[alandbailey]

I cleard a small flower bed at the base of a row of Leylandii and planted sprouting Maris Peer spuds bought at 10p reduced yellow labels a bag at Tesco.
I was amazed at the quantity and quality of the yield I got. I did not even earth them up, just planted in a hole and gradually filled it in.

[snowdrops]

Hmm you'll have the spread of blight police after you

[gypsy]

Hmm you'll have the spread of blight police after you

I do not know why supermarket spuds may be more susceptible to blight. Surely the farmers are very fastidious about blight so the spuds would be ok. Will someone  explain please.

[mumofstig]

Seed potatoes are certified to be as nearly disease free as possible - potatoes to eat are good enough for eating, which isn't the same thing, as potato disease doesn't necessarily make the potatoes inedible.

If you are planting in your garden it's your risk, but it's not recommended to grow uncertified seed potatoes on the allotment in case you spread disease in the soil.

[ididntdoit]

I would think it most unlikely that shop bought potatoes had any problems with blight, the producers simply wouldn't allow it for their own sakes.

It seems the key problem with shop bought spuds is that they may not sprout as well as seed potatoes because they may well have been sprayed to inhibit sprouting. But if they have already sprouted then you should be OK.

To the best of my knowledge, organic potatoes have not been sprayed for this purpose.

Select potatoes with several eyes on them and if you are at all concerned about disease then plant them in buckets  / large containers. Lots of people report success with shop bought spuds.

You will be restricted to only a few named varieties, King Edward's and Maris Piper are commonly sold. But go to a slightly up market supermarket like Waitrose and they sell several named new and old spud.

Good luck.

[JayG]

Commercial potato growers were the 3rd largest users of pesticides per hectare in the UK in 2010, according to a report in Farmer's Weekly (after strawberries and onions apparently.   )

Unfortunately that doesn't mean that their potatoes are not carrying one or more of the many pests and diseases they are subject to - pesticides merely keep them alive long enough to get them to the shelves still looking good.

Certified seed potatoes aren't guaranteed to be disease-free either, but at least they've been carefully grown in conditions likely to minimise the risks, which is about the best you can hope for.

[DD.]

This thread is worth a read, even if only to save my breath by not having to repeat myself!

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=101124.15

What you do in your own garden is down to yourself. I just hope no one does it on our site!

What it doesn't mention in that thread is that a lot of potato diseases are spread by aphids, which is why certified seed spud in the main are grown in the cooler climes of Scotland, where they are not so much of a problem.

[Yorkie]

DD. is right.  It is nothing to do with blight.  It's to do with the risks of introducing viruses into the crop and wider environment.  The risk is considered so great that it is a criminal offence across the EU to sell uncertified seed potatoes for growing.

The supermarket potatoes will not be certified virus-free and hence the risks are far greater. 

[3759allen]

for the small amount you save i don't really see the point in using shop brought cooking spuds instead of seed. be different if you was saving hundreds of pounds.

if you could use local potatoes that you buy from the shop do you not think that farmers would save there own seeds instead of getting tonnes of seed shipped down the country. the cost per potato for them to grow is incredibly small, this combined with the amount of seed they plant would result in a massive saving. if it were a good and cheaper alternative the farmers would use it.

[gypsy]

Thanks everyone for your explanations

[DD.]

I can remember going with my Grandfather over half a century ago to buy his seed spuds.

This is not one of those current fads without foundation.

[Aunt Sally]

Hmm you'll have the spread of blight police after you

I do not know why supermarket spuds may be more susceptible to blight. Surely the farmers are very fastidious about blight so the spuds would be ok. Will someone  explain please.

I'm afraid they are not as fastidious as they should be.  All their unsaleable potatoes are usually dumped in a big pile in a field.  called an OUTGRADE PILE.

[DD.]

Indeed, and this was stressed in a post in the link I gave earlier, specifically this one:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=101124.msg1125846#msg1125846

[Casey76]

One thing is for sure I wouldn't plant any pots I buy I France - they are often riddled with wire worm.

All of my bought pots are peeled and cut up into itsy bitsy pieces before being cooked thoroughly... after one very unpleasant baked potato experience 

[AnnieB]

There one strange aspect I read on potato scab from the RHS site:

Select seed carefully and avoid planting seed potatoes that have visible signs of scab. Legislation controls the amount of infection allowed in seed, but low levels are permitted.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=230
First parageraph under Non-Chemical Control.

It seems that these certified seed potato's are able to be sold to us with a low amount of scab infection.  Whereas I doubt that Tesco or Sainsbury's would sell any that were infected.

When I read that it did make me sit and wonder exactly who is selling what.