Seed Potato's or supermarket

A question about : Seed Potato's or supermarket

Seed potatoes are very expensive. Last year I grew 4 chitted supermarket potatoes & got 4 buckets worth, this year I want to do the lot (20+ plants) with Supermarket brought potatoes. Any reason why not?

Best answers:

• Supermarket potatoes are not specifically bred to be disease free for replanting.
  Ive done both also. But i did really well with seed potatoes last year.
• There are seed potatoes specifically for growing in morrisons now, think it was five or ten potatoes for Ј2 or so
• Try to find a Potato Day locally.
  Proper seed potatoes are often offered at 10-15p per tuber; you get a lot of choice and can buy exactly as many as you want. 3 earlies, salads and mains are more use than 10 earlies as a rule.
• One of the benefits of buying seed potatoes at the local garden centre is that you can grow varieties that you will never find in shops.
  A good example is an old variety called Pink Fir Apple, a peculuiar odd shaped potato that looks a bit like root ginger. It has a lovely nutty taste, can be used as a salad potato, for chips, or roasted, and it keeps through the Winter to April.
  There are many other distinctive varieties. If you take a pleasure from growing your own why penny pinch by using supermarket potatoes when you could be getting a better crop and growing something more interesting?
• if you have one join your local horticultural society.
  Mine is Ј4 per annum.
  There you should be able to buy loose by weight spud seed tubers, onion sets, broad bean seeds, runner bean seeds, fertiliser, bean sticks, et al.
  Well worth it.
  And the volunteers will have a wealth of knowledge to boot.
• Morrisons are doing 10x Maris Piper seed potatoes for Ј1. Mine are currently chitting on the window sill!
• I had some from the 99p shop last year.. They were good all round for chipping, mashing, roasting etc.. But i have forgot what they were...
  Damn... They made the best chips i have had for years... Lovely and crispy yummy..
  Any clues???
• I got 8 Pentland Javelin seed potatoes in Poundland for (you'll never guess what!) a pound. They look really good quality too.
  I then went to Waitrose where they had 6 seed potatoes endorsed by Alan Titchmarch for Ј2.50
  Needless to say I didn't buy them. I will go to the garden centre though and get some pink fir apple seed potatoes too because they are lovely.
• I only grow a few pots/bags of potatoes, and the seed potatoes from poundland or other cheap shops have always been fine. No more than Ј1 for 8-10 seed potatoes, which did 3 pots worth and we get a few meals from each. If you are growing on a larger scale then it may be worth checking out gardening co-ops if you have any near you?
• Not all seed potatoes are virus free either. You need to buy a grade called Basic Class A. Those labeled as CC or certified still have a 5% chance of potato specific viruses.
  Still unsure. Buy Scottish seed potatoes, labeled as Safe Haven certified.
  Of course, their is no reason why you can't use chitted supermarket spuds if growing in bags. If you have a problem just send the soil to landfill, but I wouldn't recommend doing this if you are planting in the ground, or live in a safe haven area.