[devonbarmygardener]

Hints and tips please!

I've had a fabulous crop of Belle de Fontaney and I wondered if I could save a few for next year?

Anything specific I need to do?
Storing advice?

The plants were very healthy incidently.

Thanks in anticipation!
Emma

[Springlands]

Emma - the general advice is not to save potatoes for the next year - they may look healthy but there is no guarantee that they will not be diseased.

[DD.]

Buy certified seed tubers as they are free of significant diseases, including viruses, and are widely available. Crops grown from home-saved tubers, including supermarket ones, often disappoint due to high disease levels.

[Aunt Sally]

Oh, yes - It's a NO NO if you are sensible.

[devonbarmygardener]

B*gger!

[Sparkyrog]

In other years once grown seed may of been worth the risk .But this year with so much blackleg around I wont risk it 

[Aunt Sally]

B*gger!

Language, dear 

[Beetroot queen]

B*gger!

Language, dear 

My 15 year old was reading over my shoulder and replied devonbarmygardener just got owned  does that mean you got told off 

[Sparkyrog]

it means Aunt Sally is telling fibs she is not asleep watch out you lot 

[DD.]

This is an old post from our resident seed spud supplier, which I think double underlines it, with a full stop at the end.

I had a man from up the road a bit who sent me some very rare tubers that he had been growing for 3 years himself. The potatoes looked healty and I popped them in some containers to grow them in. Once the shaws got to about a foot high you could see they were infected with severe mosaic and I had to dispose of the lot of them. I called the guy and he said he never saw anything wrong with them last year. And so ends my story.

Fortunately Iain had the foresight to pot grow them, so his ground was not infected. Others may not have such insight into spud growing.

[BobE]

The way I understand it is, (from reading it up, and from people on here), Seed potatoes are grown in high altitudes and this avoids a lot of the insects which carry infection.  Also they are tested and only the good ones are certified and put on to the market.  They are labeled and certified and so you know you are safe.  A farmer will often use last years potatoes for a second year, but he will plant them a long way from the first years and will begin over at year three.  We can't really get the distance and so we are better off starting from clean stock every year. 
I just thought it might be helpful to explain the rational of the use of clean seed potatoes each year.
(If you find some that you missed picking that start to grow or some growing in the compost you should dig them out.)

[devonbarmygardener]

Shame though.
I'm so proud of my crop this year. I've never had such a good crop from the potato bags before.
Ah well - you win some, you lose some

[BobE]

Keep the bag and try to buy them again.
Its all about preventing infection, al la the Irish potato famine.  It took out the entire crop.  Started a lot of them emigrating to America.  The Titanic was doing that, all over a few spuds.

[bravemurphy]

(If you find some that you missed picking that start to grow or some growing in the compost you should dig them out.)

I would dig them out because it looks like that's what is going to start the blight in wales.

[gavinjconway]

For the price of a 2 kilo pack of certified seed spuds for a few quid it just doesn't make sense to keep any for next year - I grow them to eat so i eat them