Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: AndyRVTR on January 09, 2009, 19:56
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I was talking to a couple of my neighbours on the plot this afternoon and I mentioned to them I was looking for a supplier of seed potatoes.
During the conversation I asked if it was necessary to buy them every year for my crop and they told me that they use spuds from the previous years crop and use them for the following seasons 'seeds'.
Apparently they only do this for 3 seasons as a maximum to prevent any sort of disease build up.
Does anyone else do this as a rule?
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Hi Andy,
Not tried this myself, but sounds like a good idea. Did read somewhere that many years ago people had grown potatoes from just the peelings that had eyes on them. :shock:
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MIL told me they used to do this in the war. I know you can cut tats up and plant as long as each piece has an eye.
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The old boys on the allotments round the corner (one lives next door) says they buy one year, use saved the next, with no probs.
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There you go Andy, its worth a try even as an experiment. Think i might plant a couple and see what happens.
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I think you dip them (spud chunks) in cold wood ash to seal them from disease if you go down this route
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We save our own spuds for seeds, mostly the smaller ones which we feel give us a bigger yield and we plant 2-3 per hole depending on the spud size. However, we do buy all new 'seed' every 4 years or so to keep the crops disease free and we also practise yearly rotation which is also necessary. Otherwise, we'd regret it within a few years.
An organic seed farmer I know simply plants the same spuds year after year but always in different areas of the farm as he carries only rare varieties that can't be had elsewhere from seed.
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I grew potatoes from sprouted peelings the other year as an experiment. They were from my organic box and grown in a trough that I made from wood. They were lovely spuds! I didn't have any trouble with them and there were loads of them. Nic.
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I'm given to understand that the reason for not using 'home' spuds is that they may not be disease resistant - it is worth a try but clearly care is needed to keep an eye on potential blight.
I have (once) grown 'home' sprouted spuds and the crop was fine but I doubt I would take the chance again - given the wet stuff we have had
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on the farm where I used to work as a young un we used a combination of newly bought certified seed potatoes and our own saved spuds. I am pretty sure we only used the spuds grown from seed for one year, so I suppose we cut the cost of seed spuds in half.
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Please excuse me while I have a minor rant as lax crop hygiene on plots is something I get steamed up about.
On every bag of seed potatoes there is a certification number which allows them to be traced back to the grower if there is a problem.
The seed certification scheme in the UK is very robust. Seed potatoes are only grown in areas where aphids do not thrive as they carry all sorts of viruses. That is at high altitude or a long way north and that is why most seed is Scottish. Every crop is inspected several times while it is growing and those with disease are rejected and cannot be sold as certified seed.
Saving and planting seed for a second year is usual agricultural practice. To do this for a 3rd and 4th year is risking a build up of virus and disease.
Planting left over spuds from the supermarket or using peelings is asking for big trouble because you do not know if they are carrying disease. There are all sorts of nasties such as potato root eelworm and blackleg that you really do not want. Low levels of infection will not be obvious but eventually they will build up. Rotation helps but on the small scale of our gardens and allotments soil is easily carried on tools, barrows and boots.
A nasty souce of infection are self sown potatoes and potatoes growing in compost heaps. Dig them out and destroy if only to cut down blight infection.
I have little sympathy with any individual who gets infections through lack of hygiene but please have regard for your neighbours to whom your infections will spread.
For those who are sceptical look at the big problem with club root in brassicas on allotments and be warned.
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Well, that's us told then. Feel like a naughty school boy. If anybody wants me i'll be sitting in the corner :cry:
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Thanks Salmo, that page is worthy of a bookmark!
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I've linked to Salmo's post from the "Useful Topics & Sites" sticky, under "Certified Seed Potatoes - What Are They & Why Use Them?".
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Please excuse me while I have a minor rant as lax crop hygiene on plots is something I get steamed up about.
On every bag of seed potatoes there is a certification number which allows them to be traced back to the grower if there is a problem.
The seed certification scheme in the UK is very robust. Seed potatoes are only grown in areas where aphids do not thrive as they carry all sorts of viruses. That is at high altitude or a long way north and that is why most seed is Scottish. Every crop is inspected several times while it is growing and those with disease are rejected and cannot be sold as certified seed.
Saving and planting seed for a second year is usual agricultural practice. To do this for a 3rd and 4th year is risking a build up of virus and disease.
Planting left over spuds from the supermarket or using peelings is asking for big trouble because you do not know if they are carrying disease. There are all sorts of nasties such as potato root eelworm and blackleg that you really do not want. Low levels of infection will not be obvious but eventually they will build up. Rotation helps but on the small scale of our gardens and allotments soil is easily carried on tools, barrows and boots.
A nasty souce of infection are self sown potatoes and potatoes growing in compost heaps. Dig them out and destroy if only to cut down blight infection.
I have little sympathy with any individual who gets infections through lack of hygiene but please have regard for your neighbours to whom your infections will spread.
For those who are sceptical look at the big problem with club root in brassicas on allotments and be warned.
100% correct.
Using supermarket spuds is also a bad idea as they can be from abroad and have all sorts of disease in them. One farmer in Wales used Dutch seed and got brown rot. His whole 300acre crop was destroyed and he can't grow potatoes anymore as the ministry has shut him down. Imagine how popular you would be on the plot if you got one of these diseases and the whole plot was closed down :shock:
I have read that it is just a vested interest that us seed suppliers have so that you buy our spuds but why do you think we go to so much bother to keep the health status in this country so high? folk just plant things without knowing the risks.
My life would be so easy if we didn't have to certify crops but we take pride in what we do.
This is not a dig at anyone on here I am just stating the facts. :D
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I have an advantage in that blight is not a problem here, and that sometimes the commercial producers buy up so much seed that there's little to nothing left at times for the home gardener to buy. For 2 years running I could not buy my favourite baking potato as seed so we were glad we had some of our own left to plant. The 3rd year, there was a very limited amount available to buy and so rationed by the seller. In my case I must admit that our homegrown seeds produced far superior to the newly purchased seed. Guess you could say we're one of those lucky chances.
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I think any half sensible person, should know the risks of re-using their own stock of spuds.. as I said earlier, there has to be a limit to how long you use this practice before having to puchase 'seed' potatoes from a certified supplier. After speaking with one of the guys today, every 3rd season he buys new 'seed', so only uses his own for two seasons.
I personally think that to keep initial outlay costs down, this can only be a good thing for people struggling to make 'ends meet', and not simply do what suppliers WANT us to do, make THEM money!
Am I wrong?
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We use our own saved seed for 3 years then we start again with high grade stock that is fully tested.
Our saved seed is tested every year by the ministry to ensure it is safe to use.
All we are trying to say is that if you want to be safe buy new seeds.
:D
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I did grow my potato peelings in an isolated position on a paved area near my washing line well away from any gardens or other plants. I wouldn't have planted them on my allotment. It was an experiment after speaking to someone about rationing and what they did during the war. I like to think I am very careful about plant hygiene and also pest control. Some people think that organic means just leaving them to it! Nic.
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I am admittedly new to allotment gardening, but have been growing in my back garden for a few years now.
Last year I forgot to order any seed potatoes so i just threw 3 old maris pipers from a bag we got from tesco in the ground. Didn't really expect much butgot 51/2LB from them.
They were gorgeous.
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Seed potatoes are not overly expensive (if you shop around :o ). Wilko's are possibly the cheapest. £2.80 for 3kg IIRC last year, but have limited choice. For a few pence more (£2.95 for 3kg) Chelmsford market has a very good range to choose from. It's really not worth the risk of going over one year, for the commonly available ones.
For the varieties that cost more than that, I'd possibly take a chance but watch very closely every year for signs of disease
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Ok.. so if I pop down to Wilko's tomorrow...how many 'seeds' would I get in 3kg?
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60ish. :lol:
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Right... that helps.... my maincrop bed is 15m x 4m... anyone fancy doing the sums, :D :D, how many kg would I need?
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I never use my own seed potatoes. Salmo make perfect sense.
Anyway, why bother when potato fairs are so much fun!
I'll be attending Hampshire Potato fair on the 25th if anyone wants to say hello!
http://thewhitchurchweb.org/potatoday/
SS
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Haven't we been through all this on another thread?
Anyway, first thing to do is convert it to proper measurements.
I make it about 49 x 13 feet.
For main crop ideally your rows are a bit over 2' apart, but let's say 2' to make it easy. That's 6 rows, of 49 feet, with 18" at the edges.
I plant my main crop 18" apart, so that about 32 per row.
Total of 192, so you'd probably get away with 3 x 3 kg sacks.
I think.
60 in a sack may be at the top end of the numbers & all depends on the size of the tubers. You may only get about 30, it can vary quite a bit. Have a rough count of how many in each sack & use that and divide 192 by that number.
Thank goodness I can buy them by numbers!
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Anyway, why bother when potato fairs are so much fun!
Sorry, but working 9-5 Monday to Friday and working on the lottie at the weekend doesnt give much time for visiting potato fairs :D