what are seed potatoes.

[womble]

That's very interesting thanks.
I was thinking about asking what the percentages produced were.

[Snadger]

Well I understood what you said Tattieman - ....................

Crawler.......

[womble]

So taking this one step further....

If almost all of the seed potatoes we buy are Basic ones...

Presumably, if the plants and tubers look good and not diseased, then we should be able to save enough tubers to use as seed for the next year. Then buy new seed after that.

I do understand that your business is selling seed potatoes Tattieman, so this may be difficult for you to answer.

[tattieman]

Womble I would think it would be possible to do it for a year safely.
I sold thousands of minitubers this year so that people could re-plant them for potentially upto 9yrs as long as they are kept disease free.
As long as you know the quality of the seed is good and that the haulms are disease free then it should be ok.
When you need replacement stock I know someone who has some good seed

[womble]

Hate to disagree on this one Womble but re- reading the thread it ended up being a virus disease. I've copied the sentence from the OP.

The test results came back from Marshalls and has shown that the potatoes are suffering from leaf curl virus originating in India.

I was just about to plant 4 sprouted Rooster potatoes on my plot - but I won't now: they are going in the bin.

I am wondering what happens to potato peelings and such in the compost, if this virus stays in the soil for more than a year and spreads like wildfire via aphis.

Spoken to Emilymup.

Far be it for me to say too much about someone else's business.
But, I did remember it correctly, although she didn't say it on that thread, there has been some.....ummm "doubts" to the authenticity of the tests.
Contaminated manure is thought to be the reason for the problems.