The first time I heard the words seed potato I imagined a packet of seeds looking somewhat like bean seeds! How wrong I was. Seed Potatoes are what you use to grow potatoes and look like baby potatoes. About 1kg of certified seed should produce about 10kgs of potato.
Woolworths sells potatoes for around $1kg sometimes, why am should I grow them myself?
Potatoes rank among the most contaminated with pesticides and fungicides. Twenty-nine pesticides are commonly used, and 79% of potatoes tested exceed safe levels of multiple pesticides (according to research done by FDA and USDA). Now I don't know about you but I used to use potatoes all the time in cooking. So this little piece of information didn't sit terribly well with me. If I started buying organic potatoes it would cost me upwards of $6kg. So growing potatoes seems like a good idea.
Why should I buy certified seed potato, why can’t I just plant the sprouts that grow from my potatoes from the grocery store?
Firstly potatoes are sprayed with growth inhibitors to stop them from sprouting in shops? This means that when they do finally sprout the growth may be inhibited. You may get weak growth, deformed growth or a plant more susceptible to insect and fungus attack.
Potato plants can carry many potato diseases: bacterial, viral, and fungal; and some of these are passed on through potato tubers. Plant viral infections are persistent and can not only affect your potato plants but your neighbourhood’s plants as well. All plants in the potato family can be affected like tomatoes, eggplants and chillies. These diseases can also contaminate soil and make an area implantable.
Plant viral infections are persistent and can not only affect your potato plants but your neighbourhood’s plants as well. All plants in the potato family can be affected like tomatoes, eggplants and chillies. These diseases can also contaminate soil and make an area implantable. Remember the Great Famine? Caused by potato blight!
If using non certified seed potatoes the chance of having a disease outbreak is increased. This is because the appearance of a growing potato crop, or the harvested tubers, is not a reliable guide to the pathogen level in the tubers. For example, late season viral infections may not be apparent until the next season’s crop is growing. So give your vegetable patch a little TLC and start with healthy certified seed.
The varieties of certified seed potato seem endless – Dutch Cream, Sebago, Pontiac and Desiree are just a few. There are red ones, pink ones and even blue ones! Some are good for boiling or mashing, some are better for baking and frying, there are even some that are perfect for microwaving! Some are all-rounders. How you like your potatoes cooked is how you choose which variety to grow.
Some of my potatoes one year
Potatoes like a sunny well drained position. It is best to plant them in rich fertile soil that has not had potatoes grown in for at least 3 years. Usually the best time to plant potatoes is 2-3 weeks before the last frost but we don't get a frost so I planted mine in July. The seed should have shoots of about 1cm long; this usually takes about 4 weeks, if seed was bought in May/June. Large seed can be cut into two, three or four. The cut surface should dry for a couple of days before planting. I don't do this as I don't have much success when I pre-cut the potatoes.
The principle for growing potatoes is the same whether you grow them in the ground or in pots.
Potatoes in the Ground
1. Plant the certified seed potato in soil (I use great quality compost and some sugar cane mulch in it so it is lose and free draining) and as the potatoes
grow and start to show through the soil, I pile more soil up around them. Potatoes form on the surface, when you pile soil up onto of them continually it helps stops the potatoes from being exposed to light and going green. (Green potatoes can upset the stomach) This process also helps produce more potatoes.
2. Harvest your potatoes when the lower leaves on the plants start to turn yellow. You can dig only what you need and to leave the other plants to grow on. If you want to dig and store your potatoes cut the tops off and allow 2-3 weeks before digging. I have had potato bushes that I harvested from continuously through the growing season and other plants I left and harvested all together. I found neither affected the ultimate outcome of the potatoes.
Dug potatoes should be kept in a cool dark spot.
Good luck and just think how amazed your friends will be when at your Summer pool party you have blue potato salad!
Some varieties of Potatoes Trevallan stocks
The last few years of increment weather around potato season has led to many varieties either being only available in small quantities or just not at all. This year we have a limited supply of Sebago, Dutch Cream and Desiree
Sebago
A long to oval shaped all-rounder with white flesh and skin that’s common in supermarkets and green grocers around Australia. This potato is great for boiling, mash, roasting, baking, chips and mash.
Dutch Cream
Dutch Cream, from Holland, are perfect for frying or serving cold in a salad. Their creamy flavour means they are one of the few waxy varieties that work in a mash as well.
Desiree
Red-skinned, yellow flesh with a distinctive flavour. Originally bred in the Netherlands in 1962. Has great resistance to drought, and is fairly resistant to disease. Best used for roasting, baking, and boiling
Pontiac
A very reliable all-rounder with pink skin and white flesh. Great to boil, bake, roast, microwave and mash but not so suitable for frying.
Kipfler
A waxy, finger-shaped, knobbly potato with yellow skin and a light yellow flesh with a buttery nutty taste that is great boiled, steamed, in salads and roasted but not recommended for frying or chips.
Salad Rose
Features a red skin with yellow flesh. Salad Rose is excellent for salads, steaming, boiling, roasting and mashing. Very good for Soups and stews as it won't break apart once cooked.
Sapphire
Has unusual purple skin and flesh. Like all darker coloured veggies Sapphire is packed full of antioxidants. The colour is maintained even after cooking. Great all rounder potato, suitable for salads, boiling, mashing, roasting and chips.