Seed potatoes

Seed Potato Shopping

This is a THE time of the year to buy your potato sets if you want to plant potatoes. Some catalogs have deadlines that come up soon if you want to get your potatoes in mid-March, plating time here in central VA. In the past I have found it difficult to find seed potatoes in garden centers, and, when I do, they are limited in variety. This year, I sat down with a dozen or so seed catalogs that sold seed potatoes and tried to compare by price, including shipping, and whether the potatoes were organic or not. I do not fuss a lot about non-organic seed (seems like a little, tiny thing with low probability of significant contamination), but I do prefer big tubers like potatoes to be organic (and, of course, certified disease free). One frustration I had were that some catalogs give a per pound price for seed potatoes, some a per- pre-cut set price (that is, potatoes that are already cut and cured that can be planted directly) and a few gave a price for a certain number of tiny seed potatoes that you pop in the ground whole. This makes it tough to compare across catalogs. I settled on two organic sources this year:

The Maine Potato Lady for Yukon Gold (excellent per pound price, higher on shipping) and Rio Grande Russet through Seeds of Change (standard per pound price, average shipping). I ordered 5 lbs (!) of each, so we better get cracking building potato bins!

Happy gardening!