Potato growing experts here?

[KenK]

The "books" say to plant certified seed potatoes but I had such good luck last fall planting grocery store potatoes I'm going to try again this spring.

I got ten pounds of "Butter Golds" from Walmart. These are the ones I selected to plant. I should have put something in the picture for scale but they range from egg size to tennis ball size.

These are the culls that we will eat.

I need twenty seed pieces, should I plant the ones I selected to plant whole or should I cut them?

Should I have chosen the bigger potatoes to plant and cut them into 2-3 pieces?

 

[Fred's Hens]

I grew 500 pounds of potatoes last year. I use seed potatoes from the feed and seed.

First, you don't save any money buying store potatoes for planting. Most TSC or other feed/seed stores will have potatoes in small bags.
Secondly, most potatoes from the store have No Sprout sprayed on them. Not all, obviously, because of your fortune last year.

Yes, you can cut them in two. But you should sun them for a few days, allowing the cut to dry off. If your seed hasn't been sprayed, you'll be good to go. Unfortunately, you may not know for a month whether they were or were not.

Here's to a good crop this year!!!

 

[KenK]

Fred's Hens :

Yes, you can cut them in two.

Better or worse to plant them whole versus cutting them? I don't care about making the seed go further. We don't really eat that many potatoes and all of these will be dug and eaten when very small.

This was about a fourth of my crop from last fall.

 

[galanie]

As long as they sprout and do well you're fine with whatever you plant. You can't always be sure if the varieties they're selling do well in your area and like someone mentioned, most are treated to keep them from sprouting. I see nothing wrong with what you're doing. Plant them whole if you want or cut them. Either way works. Seems like the ones you get do well so go with it.

 

[sacrifice]

I have been growing potatoes for around 30 years, and now only plant "seed" potatoes. The sprouting inhibitor has been mentioned, but the main reason that I buy seed potatoes is that they are certified (but not guaranteed -

) to be free from disease. Some potato diseases can remain in the soil for years, and it is just not worth the few dollars in savings.

A few of the diseases that potatoes may bring to your garden:

Common Scab - this is the one that I had in my garden from store bought potatoes - it is a rather ugly disease http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/potatoscab/potatoscab.htm .

Fusarium Dry Rot
Black Scurf
Rhizoctonia Canker
Pink Rot
Tuber Late Blight
Pythium Leak
Silver Scurf
Black Heart
Black Leg
Soft Rot

 

[ccm352]

Ive only used seed potatoes. I have never had a problem with them. Gotta love the flavor of a fresh potato. I didnt plant a garden last year but the year before I got 75# of potatoes.. Bumper crop year.. This year I have more space and plan on working them in this weekend!

 

[galanie]

sacrifice is exactly right about store potatoes carrying diseases but I didn't think anyone would listen to that anyway. Still, whatever works, works. All those diseases are bad but only occur if you are growing potatoes in that spot. And most gardeners, once they've failed, will not replant the same thing in the same spot. Problem solved.

 

[KenK]

To all the nay-sayers about using grocery store potatoes for seed; you were right, I was wrong.

They have done well for me the past couple years but these refused to sprout and grow. I guess they have improved the no sprout treatment. I dug them all out after about six weeks; some looked good enough to eat and some were starting to rot but not a single one had a sprout on it.

This fall I will search out some reasonably priced seed potatoes.

 

[Dragynn]

Quote:
I have used both, with store potatoes, I only use those that show obvious signs of sprouting, now and then you get a bag of such that haven't been sprayed, I just save the last few out of those bags and set aside in a cool dry place until time to plant. Got a bunch of nice yukon golds this year that way! I usually save some of those that I grow too for next years seed potatoes, that's the surest way to good seed potatoes with no chemical intervention. I buy some from my local feed store too, planted purple potatoes this year for the first time, too cool!

 

[StupidBird]

Makes me wonder what exactly all those no-sprout chemicals ARE, anyways. Plant hormones? It just can't be that good for a body.