"Terryc" wrote in message
...
David Hare-Scott wrote:
"Terryc" wrote in message
...

Need to purchase some new seed potatoes.
Recommendations?

Not Diggers as I understand you need to be a member.


You don't need to be a member to buy but they get a discount. Aside
from
that try Eden's or your local feed and produce store.

Eden and Green Harvest do not do potatoes.

I might look at Diggers again in Jun which is when they say tubers will be
available, but really need another source. 6/7 varieties from diggers have
not done well here, aka they die off fast.

i got some from diggers with the same result (in fact, i'm a tad
disenchanted with diggers all around, but that's another story). bear in
mind their nursery is located in a virtual plant heaven - where most of us
live, it's not, really :-)

potatoes are rather a mystery to me, & they caused me some outright panic
last year (but i talked myself down ;-) i hope more experience will help
with this ;-)

my best taties this year are the "volunteers" from last year (yes, i know i
should have killed them, but i didn't). i also have sebagos growing in a
flower bed & can't seem to find the end of them. which would be fine, except
i'm not really into sebagos. nevertheless, clearly _they_ like it here,
which seems to be the key. besides the sebagos, have tried 4 varieties, all
of which were a little disappointing for one reason or another, the odd
individual plant being exceptions.

the best ones were desirees from the ag shop, even though they got scab they
ended up the best. the worst two were from diggers (royal blue & another so
underwhelming i've forgotten what they were).

in short, you might have to just keep trying different varieties until you
get a good result!!

but personally, i'd either just be a cheapskate & save them myself, OR, get
them at the ag shop; only because they're more likely to have come from
somewhere closer. you are unlikely to get much of a choice of varieties
though. however, i personally decided that they are so little trouble that
if you get a small crop or something goes wrong, it's really not the end of
the world. it works out, or it doesn't. some nurseries will sell them too.

as an aside, i was watching a yank medical show one time, where a patient
had cadmium poisoning from smoking pot grown in car tyres. because of that,
i have been nervous about growing taties in car tyres lest we all get
cadmium poisoning. is there any information on this?! (am i just being
hysterical?)
kylie