Hi all,
I Purchased my seed potatoes today from my local sell anything and everything shop, Hadn't a clue what variety to get so I ended up with Arran Pilot ( 1st earlies ) Wilja ( 2nd earlies ) & King Edward ( maincrop ) I only bought these varieties cos I recognised the names as ones my Dad grew. I paid £2.99 each for a 3kg bag and thought it wasn't a bad price, I've since looked at some seed mags from the likes of DT Brown & Dobies & also online and I can't believe the difference in prices, as much as £6.45 for a 3kg bag. I wonder what others have paid from their local shops & garden centres, I bet there is a big difference !!
Hi Botchituk
I was also looking at seed potatoes in a number of catalogues, in the T&M Potato collection prices are on average £3.59 - £3.99 for a 20 tuber pack, I held on and purchased from our local garden centre at £2.99 per 3 kilo (average 40 tubers). In all fairness though my local garden centre does not have to produce fancy full colour brochures or mail them to thousands of people
I saw some Arran Pilot First Early, Maris Peer Second Early and Desiree Main Crop at our local GC.
Could some one explain the First / Second Early and Main Crop bit please, as the growing instructions on the back of each is identical and is it essential to dig in well rotted manure beforehand or would chicken poo do as I have a good supply of that? The instructions recommended bonemeal?
These were 2.5 kg bags with average 55 tubers per bag @ £2.99
I bought some seed potato today from my garden centre:
Charlotte - 2kg (about 35 tubers) - £3.99
Kestrel - 2.5kg (about 20 tubers) - £3.99
I got 20% off that price by joining the garden centre club.
I bought mine from the local GC at what appears to be a good price.
1st earlies were Maris Bard & Rocket
2nd earlies are Charlotte
Both were a complete guess variety wise but were all £0.85/kg from a small garden centre with very low overheads. Also bought a kg of shallots 50 onion sets and some garlic to set this weekend :)
Roll on the spring!
Manure is reckoned to be best but any balanced fertiliser is good including bonemeal or dried chicken manure.
I've always expected somewhere around 40 tubers per 3kg, but my expensive Sarpos arrived with 60 tubers, so maybe more expensive suppliers pick smaller so you get better value??
Roy first/second early/maincrop refers to how long the potatoes take to grow to be edible. According to some scribblings in my notebook that came from some website or other, Rocket/swift take 9-10 weeks to produce edible size tubers, first earlies 12 weeks, 2nd earlies 14 weeks and maincrop 16 weeks. There is something with maincrops too about them being daylight sensitive I think - they won't bulk up until the days start to shorten or something like that, someone will come along with the full info on that I hope.
TomJ, I would say that you guessed well with varieties - Charlotte are great, a nice waxy salad potato, and Rocket produce new potato type tubers very early. I'm planning on getting some of mine in the ground in Feb under fleece to get some early spuds.
Hi Botchituk :)
Love to know the thinking behind your name ;D
There is a vast difference on the prices of the seed potatoes thats for sure, The best price I have found is at B&Q, they have a good choice of first & second earlies, salad & main crop for £2.98p for a 2.8kg bag. All the varieties are named and all are well known . Mine are chitting away right now ;D
Adrian.
The prices difference reflect, as has been noted, the overheads of the seller, and what they think they can get away with. The biggest expense for mail order is the postage.
Roy, the main differences between the types is how quickly they reach eatable size, the yield and their storage characteristics.
First earlies take least time, second earlies next and maincrop most. Moggle gave some timings.
First earlies do not store - eat as quickly as possible after digging up - that's one of the reasons why home grown taste better than shop bought - they're much fresher. You don't get many but they taste good. If left in the ground after they are ready to eat, most will continue to bulk up to give yields equal to second early or maincrop varieties but most loose their flavour (Red Duke of York and Accent being exceptions) - Varieties like Rocket (very early) have little flavour (IMO), but loose what little they have within a couple of weeks of being "ready".
Second earlies take longer to grow than first earlies and produce a larger crop but do not keep well - if you try to keep them, you'll find that most varieties start sprouting before Christmas.
Maincrop (which can be split into early and late - which indicates how soon they will be ready for harvest) give the highest yields and, if properly handled, will keep until the next year's first earlies are ready.
On balanced fertiliser, potatoes are gross feeders and require a good, nutrient-rich soil so plenty of FYM or compost is a very good start. Being roots they benefit from potash (the K in NPK). Bonemeal doesn't contain potash, chicken manures contain whatever the manufacturer puts in them but most major in N (which will give lots of top growth). The most balanced natural fertiliser is fish, blood and bonemeal (~5%N:5%P:6%K)
Phil
PS Try a Potato Day for real choice - prices around 9 tubers for a pound and advice aplenty - or have I said that before http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatoday.htm
The online ones tend to be expensive because they have to cover the relatively high cost of shipping heavy seed spuds :o. What you get for the extra price is much more variety and the chance to buy organically grown seed potatoes, which are hard to find elsewhere. I have to confess I coughed up 6.95 for 20 tubers of a Hungarian blight resistant variety *gulp*
i am waiting with baited breath to see what the new blight resistant hungarian spuds are like, taste especially. Our site was blight free for the past two years but I have heard tales of woe from longstanding plot-owners. For myself, I think Edwin Tucker is good value with a great variety and a fair amount of info to help choose. I cannot remember what I sent for apart from Kestrel (which are just fab) and Anya but 12 Kgs came to just over £22.00- not that my potato beds are ready yet!
cheers suzy
I should have asked you guys before I did my ordering!
Shug,
I hate to tell you this but they are now £3.99 for 20 from T&M :'(
Phil
>:( don't think I'll be using the same supplier for spuds next year.
Speaking of which, does anyone save their taties from year to year as seed?
Shug,
I only keep the ones that I can't buy.
The danger of picking up virus is too high.
For those that I do keep:
they are lifted as soon as possible
they are watched carefully for signs of disease and at any signs result in the tops being removed and the tubers being lifted 3 weeks later (to allow any disease spores to die
Phil
I always keep a few of every variety I bought. Plant them out the next year in seperate beds though. To avoid problems. Never had problems with blight or so, here on the plots, but we all are very careful with rotation, some use 6 years rotation.
I bought Desiree, Wilja, Maris Peer and my favorite Pentland Squire at Tuckers in Devon and the rest in the Netherlands: Mona Lisa, a yellow one, high resistance to virus diseases; Symfonia, red, from origin Dutch, licensed in Canada in 1997; and Berber,a yellow one. 25 tubers, size 30 mm, for E 4,50 ==2,60 Eng pounds. Good price, I think.
Our allotment association has just received its delivery of seed potatoes. All 3kg bags £2.30. For example Pentland javlin, Foremost, Arran Pilot, Kestral,Romano, Desiree, King Edward, Maris Piper.
Allotment trading huts are usually the cheapest place to buy most items.
They tend to be run by a dedicated few and without them allotments would be a lot poorer (financially and metaphorically)
Support your local trading hut!!! - but buy a few of some new varieties just to try at a Potato Day - then get your hut to stock the one(s) you like
One thing to possibly be aware of. We got our bulk order yesterday and whilst sorting it into 3kg packs I realised that some varieties like Cara were almost supermarket size. The 3kg packs we bought were far smaller and therefore, despite the higher price, better value. I won't be ordering Cara in 25kg sacks again.
Last year, went to Potato day at Ryton - paid 13p a seed tuber (25p for the new blight resistant Sarpo varieties).
Intend to go this coming Saturday.
Good on you MV - you shouldn't need to pay more than 20p for Sarpo this year - that's T&M's price and they own the exclusive rights.
PS tubers are 9 for £1 in Hampshire! ;)
Sometimes, I have wondered why I travelled from Caernarfon (which is about 9 miles from Bangor) to Ryton, to buy potatoes that were developed by the university in Bangor! I wonder where their field is...
Thinking of the university in Bangor - Medwyn of giant/show veg fame uses their greenhouses as well..
Wasn't impressed with the flavour of the sarpos, but was impressed with the lack of slug damage even as I dug the remaining plants up in November!
Multiveg
The greenhouses are being "redeveloped" and Medwyn is leaving - so he says in his Garden News column
Phil
I have not yet found anywhere in my area that has seed potatoes in stock :(
I have made it my mission for the weekend...find some and get chitting!!
Debs
This year, 15p a tuber (20p for Sarpo Mira) and 25p for the salad blue/highland burgundy red seed tubers.
Hi all,
Got my seed spuds from a garden centre in Yeovil. I got 3 x 3kg bags of sharpes express (1st earlies), maris peers (2nd earlies) and nicola (maincrop).
They cost £2.39 each or 3 for £6.00!! ;D ;D