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Growing Potatoes, why bother buying SEED potatoes ?

young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
in Plants
Is this something to do with preventing diseases? I don't know how disease is detected in potatoes. When we buy potatoes from the supermarkets it seems easy to see if there are blemishes on them. Unless of course they are rotting on the inside. 


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  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Not sure about the answer...but we bought some potatoes from a supermarket last year and then they started to sprout. So we planted them out....nothing. However maybe this year they maybe will produce the goods...or not again.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    It is something to do with preventing diseases.
    "Potatoes are grown from specially prepared ‘seed’ potatoes (or tubers). These are just like potatoes you buy from the supermarket, but they’re certified virus-free. You can buy seed potatoes from late winter onwards. You then start them off indoors by letting them sprout, before they are planted."
    You certainly don't want a virus rampaging through your plot.

  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    edited February 2022
    @bertrand-mabel
    I was reading an article that explained about chitting and what to aim for with the type of chitting. Not long white chits of 2 inch or more, but green short chits of about half an inch. Maybe that is what went wrong with yours?
  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    edited February 2022
    I have put mine in indirect light in a cool area, as per the article. I did have them in a black bin liner under the sink cupboard until  I read the article. Hope they don't go green in the light before the chits grow.  :open_mouth:
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    If you’re going to plant the potatoes it doesn’t matter if they’re green. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    Most people who grow their own spuds will have come across "volunteers" - tubers which get left in the ground by accident during harvest and grow again the following year. You don't even need complete tubers to get a crop the following year, you can successfully grow more plants by cutting up a spud into sections so long as they each have an "eye".
  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    edited February 2022
    steephill said:
    Most people who grow their own spuds will have come across "volunteers" - tubers which get left in the ground by accident during harvest and grow again the following year. You don't even need complete tubers to get a crop the following year, you can successfully grow more plants by cutting up a spud into sections so long as they each have an "eye".
    An interesting point Steephill. If the intention is to just grow earlies in spring, and some of the crop inadvertently get left in the gound, how does that work out? Do they  then start to grow as the '2nd crop'? It could be a bit haphazard.

    I suppose if someone starts off with seed potatoes and they retain some of their harvest for seed potatoes that may work. 

    My intention is to use containers. I don't think any would get missed when harvesting them. Curiously, am I right to think that saving some of the crop for seed' would be limited to sowing them as the 'next crop' only. Retaining them beyond that would maybe risk them rotting? 


  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    Apart from the possible disease aspect, buying seed potatoes means that you can choose a specific variety to suit your needs.
    Not for the first time I've found @steephill 's "volunteers" happily growing where I'd obviously missed a tuber when harvesting. I do sometimes leave them to produce again. 
    I did actually pull a little potato plant out of a small pot of Hyacinths the other day.  I never actually peel potatoes but do dig out the eyes if necessary when preparing them for the steamer.  Those tiny little bits go into the compost bin and I then use the compost for pots.  Obviously this one felt it would greatly enhance the Hyacinths  :D  
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Seed potatoes are produced in soil where potatoes have not been grown for a certain number of years, in order to ensure that they are virus free.  

    While farmers who produce potatoes for sale do their best (crop rotation etc) to produce virus free crops this cannot be guaranteed as the vrus is spread to the next generation of potatoes by aphids.  The next generation will produce a poorer crop, and the generation after than a worse crop still, so while growing the odd few supermarket potatoes in your back garden may well not cause such an increase in potato virus that it will spread to commercial crops, it could remain in your soil (missed potatoes etc) and infect future crops in your garden, affecting your yield.  Growing supermarket potatoes in containers is safer than in the open ground, but there is still a risk.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    @philippasmith2
    I find them stainless steel kitchen scourer balls of  'lathe turnings' are good for cleaning up the skins on spuds, as an alternative to peeling.
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