In message , Norman Digger
writes
I've lots of small potatoes left over from last years harvest that are
shooting nicely. What is the wisdom of using them in place of buying seed
potatoes? Is there likely to be any downside to doing this?

I vaguely recall doing this was the cause of the Irish potato famine, since
none of their potatoes were resistant to blight because they never actually
planted "seed" potatoes?
As a point of interest are Scottish seed potatoes actually the result of
growing potatoes from the seeds of potatoes?

If you go back far enough all potatoes come from a seed, but the named
cultivars are vegetatively propagated as tubers.

The advantage of buying commercial seed potatoes, I'm informed, is that
there is a lesser chance of tubers carrying pathogens.

The Irish potato famine resulted, partially, from growing a monoculture
of genetically undiverse potatoes, so one strain of blight could infect
the whole crop. It seems to me that current commercial production is not
that far different - 30% of the UK commercial crop is Maris Piper, which
is a blight-susceptible variety.

Norman Digger.


--
Stewart Robert Hinsley