So I couldn't get as many seed potatoes as I wanted, but when I get what I got big enough, is there any reason I can't just dig them up and replant them?

It doesn't frost till October and I'm thinking I could get a winter's worth if I bury them deep.

Any thoughts?

Heck Pops I am 300 or so miles north from your local and we have not had a killing frost before mid November is some time. I know north is not the only factor, but it sure is a big one Provided you are not planning to live on Potato's (just in case something goes wrong) I think you would be able to succeed quite well replanting for a second crop, the sooner the better of course.

I'm away from the farmstead right now, but as I recall, the fingerling pots I planted this year were supposed to mature in something like 55 days. I would think that would give you plenty of time. Does anyone know if seed pots need to be cold treated? You might want to put some in the fridge for a week or so.

You also might want to search for some varieties bred for cold and altitude. Seems I remember the Incas used to grow them on mountainsides.

I think you would be better off letting them go through their full life cycle where they are, giving them excellent care and take what you get. Well fertilized hoed up, weeded and bug dusted you may get better then a 20 to 1 yield and if you mess with things and get a drought in the late summer you might not get your seed back. Always a crap shoot with the weather setting the odds. Too bad your not closer. I'd love to give you a hundred pounds of well sprouted Green Mountains I'm hoeing out of the root cellar this weekend. I'm boiling up some of them and giving them to the chickens, waste of fuel I know but they don't go for them raw.

Do they need a rest or will they even sprout if you try to get them to grow again?

I did not think that they would but I do not know.

That's really the question, I'm gonna experiment as soo as I see some little buggars grow an eye or two.

I figure we'll have enough time I just didn't know if they turn around and start growing. BTW our official pre-GW frost date in Lawrence county is 10/15.

http://agebb.missouri.edu/weather/frost2.htm

Why wait? Just head down to the local organic store, get a few potatos chop them and then plant them. That is what I did last year and they came up fine, didnt know there was such a thing as seed potatos then as I am new at this stuff. The organic potatos dont have that stuff on them that keeps them from growing

i'm eating potatoes for breakfast & this year POTATOES are what's going on.

seems like every year one plant sprints ahead of the others and grows like crazy, this year it's potatoes.

most of mine were also started from organic red, white, & russet, i just used the ones that started growing in the kitchen. i also used a few commercial potatoes that sprouted.

Seed potatoes are grown differently.. (atleast is what my dad was told)

You take the green seed of potatoes (not in the ground but on the plant), plant it, and then the small potatoes that grow from it are seed potatoes.
We don't do it, as we buy them. However a representative from a feedstock corportation (which also sells farming seeds) told our dad how they grew seed-potatoes.

I should experiment with it.. (if I only had the time :§

Warning: I have no personal experience in this.

Stories of famine time, include that of eating the seed potatoes, but keeping part of the peel with the eyes in them - I guess this was a desperate measure, but one that did worked well enough once the famine was over (my guess is that the yield of planing just the eyes would not be as good). You might explore this as one option.

Regarding seed potatoes - I remember reading that as the potato is a mountain crop, it is best to grow the seeds at higher altitudes/colder regions to avoid illness.

In Belgium it's forbidden to plant potatoes on the same land for more than 3 years after eachother. There needs to be a break of one year at the least.

Different locations, and areas with less potatoes around (other plots) help also.

I planted the little ones but they didn't sprout, could be they need the cold dormancy like cur said or maybe it was just too hot when I planted.


Potatoes are from the - solanaceae (sp) or nightshade family, same as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, petunias and jimsonweed. They are susceptible to quite a few soil borne diseases so you need to be especially careful about rotating, where you get your starts and what weeds are nearby.