Allotments 4 All

If you buy seed potatoes, should they be within a certain size range?
When I have bought them before, either from shops, they always seem to be about the same size, with the smallest being about 50% the mass of the largest.

I have just received my order for 10 red duke of york from that well know seed merchant, and I am a bit supprised by the size of them.

3 are a good size with an average weight of 82g, but the other are tiny, with an average weight of just 25g and the smallest being only 18g.

Is this normal? And are the small ones going to be able to reach the surface before they run out of energy?

Blooming eck! 18 g is pretty small.  My smallest were about 30g this year.  But what can you do?  Plant them in size order and report back the results.

The evil empire have struggled a bit this year with their spuds.  I bought 20 Lady Cs from them and in the ground they went but they seemed huge, and uniform, compared to what I planted last year from a bag which contained a good range of sizes.  So am wondering ... are they really Lady Cs?

But I think your smallest may still be viable.  When you think of volunteers, they are often titchy ones your missed but they still come up.

good question? each year I say I will be scientific and record the seed potato size and what the results are. But I always end up bunging them in in a hurry!

As i understand it, for once size doesn't matter, you still get the same yield for small or big

Well I've planted them, I'll let you know how well they do.

The problen with the online seed merchants is that they never show you a picture of what you have actually bought.  Instead they show you a picture of what you might achieve if you are very hardworking and very lucky.

No wonder we are disappointed so often and I cant think of any other market where they do this.

That's a good idea planting in size order just to compare how they turn out, I've had a few weird sizes this year as well.  ???