Seed Potatoes for Sale- Are they Having a laugh?

[MrDavidRoberts]

Few years ago I thought it's just a gag, but nowadays every DIY store and other such stores seem to stock small packs of seed potatoes.
I'm seriously confused, Do people really don't know they can take any regular potatoe they like from any store and plant it in ground?

3.99 for 1.5kg of pipers at homebase...

#-o

 

[doctor Bob]

Seed potatoes tend to be grown in scotland or the north of england, away from the main arable area for potato growth. This ensures that "seed potatoes" are disease free. There is no guarantee that supermarket spuds are disease free.

I'm not saying you are wrong but there is a reason for seed potatoes, otherwise farmers would just replant part of last years crop which they don't normally do. Most farmers will choose the expensive seed potatoes over last years crop

 

[morturn]

Its common knowledge that you can grow regular potatoes, it does work, but it is not so cost effective, reliable or do you get the choice of growing some interesting varieties. Second generation potatoes tubers are stores for virus and other diseases, they don’t give as good a crop or are as vigorous as certified seed potatoes.

I find that growing potatoes is quite hard work, so why waste your effort to save a few pence, when the cost is offset be the increased yield and reduced risk. If you’re going to plant regular potatoes, you may as well just go and buy a bag and save yourself the hassle.

 

[Doug B]

For the amount they are selling that is very expensive, i pay about £8 for 12kg of seed potatoes which will produce enough potatoes to feed 2 families for a year.
You can save last years potatoes to use as seed potatoes but as has been stated there are risks involved.

 

[Rorschach]

We tried using saved potatoes, it didn't work very well. We had bad blight (probably a coincidence but maybe not) and a very poor harvest even from the disease free plants. For the small cost of seed potatoes compared to the hard work involved, I think it's a good investment.

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

I think it's false economy growing your own potatoes nowadays when you can wait for xmas/easter season where they sell them for 10p a kilo, I usually stock up at that time and keep them in cold place and they last for months... Till the next good offer in shops come up, than I stock up again
I do however grow all kinds of other stuff myself and I enjoy it, but not potatoes..

My grandpa used to grow them over few acres years ago and I had to go and help collect them when the harvest season started, he knew a lot about this stuff and he replanted leftover last years potatoes every time... and they turned out to be fine every time, sure some might get some disease but the bigger problems were forces of nature and pests not the ''diseases''.

Found this somewhere:

'' Before it's licenced for sale every variety of every vegetable has to be rigorously tested to ensure that the crop is identical to the seed and stays this way for at least 6 subsequent generations. ie They plant a seed, then plant the crop, then plant the crop from that and so on for 6 generations then test the final crop to ensure it's exactly the same as the original.
The whole selling of specifically produced 'seed' potatoes is just an extra 'belt and braces' guard against problems.''


So having to go actually help harvest them myself I'm not really buying in all this ''disease'' scaremongering...
If you are a large farmer and the seed potatoes are guaranteed and are rather cheap in bulk than yes It's a no brainer, however we are talking about total DIY growing where a person is buying a 1.5kg bag of seed potatoes,talking about diseases in such cases is total porkies..

 

[doctor Bob]

So having to go actually help harvest them myself I'm not really buying in all this ''disease'' scaremongering...
If you are a large farmer and the seed potatoes are guaranteed and are rather cheap in bulk than yes It's a no brainer, however we are talking about total DIY growing where a person is buying a 1.5kg bag of seed potatoes,talking about diseases in such cases is total porkies..

I'll let everyone know they are doing it wrong, thanks for sorting it out. My father spent a large part of his working career on plant breeding, he'll be pleased to hear he wasted his time.

 

[MrTeroo]

I think it's false economy growing your own potatoes nowadays when you can wait for xmas/easter season where they sell them for 10p a kilo

..

Except home grown taste ten times better than shop bought

 

[Alexam]

I tried planting chips but they came up rather greasy! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

That's the real point isn't it. For anyone who has never tasted the difference between a spud or tomato or runner bean etc that was picked 2 minutes before going in the pan (or the mouth), versus anything supermarket harvested.....you're missing a serious treat. The difference is truly staggering and it kind of puts you off supermarket veg if truth be known. Home grown veg has a rich depth of flavour that intensive farming just destroys.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

The one exception to that rule is Jersey Royals.....the batch I had this weekend were delicious.

 

[Rorschach]

That's the real point isn't it. For anyone who has never tasted the difference between a spud or tomato or runner bean etc that was picked 2 minutes before going in the pan (or the mouth), versus anything supermarket harvested.....you're missing a serious treat. The difference is truly staggering and it kind of puts you off supermarket veg if truth be known. Home grown veg has a rich depth of flavour that intensive farming just destroys.

For just about any other vegetable I would agree with you, expect for potatoes. I think for potatoes, variety is a much bigger factor than shop/home sourced. We have a grown several different types, the common ones were no better than shop bought and not worth the effort at all, others were far superior, but these were varieties that are not viable for supermarkets to sell so it is to be expected really.

Tomatoes are a case in point where homegrown beat supermarket hands down, even when the variety is the same the flavour is far superior. I don't know about others here but personally we only grow sungold now, they are sweet, incredibly tasty, crop well and seem to resist disease well also. We have tried many other varieties in the past, others always seemed to attract disease or just never tasted as good as the sungold. My only gripe? The size, I wish they were a little larger to make it easier to make a sandwich with them.

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

I have a greenhouse where I specially grow tomatoes, I simply refuse to buy the ''tomatoes'' they sell in shops- they are not tomatoes, they taste more like apples Sure I don't get fresh tomatoes year-round this way but when my tomatoes are ready I eat nothing but them, breakfast,dinner,teatime -tomatoes every time I collect my own seeds by picking the best tomatoes from bunch and which has the best flavor and let them rot a bit to smush them up and collect the seeds for next year.

In wintertime I buy the 25p canned tomatoes (those things are grown on actual fields somewhere in Italy and they are grown more like weeds not tomatoes , so they are the real deal as well).

For berries,fruits, again I have planted everything I fancy and in summer I eat nothing but them, in winter I suck it up and go to shop
But Potatoes.. It's all about the variety.

 

[MrTeroo]

Home grown chillis have an amazing taste too. Not just heat.

If anyone is interested in growing chillis I can recommend a visit to the Chilli Fiesta in West Dean.

It's the Glastonbury of the chilli world

https://www.westdean.org.uk/gardens/events/chilli-fiesta

 

[DrPhill]

Another vegetable worth growing at home is sweetcorn. Start the water boiling before picking it, run to the pan, cook it for minimum time. Then you will understand. "Walk to the field to cut it, run to the kitchen to cook it."

And carrots - they actually taste nice from the garden.
And peas, fresh from the pod. Bet you can't eat just one.

And that is before you get to the apricots still warm from the sun, wineberries, real apples (with flavour)....

I agree about the tatties - not so much difference. Same for parsnip, celeriac and leaf beet. But fresh beetroot - thats worth the effort, and tomatoes they are worth it too.

Winter squashes stored for use - not so much difference. Butternut squashes eaten fresh - reasonable difference. Fresh asparagus - a world apart from the shop stuff.

Sorry - rambled a bit there dreaming of harvesting.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I'm no gardener but I am trying to get interested.
I don't understand any of that except for the apricot. I was once walking through an outdoor art exhibition, somewhere in Italy, I forget where. All the paintings were around the walls in which was something resembling a cloister. In the green central area was an apricot tree and as I was walking by, an apricot fell from the branch. I picked it up and tasted it. It was, by a gazillion percent, the best apricot I have ever eaten in my life.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

That's interesting feedback about the spuds......sounds like I've got discombobulated by the variety issue. I must say, that helps a lot because I hate growing the things

Did try sweetcorn several years ago and it was literally the day before I was going to try the first cob....after lovingly rearing them for the entire summer and.......the ruddy Deer got in and ate the lot! I've never recovered from the shock and haven't grown them since

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I'm no gardener but I am trying to get interested.
I don't understand any of that except for the apricot. I was once walking through an outdoor art exhibition, somewhere in Italy, I forget where. All the paintings were around the walls in which was something resembling a cloister. In the green central area was an apricot tree and as I was walking by, an apricot fell from the branch. I picked it up and tasted it. It was, by a gazillion percent, the best apricot I have ever eaten in my life.

You may not be a gardener Steve - but you are a foodie so I recommend you just grow 4 sungold tomato plants this year. Then lets have this conversation again in September because I predict you will be an enthusiastic convert. Your taste buds won't know what's hit them

 

[DrPhill]

Did try sweetcorn several years ago and it was literally the day before I was going to try the first cob....after lovingly rearing them for the entire summer and.......the ruddy Deer got in and ate the lot!

The deer know. They don't eat frozen or tinned sweetcorn ;-).
When I am asked how to tell when is the best time to pick black currants my stock answer is 'the day before the ******* birds eat them all'

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

This summer I'm planning to have BBQ'd venison with a bit of sweetcorn on the side....see how they like that!!!!