Have you ever grown a potato from a potato?

[teamshepherd]

See I always argued with my parents why not buy potatoes for eating and plant them rather than waste extra money on the seed potatoes (they look the same dangit!!). But I was always shot down with the same reasons Zigs gave us

 

[zigs]

See I always argued with my parents why not buy potatoes for eating and plant them rather than waste extra money on the seed potatoes (they look the same dangit!!). But I was always shot down with the same reasons Zigs gave us

It's heartbreaking to have your potatoes and tomatoes wiped out just when they're ripening, and there's not much you can do about it once it starts

They go from this...



To this, in a matter of days

 

[kevinkimers]

I have never done it with potatoes, but I have done it with store bought onions. The onions were malformed, but they grew well and tasted great. One onion produced 7 by the time we picked it.

 

[zigs]

I've left some onions in to divide into Spring Onions too, just make sure you don't grow any onion family in the same patch for the next 3 years

 

[Rosyrain]

We used to sprout potatoes in school when I was young and I believe that the teachers used potatoes from a bag that you get in the grocery store. The funny part is that none of us were ever patient enough to get a full grown plant. I wonder if the teachers ever thought of things like blight when they had us grow the plans. They probably figured that none of us would ever sprout a full grown plant capable of producing more potatoes.

 

[zigs]

We used to do the same with beans, grown in a jar with blotting paper so you could see the geotropism and phototropism, would have been far better to actually grow the plants to maturity, the kids could have related to that far more.

 

[teamshepherd]

It's heartbreaking to have your potatoes and tomatoes wiped out just when they're ripening, and there's not much you can do about it once it starts

They go from this...



To this, in a matter of days

Oh that is nasty! What a shame

I have been very lucky with tomatoes, if I should call it that. I planted them one year, several varieties. In the winter the land got completely plowed over with a tractor and then I worked it over manually as well. Went about doing my garden next year planting along, next thing I know I have bloody tomatoes popping up EVERYWHERE! I gave away seedlings by bagfuls and still had to throw away bucketfuls ( I felt so bad) and even then they were still all over my garden. I had no heart to pull em up anymore.
Those self sprouted plants very much sturdier than the ones I planted this year (both from seed n bought seedlings) and they gave fruit like crazy. The garden looked quite funny, nice rows, different veg separated properly and then like a tomato bomb went off they were with onions, with cauliflowers, peppers, broccoli, everywhere!!!

 

[zigs]

Tomato bomb, like it

Does tend to mess your rotation plans about a bit though

 

[teamshepherd]

Tomato bomb, like it

Does tend to mess your rotation plans about a bit though

It does but what can you do? I had no heart after a while Salsa... SALSA EVERYWHERE!!!

 

[ChanellG]

You have to appreciate that wherever you buy potatoes from they will have gone through a commercial process, and from what I've seen of that process it is very environmentally unfriendly, from the amount of water use to wash them, to the peat that is used to help clean them and then give them that "just dug" look, that is before you take into the amount of water drawn from rivers for irrigation, the use of an acid to burn off the greenery so that it doesn't clog the harvesters, to the chemical fertilisers and herbicides used.

All commercial potato growing used this process and it's very difficult to avoid it, crisps or potato chips go through the process too, as does all the frozen potato products, when you think about it we eat a lot of food that goes through a commercial cleansing process.

After reading this I won't be complaining about how filthy the farmer's market potatoes are any more. I had potatoes sprout last year and I planted them in a container late in spring. I only had a small yield because of the late start and the summer heat, and of course I don't remember where I got the potatoes from, but I try to buy only organic ones.

 

[ChanellG]

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.

Was going to ask if you thought an organically grown potato would make a difference and through the thread I realized someone else had brought that up. How is it that seed potatoes don't spread blight?

 

[zigs]

Was going to ask if you thought an organically grown potato would make a difference and through the thread I realized someone else had brought that up. How is it that seed potatoes don't spread blight?

They're grown mostly in Scotland on farms that are windswept, not ideal conditions for blight, plus bugs that might carry other diseases are swept out to sea.

It's not impossible for seed potatoes to harbour blight, but its unlikely.

Might have mentioned it before but blight spores that have overwintered in the garden turn into something much more nasty

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1637606?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

 

[ChanellG]

They're grown mostly in Scotland on farms that are windswept, not ideal conditions for blight, plus bugs that might carry other diseases are swept out to sea.

It's not impossible for seed potatoes to harbour blight, but its unlikely.

New question: If you grow from seed potatoes, could you save some from the harvest to replant?

Is there a way to sterilize the soil after you've grown potatoes?

 

[zigs]

No, and no

 

[Chuck]

No, and no

And since 1845 science still has no recourse against this pathogen at all?