Seed Potatoes

[gary350]

What is the name of a very large RED skin potatoes that is white color inside?

I am looking for something new to grow 2026 about 8 seed potatoes. I found a video of a purple skin potato that is white color inside but no name.?

 

[Meadowlark]

I'm not sure what "very large" means to you...but the Red Lasoda is my go-to red potato for baking, boiling, and frying.

They have the added bonus of storing very well for me. The spring crop provides (>200 pounds) of potatoes from May to December, and the fall crop provides (>200 pounds) from December to May. Continuous supply of potatoes.

For mashing, I grow an additional 100 pounds of Yukon Gold also each spring and fall.

From AI:

"Red LaSoda potatoes are a mid-season, red-skinned variety known for their dependable yields, excellent storage qualities, and versatility in cooking. They are especially popular in the southern United States due to their adaptability to heat, drought, and diverse soils. Developed from a cross of Triumph × Katahdin in Louisiana (1948)"

I've always thought of them as an improved version of the Red Pontiac but according to AI above they are from a different cross.

We baked a dozen nice ones for post-Thanksgiving steak dinner and the guests raved about them. Typically, my spring crop has more larger potatoes, but the fall consistently produces one or two "bakers" per hill with a bunch of others for boiling and frying.

Here is the batch I dug today with typical three or four large baking potatoes with the others.

Here is a photo of spring harvest usually at least 200 hundred pounds total and tends to be somewhat larger than the fall ones.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

UK names might vary, but have a look at Red Bliss and Dark red Norland.

 

[Meadowlark]

I weighed up the three I dug today and they came in at 2.32 pounds or little over 3/4-pound per.

I would say that is pretty typical for fall harvest. Some of course go larger over a pound but this is more typical.

 

[Meadowlark]

UK names might vary, but have a look at Red Bliss and Dark red Norland.

He had dark Norland on his list and I've grown them...as a slightly less productive potato than Red Lasoda or Red Pontiac.

The Red Bliss potato originated in Peru and is generally smaller than most reds including the Lasoda, Pontiac, and Norland.

 

[Meadowlark]

By comparison also dug several pounds of Yukon Gold today with the largest going a whopping 1.77 pounds.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

He had dark Norland on his list and I've grown them...as a slightly less productive potato than Red Lasoda or Red Pontiac.

The Red Bliss potato originated in Peru and is generally smaller than most reds including the Lasoda, Pontiac, and Norland.

Whoops, I really must read the OPs properly, missed the 'large' and Norland, apologies.

 

[gary350]

March 1st will be potato planting season for us in middle TN, so far I have not decided what to plant. We have 2 less mouths to feed and we are about to over dose trying to eat 300 lbs. of potatoes. No one here likes red potatoes so I don't grow them. I am having fun watching YouTube videos of commercials growers that appear to be growing 4 times more potatoes in one 30 ft row than me. If I was planting Red seed potatoes instead of White maybe I could grow 800 lb. in 30 ft also. I can hardly wait to try give my plants nitrogen fertilizer on day 60 to is if that increases the harvest like a commercial grower claims. Another YouTube video shows a commercial grower cutting down all green plants 1 month before harvest, this is suppose to make potatoes grow larger with no plants to grow larger.

Watch this video.

 

[Meadowlark]

... No one here likes red potatoes so I don't grow them.

That is strange...then why did you open this thread with this question?

What is the name of a very large RED skin potatoes that is white color inside?

Reading on...

... I am having fun watching YouTube videos of commercials growers that appear to be growing 4 times more potatoes in one 30 ft row than me.

Didn't you just recently post on here about all the misleading, often times outright lying YTube videos?

Another YouTube video shows a commercial grower cutting down all green plants 1 month before harvest, this is suppose to make potatoes grow larger with no plants to grow larger.

You have posted before that you have grown new potatoes in winter without ever having a green top to provide nutrition. I'm trying that on a very small sample size myself right now. I have doubts, and in fact don't expect much, but will see what happens.

Cutting the tops off 1 month before harvest is another dubious claim, but I will also test it out on a small sample size next spring.

As I have posted before, the tops are about photosynthesis and providing energy to the new potatoes which to me casts considerable doubt on the effectiveness of cutting the green tops.

Maybe I'm completely wrong on this...so I checked AI and got this response.

Can a potato make more potatoes without a green top?​

Yes, but only in a very limited way.

A potato tuber contains stored energy. If you bury a potato with eyes (sprouts), it can start growing underground and may even form tiny new tubers before a green top emerges. But this is not sustainable.

Why the green top matters​

The green top — the plant’s leaves and stems — is what performs photosynthesis, which creates the energy needed to grow:

• A strong root system
• A healthy plant
• Full‑size new potatoes

Without a green top, the plant relies only on the energy stored in the seed potato. That energy runs out quickly, so any tubers produced will be small and few.

In practice​

• A potato must eventually grow a green top to produce a normal harvest.
• If the top is removed early (by pests, frost, or cutting), the plant may survive but yields will be reduced.
• If the top never grows at all, you’ll get little to nothing.

I trust AI hundreds of times over what I trust YouTube videos...which in fact I do not trust at all unless I know the creator.

Watch this video.

After watching some of that video, I clearly now understand why store-bought potatoes do not keep nearly as well as my home-grown ones...the harvesting brutalizes them!

 

[Meadowlark]

Oops, one more comment...

I can hardly wait to try give my plants nitrogen fertilizer on day 60 to is if that increases the harvest like a commercial grower claims.

Let us know how that turns out, please. It defies my decades of experience growing potatoes....so much so that I would not even experiment with that.

By 60 days my plants are usually blooming or finishing blooming having used up most of the nitrogen that they are ever going to uptake in the growing cycle.

I cannot imagine that adding nitrogen at that time would be at all helpful. In fact, I believe it would be hurtful, potentially even ruining a crop.

I never add nitrogen, never to the potato row. My organic matter incorporated into the soil well before ever planting slowly breaks down providing all the nitrogen the potato needs during its entire growing cycle.

So, being curious I checked with friend AI again and got this...

Should You Add Nitrogen at Day 60?​

What the research says​

• Potatoes take up 60–80% of their total nitrogen during tuber initiation and early bulking.
  • This stage typically occurs well before day 60 for most varieties.
• Too much nitrogen late in the season delays maturity and can reduce tuber quality (e.g., lower dry matter, more hollow heart, poor skin set).
• Guidelines emphasize having adequate nitrogen from planting through early tuber development, not late in the cycle.
• Proper nitrogen management is about front‑loading N and avoiding late applications that push vines instead of tubers

Interesting 80% taken up before 60 days and it goes on to say....

What happens if you add nitrogen at day 60?​

Likely outcomes:​

• Delayed maturity (plants stay green too long)
• Reduced tuber quality (lower solids, poorer storage)
• Risk of oversized or misshapen tubers
• Lower yield efficiency — more vine, not more potatoes

That comment "poorer storage" caught my eye and is a very big deal to me.

Let us know how that turns out for you @gary350 ...a kind of Ytube vs AI.

 

[gary350]

I like to try garden experiments. Sometimes experiments work and sometimes it does not. I found a commercial grower that shows video that proves potato seed spacing is 11". I found video of another grower with video that Shows seed spacing is 6" but video shows planter is not working well 6" spacing it makes mistakes spacing looks like 7" to 10" spacing. I have also found 6" seed spacing videos for a man in GA in a 20 acre field. Many years ago I planted 12" spacing and 10" and 8" then a few years ago I started doing 6" potato seed spacing. 6" works best for me with Kennebec & Red Pontiac potatoes. My son said he wants no red Pontiac this year he is trying to loose weight. I might plant 5 lbs. of Red Pontiac for an experiment. This year I will have several rows with nothing to plant in them so I might do several potato crop experiments.

This year our garden will be smaller, corn, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes.

 

[Meadowlark]

I like to try garden experiments.

I'm completely in agreement with you on that. Conducted properly, your own experiments are a far better source of gardening info than YTube videos, IMO.

I hope you will share your results with us going forward. One of the key evaluations of an experiment is the degree to which it is repeatable...not just by yourself although that too is important, but by other interested parties in other environments.

Ultimately, I believe we all need to find what works for each of us in our own environment. Hence, an experiment I may have success with applies to my environment but not necessarily to others. For that to be the case, the experiment must be repeatable in other environments. Repeatable means the same outcome, in this context.

Looking forward to your results in the future.

 

[gary350]

I bought a 5 lb. bag of Red no name potatoes at Trader Joe. Wife wants 3 potatoes to cook for dinner today, I get the other 9 to plant in the garden but first they need to sprout in a warm sunny north window until March 1st. Good size potatoes are almost 1/2 lb. each. Does anyone have clue what potato this could be?

 

[Meadowlark]

Red Lasoda would be my guess.