Certified seed potatoes vs saved spuds

[happydog]

How important is it to start with certified seed for the backyard grower? On the one hand it would sure be nice to plant the spuds I grew last year and save on seed costs. On the other hand, I don't want to inadvertently spread disease and contaminate my garden.

Last year I tried a half dozen new varieties. My favorite was Yellow Finn. This year I can either order new Yellow Finn seed potatoes, or I can hold back 5# of them from the root cellar. What do you think?

[Tom Wagner]

How important is it to start with certified seed for the backyard grower?

I would say it is rather important. That means that the certified potato is less apt to have one or more virus problems that usually increase each year...regardless of your isolation. Certified potatoes may be reasonably free of disease but often are allowed a small percent that may have an less debilitating virus. Likely the allowance for ring rot is zero. The store bought certified tubers should be a their peak of physiological maturity and should grow a bit better than weakened tubers of your own that may have been sprouting and shriveling for some time in your home storage area.

On the one hand it would sure be nice to plant the spuds I grew last year and save on seed costs.

I do it all the time to save costs...but then again I grow hundreds and hundreds of potato varieties and my own creations cannot be obtained but from my personal collection.

On the other hand, I don't want to inadvertently spread disease and contaminate my garden.

Growing your own potatoes is a risk for spreading disease but the major thing you may be increasing is scab, rhizoc, scurf, things like that.

Last year I tried a half dozen new varieties. My favorite was Yellow Finn. This year I can either order new Yellow Finn seed potatoes, or I can hold back 5# of them from the root cellar. What do you think?

Since it sounds like you are not wishing to grow any variety except Yellow Finn, why not buy a few pounds of new spuds and plant them next to your saved tubers. That way you can report back to us and tell us what you think. What I think is of less importance compared to your thoughts. I want to know your opinion after harvest.

[happydog]

[QUOTE=Tom Wagner;387125] the major thing you may be increasing is scab, rhizoc, scurf, things like that. QUOTE]


Yikes! That's the answer I need, right there. I just don't want to take that chance. I don't need to save 10 bucks that bad, lol.

Thank you Tom.

[Doug9345]

The trouble I have with certified seed potatoes is that it's so expensive in terms of the amount of potatoes I can get out of it that I might just as well just buy the potatoes already grown.

[peebee]

This thread got me to wondering if my compost could now be harboring potential diseases as potatoes are growing in it right now, and they are apparently from potato peels I've thrown in there. Please say it ain't so, and that I'm being paranoid . I know nothing about growing potatoes and was just starting to get interested...

[joseph]

I'd plant the potatoes that you have. If they grow great then don't worry about it. If they grow poorly then plant something else next year. Or plant some of both and compare how they do.

I have instituted a potato quarantine on my garden. I don't buy certified potatoes because I don't trust that certification programs are properly conducted. I figure that I'm more likely to have problems by importing potatoes than by growing the same clones that have done well for me in the past.

[linzelu100]

What did people do before they could buy new spuds every year? How were they self-sufficient? I have never grown potatoes before so I have no experience. It just shocks me that growing them year after year from your own stock would spread disease. Mr. Wagner, I know you have a lot of experience with this kind of growing and porbably very knowledgable about the history of it- what did people do before? Didn't they have good potato yields from year to year?

[happydog]

I just reread the section in The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, that talks about saving your own potatoes for seed. She outlines a rigorous approach to culling any diseased plants, marking the healthiest plants, and only saving certain potatoes from those plants. I sure wish I had done that. But I didn't. I just harvested all the potatoes and stuffed them in the root cellar. So those potatoes might very well be healthy and virus free. On the other hand they could just as easily be harboring disease that I might then spread through my garden. In the end, I just didn't want to take the chance just to save a few dollars. But NEXT year...

[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by happydog

I just reread the section in The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, that talks about saving your own potatoes for seed. She outlines a rigorous approach to culling any diseased plants, marking the healthiest plants, and only saving certain potatoes from those plants. I sure wish I had done that. But I didn't. I just harvested all the potatoes and stuffed them in the root cellar. So those potatoes might very well be healthy and virus free. On the other hand they could just as easily be harboring disease that I might then spread through my garden. In the end, I just didn't want to take the chance just to save a few dollars. But NEXT year...

Oh I have that book, I will have to take a quick reread.

[Doug9345]

It looks like growers averaged from about a quarter to half as many pounds of potatoes in the 1910's as they do today. I'm sure disease wasn't the only factor.

[linzelu100]

Oh really? Interesting. What were the other factors?

[Heirloom gard]

Land space shrunk in the farm, people moved into urban areas. Few people today have the space to grow patato's on a large scale.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by linzelu100

Oh really? Interesting. What were the other factors?

Fertilizer, different varieties, changes in farming knowledge, pesticides, fungicides. I sure I'm leaving out some.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by Heirloom gard

Land space shrunk in the farm, people moved into urban areas. Few people today have the space to grow patato's on a large scale.

Yes land use for potatoes shrunk from 3,000,000 acres to 1,000,000 acres, but production when up from 9,000,000 pounds to 19,000,000 pounds which is a 6 fold increase in pounds per acre.

[Randywest]

My comment is a little old on this thread but what the heck. Earlier in the thread someone mentioned Carol Deppe's book, The Resilient Gardner. She has a chapter just for potatoes and devotes a good bit of attention to diseases like Late Blight. I highly recommend the book.