Quick question about growing from shop bought potatoes...

GhostWarrior

I've read through a few threads and people seem to be against the idea of growing from shop bought potatoes if the soil will be shared with/mixed in with the soil you use for your other veg. If the shop bought potatoes are organic, will it be safe for them to share the soil with other veg?

A._Badger

There is no threat posed to vegetables from other families (ie brassicas, beans/peas etc) by growing potatoes from shop bought potatoes, as opposed to certified virus-free seed potates. The organic status is meaningless in this context, by the way - it has absolutely no bearing on whether they might or might not carry aphid-borne diseases, which is the real concern. It simply refers to the types of fertilisers used in the spuds' cultivation.

As a rule of thumb, you can grow potatoes without needing to use certified virus-free seed but, after a year or so, you will possibly start to suffer from virus, but this will only affect potatoes or (maybe) other members of the solanaceae family.

Most gardeners prefer to give their potatoes as good a start as they can get and buy fresh seed potatoes every year. This is a sensible thing to do but growing your spuds from leftovers from Tesco or Sainsbury won't affect your soil, nor trouble most other vegetables.

Hope that helps.

Zazen999

Some say they will be disease ridden and some say they won't.

I suspect the disease ridden aspect is put around to ensure the longevity of the seed potato suppliers.

In years gone by, people would of course use their own potatoes to grow the next year's crop.

I use a mix; i buy seed potatoes of earlies and main, and any potatoes that sprout of their own accord in my kitchen, I cut the sprouted bits off and plant in largeish pots and they get earthed up and pretty much left to their own devices. I get late crops from these as they just sit in the pots happily until I run out of my other grown spuds - or until there comes a day when I can't be bothered to go to the lottie to collect my stored spuds so they get tipped out and used.

Soil left over goes onto any beds that need mulching or topping up.

GhostWarrior

Great, thanks, to both of you. I just drilled my buckets lol so I'm all set lol

Zazen999

GhostWarrior wrote: »

Great, thanks, to both of you. I just drilled my buckets lol so I'm all set lol

When I say I cut the sprouted bit off, I mean the sprouted bit goes in the soil and the rest gets cooked and eaten. You will need about a 5mm sliver from the spud with the sprouted bit still attached. That way, you're just using peelings essentially to get new potatoes.

angelavdavis

I thought the reason it wasn't recommended was due to the fact that many non-organics are dusted with a compound to stop them sprouting too readily - so they aren't like to produce many spuds. However, I have to say, I have never had trouble finding sprouty spuds in my vegetable rack!

[Deleted User]

Some of the best new spuds I ever tasted came from peelings that sprouted & grew in my mate's end-of-the-garden compost pile. Free, no work spuds
:-), lovely!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

joolzred wrote: »

Some of the best new spuds I ever tasted came from peelings that sprouted & grew in my mate's end-of-the-garden compost pile. Free, no work spuds
:-), lovely!

lol


same here .. i have had bumper crops from these..

i normally use shop bought spuds that have started winking at me..lol... but up until this year i have only grown potatoes in old dustbins etc.... so would not do any damage to my actual garden.. once i bought seeds pot and grew them in large containers, and i must admit i didnt get good results..

i thought the reason why they recommend seed potatoes to using shop bought potatoes is not to bring any potato related disease into your garden, which could stay in the soil for a long time

saxonrosecliff

Hi

I'm a bit of a beginner at growing my own veg so hope this isn't a stupid question! I bought some potatoes from Aldi just over a week ago and they are delicious. My son (and me) were wondering if we kept some of the potatoes could they be planted in the garden to grow more potatoes? If so how would we look after then in the meantime and when would we have to set them. The variety is Marfona. Thanks for looking.

evie451

oh i loved that variety from Aldi they were gorgeous! i have read on here that seed potatoes are preferable because they are treated for diseases etc but i have discovered that a lot of gardening is giving it a go and seeing what happens. That is a lovely variety though have you looked for the seed potatoes online? i just got a load delivered (although not Marfona) and they were £1.99?

Lotus-eater

You can do it, you will be told you shouldn't, but you can.
If you get on well with it and next year you want to grow more, it would be a good idea to buy seed potatoes (and plant them in a different place to this years crop)

Read the other potato threads for what to do with them.