This is probably going to sound like a stupid question.....but here goes. Do I have to plant seed potatoes from a garden supply, or can I simply cut potatoes I buy from the grocery store into eyes and plant? Thanks, Ronya

-- Ronya Hammonds (surenuffbusted@juno.com), March 21, 2001

Answers

If they are sprouted, you can plant grocery store potatoes. Sometimes they are treated with a growth inhibitor, but if they are sprouted, they probably haven't been treated. The ones from the garden center will be certified disease free, while the grocery store ones will not. It makes no difference as long as they grow! The diseases they are certified free from are potato diseases.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), March 21, 2001.

You can try buying organic potatoes at grocery stores for this. They aren't sprayed with the inhibitor. I am going to plant a third generation of spudlets this spring as stock that originated from grocery store organic potatoes. I eat the big ones over the winter, and save the little ones to plant and it's worked very well

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 22, 2001.

I forgot to mention, if you cut large potatoes into pieces, let them dry a couple days before putting them in the ground. Some people say you do not have to wait and can plant immediately, I say what's a couple days, and I can do it some evening rather than burn my daylight.

My mother gave me some sprouted potatoes -- Idaho Russet, they looked like -- from her regular grocery store potatoes to grow, and I planted them, so as not to hurt her feelings. I got only two baking potatoes out of over a dozen plants from those things. The organic ones yielded a couple of 5 gallon buckets full. So I would think that perhaps the growth inhibitor may be more of a problem than one would think.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 22, 2001.

hi, just wanted to drop my 2 cents. most fruit markets sell seed potatoes and you can find them at a feed store also. They cost around $10.00 for 50 lb. After you plant this year, next year you can use seed from this crop,and the following year ,do the same. If I can help ,e-mail me. Lexi,@ KY

-- lexi Green (whitestone11@hotmail.com), March 22, 2001.

I will add my $.02 here too!

one thing that we always do when selecting our potatoes from the current years crop, is not save the dinky ones to plant-we save the best/biggest ones with the most eyes. the dinky ones we eat-and we always have plenty of big ones left to eat too. The theory behind this is that the plants you want to save as sed are among the best, healthiest, not the ones that were just adequate. And we have seen it work pretty good.

Sarah

-- Sarah (heartsongacres@juno.com), March 28, 2001.

While you people are planting potatos, try it this way. Make a cylinder of wire, such as poultry wire about 18 inches in diameter and three or four feet high. Place it with the potato plant in the center at normal ground level. As the plant grows and adds leaves, you add mulch, top soil, ect. leaving about 3 or 4 leaves showing. Fill the cylinder as the plant grows all the way to the top. At harvest you will find potatos grown at all levels, could be as much as a bushel per plant.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), March 28, 2001.