[Trillium]

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.

[AndyRVTR]

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?

[Iain@JBA]

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.
 

[nicchick]

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.

[peanut]

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.

[woodburner]

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

[AndyRVTR]

Ok.. so if I pop down to Wilko's tomorrow...how many 'seeds' would I get in 3kg?

[DD.]

60ish.

[AndyRVTR]

Right... that helps.... my maincrop bed is 15m x 4m... anyone fancy doing the sums,    , how many kg would I need?

[Swing Swang]

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

[DD.]

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!

[AndyRVTR]

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