been in storage in the root cellar this winter, and I have to say they keep MUCH better than the Kennebec we have always planted in the past....potato stays much firmer and less sprouting.

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According to a book I read, the best defense against potato blight is to plant a wide variety of potatoes. That way if one of them gets a disease, many of the others will likely be resistant. I'd stick with sweet potatoes personally, as they are well suited to fermentation :)

Andy-- what do you do when you save some taters to plant? What's the procedure for growing from a whole potato?

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Any large ones ( and we usually eat thru them first, so there aren't many ), you cut into 2-3 pieces, allowing a minimum of one "eye" per piece. The smaller ones ( say egg size ), I simply plant whole.

I've always been told that the more eyes you allow per piece ( or whole ), you will get more potatoes, but they will also be small. Leaving only one eye is supposed to give you large potatoes, but less of them.

Also been told to take the time to plant them eye, or sprout if they are that far along, UP, as that is the new plant top, and if you put it upside down, it takes it much longer to 'work back around' to the surface.


We usually shoot for about mid-late March here for planting, depending on when the ground can be worked.

Last year's spud crop.....we hose them off, grade them as to size, and inspect for any digging damage ( those get used first ), then allow them to 'cure' out a day or so in the air before they go into storage.

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...3_p125692.jpeg

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how deep do you plant your seed potatoes

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Not deep....3-4".....then keep hilling dirt up as they come up......maybe 3-4 times during a growing season......keeping enough dirt piled on the base to keep the potatoes covered....also give the root structure plenty of loose soil to expand in....they will grow like weeds.

For those new to growing them, you have "new potatoes" ( which are FINE eating boiled and covered in butter ) once the potatoes flower. We often dig 20% our crop for new potatoes along the way.....

Pork chop or burger...
New potatoes in butter
Fresh green beans......

mmmmmmm.....doesn't get any better than that.....

Re: seed potatoes
 

I always plant lots of potatoes. When kept cool and moist (like in a root cellar) they should last all winter. As mentioned above, plant several varieties in case one variety doesn't work out. I planted banana potatoes, reds and yellows last year (forget the varieties), and the yellow ones rotted out on the inside on the large ones, even before they were picked, while the reds and bananas were perfect? Supposedly all certified seed potatoes as well.

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Andy, you prick. Now I'm hungry.

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We try to plant a fresh eating (non keeper ) potato variety and 2-3 varieties of keepers. Kennebec is a great white potato to eat first, it doesnt keep but is great for 3-4 months, while the others are in storage. Kennebec throws some big baking style potatoes, white flesh, grainy rather then 'waxy' like european boiling potatoes.

Yukon gld makes a mid sized potato, great keeping properties. The flesh is yellow, its texture lends itself well to mashed potatoes. It also makes nice french fries, as its a dry potato, with not much moisture content.

I think its ok to use your own seed poatoes if your doing a real crop rotation. Most potato diseases can be broken with a 4 year rotation. Scab will be your big problem IMO, caused by bacteria and wet ground.

I also say try sweet potatoes, it makes for nice variety, yeild is good, storage qualities good (but not in the cool root cellar) they can be grown with some effort in all 50 states.

Overwintering alluims (garlic, shallots, fall planted onions) are a great second crop for potato beds after they have been harvested july/august. Fall brassicas also do well if beds are supplemented with some N after the potatoes are harvested.

Fresh Taters!

:applause_

This year ima mess with fingerlings.

Re: seed potatoes
 

In my tiny garden, where I'm doing a variation on square foot gardening, I don't have room for rows of taters and piles of soil with bare dirt on each side of the row. After preparing the soil (loosening it up and making it weed-free), I use a bulb planting tool to make a little hole about 3-4" deep for each seed piece. When the leaves of the new plants make their appearance, I begin to surround each new plant with clean straw, adding more as the plants grow. Just an alternate method that works fine (as long as the mulch is piled on deep enough to keep the spuds from contact with sunlight.)

The leftover straw covers the soil for the winter, decomposing and keeping down new weeds. In the spring, you can either use what's leftover again, or throw it into the compost heap and buy new straw (you'll need more in any case.)

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The Yukons have a short growing season, so I double-crop them. Currently, my second crop goes into the ground at the beginning of July. Those that are left over from that second crop are sprouting now and will be ready to grow into the ground in just a few more weeks. But those that result from the spring planting have no hope of lasting until next year. So I really don't have a sustainable process going with Yukon Golds. I have to buy seed potatoes every year to keep it all in motion (no root cellar.)

Do you think that a storage potato like Nicola would work better for me? Any 100-130 day potato might work fine for me, because I have a sheltered garden and it won't be a day less than 130 days. If I planted mid-April, they'd be coming out of the ground here mid-September.

Re: seed potatoes
 

Good thread. :ok:

Thank you all.

Re: seed potatoes
 

we always cut them 1-3 eyes to a chunk....2-3 chunks to a hole.....made the hole with a spade just pushed it in and tossed the chunks in and let the dirt fall back....4-5" in the ground...about one pace apart 2-3'.....we didnt do new potatoes(wished we had i love new potatoes.......and then in the fall we used a 16single bottom plow down each row to turn the soil over and expose the potatoes......we had all the potatoes we could bear to eat

we did prep the garden soil every year with a little tractor ....plowed in some horse and chicken dung in the prior winter.....and we irrigated from a pond if things got to dry...we did make sure the soil was loose when we planted it was probably loose down to 6-8"

we really didnt do much work at all on the potatoes