Where To Get Seed Potatoes?

Where To Get Seed Potatoes
The Potato Lady of Maine – The Maine Potato Lady, located in the foothills of Central Maine, has been in business for over 25 years. Their potato seeds are offered in accordance with the seed certification requirements of Maine. During the growth season, each lot is examined three times for specific pests and illnesses.

How do you acquire seed potatoes?

Create your own potato seedlings. It is too soon to sow seeds for summer gardens, but it is time to plant potatoes. Potatoes are an intriguing vegetable. Potato, tomato, pepper, tomatillo, and eggplant are all members of the Solanaceae family, however the potato is particularly unique since it is the only Solanaceous crop with an underground edible section.

Solanum tuberosum is the scientific term for the potato since it is botanically a tuber, an expanded subterranean stem, and not a root. Instead of genuine seeds extracted from floral structures, “seed potatoes” are used to proliferate potatoes. True potato seed are minute, uncommon, and difficult to mature; they are utilized as breeding material to generate new types.

Establish potato crops using certified seed potatoes obtained from local nurseries, home improvement stores, or catalogs, or grown at home. To manufacture your own seed potatoes, choose healthy, disease-free, firm tubers and cut them into pieces using a clean, sharp knife.

  1. Optimal sized-pieces are 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter, blocky or square in form, and contain at least one bud eye per piece.
  2. The eyes of potatoes contain several vegetative structures, and it is from these structures that the stems and roots of the new plant will form.
  3. The buds on seed pieces may be forming sprouts, as seen in the image, or they may be dormant.
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Pieces extracted from growing tubers should be planted shortly after harvesting. When sown, seed potatoes with sprouting buds often generate bigger yields since the sprouts are already there and the plants emerge from the soil more rapidly. If many shoots emerge from a single eye, remove all but one before planting, as the stems that develop from multiple sprouts will compete with smaller tubers during harvest.

Before planting, tubers cut into seed pieces with dormant buds should be treated by laying them on newspaper in a cool, dark location for two days. During the curing process, the epidermal layer of the sliced surfaces develops corky, roughened cells known as suberin. Suberin is identical to the corky tissue found in the epidermis of commercial potatoes.

Suberin prevents seed fragments from drying out and shrinking after planting and protects against infections in the soil that cause seed fragments to decay. Plant potatoes in full light once the threat of frost has passed. The soil should be tilled to a depth of 12 inches and thoroughly amended with organic matter; seed pieces should be placed with their eyes facing up, and the soil should be piled into hills.

Space rows 36 inches apart and every 12 inches apart. Keep soil wet. The tubers are available for harvest after the plant’s foliage dies down in late summer. Potatoes planted today should be harvested on July 4th. ELLEN PEFFLEY taught college-level horticulture for 28 years, including 25 years at Texas Tech, during which time she created two onion types.

She is presently the sole proprietor of the market garden farmette From the Garden. You may contact her by email at [email protected]. : Grow your own seed potatoes.

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What is a potato seed? – We propagate potatoes vegetatively or asexually, with the exception of plant breeders; potatoes of the same variety are genetically identical to their parents. Therefore, the’seed’ you’ll find for growing potatoes resembles a potato.

  • There are, however, substantial distinctions between seed potatoes and supermarket potatoes.
  • First, the majority of potatoes in grocery stores have been treated with a sprout-inhibitor to prevent the development of eyes during storage and shelf life.
  • Never treat seed potatoes with sprout inhibitors.
  • This alone can determine the success or failure of potato cultivation.

Second, you should only purchase certified disease-free seed potatoes. Before earning a government-issued “disease-free” certification, potatoes intended for sale as seed are tested for a panel of illnesses. Positive seed lots are not certified and are thus not sold.

How many potatoes can a single plant yield?

How many potatoes does one plant yield? By Molly Allman Updated on 15 December 2018 If all circumstances are optimal, you should expect to harvest between five and ten potatoes per plant. Both the care you provide your plants during the growing season and the kind of potatoes you select to cultivate will affect your harvest.

Plant a mixture of early, late, and mid-season-harvesting kinds, as well as russet, red, blue, and yellow tubers, to ensure that you have fresh potatoes throughout the summer and fall. Cut potatoes into 1 1/2-inch cubes with at least two eyes prior to sowing. To ensure the success of the crop, purchase seed potatoes from a nursery or garden center rather than a grocery shop, since the latter may have been treated with substances that inhibit sprouting.

Under optimal, weed-free growth circumstances, 2 pounds of potato seed will produce around 50 pounds of potatoes. Consequently, the output of a 10-foot row of potatoes might range from 15 to 60 pounds, depending on care, weather conditions, and the presence of disease.

  1. Expect three to six potatoes of average size and a few smaller ones from each plant.
  2. Planting potatoes in hills can assist in increasing output.
  3. Potatoes develop underground, at the base of plant stems; therefore, planting potatoes in hills supports plant stems, protects tubers, and promotes potato growth.
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To easily construct hills, remove dirt from either side of the row to support the plant stems, leaving only a few inches of exposed plant growth. Watering correctly also helps enhance production. Potatoes want damp, but not soggy, soil, so water the soil before it dries up.

Mulch can help retain water and suppress weed growth. In addition to weeds that compete with potatoes for nutrients and water, illnesses and pests can significantly reduce potato productivity. Potatoes are subject to illnesses including blight and scab, as well as pests such as leafhoppers, beetles, and aphids.

Insect pests can harm both plants and tubers in development. Any plants exhibiting disease symptoms, such as lesions on the leaves and stems, must be removed and killed promptly. Both much precipitation and high temperatures might cause a decrease in tubers.

  • In a sunny position with sandy, well-draining soil, potatoes grow.
  • Before planting, potatoes require a 5-10-10 fertilizer application and a midseason side dressing.
  • Growing potatoes on hills helps prevent tubers from turning green due to sun exposure.
  • Consider companion plants, such as beans, maize, cabbage, and eggplant, to deter pests and promote the growth of potatoes.

How many potatoes does one plant yield?

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