Seed Potatoes arrived!

[sewer rat]

Snadger
I agree with what you are saying in general but we are dead lucky here - our local GC will stock about sixty varieties in total but they do not take delivery until the beginning of March. They will sell them in 3kg bags or you can buy as many or as few tubers of each variety as you wish.
Suppose that as we are in a major seed tattie growing area we shouldn't be suprised. One of my "door steward / bouncer" colleagues is head tractorman on a local farm which in the last four years has seen it potato acreage (mostly rented to try and get clean ground each year) increase from 300 to 400 to 500 to 600 last season and this year they are looking for 700 - only short by 60 acres at the moment ! Tatties by the tonne up here and everyone is an expert - or so they believe!!

[kirsty b]

Kirsty b yes you can but each year that you save seed you will get a lower yield so its best to bring in new seed every couple of years or so

Thanks for the reply Beefy. Thats cleared that up for me. I was thinking that maybe using the small spuds would help suppress weeds and break up ground as well as hopefully getting a few extra tatties.
I think I may be better off getting new seed potatoes each year because my allotment has not been cultivated for a good few years and as yet I don't know what nasties may be lurking in the soil.

Thanks, Kirsty

[Fezinio]

Having just watched GYO veg on BBC2 I was quite chuffed to see that she planted Red Duke of York as earlies.

I got some of these the other day and have neen chitting them in the conservatory.

Nice to see Carol Klien raving about them and they seemed to produce good yields. Can't wait now for my own results.

[nick the grief]

I used Swift last year for my earlies. I was a bit disappointed. I will try something else this year.

Rocket do well for us but they have a lot of tops so theyre sot the best for growing in tubs. Swift however, are quite short tops & seem to perform better so maybe you should get 6 & put in pots & try them Mazel.

[seasprout]

Still waiting for my Winston's to arrive, never ordered potato's through the post before so i am getting a bit nervous.

I hope to visit Rytons potato day an the end of the month and i am making notes for varieties to look out for for container growing. :-)

[lyndap]

A family nursery near us sells seed potatoes loose so you'pick your own' and pay for them by weight, which is great if you just want a few.I wont be buying mine for a few months yet though!

[Digger-07]

How much are you paying for your "seeds"? I have just bought some from the local nursery for £3.10 for a 3kg bag. Then I get 10% discount for the allotment association membership. I suppose there were about 20 different varieties.

[Hans Mum]

digger was that the place at swillington?
thanks

[Digger-07]

digger was that the place at swillington?
thanks

Yes, Swillington Nurseries.

[shirlthegirl43]

Popped to a local nursery today and bought six seed spuds each of Winston and Lady Christl along with a bunch of Duke of York (white). That will do for starters! If I get more of my bramble patch under control then I may try some others in the ground. Will have to order my Golden Wonders I think as they didn't have them at the nursery and I forgot to ask about them. Love the idea of buying just a few spuds of each type as you get to taste and compare yield. Yumm - tummy rumbling just at the thought of new spuds and butter!

[Birdie Wife]

Question for the people who've already bought their seed tatties - how many do you get to the kilo, roughly? Some suppliers sell by weight, some by number of spuds, would be useful to know how many you get to a kilo to make the price comparison easier.

[shirlthegirl43]

I bought 26 spuds and they worked at to around 2 kilos. The spuds averaged bantam/small egg size I would say. Hope that helps

[pigletwillie]

I popped int omy very local nursery today and bought foremost and lady crystl earlies as I am not bothering with maincrop any more .The owner said it was a 10 trend that people were growing maincrop spuds less and less.

Ten years ago he sold 3 ton of maincrop seed potato per season and now sells less than 1/2 a ton of them.

[shirlthegirl43]

After reading your post there Piglet, I realise there weren't any maincrop spuds on offer where I went either. Didn't think to ask about it as I wasn't planning much in that line anyway - I think Golden Wonder are maincrop (learner aren't I) but if I decide to try some I will get them online.