[Hampshire Hog]

Just bought some spuds at the Whitchurch potato event this week end in Hampshire
Loose varieties were 17 p for a single potato but £1.50 for 10.
Cheers HH

[gavinjconway]

Harsh... Some strange replies in the post 2 above this.. shops depend on us buying twice... strange.. I buy from our local garden centre during the Christmas / New Year hols and place them in the garage to chit...  and whalla as if by magic they are perfect mid to end of March with 1-3" long chits !! no need to buy again.. Now if you hide them away in the dark you will cause the long wrong growth so its up to the person to store / chit properly. Most cool light garages will do fine. 

Comiserations to those who buy early.... Shipping starts over the Christmas hols to most garden centres so surely all those will not be wasted... will they??

Plan your planting date for the emergence of the halums after the predicted last frost and not before.. i.e. dont plant too early.. It's not the shops fault is it?

If we dont support our local shops or garden centres they will close down and then we cant get anything from them. We cant all buy from a producer..

I could go on but wont...

[New shoot]

....... ones most bought late will have been sitting in a warm shop and have long spindly shoots. You will be hard pressed to find decent seed spuds in March to plant straight in the ground

Agree with that but the solution is not to buy them from shops, buy them from the producers who sell to the shops. JBA seed poatatoes for example. All of the producers will have tip top storage facilitiies and the experience to utilse them to their best ability.

I've bought seed potatoes from various suppliers and January is the usual time they arrive.  Some offer you the choice between December or January dispatch.  I think you would find that trying to buy in March would mean a far more restricted choice on offer if any.  Everyone else would have bought them up and would have them chitting by then.

For first earlies at least, early planting is quite common either in containers in a protected environment or protected out on the open ground.  Those first few new potatoes are worth the extra effort to a lot of people and who are we to say they are wrong 

And as someone who works in a garden centre selling bedding plants, I always ensure anything tender has the appropriate 'Protect from frost' warnings to make sure customers are not dissapointed and end up buying twice 

[Madame Cholet]

we have our potato event on feb 14th over 40 at £1 kilo in Huntingdon the full post is on the notice boad.

[BabbyAnn]

I've always seen seed potatoes out for sale in the first weeks of January so I don't think demand has anything to do with it.

Demand always has everything to do with it, if there's no demand then the seed potatoes won't sell.

May I please point out that my reply was in response to the post below - the first week in January is not that unusual as the Christmas sales in shops are cleared to give way to the new season.  It's also traditional for gardeners to start thinking ahead while twiddling their thumbs during cold winter days and turn to glancing at catalogues, and as pointed out in later posts, with proper conditions you can safely store/chit potatoes in time for planting.

First week of January this year.

It's the same with bedding plants, the garden centres love to sell them at easter becasue half of them will perish with the next frost

Easter has always been a traditional time to get into the garden and start digging, sowing and planting - unfortunately inexperienced gardeners may not be aware of how easily some tender plants can succumb as the weather can go either way depending on when Easter falls. 

[DD.]

....... ones most bought late will have been sitting in a warm shop and have long spindly shoots. You will be hard pressed to find decent seed spuds in March to plant straight in the ground

Agree with that but the solution is not to buy them from shops, buy them from the producers who sell to the shops. JBA seed poatatoes for example. All of the producers will have tip top storage facilitiies and the experience to utilse them to their best ability.

That won't work! If you leave it until planting time to buy from the producers, you're back to lack of choice as the majority of their stock will have gone to the shops.

[Willow_Warren]

Well I got 28 charlotte seed potatoes for £2.99 - it was a 2kg bag.

So in total I have the following chitting in my conservatory (tends to stay in pretty cold in there!):
28 Charlotte Potatoes (Frosts - £2.99)
20 Lady Cristl (T&M - £5.49 - but I had a £5 voucher that needed using)
5 Sarpo Mira (Wilko - £1!)

I have more Charlottes & Ladies than I need/have space for but it was the best/only way to buy them.  They might be looking for a good home later!

I still need to find somewhere to buy just a few Maris Piper/Desiree - about 12 of each (which is why I don't want to buy another 2kg bag...)

Hannah

p.s. for those of you who have houses at a constant 20°C all the time - lucky!!!

[mumofstig]

cold chitting is best as long as they don't get soooo cold that they freeze - keep an eye on how cold your conservatory gets when it's freezing outside 

[Willow_Warren]

Will keep an eye out for freezing temps.  There's no heating in there but there's also no door between there and my hall so it shares a bit of heat from the radiator in there.

I was proudly observing my potatoes at the weekend, all sat in their little trays... (assign me to the loony bin!)

Hannah

[Ashurstman]

West Lancs Allotment Federation Potato Day at Concourse Shopping Centre, Skelmersdale on 1st February so I can report on sizes then!

[Hampshire Hog]

Post script to yesterday's post also bought 2.5kg of Romano second early for £3.50 in Whitchurch
Quick count there were 30 spuds in the bag.

Cheers HH

[4 Seasons]

Interesting thread this. Let's face it there are some of us that want to grow specific varieties of potato, go out of our way to search them out and order early to make sure we are not disappointed.
Then there is the more casual grower that either forgets to order the spuds they want or don't really get bothered by a limited choice of spud later on and grow the usual suspects.

If you have preferences then you make the effort. If you can't really tell the difference between one spud and another and are not bothered by a limited choice then the shops are there for you.

Wilkinsons seem to stock the same varieties every year because I suppose they perceive them to be the most popular.  The truth is probably that they create a self fulfilling market caused by their restricted choice.

I got into some real bother with somebody on this forum last year who ran a poll on the most popular spuds grown when I tried to point out that the most popular spuds mentioned could just be down to marketing strategy and availability and maybe little to do with definite preferences.

[mumofstig]

the most popular spuds mentioned could just be down to marketing strategy and availability and maybe little to do with definite preferences.

They may actually prefer to grow the varieties that Wilko and the like stock, my all-time favourite potato is actually one of the varieties they stock - Desiree 

[cudders]

I usually get mine from B&Q but this year I'm going to a Potato day as I usually end up with a lot that are far too small to plant and have had some with rot/Scab..

All seeds are 15p and a huge variety so I will get my usual varieties plus a few other to try out. 

Cudders

[4 Seasons]

the most popular spuds mentioned could just be down to marketing strategy and availability and maybe little to do with definite preferences.

They may actually prefer to grow the varieties that Wilko and the like stock, my all-time favourite potato is actually one of the varieties they stock - Desiree 

I'm not knocking Wilko's choice of spuds at all.  What I am saying is that to just rely on the popular retail outlets means that the buyer has been directed towards what they perceive to be popular which usually boils down to (no pun intended)  several varieties only whereas there are scores of spuds to choose from if you have an adventurous spirit. Over the years I've grown and tried a fair few and wouldn't touch some again with a barge pole (Sarpo Mira and Mayan Gold spring to mind) but I also grow a couple of the same varieties every year because they have become our favourites through trial and error. Disiree is a nice spud, not my favourite but this year one of my excursions into the unknown will be to try a Disiree crossed with a Pink Fir Apple that was produced for the Sainsbury family and named after Lady Sainsbury called Anya. If it produces the best qualities of both the parent spuds then it should be a cracker.

I try four or five new ones every year just out of curiosity. I'm limited by space and energy otherwise I'd be growing dozens of different ones and it's one of life's little frustrations that there are more spuds out there than I am ever going to grow and taste in one life time. These forum's are great for recommendations and I'd rather pay attention to people that have tried and tested a variety than my local shops who just go on what sold best the previous year.