Sources for seed potatoes.

I planted potatoes for the first time last season and wasn't that happy with the crop. However, what I did harvest was delicious so I'm planning on growing them again. Last year I ordered them from Ronnigers and was happy with their service however I would like to check out other sources.
Any suggestions?

kiwiken
Westchester County
New York

I bought several varieties from Seed Savers. They have excellent quality seeds. Do you plant in the ground or on top?

kiwiken, gee you're close by too.. suddenly all the NY metropolitan people are popping up all over the place.. :)

Check out Sev's new RR (she's across the river in NJ). Think she's got seed potatoes in her RR.. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/794878/

I plant in the ground and have raised beds about 12 inches deep. I was suprised by how large the plants were above ground. I wondered if a lot of the growth went into the foliage instead of the spuds. Some of the plants were close to 3ft tall.

kiwiken

I have an article pending on growing them on top of the ground. Great, clean yields and so much easier on the back.

Could you explain ...growing on the top. I was about to make hills and plant potatoes for the first time. Is there a better way do you think?

I guarantee, planting on the ground gives you a bigger yield, and is much easier on the back. You do need to gather bags of leaves the number depending on the amount of taters you're planting. Those are going to be your "hills". Oak leaves are terrific, since potato beetles are repelled by them, but any kind of leaf will do.

You mean...you just make the hills with leaves...not dirt? Heck, Ive got the plot piled with leaves as we speak, I was going to till them in. Please tell me its as easy as raking those pups in a pile and planting.

You're serious doccat?? I don't need anything more than the right sized pile of (preferably Oak) leaves to grow taters? I was considering making some raised beds in between our driveway and neighbor's back fence (we have about a foot). Our subdivision was built in 1928, so the filler they used runs the gamut, including old clinker stuff from foundry furnaces. Dig about a foot down and you run into this stuff, so I figured a raised bed was the only way I could successfully grow taters. Let me know when and where your article runs!!!!!

I kid you not! You prepare the soil, lay the taters on top and as they bloom you "hill" with the leaves. It's easy and we've gotten excellent yields this way. Enough taters the neighbors were hiding from me, sorta like the zuccini thing. LOL I just resubmitted the article with some adjustments. I'm waiting for approval now.

Looking forward to it. That sounds so much easier....and it doesnt hurt that I have endless oak leaves. Best part is, sounds like the potatoes like it as well.

Love the sound of it.. Does the leaves have to go though the shredder/mulcher or can whole leave work too??

We were amazed. I especially like the idea I don't have to stoop. Things do want to go vertical as well as they use too, LOL. We have a major problem here with potato beetles. The oak leaves act as a repellant, so we had no insect damage at all. Both neighbors lost their whole crop to the pesky critters, they think we're nuts, but oh well, I'm the one with the taters.........grin.
And no, no shredding the leaves, just think of them as the "dirt" you would usually hill with. You do need to find something to help hold the leaves down at first, so they don't blow all over. Once the bed is established we had little trouble with that.
You follow the same criteria for planting potatoes except your using leaves instead of dirt. Water them regularly, now that is a sight, one us out there watering this huge pile of leaves............LOL Actually the last one we did 2 years ago was over 5 ft deep. Those taters went crazy!

This message was edited Dec 6, 2007 11:22 AM

Ditto on the leaf mulch tater growing. One of the best (and easiest) tater crops I grew was using leaves. (The City just brought me two dumptruck loads last week, too!)

What also makes it nice is that as the potatoes start coming on you can easily reach inside the leaves and harvest a few "new potatoes" without having to pull up the whole plant, thereby allowing the plant to produce more, or bigger, spuds.

Another plus was the fact that at the end of the season you can turn under those leaves, or leave them as is, and they really add good tilth and humus to your soil. The wormies will love it!

Shoe

And no oops with the tater fork either! LOL

Boy Howdy!! Tell me about it, doccat!

Shoe

It absolutely works. The tubers grow -above- the seed potatoes. I don't use leaves, tho - I use straw. And I lay down a few inches of compost first, because I want to put in the first potatoes before I can till.

btw, Fedco has a nice selection of seed potatoes - it's the section of their website called Moose Tubers, in case this isn't obvious.

You put in the potatoes and then till.

I put in the potatoes and then -trench-!

I don't understand what you mean. Btw thanks for the info on Fedco. Checked out their offerings. I found the website to be real difficult to use, but I intend to go back they have a couple varities I'd like to try.

Problem for me is that they don't ship potatoes until beginning April 1

LT - are you referring to the "old school" method of trenching? If so, doccat, here's a link to a nice article on it:
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/VegFruit/potatoes.htm Do you think trenching would work with oak leaves, or would the whole "trench" thing be sort of defeating the purpose and give us too much water with the leaves?

Thanks dryad. I wish I had been able to include this in my article. It's not something I ran across in my research, drat! It would of course work best of you, your in a colder zone..........well, duh, doccat.........LOL
Although you might be able to "fudge" a bit, if you covered your area with black plastic to draw the heat. I'm from NE originally so I can relate. As far as I'm concerned, any method that means I don't have to get down on my hands and knees is a real good thing. I just have a hard time getting vertical again, anymore.........grin

dryad, that straw sure looks like my potato patch, but I don't plant the pototoes in the trench, I trench around the patch, for drainage, so the potatoes won't get soggy and waterlogged.

My garden is unfortunately not as well-drained as a garden should be, which is what led me to the on-the-ground method.

Ah, I see. You got to work with what you have. But I imagine once your crop is in all that straw with compost nicely and help improve your drainage.

I've been working heaps of material into the garden since then, and the improvement in the soil is extreme. But it's still down there in the low place, so I have to work with that, with raised rows and trenches, etc.

First year I tried potatoes, I dug holes to plant them, and when nothing came up, I dug up one of the holes - to find it full of standing water with a rotten seed potato at the bottom. So we learn.

otoh, if I didn't have the low place, I wouldn't have a place for the garden at all.

doccat5,

How often do you water them? I tried last year to grow potatoes above ground, but I think I watered them too much. I made round things from chicken wire and stood them up. Then I put the seed potatoes on the ground and covered them with oak leaves. As they grew I kept putting more oak leaves on top. In the end, except for a few little, tiny potatoes, I didn't have any crop. I think they rotted from too much watering.

I'm going to try again next year. Would it be better not to have the chicken wire and just heap the leaves on top?

I've read about putting them in a tire and then adding tires in a stack as the potato vines grew. I'm thinking that maybe with this method the tires would need to be painted white or else in an area with afternoon shade, otherwise wouldn't the tires pick up too much heat and keep the potatoes too hot?

Karen

Can you pick a few of the potatoes when they are still small and leave the plants growing? I love little potatoes.

The on-the-ground method makes it easier to dig in the leaves or straw to get the little new potatoes.

You got it, some new baby potatoes and fresh green beans with a little onion..........talking some gooooood eatin! LOL

You forgot the bit of bacon and fresh ground pepper, yabba dabba dooo!

Yummmy!

Hello
I don't mean to go off topic, but i was wondering.
Has anyone grown King Henry ?
I found an article in ME News it sounded like a good spud. Not a GMO it said . From this site www.woodprairie.com they seemed to have a good selection on some spuds. they are organic cert too.
I will have to try that leaf growing plan. i have tons of oak leaves !!!
thanks
sue

I haven't tried that variety, taynors. Sorry. But I did order their potato patch special and some of their other root veggie seeds. I almost choked on the postage price, but the place has good kudos on the Garden Watchdog. I also have some Kennebecs coming from Johnny's Select Seeds.

Hey thanks doccat
i think it is a strain of the Prince Harry but pest resistant.
do you have a fav
this is my first time growing pots .
i will look into Johnys too
know when they say potato seed , its a small pot ready to sprout ? different from a fingerling ?
thanks
if i ask to many questions i apologize . i guess i should go into the begginers thread. :) lol
thanks again
sue

L Tilton, how tall does your straw pile get with the potatoes? I have a lot of composting straw left over from my first attempt at strawbale gardening this season as well as fresh straw for next year's strawbale gardening, and thought I would use some of it to grow potatoes. I also have plenty of oak leaves so could experiment using both methods.

I LOVE the idea that the oak leaves repel the potato bugs!! I hate spraying so this sounds like a great solution! I guess one could put oak leaves on the straw as well as regular beds to deter those bugs. Looking forward to reading your article, Doccat - sounds like a winning plan for my back as well!

Also concerning Fedco - I love their seeds and products but find their shipping schedules to be very restrictive. Ronnigers has always sold me great potatoes and has better shipping date choices. I've also gotten from Pinetree- smaller selection but good for a small garden.

Taynors, if you go to Ronningers.com you can see pictures of many of their different varieties. I know they are updating the site for the new orders - I just talked to Craig there two weeks ago and the prices for Garden Packs are supposed to be posted at the end of Dec. or call if necessary. The Garden Packs are the best deal from them - you save a lot. Fingerlings are a separate category because of their shape - delicious and great for potato salads but a little more expensive. Banana is a really easy and prolific fingerling if you are new to potato growing. I am partial to yellow potatoes especially German Butterball and Binje. Each variety I order is one pound - about 10 seed (ready to sprout) potatoes. If they send less they expect you to cut them into smaller ones to get the 10 plus potatoes. I cut the bigger ones trying to leave at least 2 eyes on each section. Then I let them sprout a bit before planting so I know the potato or piece is viable. I've had better luck that way. The most important thing to remember is don't let them sprout in the net bag they come in or you will go crazy cutting the bag off!!
Never apologize for asking "too many" questions. We all learn from each other! I never thought of growing potatoes on the ground so have learned something new on this great thread even though I have been growing potatoes for several years in the ground!!

This message was edited Dec 20, 2007 11:10 PM

Hey thanks Gardadore
good to know .
i love the german pots to.
any thing i should now on the soil regirments . beyond the usual composted soil.
I got me an old feild that needs my llama poop first then plant .
thanks again
sue

The straw got piled up to at least 1 1/2 feet, I think. I added to it as the potatoes grew, but the straw on the bottom got compacted some over the season.

I agree about Fedco's shipping schedule - the right time to plant in Maine isn't the right time to plant everywhere else.

There's no reason you can add layers of leaves with the straw.. My, my think of the composting possibilities when you're done........My tater article is scheduled for publication Jan 14. I am so pleased that people are going to be able to use this method. I got it from an old Mother Earth magazine many years ago, but it sure did the trick.

Taynors, I will wait for doccat to tell us how she prepares her soil. I'm not sure what she meant when she said she prepares the soil and then lays the potatoes on top. Does that mean tilling? My garden is covered for the winter with a layer of straw to keep the weeds down in the fall and spring. I do very little preparing or tilling in general - just plant through the mulch. But I have always either made trenches for the potatoes or just dug a hole and dropped the potato into it. It obviously depends on how many potatoes you plan to plant. Putting 10 in each section means I just make 10 holes, put some fertilizer in and set the potato in it, and cover with a couple of inches of soil. As it grows I add more soil and straw around it. The only thing I add to my soil is some rock phosphate, the Garden's Alive Root Crops Alive fertilizer (see Gardensalive.com), and then foliar spray with Fish emulsion and Kelp during the summer every few weeks.
However, I know I will try growing on top after I read Doccat's article. It sounds much easier and if it yields more, all the better! I'm for easier!! LOL!