Seed Potatoes for Sale- Are they Having a laugh?
Discussion
Few years ago I thought it's just a gag, but nowadays every DIY store and other such stores seem to stock small packs of seed potatoes.
I'm seriously confused, Do people really don't know they can take any regular potatoe they like from any store and plant it in ground?
3.99 for 1.5kg of pipers at homebase...
I'm seriously confused, Do people really don't know they can take any regular potatoe they like from any store and plant it in ground?
3.99 for 1.5kg of pipers at homebase...
kev1974 said:
No they're not having a laugh, the seed ones have been created/selected/managed/processed specifically to be blight and disease free ... you can't say that about ordinary supermarket ones.
(Semi) serious question (me not being green fingers an all, but I would have thought the industrial suppliers would want to keep their crops as disese/blight/other nasty free as much as possible, so why can't you say that about "ordinary supermarket" specimens?Looking forward to the answer, everyday is a school day and all that jazz.
extraT said:
(Semi) serious question (me not being green fingers an all, but I would have thought the industrial suppliers would want to keep their crops as disese/blight/other nasty free as much as possible, so why can't you say that about "ordinary supermarket" specimens?
Looking forward to the answer, everyday is a school day and all that jazz.
I used to work for the Department of Agriculture on exactly this. Before it's licenced for sale every variety of every vegetable has to be rigorously tested to ensure that the crop is identical to the seed and stays this way for at least 6 subsequent generations. ie They plant a seed, then plant the crop, then plant the crop from that and so on for 6 generations then test the final crop to ensure it's exactly the same as the original. Looking forward to the answer, everyday is a school day and all that jazz.
The whole selling of specifically produced 'seed' potatoes is just an extra 'belt and braces' guard against problems. Not necessary in my opinion.
When I was young and many people had less money than now, you didn't even waste good eating potatoes for seed, you simply peeled them with a knife a bit thicker than normal and planted the peel as next year's seed.
Seed potatoes get grown at higher altitude and normally latitude to help reduce disease pressure. I think I'm right in saying that they also have a longer crop rotation. Ware potatoes are normally grown in a 5 year rotation, which is plenty tight enough, but seed may be 10, which drastically reduces the amount of available land.
One of the main reasons for not planting ware potatoes is that they will have almost certainly have been treated with a sprout suppressant while in store and quite possible pre harvest to prevent sprouting, which is exactly what you don;t want if you intend planting them.
The disease thing is very real. With ware potatoes being planting on lowland farms, they are at huge risk from disease which costs fortunes in chemical to try to control. Growers will want to give their crop the best possible start and want disease free tubers to plant, which is almost impossible if you planted ware potatoes. We have had batches of seed Maris Bard for early chippers in that was grown in a wet year and we suffered terrible losses in the field with blackleg and once we (I) harvested them, they all broke down in the bag and went rotten.
Then after all this, most potato varieties will be still subject to royalties which need paying to the plant breeder when you plant their variety.
So no, they're not having a laugh. Just be thankful you aren't buying them by the artic load.
One of the main reasons for not planting ware potatoes is that they will have almost certainly have been treated with a sprout suppressant while in store and quite possible pre harvest to prevent sprouting, which is exactly what you don;t want if you intend planting them.
The disease thing is very real. With ware potatoes being planting on lowland farms, they are at huge risk from disease which costs fortunes in chemical to try to control. Growers will want to give their crop the best possible start and want disease free tubers to plant, which is almost impossible if you planted ware potatoes. We have had batches of seed Maris Bard for early chippers in that was grown in a wet year and we suffered terrible losses in the field with blackleg and once we (I) harvested them, they all broke down in the bag and went rotten.
Then after all this, most potato varieties will be still subject to royalties which need paying to the plant breeder when you plant their variety.
So no, they're not having a laugh. Just be thankful you aren't buying them by the artic load.
battered said:
Bear in mind that many seeds are F1 hybrids so they don't breed true.
F1 Hybrid potatoes are still very much in the experimental/development stages. Unless there have been huge leaps forward in the last few years, I don't think there are any commercially available yet.brrapp said:
battered said:
Bear in mind that many seeds are F1 hybrids so they don't breed true.
F1 Hybrid potatoes are still very much in the experimental/development stages. Unless there have been huge leaps forward in the last few years, I don't think there are any commercially available yet.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff