"aem" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Shaun aRe wrote:
> > [big snip]
> > Various types of commercial seed potatoes, planted at different times
> > and different locations, when compared to store bought ones in the
> > same situations, yielded comparatively poorly, suffered much more
> > from disease, and were attacked rather heavily by pests. The crops
> > were also poorer in flavour (with the crops from the store bought
> > having vastly more flavour than the originals too). [snip]
>
> Just in case you're actually looking for information and not just
> entertaining yourself with Sheldon,

<Cough> Who me? Trolling trolls? Idonknowhatchoomean... <Cough...>

Actually, yes - I was looking for answers to those particular questions,
thanks.

> I'll say that I think your
> experience is the exception rather than the rule. At least it is the
> opposite of our experience.

This is getting strange indeed!

> We have planted both seed potatoes and
> store bought ones as you did, but we found that the seed potatoes were
> significantly more productive and less subject to pests.

Hmmm, Kath's (my wife) all suffered terribly from being eaten alive, each
time (seed sourced from different places too) and yielded poorly anyway. The
store bought ones have been almost unstoppable! We actually have a lot with
another crop nearly ready, just from the few spuds we missed when we dug out
last winter - there's probably about half as many plants growing as we
planted last time (the lot has just been left as we've got other projects
underway, like out new polytunnel, some reorganising, and a big herb garden
being built). The ones we put into the greenhouse soil bed during winter
have exploded upwards and outwards and are VERY ready to be dug out now...
strange!

> I will say
> that the store bought ones were actually from a farmers market and sold
> as "organic" so they likely had no pesticides, but then the seed
> potatoes weren't supposed to be 'treated' either. In both cases they
> were not ordinary russets or white boiling varieties.

These are just some pretty ordinary white potatoes this time, as they were
the last, but they taste far from the ordinary spuds they started as, when
we get them out - they seemingly always turn out *far* superior to the store
ones.

> Some were
> 'Russian' fingerlings, some were purple. Potatoes take a lot of space
> and a lot of patience, but it is quite fun to harvest them and the
> quality of a truly 'new' potato is unbeatable.

You're telling me! We grow them every year, 1, 2 or 3 different times, and
my wife did the same for years before we met. Can't beat digging them up,
taking them home, washing, cooking and serving with lashings of locally
produced small batch ultra creamy butter... <drool!>: ',;~}~

> At this week's farmers
> market I'll ask the guys at the potato stand for their opinion on this.
> If they say anything useful I'll post it. -aem

Thank you muchly - I'd really like the low down on all this.

Cheers!

Shaun aRe
--
May all your wishes be both wise and fulfilled.