Flowering is exciting no matter how many years you have been growing

Most of my varieties are starting to flower now, though some that were almost completely thrashed by RLEM have still not recovered and are still just stems with a couple of leaves on top. This never gets old. I am getting excited about my first harvest this season.

 Most of my potatoes are early ones so I will be able to harvest four weeks after they start flowering, not long to go now.

There are a few late ones, like 'Number 13' that has a long dormancy period and is hard to snap out of it that is going to be very late compared to the others. It is worth waiting for though.







Remember my crowded grow bags? They are really filling up now. I will have to water in some fertiliser tomorrow if I am to have any hope of even small tubers. It won't be long before some start putting up flower buds.
This pic was taken a week ago and the plants are powering away.

A few of the bags didn't have tubers that survived the winter so that saves me from selecting them out for being hard to store. I'm not unhappy about that, lol.

Why you should buy your seed potatoes each year

When you grow potatoes it is really tempting to either save some of your crop for replanting, or to just get some cheap spuds from the supermarket to start your crop in spring. Sure, you can do that, but, there is a really good reason why you shouldn't.

DISEASE

It isn't a ruse by nurseries and potato industry to make you buy new seed spuds every year for their own pockets. Potatoes are really prone to a number of really bad diseases, most of which stay in the soil for years and also infest tomatoes. If you get one of these diseases you may not be able to plant solanaceous crops for years, and you risk these diseases spreading to your neighbours who will not appreciate it if they are avid vegetable growers.

If serious potato diseases start spreading via home gardeners there may come a time where the government will step in to ban growing spuds at your home. The potato industry is big business and they have a lot of clout, and will move to protect their industry if they need to.

Supermarket potatoes are allowed to have a much higher build up of disease than certified seed potatoes and since you won't know where they come from planting them is a lottery.

Is it really worth the risk to save a few dollars?

If you think it is worth the risk there are a number of things you can do to protect your vegetable garden. Doing at least one of these tips and constantly checking for disease will help a lot:

* Only replant the largest tubers of your crop -this helps you to see if there is becoming a buildup of viral disease in your potatoes. If you grow the same varieties and in the same way each year and you find that the tubers are getting smaller every year then that is a sign that they are infected with a virus. Keeping the largest helps you see any difference.
* Move your potato crop every year and don't plant in the same spot for at least 3 years. This helps to keep any disease load down
* Plant your potatoes in pots with fresh potting mix each year.
* Don't share potato tubers (for growing) between your neighbours or friends

Keep in mind that there are a couple of diseases that you may find that are unrelated to tubers. Things like scab and hollow heart. Scab is a disease that is naturally found in most soils but in certain conditions, like having alkaline soil it can build up in number to affect your potatoes. It is not dangerous to eat, just doesn't look great. Hollow heart is also related to growing and soil conditions, like alkaline soil and hot weather.
Some varieties are resistant to both of these problems.

Garden Larder potatoes

If you want to buy my new varieties there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Being an independent breeder I am locked out of the certified seed program because it is privatised, but I do get my soil tested for potato diseases each year. My tubers are clean of disease but you should still let me know if you suspect any disease on tubers you have purchased off me.

Because my varieties can't be inspected like certified ones, I have to be very vigilant and keep my biosecurity procedures in place, and that means that I can't show people around my potato patches, sorry.

One last thing, there are videos on Youtube with gardeners comparing their crops of certified vs their own kept seed potatoes. Nearly always they have gotten a noticably bigger crop with the certified seed. This is because of virus build up that you can't see until you measure the harvests. This alone might make it worth buying new seed tubers each year.