Potato Patch

[karstopography]

Planted 12 golf ball sized sprouting red potatoes from the May harvest today. First time to try fall potatoes. First time to use my own harvested potatoes for seed.

[karstopography]

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First potatoes poking through.

[JRinPA]

So May harvest to Aug31, 3+ months, and they were ready to sprout. Did you cold prep them or anything?

[karstopography]

So May harvest to Aug31, 3+ months, and they were ready to sprout. Did you cold prep them or anything?

I didn’t do anything other than harvest, brush off the dirt a little, and put them in a cupboard. I was not planning on planting any fall potatoes. We had talked about making potatoes for dinner and I went to the cupboard and saw that the remaining potatoes had sprouted. These are either Lasoda or Pontiac.

[GoDawgs]

This will be a fun experiment. When is your first frost?

I guess you'll get some rain from Francine as she passes by but it looks like she'll mostly miss you guys.

[karstopography]

This will be a fun experiment. When is your first frost?

I guess you'll get some rain from Francine as she passes by but it looks like she'll mostly miss you guys.

Barely got anything from Francine. No wind and maybe 1/4” rain added up.

First frost date is depending on which site is consulted.
Frost by Mid December is 30/70 chance against. 3 out of 10 years. By end of December more like 90/10 in favor

I’m in the forest here and we get a few degrees of insulation that delays first frost date.

December 1st is 90 days post planting. I should have some potatoes by then. 105 days would be even better.

[karstopography]

I did get some potatoes from the fall planting. They were good, but I would not call them especially abundant. This was all back in November. Definitely plan on doing the fall experiment again. Definitely wasn’t a bust. I guess I didn’t take any photos. We are all them up in a couple of sittings.

Today, though, I picked up my seed potatoes for 2025. Purple Majesty, Red Norland, and Kennebec. 3 pounds of each at Tractor Supply. Doubt I’ll plant all 9 pounds. Daughter said she’s going to take any leftovers.

[bower]

I am a fan of Norland. They do well here, and also keep well. Just remembering how sweet they were after a winter in storage.

Potatoes in the stores here have been awful this year. Really hard to find a decent spud. It's made me want really badly to grow my own, and looking around for seed potatoes which do tend to sell out early.

[Seven Bends]

Today, though, I picked up my seed potatoes for 2025. Purple Majesty, Red Norland, and Kennebec. 3 pounds of each at Tractor Supply. Doubt I’ll plant all 9 pounds. Daughter said she’s going to take any leftovers.

How do they sell them at Tractor Supply -- maybe in 3-lb bags? Or can you pick them out of bins by the pound, or are they in that fancy, pretty packaging where you just get a few small seed potatoes for $5-9?

We've been getting our seed potatoes by the pound for decades from the nearest Southern States Co-op, but they finally went out of business last year after a long, slow, sad decline. It's actually Tractor Supply that was the final death blow to them, on top of the shift to online shopping. I think that particular Southern States had been just barely able to hang on by selling large, heavy bags of stuff that's not easy to buy online, but then Tractor Supply opened on the other side of town and undercut them, so it was lights out.

There's no place left anywhere near here to get seed potatoes by the pound, as far as I know.

[karstopography]

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@Seven Bends I normally get my seed potatoes at Reifels feedstore. Reifels did or does let one pick out the potatoes they want, as little or as many as desired, and they are less expensive there than Tractor Supply. Reifels tends to get seed potatoes later than I want and they lately seem to be pivoting away from some of their garden supplies.

Anyway, I got the seed potatoes at Tractor supply. Looks like two are 4 pound bags each, Kennebec and Red Norland, and the Purple Majesty is in a 3 pound bag. All $7.99/bag. Didn’t ask if the bags could be dug into or broken up into smaller amounts, but I assumed that wasn’t allowed.

Tractor supply here also had Silverton (Russet) and Yukon Gold. I don’t remember seeing any other varieties, but the bins were chock full. They must have just gotten the potatoes in.

[karstopography]

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Purple Majesty on the left, Red Norland on the right.

These are about ready to plant, which is great as our recommended dates are 01/15 to 02/15.

[Seven Bends]

@Seven Bends
Anyway, I got the seed potatoes at Tractor supply. Looks like two are 4 pound bags each, Kennebec and Red Norland, and the Purple Majesty is in a 3 pound bag. All $7.99/bag. Didn’t ask if the bags could be dug into or broken up into smaller amounts, but I assumed that wasn’t allowed.

@karstopography Thanks, good to know. Those look like they'll be good. Southern States sold their most popular seed potatoes by the pound, dumped out into garbage cans and bushel baskets from 50-lb bags. Kennebec, Red Norland and Pontiac were I think 79 cents a pound last year, and Yukon Gold was probably 89 cents. I liked being able to pick them out by hand. But if I can get 4-lb bags of Kennebec and Norland for $7.99 each from Tractor Supply this year, I'll be okay with that, even if it is more than twice as expensive. It would still be cheaper than ordering online or buying the little boutique packages our garden center carries.

A few years ago when Southern States couldn't get seed potatoes for some reason (might have been 2020 or 2021 with Covid-related supply issues) I got decent Kennebec and Norland seed potatoes in mesh bags from Walmart at a low price, and they did fine in the garden.

[GoDawgs]

Thanks for the reminder! I get mine at the local feed & seed and a week ago they said they'd probably get theirs in around the end of them month. I need to call them tomorrow and see. They sell them loose so I can pick out the ones I want which are the small ones so I can plant them whole. Only 11 are needed for one row and that usually costs about $1.50 or so. There have been two rows planted each year but this year just one will do. The potatoes will take about four weeks to chit up so they'll get planted around the end of February.

The feed & seed sells them loose; Yukon Gold, Kennebec and either Red Norland or Pontiac. I usually get 11 each of Yukon and whichever red they have but this year it will be just Yukons.

[karstopography]

The loose ones in bins are the best deal by a long shot, that is only if they get to the feedstore in time. Most of the online seed potato vendors appear to be more expensive than tractor supply and way more expensive than the feedstores. These online vendors are by and large useless to me anyway since they won’t even ship seed potatoes until far too late for the right timing here.

Tractor supply won on timing. Their seed potatoes were already out of domancy. Generally, the ones the feedstore gets are still dormant when they first get the order in, whenever the heck that is. I called them.

Me, “y’all got any seed potatoes yet?” Them, “They’ll be coming at the end of the month”, click.

So I have to wake their potatoes up since theirs will likely arrive dormant. Meanwhile, the clock ticks. I’m lucky to get to plant underdeveloped chits by the end of our planting window.

If I order online, I would likely pay way too much for seed potatoes that arrive 3 or more weeks too late. No thanks. The only upside to the online option is I can get the more obscure, gourmet (German Butterball) or not locally available types. But, what good are those specialty potatoes if they ship after the planting window?

If I wait until the feedstore gets them, I get the best deal based on money alone, but the deal gets less and less sweet the longer it takes for their potatoes to arrive. They at the feedstore don’t seem to give a spud these days about getting stuff in in a timely manner. I know the owners well enough, but I decided I didn’t want to be yet another customer barking in their ear about something not so big in the scheme of things. Get your potatoes in when you like or when your supplier wants to give them to you.

[rxkeith]

feed store here is the least expensive option here.
they get 50 lb bags of seed potatoes, you pick as many
as you want. variety is limited how ever. dean doesn't get
any fancy or gourmet varieties. reds are either norlund, pontiac
or lasoda. usually a yukon gold or similar, a russet, and a couple of
whites like superior, kennebec, or something else. they are all good
potatoes, you just aren't going to get any purples, bi colors or fingerlings
from him. sometimes you can get different varieties from local sources
like farmers markets or upper scale grocery stores. you take a chance on
the potatoes not being certified disease free. i have been able to plant
some of my own potatoes the past few years with good results. these are
varieties you aren't going to find at the feed store.


keith

[karstopography]

Planted six Purple majesty and eleven red Norland seed potatoes today. These were all hen egg sized whole potatoes that each had a couple of sprouts up to about an inch or so long. Our planting window is January 15th to February 15th. Might have been the first time I planted in January.

Planning on planting a similar number of potatoes in a week or two and get some of the Kennebec in the mix.

[karstopography]

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Got 20 more seed potatoes planted today.

Totals for both beds are
Fifteen Red Norland
Twelve Kennebec
Ten Purple Majesty
Thirty Seven total
17 in one 4 x 8’ bed
20 in a 5 x 9’ section.

Have around 25-30 seed potatoes left over. Daughter will take those.