Have you ever grown a potato from a potato?

[dconklin]

I was told recently that you can grow a potato from a potato you have bought in the store when the potato starts sprouting. I love potatoes and find that the bags I buy at the store either have a lot of spots on them or they start growing sprouts before I use them all. So when I heard that you can cut a section of the potato with the sprouts and plant them, I got a little bit excited.

Is this true, will they grow if you plant the sprouts? If so how do you do this? I have never planted potatoes before so I wouldn't even know when to plant them.

 

[lovinglife]

Most store bought spuds are treated with a sprout inhibitor to slow the sprouting, but yes they will still grow, maybe not as big as from a seed potato that has not been treated. Most people grow potatoes from potatoes, that is all seed potatoes are...

 

[zigs]

I'd not recommend planting a store bought potato.

Yes you might get a decent crop, but you run the risk of importing disease such as blight, which will wipe out your tomatoes as well.

You wouldn't want to be responsable for an outbreak of blight that could infect your whole area.

Seed potatoes are, as Lovinglife says, just potatoes, but they are grown in the best possible conditions to minimise disease.

Buy seed potatoes from your plant nursery, they are not expensive.

Don't try to grow potatoes from the seed produced in the potato apples that the plants produce either, (they look like tomatoes but will make you sick or abort if you eat them)

 

[dconklin]

I'd not recommend planting a store bought potato.

Yes you might get a decent crop, but you run the risk of importing disease such as blight, which will wipe out your tomatoes as well.

You wouldn't want to be responsable for an outbreak of blight that could infect your whole area.

Seed potatoes are, as Lovinglife says, just potatoes, but they are grown in the best possible conditions to minimise disease.

Buy seed potatoes from your plant nursery, they are not expensive.

Don't try to grow potatoes from the seed produced in the potato apples that the plants produce either, (they look like tomatoes but will make you sick or abort if you eat them)

Oh I didn't realize that could happen, thank you for the heads up! I have heard of blight and have seen what it can do, but I wasn't aware that planting something that I bought could cause it. Yeah I will definitely not be trying this experiment then. Glad I did ask before doing

Edit: I mean I didn't know planting something like a store bought potato could bring in diseases, I know plants affected with it can bring it to your garden.

 

[zigs]

No worries, its just that you don't know what conditions the things were grown in, but with certified seed potatoes you do.

I bought a handfull of seed potatoes to plant in August, to get New Potatoes for Christmas dinner, I was a little embarassed when the cashier only charged me 17p Worth every penny.

 

[lovinglife]

Wow, you got me on that one, never have heard of or seen a potato apple..... I have lived my whole life in Idaho, home of the famous potato, have grown many spuds and have never once seen a tomato looking thing on my potato plant.... now I have to google!!

 

[rosalinephillips]

I was told recently that you can grow a potato from a potato you have bought in the store when the potato starts sprouting. I love potatoes and find that the bags I buy at the store either have a lot of spots on them or they start growing sprouts before I use them all. So when I heard that you can cut a section of the potato with the sprouts and plant them, I got a little bit excited.

Is this true, will they grow if you plant the sprouts? If so how do you do this? I have never planted potatoes before so I wouldn't even know when to plant them.

Wow, what a great question, this is why I love the forums here because you learn so much. I have always wondered about this, never tried growing potatoes, but because my husband loves potatoes, maybe like you, I should consider growing some myself. Thanks for sharing a great question. Much luck with growing your potatoes.

 

[rosalinephillips]

No worries, its just that you don't know what conditions the things were grown in, but with certified seed potatoes you do.

I bought a handfull of seed potatoes to plant in August, to get New Potatoes for Christmas dinner, I was a little embarassed when the cashier only charged me 17p Worth every penny.

Hello Zigs,

What great information, you seem very knowledgeable and that's great you were able to share that information with us. They also say the same thing about garlic, that you can just plant the bulb and it'll come back. In my case I didn't listen to that I actually bought some from the nursery, but for some reason they didn't grow like I was expecting.

As for the potatoes, are they really that cheap to buy, I may need to consider buys some potato seeds myself, especially since my husband loves potatoes, I'm sure he would love to see my grow my own potatoes. I may just be on my way to the nursery tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your thoughts!

 

[lovinglife]

Did some research, guess the variety I grow are not as prone to producing seeds from the flowers. Learn something new everyday!

 

[zigs]

Some do and some don't its true.

We've had a few bad years with Blight in England, damp summers that have been ideal for it to spread. For some stupid reason the EU has just outlawed the one decent thing we had to fight it with, Bordeaux mixture, a copper based fungicide has been withdrawn from sale.

It not as though the stuff even gets into the plants, it sits on the surface and if you've sprayed tomatoes with it, you just wash it off before eating.

We've got a free service called Blightwatch, http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Home.asp When conditions are right for a blight attack in your area, you get sent a text message to your phone and an email, so you know when to spray.

 

[dconklin]

No worries, its just that you don't know what conditions the things were grown in, but with certified seed potatoes you do.

I bought a handfull of seed potatoes to plant in August, to get New Potatoes for Christmas dinner, I was a little embarassed when the cashier only charged me 17p Worth every penny.

Yeah that makes sense. Are potatoes more of a cooler weather vegetable then that you are planting them in August? I don't remember my Mom ever growing them when I was a kid so I haven't had any experience with them at all.

 

[zigs]

No, they don't tolerate frosts at all, only reason for the late planting is to get new potatoes for Christmas, if they're in the shops at Christmas then they would have come halfway around the world and wouldn't be much good (as well as being really expensive)

The whole point of new potatoes is to get the water on the boil, then dig them up and throw them straight in the pot before the sugars break down. Serve with some fresh mint, butter and some sea salt

I usually plant Charlotte at that time which I think is a second early variety.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I have always used my old store bought potatoes to plant. It seems like in the spring, they get soft and start to sprout, so I just cut them up into pieces with an eye on each one, and then planted them. I don't know if the crop was smaller than a seed potato would have produced, but it seemed senseless to throw them out because they were sprouting, so I just plant them.

 

[Pete]

A few years back I was aiming to do an experiment as my uncle said there was no difference in planting shop bought potatoes compared to seed potatoes. I bought some potatoes from our local supermarket and just left them until I saw some shoots. At the same time I bought some seed potatoes from plant nursery. I told my neighbor about my “upcoming experiment” and he looked pretty distressed! He then explained why – apparently someone did something similar down at his local allotment and to cut a long story short the shop bought potatoes developed blight, which didn’t just ruin his crop but surrounding plots as well. Apparently he wasn’t very popular so as Zigs already mentioned above only use seed potatoes from your local nursery. Goes without saying but my experiment never took place and my uncle still believes that he was right.

 

[zigs]

Its always a risk.

Further troubles come from not disposing of blighted material properly too.

Here

You need to burn infected material, not compost it. If the fungus overwinters it can mate and form oospores that persist in the soil.