Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Folks,

a little late probably but I'm after some seed potatoes and was wondering if anybody knew of a supplier?

H.

I agree - too late, unless you live in a cold climate.

Diggers always seel them when in season as do Greenharvest and no doubt heaps of other places. I used to just get mine from the local produce shop - which normally got a sack or 2 each year. Stopped growing them when I let my dirt garden go with the heavy water restrictions. Will definitely grow them again next year though (now I have my rain tank in). Gowing them in straw prepares the most fantastic garden beds for a nitrogen loving summer crop :-).

You will have difficulties getting them at this time of year because places normally just sell them in season (ie Diggers, Greenharvest etc).

Having said that - I noticed the other day that Kmart were stocking 1kg boxes of seed potatoes for a couple of varieties. Typical Kmart - stock them out of season and then wonder why they are not a succesful line

Thanks VB,

The adelaide hills are indeed cold, the soild temps are just starting to come good where I am. Thanks for the Kmart tip, I'll check them out tomorrow.

H.

Hi himzol, I have had potatoes in the ground fom last season. They came up until the frost hit them during August. But I found that they came up again when the weather warms up. (The same thing happens to horseradish).
As suggested before - try plant nurseries. If you can't get any - use ordinary potatoes - you can cut them into halves or quarters as long as they have an eye on them. A little blood&bone or superphosphate on them works wonders
heka

Thanks Heka,

Same thing happens at my dads place, doesn't quite get them all out and gets another crop. This will be the first time we've planted potatoes here so I have to start from scratch. Yes I was going to just get spuds from a farmers market and put them in the ground if I couldn't get the seed potatoes.

H.

Just used to plant any spuds that were growing by themselves. Seems to work ok

i used to grow potatoes just by burying the skins from my peelings. they are seriously tough plants, as long as you have rich soil they don't even need the spud itself the skin will do.

That is 1 of the reasons I don't plant potatoes in the ground, I make just make a cylinder with chicken wire about a metre in diameter put some good compost in the base, plant the potatoes, a good covering with straw to keep the light out then as they grow up just keep covering them with more straw, when ready to havest open the chicken wire. Growing them in dirt is a pain and doesn't yield anywhere the same quantity in the same given space.

Cheers
Ron

[quote="Rons_Place]
That is 1 of the reasons I don't plant potatoes in the ground, I make just make a cylinder with chicken wire about a metre in diameter put some good compost in the base, plant the potatoes, a good covering with straw to keep the light out then as they grow up just keep covering them with more straw, when ready to havest open the chicken wire. Growing them in dirt is a pain and doesn't yield anywhere the same quantity in the same given space.

Cheers
Ron[/quote]

Hi Ron,
I thought about this but decided that I wanted other root vegetables as well, so decided to put together a new dirt garden grow bed just for this purpose. So in will go potatoes, parsnips, carrots and maybe some beets. It also provides me with an extra grow bed for rotation.
As for space, it's not an issue as I have over an acre to play with,well 2/3 of it any way, as the other third is being left as native vegetation for the koalas, roos and other various mouths that think I'm their personal gardener.

For those who may not be aware - the idea of buying certified seed potatoes is that they should - I repeat should - be free from the quite common potatoe diseases such as leaf wilt (or curl or whatever they call it) and other nastier ones. Once these are in your soil you are buggered for years, hence the desire of many to buy disease free stock. Having said that, I've had disease problems in the past from supposedly certified stock .

I thought I would mention it as you can greatly increase the yield of spuds by building on top as potato plants grow.
Parsnips carrots Beets onions radishes etc. have a different growing habit so I would still make a bed for those plants but would still grow potatoes seperately.

Regards
Ron

Thanks Ron,

I haven't given up on the idea as yet, and I do like the conveniance of it (less digging) I think the final decision will come down to how much space I need for the other root vegetables that I want to plant.

The new dirt bed is made, just needs some clean fill and organic matter, some cow poo and some well composted chook poo. So hopefully by the end of this weekend I should have some seeds/seedlings in the ground.

Then I have to make up some stands for some more grow beds for the AP system.....hmmmm sicky on Monday.

H.

H.

Google the lost seed seed company they are offering seed spuds from jul to nov

Thanks for the heads up F&F.