Potato growing?

[dandysmom]

I want to try potatoes this year. However, all the catalogues only sell them by the pound, and as I only have room for three plants, it would be an impractical waste to buy them. I remember my grandma used to grow potatoes by taking older ones that had been in the root cellar over Winter that had sprouted eyes. She'd cut them so each piece had an eye, let them callous over ad then plant them. I'm going to try that and see what happens. I let one potato sit till it's making eyes, so will try. If it works, fine, if not, I've only wasted one potato and my time.

But, has anyone ever heard of this method of propagation, or tried it?

[angieh]

I've certainly heard of people planting sprouting spuds, although I do remember some comments about whether they would have been sprayed with anything or not. I've not heard about cutting them up though. I have an old gardening book which used to belong to OH's father - I'll have a look and get back to you.

[alexgirl73]

I just got a small bag of seed potatoes from the local pound shop lol. And they are sitting on my windowsill 'chitting' as we speak (no idea what to do next, but I'll get there :lol:)

[dandysmom]

I've certainly heard of people planting sprouting spuds, although I do remember some comments about whether they would have been sprayed with anything or not. I've not heard about cutting them up though. I have an old gardening book which used to belong to OH's father - I'll have a look and get back to you.

The potatoes come from Whole Foods and are organic, so assume they're safe....good tip though, never thought of that! As far as I know, they didn't use pesticides back in my grandma's time; I remember picking tomato worms into a jar of kerosene!! :-D Oh, and thanks!

[angieh]

I've had a brief look tonight. It seems there were a lot of regulations about potatoes when the book was written that were concerned with the control of potato wart disease. Seed potatoes were meant to be issued with a certificate to prove where they came from and that they were disease free. There's pages of this stuff! As to the size of the seed potato, it was recommended that they should be the size of a hen's egg in order to guarantee a decent crop size - so I would presume that cutting up a potato and growing on from the piece would reduce yield size. If you are container growing, this wouldn't seem to be a problem.

Sorry if I have meandered here, it was quite interesting to see the face of rigorous bureaucracy regarding the potato. But I suppose if you think of the Irish Potato Famine, you can see the reasons, even though that was a different disease.

[farthing]

I used to work in Aberdeen uni , and one of my jobs was potato micrpropagation. That was where we took an eye and grew it in sterile conditions into a plantlet, from there 100's could be produced- in one season 17,000 tubers could be produced from 1 potato, if I remember rightly!
If you cut a potato in half it should supply enough energy to grow proper sized tatties at the end of the season.
I think the regulations cover the production of seed potatoes and that is mainly for viruses- if you have a potato with a brown ring on the edge of the flesh, it is caused by a virus.

[dandysmom]

Thanks, Angie and Farthing for that info. Yes, I'll be container growing; will watch for a brown ring when cut my one potato!! I suppose this sounds utterly ridiculous to anyone with space enough to grow rows of potatoes, but hey, I'll have fun with my three plants!

If it hadn't been for the Irish potato famine, I probably wouldn't be here in the States ...Mom's ancestors came over here from County Mayo because of it.

[dinahsmum]

Here I am, late on the scene again, but I can only agree with what has been said before. All potatoes sold as seed potatoes over here are Scottish grown and certified Disease Free. However, there's nothing to stop a small scale private grower from using any old spuds as seed. Organic sound good, as long as they look healthy. You can cut large ones in two, as long as there is an eye on each piece.
I still chit (or chimp - I think that's regional) mine, though I think 'studies have shown' that it actually makes little or no difference to your time of cropping or final yield - maybe it's a yearning for Spring that makes us stand our potatoes in egg boxes in February?

Leeks
Eileen - you were musing about growing leeks. I had a little brainwave yesterday, as I was pulling a few to go with the Sunday sirloin. How about if you go to the hardware store and get some plastic piping (the size you have at the side of your house, draining down from the gutters). Cut it into varying lengths, from maybe 8" minimum to say 15 or 16" (or more if you want), spray paint them if you fancy, or put bands of different coloured waterproof tape round to decorate, and stand them up, like organ pipes, wherever you fancy. Fill them will soil and you have the perfect environment for leeks. You will probably have to tie a rope round the lot, or find some other way to stop them toppling. You start by sowing the seeds, let them grow up to drinking straw size, then 'dib' a deep hole, drop one baby leek per hole, water them in (no firming the soil) et Voila! Very easy.

[dandysmom]

Many thanks, DM! My one potato has two eyes, one on each end, so will cut in half and let callous, then plant. Do you cover it completely, or let the eye part be in the air? I'm not familiar with the terms chip or chimp. would you explain, please? I know these are rather silly questions, but you'll never learn if you don't ask!

Re the leeks...that's interesting, the hardware store is just down the block from Whole Foods (which carries leek seeds!). Will give that a think, I do like leeks.

[dinahsmum]

Chit is just standing the spuds upright in the light/cool and letting the eyes start to develop.
I plant with the shoots well under the surface - maybe a couple of inches, and then continue to earth up around as the shoots grow. So you firstly start them in the bottom of a trench, like V, where the potato is at the bottom, but over time you reverse the profile by drawing soil up the sides and you get N, where the stem is growing through the apex.
Remember any exposed shoot is frost sensitive, so best keep them snug and under a soil blanket for a while yet.

[dandysmom]

I had planned on starting them indoors in a huge pot with good soil that my fuchsia had been in. Sadly, it didn't overwinter and there's that perfectly good pot just sitting there....

Or, is that a bad idea?

[dinahsmum]

No - they'll love that.
They'll need more light later, but whilst they're subterranean they'll be nice and cosy and will get off to a good start.

Mmm, start imagining them boiled with a pat of butter melting and a few bits of chopped parsley .....

[dandysmom]

They'll be in the back room (the one Alex called the jungle room!). South and West exposure and loads of sunshine. I'm getting excited now. Average last frost date in the City is April 1st. Yes, am salivating at the thought of little new potatoes...