Potatoes

scudzilla

Grown spuds the last few years but have bought the spuds from local shop, they were special grow spuds (excuse me, I'm clueless)

Said shop is no longer open, can I buy spuds in say, Supervalu and plant them??

Markcheese

Yes and no ..
Yes you can just take an ordinary spud , sprout it ( or don't ) ,stick it in the ground and it'll grow and give you spuds ,
It's likely to be main-crop spuds ( so harvest in Sept/ October) ,
It won't be certified disease free seed potatoes , but you should still be fine ...

Hocus Focus

Use Google, or Google Maps, to find garden centres open near you, (and local knowledge to find a route to them while avoiding Garda checkpoints, if more than 5km distant:) ).

magicbastarder

i've successfully grown from leftover spuds before. this year, we're doing half from seed potatoes, and half from leftovers.

PoorFarmer

Sorry to hijack this thread but is my first year growing more that one type of potato. Have second earlies and main crop, all blight resistant (Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Una, Sevilla and Blue Danube). Is there any issue with planting them beside each other in neighbouring drills? Always told to keep earlies and maincrop separated due to blighting issues. Wondering am I safe enough to plant close by since all varieties are blight resistant strains?
Also what's good to go in neighbouring drills to potatoes? Had peas last year and they were a bit of a pain in the ass as they kept attaching themselves to the potato stalks and not their own bean poles. Drills running North-South for drainage reasons if this makes any difference

PoorFarmer

PoorFarmer wrote: »

Sorry to hijack this thread but is my first year growing more that one type of potato. Have second earlies and main crop, all blight resistant (Sarpo Mira, Sarpo Una, Sevilla and Blue Danube). Is there any issue with planting them beside each other in neighbouring drills? Always told to keep earlies and maincrop separated due to blighting issues. Wondering am I safe enough to plant close by since all varieties are blight resistant strains?
Also what's good to go in neighbouring drills to potatoes? Had peas last year and they were a bit of a pain in the ass as they kept attaching themselves to the potato stalks and not their own bean poles. Drills running North-South for drainage reasons if this makes any difference

I've 2 earlies and 4 lates all side by side.
Last year I sowed peas in the same drill as the earlies. Worked well and added N to the soil.

Hocus Focus

SouthWesterly wrote: »

I've 2 earlies and 4 lates all side by side.
Last year I sowed peas in the same drill as the earlies. Worked well and added N to the soil.

Wouldn't have thought you could grow anything else in close proximity to potatoes as, once they start to develop, you are constantly disturbing the ground earthing them up?

CelticRambler

Hocus Focus wrote: »

Wouldn't have thought you could grow anything else in close proximity to potatoes as, once they start to develop, you are constantly disturbing the ground earthing them up?

I think SW is quite literally sowing them alongside (or directly above) the potatoes, so will be earthing up the peas as well - which is a practice recommended on the back of my pack of pea seeds.

Hocus Focus

CelticRambler wrote: »

I think SW is quite literally sowing them alongside (or directly above) the potatoes, so will be earthing up the peas as well - which is a practice recommended on the back of my pack of pea seeds.

Every day's a school day:)

CelticRambler

CelticRambler wrote: »

I think SW is quite literally sowing them alongside (or directly above) the potatoes, so will be earthing up the peas as well - which is a practice recommended on the back of my pack of pea seeds.

Put them in the same drill as the potatoes and filled it in

PMBC

Planted a few in a pot. Halved them, sprout side up and covered with 10 cm good soil. Two weeks gone and not a sign of a shoot. Have I failed or am I lacking patience?
Everything my BH planted has 'come up'. Cucumbers, chard, rocket, little gem!:mad:

PMBC

PMBC wrote: »

Planted a few in a pot. Halved them, sprout side up and covered with 10 cm good soil. Two weeks gone and not a sign of a shoot. Have I failed or am I lacking patience?
Everything my BH planted has 'come up'. Cucumbers, chard, rocket, little gem!:mad:

Patience young padawan.

Jim_Hodge

magicbastarder wrote: »

i've successfully grown from leftover spuds before. this year, we're doing half from seed potatoes, and half from leftovers.

I'd be interested to see an update on this later in the year - yield, disease etc.

Please update as I should be of value.

magicbastarder

some of the results may be inconclusive as they were from a bag of baby potatoes gone to seed (no variety mentioned on the bag), so i won't be able to point you in the right direction if they succeed or fail.

also, we're not doing a comparison *within* varieties; i.e. we haven't planted both seed potatoes and leftovers of the same variety.

PMBC

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Patience young padawan.

OK. But how long do I wait to see a shoot- a month/six weeks?

MacDanger

PMBC wrote: »

OK. But how long do I wait to see a shoot- a month/six weeks?

You'd expect to see something by 6-8 weeks I'd say. I planted around St Patrick's day and some only came up the week before last; others had been up ~3 weeks by then

Jim_Hodge

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

I'd be interested to see an update on this later in the year - yield, disease etc.

Please update as I should be of value.

I’ve never bought seed potatoes, I’ve always held back some healthy spuds from the year’s crop, this will be my 5th year doing it and I’ve never had much bother. Good yield each year, had slight Blight 2 years ago just before harvest (my own fault for not being vigilant and spraying) so cut off all foliage and left in ground for 2weeks. Next year used same spuds with no issues.

So yield and disease from leftover spuds were fine in my experience to date.

PeadarOBriain

Horkans online still have some in stock on their website

PMBC

Shoots appeared last week