Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Rotorvator on March 07, 2024, 12:03

Title: Supermarket potatoes using as seed potatoes
Post by: Rotorvator on March 07, 2024, 12:03

hi I have seen the coments on the latest email letter and We use Tescos own and have a good crop every year we always find seed potatoes do not grow well here at all

Title: Re: Supermarket potatoes using as seed potatoes
Post by: New shoot on March 07, 2024, 12:32

If it is working for you then that is good, but as John says in his article…

https://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/potatoes/can-you-chit-supermarket-potatoes/

…it is usually OK, but you do have to be aware that they are not subject to the same standards as seed potatoes as regards potato diseases.  The trouble is that if you import one of those diseases into your soil via a supermarket potato, the consequences can last for years and affect any future crops you plant.  It is a fairly low risk of that happening, but it is a risk.

Title: Re: Supermarket potatoes using as seed potatoes
Post by: Yorkie on March 07, 2024, 20:30

If growing on a communal allotment site, the risk is also to all of your neighbours and not just to your crops.

I'd never take the risk. It's impossible to tell a virus-ridden and virus-free spud apart until the damage has been done.

Title: Re: Supermarket potatoes using as seed potatoes
Post by: snowdrops on March 10, 2024, 17:18

For the actual cost of seed potatoes & how many I buy I stick to certified disease free seed potatoes, I don’t want to risk contamination of my soil or my plot neighbours as Yorkie says. Really annoys me when I see potato crops ravaged by blight on the allotments & just left & left to spread it around further.