Seed Potatoes-Where do you Buy?

[ducks4you]

I buy all my seed potatoes from local farm supply store. They always seem to have a good selection, and I don't buy enough for the price to get in the way!!!

THANX RICH

@Cats Critters and Garden , Even WM sells seed potatoes. Funny, I was shopping in the garden center at 1/3 local (Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, IL) WM in early February. Their garden center was pretty much in dormancy, selling bags of starter soil and fertilizer, gardening tools but they didn't have their seeds, etc. out in the main store yet. I looked at their display and every one of their bags of seed potatoes was rotten!! A couple of guys were taking apart store shelving and I told them about this. They said that they could smell something and were taking them apart looking for a dead mouse. The smell, of course, was the potatoes.
I think what happened was the potatoes in the bags froze on the truck, then thawed out and rotted. Just like apples, one rotten potato rots out the ones next to it.
Somehow, when they leave potatoes in the ground (that's what seed potatoes ARE, which I learned from a local FS), they freeze but don't rot. Could be that the ground prevents this OR they don't touch each other. After the ground thaws they dig them up and ship to sell.
Local FS shut up their garden shop after their 2018 season, unfortunately. I learned a LOT from them.

 

[seedcorn]

Did not know that about seed potatoes. Surprises me. I figured they just sold the odd ball sizes that processors didn’t want and kept them in cold storage.

 

[ducks4you]

Yea, the owner of the local FS was/is quite an expert in horticulture. Wish I knew how to contact her. They also sold seed in bulk, in these plywood boxes that had a plexiglass cover and they had small and large scoops. You would label what you were buying, they would weigh it and you bought the seed by weight.
Maybe somebody will pick up the gauntlet and do this in the future.

 

[seedcorn]

Yea, the owner of the local FS was/is quite an expert in horticulture. Wish I knew how to contact her. They also sold seed in bulk, in these plywood boxes that had a plexiglass cover and they had small and large scoops. You would label what you were buying, they would weigh it and you bought the seed by weight.
Maybe somebody will pick up the gauntlet and do this in the future.

That process is quite common here.

 

[ducks4you]

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did not know that about seed potatoes. Surprises me. I figured they just sold the odd ball sizes that processors didn’t want and kept them in cold storage.

I wonder how they keep them so small. The seed potatoes I see are mostly too small to sell commercially. Since they are clones they have to grow some big ones.

 

[Jared712]

That process is quite common here.

Us too. Even the Mom/Pop nursery does this. They do have some pre-weighed in brown paper bags on some varieties so people can just grab what they want if its a popular variety. Otherwise its just a bin and a scoop.

I've had really good luck with the Maine Potato Lady for online orders. I've gotten some different varieties I've wanted to try or something fun/unique to grow.

 

[ducks4you]

I wonder how they keep them so small. The seed potatoes I see are mostly too small to sell commercially. Since they are clones they have to grow some big ones.

Gee the ones I bought at Rural King are the size of softballs! You pick and bag and they sell by the pound.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting. The Mom 'n Pop I got them from in Arkansas sold them for something like $0.59 per pound in bulk. Those were pretty small, many I could only cut once or they'd be too small. A few maybe three times but not many. I ordered once (and only once) from the Maine Potato Lady. What I got were too small to cut, could only be planted whole. I've looked at some online order sites. If they give tuber size, they usually say mini-tubers.

I guess it depends on the source.

 

[Jared712]

I had the same experience with small seed potatoes from the Maine Potato Lady but I was ordering purple varieties from her too. I chalked up the small seed potatoes to the varieties.

Any of the online orders I do I'm after something specific or unique to try. If I was going to grow for production I'd be looking at local suppliers.