Topic: potatoes: using supermarket spuds

[real food]

Most of the supermarket potatoes are varieties grown for big cropping characteristics, rather than taste. As many of the supermarket potatoes on sale at this time of year, have been treated with anti-sprouting chemicals, it can lead to a complete crop failure, as some of my fellow plotters can testify!! You have been warned!!

[sawfish]

for an extra few quid I'd rather have the peace of mind of seed tatties any day.

[Busby]

In those days when pigs were fed with swill and not with today's luxury foods potatoes were part of their diet. When the moment came and potatoes were chemically treated (and before pigs were artificially inseminated) it was discovered that the chemical used to prevent potatoes sprouting in store were also effecting the ability of the pigs to reproduce.
Potatoes today from the supermarket are virtually dead - as are many vegetables grown with artificial fertilizers. You can find all this info under Google.

By the way I don't chit my pots. In fact if I buy them too early I put them in the 'fridge until needed - and I've never had a duff crop.

[philcooper]

Seed potato,s are grown from seed ........So if you plant these second generation potato,s you could could be putting disease into your own soil
I think thats about right

If only life were so simple.

As I said earlier there is a whole heirachy of seed classifications, fully explained at http://www.potato.org.uk/media_files/Seed/gb_seed_classification.pdf

The table below gives the grades

Category       National Class      EC Grade                Label Colour
Pre-basic          Pre-Basic TC     Not applicable   White with purple stripe
Pre-basic          Pre-basic 1-4    Not applicable   White with purple stripe
Basic                Super Elite 1-3  EC 2                   White
Basic                Elite 1-3          EC 2                   White
Basic                A                      EC 3                   White
Certified            CC                   None                   Blue

Each grade is grown from the previous one so there are not 2 but 7 stages used in seed production (in the basic grades - the pre-basics cover micropropagation and early stages of seed crop production).

All are grown under controlled conditions where it is not conducive to disease (plus there are the inspections I mentioned in my previous posting). Commercial and amateur growers do not row under these conditions so there is the possibility of a forms of disease being picked up during the first year's growth. This could well be carried in the tubers and mean that you start with a diseased plant. There are not just the soil borne diseases but also blight to consider, and as I say every year at this time, the majority of outbreaks of blight are traced back to regrown (intentionally or not) plants.

Trixiebelle,

All potatoes are susceptible to virus and other disease. The commercial growers use certified seed and fortnightly doses of fungicide and other chemicals whilst the spuds are growing, then acid to kill off the tops prior to harvesting and then, for stored potates, growth inhibitors to prevent sprouting - but apart from that they are great to eat!!

Phil

[marcusexeter]

do you think that potato peelings from supermarket spuds in compost are ok - or could they spread any virus?

[philcooper]

I don't know of problems coming from composting potato peelings - the composting process breaks down a lot of things

Phil

[hazelize_uk]

oh???  i've been told NOT to put potato peel on the compost because they will grow? is that aload of rubbish, i've been throwing them away in the black bin as i cant put them in the brown bin or feed them to the rabbits to compost for me! :)

[manicscousers]

we throw all our potato peelings in the compost, have done for years  ;D

[philcooper]

oh???  i've been told NOT to put potato peel on the compost because they will grow? is that aload of rubbish, .... :)

They will only grow if your heap is cold, if it heats up (as it should) then the heat will kill anything that wants to grow.

Phil

[quizzical1]

 The heat will kill anything that wants to grow.
Phil

I have today received my new "dalek" from www.recyclenow.org, and the literature they sent with it advises not to put perennial weeds in to the compost, especially when seed bearing. Apparently the heat might not be enough to kill all of the seeds, and maybe not the roots either(white roots like couch and bindweed?)
That said we also have for years thrown spud peelings onto the heap and never had any grow.

[philcooper]

I think they are right on things like bindweed and couch grass but I have never had any problems with other weeds - seed bearing or not.

I use a couple of dahleks, an open heap and New Zealand boxes

Phil

[Robert_Brenchley]

Couch always does over a season. A really strong dock or bindweed root may survive, but it can be picked out easily as you empty the bin, and even if it does end up on the garden, it always seems to be too weak to re-establish itself over a growing season, and is easily got rid of when you clear the bed.

[philcooper]

They will only grow if your heap is cold, if it heats up (as it should) then the heat will kill anything that wants to grow.

Phil

Apologies, delete "will" insert "should"

Couch and bindweed break into small pieces so easily and mine (as grown in Hampshire and Yorkshire) appear to have the ability to regenerate from the smallest and most bedraggled piece - obviously the ones that grow in the Edgbaston area are fairly wimpish  ;)

Drowning them in a bucket of water for a month usually works!

Phil

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wimpish they aren't; I had roots like mooring ropes when I first got the plot! I'm still digging them out, but I'm on top of it, and I've never done anything with them apart from putting them in the compost.

[hazelize_uk]

Wimpish they aren't; I had roots like mooring ropes when I first got the plot!

Dont know why that really made me laugh sitting here giggling to myself now!! ;D

[JRP]

Hi ALL, ;D I use nothing but bought potatoes from a supermarket,as my family and friends give them to me if they show any sign of growth to go into my container system,I can have new or old potato crops all the year round this way.
If Mother nature says my potatoes are ready to sow and grow then in they go,and if I'm lucky I will end up eating the main potato as well I started off with,the way I do it.  ;D
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

[glow777]

Without sounding rude JRP it may be this level of ignorance RE:potatoes and viruses that are stopping people being interested in your other ideas.

On a lot of allotments you would be asked to stop planting non certified spuds or asked to leave on the grounds that you are putting the whole area at risk to save a couple of quid. Kind of goes against your environmental ideas somewhat doesnt it?

[theothermarg]

Why don,t we start a thread on how wimpish or how macho our weeds are.
someone can take offence and rant in defence of their weeds and rest of us can have a giggle
margaret ;D

[JRP]

Without sounding rude JRP it may be this level of ignorance RE:potatoes and viruses that are stopping people being interested in your other ideas.

On a lot of allotments you would be asked to stop planting non certified spuds or asked to leave on the grounds that you are putting the whole area at risk to save a couple of quid. Kind of goes against your environmental ideas somewhat doesn't it?

Glow777 have you ever tried growing potatoes in plastic containers or you would not be saying that. For example I have found you don't need a flower head to grow potatoes,why do I say that ignorant or not,I have found if there's a frost it will kill all the top green growth,yet you will still get potatoes. So that cuts the air Born viruses out for a start,then comes the soil side of growing potatoes,99% of normal gardeners add this and that and what ever to their plots,I don't,like I said I just use cheap multi purpose compost,and I've had no problems growing my potatoes,where others have,for example they have holes in theirs,I don't,they can't grow potatoes all the year round,I can,maybe it's because my system works so well you don't like what I'm telling you,as for my other ideas no one is telling you to use them,and there are people on here who have said that their crop of potatoes where OK too,plus the fact I'm using potatoes which would have been thrown away anyway. I'm not saying don't use proper seed potatoes. I'm just sharing with you and others one mans way of growing things on a allotment website,not a farmers website nor a business website. Maybe one day you will see me at the Chelsea flower Show,under new ways to grow things only time will tell.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John. J.R.P.

[Mrs Ava]

As Phil is A4all's resident spud expert, I follow his lead.  I only ever grow seed spuds brought firstly from one of the mail order firms, and then I top up with a few here and there for the nursery or spud days.  I have enough pests and diseases on my allotment (white rot, club root, eel worm, wire worms, aphids, hares and deers(!)) to risk adding anything else to the melee.  Like lots of others, the purse is always empty, but I would rather spend a couple of quid extra on good seed than spend a whole season loving a crop, only to have a rubbish harvest and fill my ground up with viruses.