This year when going to buy our seed potatoes, we found our local GC had started to sell most of its seed potatoes in packets of 10 rather than loose as it had always done before
Now I grow a small(ish) quantity of earlies and main crop, and usualy the same ones each year (Foremost and Desiree). The maincrop seed were sold as usual loose in nice big healthy tubers. The earlies on the other hand were sold in packets of rather small pathetic tubers. Now perhaps i shouldnt have bothered with them and stuck to the main but at the time I thought it would be OK.
However whilst both sets of potatoes were planted in exactly the same way (albeit about 3 weeks apart), the mains have romped away producing nice healthy haulms and are now flowering, the earlies on the other hand have only produced quite weak and in places sickly looking haulms which are now starting to die back (as expected.
Consequently I am not expecting a good crop from the earlies this year, and unless i can find a good (local) source of seed tubers for early potatoes, i shall be concentrating on mains in future.
GC,
Do don't say what you mean by "small pathetic", many people go for tubers which are too large with too many shoots and hence get many small potatoes. The "ideal" size is that of a hens egg.
You also say that you plant the same way "albeit about 3 weeks apart" - a huge amount can happen in 3 weeks in late winter/early spring. I had similar problems last year in the rates at which my earlies and maincrops took off - all down to a patch of cold weather at the wrong time.
Having said all that, if the tubers were poor quality then go back and explain to the GC - if nobody complains, nothing ever improves
Phil
PS Try a Potato Day next year - I haven't had any complaints yet and had 1,250 customers this year :D (that's a smug grin)