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nancyjane_gardener

No one has seed taters!

I ended up buying some organic white potatoes and plan on letting them grow antlers and plant.

Everywhere I checked were out of them!

I have grown accidental potatoes in the past from just stuff in the compost, but I'm no longer composting household food because we live in town now and there are rats. We had rats out in the country, but we also had hawks, owls and other guys who took care of our rat troubles!

I'm hoping "organic" will mean they haven't been treated with anything to prevent antlers from growing? I tried "organic" sweet potatoes or yams to try to grow vines up my kitchen window and they were a bust!

Comments (5)

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    One of the local shops has them out by me. I don't often stop there, but on a whim while driving by last week I dropped in to see if anything had changed.

    They didn't have a lot of seed potato out, but they did have a few kinds. Some of the usual onion sets, loose and bagged. And I was surprised to see they had shallots this year.

    Meijer also has their stands out of spring stuff. I have no idea about the quality since I've never used them, but they have some.

    I bet your taters will sprout. Heck, I've had non-organic ones go to sprout often enough, lol.

  • 4 years ago

    It seems a little late to be planting taters in the bay area. I plant mine about 3 weeks before the average last frost date.

  • 4 years ago

    There is no guarantee the organic potatoes will sprout. Even Organic potatoes can be treated with essential oils from herbs like peppermint, clove oil and even hydrogen peroxide. All are approved for organic production to inhibit sprouting but you have a better chance than you would with regular store bought potatoes.

    But you are right concerning seed potato issues. Maine has shipped 21 million pounds of seed to Washington state this year, first time in 40 years. Because of the drought last year the western states who grow seed had problems so growers are taping supplies in the east they normally don't use. Also the Russian/Ukrainian war has caused a problem getting seed in Europe and the Mideast so some have turned to the United states for seed they usually get from Russia and Ukraine.

    I'm going to pick up some seed potatoes this morning from a local feed store but the owner told me yesterday his supply is limited because fewer home gardeners plant potatoes these days so he orders fewer. He gets his seed from a small grower in northern Minnesota but we had drought problems last year also.

  • 4 years ago

    LoneJack in the past, when I lived out in the country, we had volunteer taters from compost. I never really paid attention about when they were planted.

    We are in town now, with a small yard and only 3 beds (as opposed to about 7 before), so we are going to try taters in bags.

    Planting guides for the area were for maybe a couple of weeks ago, but it is what it is! We shall see!

  • 4 years ago

    If they sprout in the cupboard, they'll grow in the ground. I planted a few pieces of a grocery store Dutch yellow that sprouted in my kitchen and it didn't take long for them to put out leaves after I planted then.