0tterbot wrote:

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 ;-)

I think everything is a mystery until you actually grow it in your plot
of land. Around here, we grow stuff that others struggle with and we
struggle trying to grow their easy stuff.

And then the weather changes and you are left scratching your head again.


my best taties this year are the "volunteers" from last year

This is probably part of the reason we have small spuds anyway. We have
volunteers that must start from extremely small left overs as we very
thoroughly sift the soil for each crop.


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

That is the basic plan.

but personally, i'd either just be a cheapskate & save them myself,

The desired outcome.then I know I have a strain that grows well in my soil.

OR, get them at the ag shop;

We have a feed place nearby and I'll try them as the months go by.

only because they're more likely to have come from somewhere closer.

Trouble is that I do not know of any commercial or large scale growers
around here. Dormitory suburbs abound. The only growers are further out
and definitly asian market gardeners from what we can see.

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?)

Various problems
1) TV medical show =/= reality.
2) Growing pot; cue shock horror promo like teen flick horror movie
3) Reusing =/= commie subversive to american way of life.

Anything on a TV show is suspect right from the start. TV is for
entertainment and propaganda. Far more interesting TV if it involves
shock horror; POT.

Practically, different plant, different family, take up different
nutrient, etc. Age of tyres, make of tyres, type of tyres, where were
the tyres manufactured. Why is cadium added to tyres?

If it really was cadium, it most likely was a contaminant in fertilisers
used. My last pack of trace elements had more contaminants that
nutirients including mercury, cadium, etc, etc, etc