collecting your own seed potatoes ?

windy

Hi all, can anyone advise about keeping some small potatoes from the bags the wife gets in the supermarket and using them as seed pops. I'm new to veg growing and just wondering if its possible or just a waist of time to go down that road. Any views or experiences gratefully received
Thanks

f&vlady · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:50 pm Post subject:

Hi Windy, I'm a total novice at this veg growing too! I planted Roosters in bags and raised bed, they were from shop bought bags, and they seem to be doing ok thankfully but I didn't know they were what's called a main crop so will have to wait awhile yet to see if I actually have proper spuds!. So fingers crossed, will let you know how they turn out.

Liparis · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 12:43 pm Post subject:

No problem at all saving your own seed potatoes that way. Just make sure when the time comes that the seed you are planting is clean, scab free and doesn't have any dark blemishes on them, it could be disease of sorts, harmless to us but could make the crop fail. You won't, of course, be able to tell whether there is virus in the potato or not.
Bill.

windy · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject:

thanks for the replies, as im a novice im not at all sure if im going about things the right way. This forum is a great thing for the likes of me Very Happy

Shamrock · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 10 Jul 2009 Posts: 19

I am digging my early spuds at the moment they seem to have done very well, if I want to keep some for planting next year what do I do with them, will they go off by next year

Liparis · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject:

Leave a couple of plants in the ground until they completely mature and form skin. Lift them in late summer/autumn and store in either completely dry peat or dry sand in a cool shed. Make sure you only keep clean, rot-free potatoes. Throw some hessian sacking over them on very frosty nights, ie if you think the frost might penetrate into the area where you have them, mind you that would need several degrees of frost to get into a shed and get through 5" or 6" dry peat/sand. Next spring sort through them and discard any with bad markings or a bit of rot on them, then just start the cycle again.
Others may have different methods, but this works for me.
Bill.

Shamrock · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 10 Jul 2009 Posts: 19

Liparis · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:52 pm Post subject:

New potatoes don't really have a proper skin, you just wash them and cook them. What little skin there is rubs off and is poorly formed. Once potato haulms start dying back the skin thickens as it matures on the tubors, just as you find on potatoes that you have to peel in the winter months for chips.
Letting the haulms die down completely means the skins should have formed on the tubours, I leave them in the ground another 7 - 10 days after the foliage is dessicated.
Thats why bought potatoes are rubbish now-a-days, the haulms are sprayed with dessicants, basically a weed killer like Paraquat (no longer available since July 2008), I Think the replacements are Basta and Dragon. They spray the crops early to kill the folliage and skin-up the potatoes. It means your maincrops are out of the ground and sold by late September, where they would normally not be ready until about Late October onwards, in some cases November.
Bill.

Shamrock · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 10 Jul 2009 Posts: 19

Thanks for that reply Liparis, very informative

windy · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:26 am Post subject:

[quote="Shamrock"]Thanks for that reply Liparis, very informative[/quote

great stuff and thanks again]

blownin · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:05 pm Post subject:

Windy, its my first year growing veg, i was digging my fist potatoes today a neighbour asked me which type they were i said Lidl's washed whites. They were beautifull.

windy · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:36 am Post subject:

POPPY · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 14

Hi

Just came across this post just while I was waiting for my spuds to boil. I planted a bag of Li*dls baby potatoes that had been left at the back of my press and forgotten about. I had to listen to weeks of people telling me it was a waste of time and space but I am happy to say I got a nice crop off them.

It was like christmas morning yesterday as I tried out the new fork I had gotten for my birthday and discovered loads of lovely potatoes. They were just perfect and freed up a bit of ground that I urgently needed to make room for 50 carrots that had been growing away happily in toilet roll inserts in the green house.

I am now trying to make up my mind now what spuds I could sow now for Christmas.

Gautama · Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:37 am Post subject:

cooler · Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:38 am Post subject: