Seed Potatoes

orchidpepper

Hello again

I'm thinking of trying to grow potatoes this year, they seems awfully expensive though.... There is an offer in grow your own magazine for 10 pink apple firs for the price of the P&P but just wondered where you all get them from.

Looking for major bargains this year! but having one small indulgence, I spotted a fabulous watering can printed with tomatoes for £9.99 with free P&P I've had my eye on it for a while but it was too expensive, gotta love those sales :rolleyes:

Gx

alanobrien

Try a local DIY shed or garden centre. I grow a few in containers and just bought 10 "Rocket" for £2.20 at the local Wyvale.

Jack's_mummy

I justgrow a few in buckets and usually get them from Wilkinsons

tinksy

i got a huge bag in QD of desiree for £2.99, first 5 currently chitting on my windowsill! got a potato barrel for xmas so going to hopefully get two batches out of that!

orchidpepper

oooooo Wilkinsons!!! We only just got one of those, I went in the other day and the seed range is quite impressive! Just seeds, wellies and propogators at the moment. Maybe I should try to be a bit more patient... :rolleyes:

Jack's_mummy

Just wait until they get all the gardening stuff in - heaven! And don't forget the pound shops too - my best sweetpeas last year were pound shop ones

choille

I'm doing my usual miserly seed thing again with potatoes this year - using last year's wee ones that haven't been eaten.

orchidpepper

I'm going to sound like a right thicko here but......I had no idea you could do that!!! Might try a rooster or 2 to see what happens!

Going to plant most in the ground and a couple in a bag.

Have any of you ever seen Claires allotments on youtube? I'm addicted at the moment, love that all the updates are numbered so you can see the changes take place.

I've had my name on the allotment list for 4 years now and looks like another 6 till I get one. Every time I call the council they say i'm 25th for example on the list until I tell them thats where I was last year then they knock a couple off......... I'm getting seriously frustrated with the whole carry on especially as there are loads unattended

Sorry for ranting

Gx

foxgloves

We get ours from our small independent village garden centre. Used to use mail order seed companies i.e Marshalls which were good but much more expensive than prices locally. If you are a novice gardener, whatever you do don't be tempted to get them from TV shopping channels. Last year, we saw 10 seed potato tubers on sale for £12.99 and with the p&p, it came to over £15. The presenters were making a big point of marketing them to novice gardeners saying how simple it was to grow them in buckets, etc....it's simple to grow ANY seed potato tubers in buckets. There are no 'special packs' for beginners.....it was such a rip-off and yet we knew there would be people new to veg growing falling for all the rubbish they were coming out with. We can buy nearly 3 huge sacks of potatoes from our local farm shop for £15 and there's no way that 10 tubers in buckets could produce as many as that so do bear this in mind if you haven't bought seed potatoes before and those unscrupulous TV salespeople are selling these again this year.

RAS

choille wrote: »

I'm doing my usual miserly seed thing again with potatoes this year - using last year's wee ones that haven't been eaten.

chiolle

Happy New Year

Good idea for most folk if they have never grown tatties before and just want a few. I get fed up these adverts and deals that cost a fortune and mean people get more tubers than they need, or get very few at a huge cost.

However, you are in the sunny Highlands where most aphids get blown away. For folks in the South where aphid populations can be very high, doing this for more than one year is deeply dodgy.

And folks, if you had blight last year, do not sow home grown seed stocks as you will get even earlier blight this year.

choille

Happy New Year RAS & everyone else.

You're quite right about the disease & it is chancy. I do get some bought seed, but do tend to also use some of my own kept ones in new beds - to 'clear the ground'. And believe it or not we had an awful lot of aphids last year - never seen so many, so maybe should dump the seed I kept as they were in the shed - the aphids. I posted about it here - never had seen that before.
It's hard to think of gardening when I look out across the ice field..........