Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Information and discussion for successfully cultivating potatoes, the world's fourth largest crop.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old January 23, 2010   #1
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default About to order potatoes from Ronnigers.

Interested in what people like...I want to select half a pound of 6-8 different varieties just to see what does well here in Raleigh - in the past, I've grown Peruvian Purple (too knobby, though they produced well), Red Gold (which I really liked), Caribe (ditto), and Yukon Gold. I want to grow a good sized purple flesh, red flesh, gold flesh, and a few good fingerings. Recommendations?
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #2
goodwin
Tomatovillian™
 
goodwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Espanola, New Mexico
Posts: 606
Default

Red Thumb, Austrian Crescent, Purple Viking, Colorado Rose. You have to plant Red Thumb if you haven't. I also grow Rose Finn Apple and La Ratte for market.
Ronnigers are good people - the best in the business.
goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #3
Tom Wagner
Crosstalk™ Forum Moderator
 
Tom Wagner's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: 8407 18th Ave West 7-203 Everett, Washington 98204
Posts: 1,157
Default

http://tater-mater.blogspot.com/ is the URL of my blog. I just updated the blog with a write up on my Potato Sampler.

Because I want folks to try lots of varieties of potatoes, I could easily put one tiny potato tuber per variety in a box and get 'em to you when you are ready to plant. Most of the potatoes that I would send are as good as certified seed potatoes since they are either one or two years from true seed (No virus) or from one season away from tissue culture (USDA source).

For the last two years I have sent out my Potato Sampler--an 8 lb box for $40 postpaid. It can have anywhere from 5 to 20 varieties per unit. Wood Prairie has a similar box for that price, therefore it is within the range of what other potato seed sellers do.

I am thinking of sending out a one pound box with 1 oz. tubers with about 15 different varieties. Perhaps $10 would be a fair price. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Quote:
Red Thumb, Austrian Crescent, Purple Viking, Colorado Rose. Rose Finn Apple, La Ratte Peruvian Purple, Red Gold , Caribe, and Yukon Gold.
I don't want to compete those fellas that carry those above so don't ask for them.
Quote:
I want to grow a good sized purple flesh, red flesh, gold flesh, and a few good fingerlings
This is where I could add a lot of diversity. Fully 95% of my collections are not available anywhere else.
.

Tom Wagner
Tom Wagner is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #4
svalli
Tomatovillian™
 
svalli's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63°
Posts: 838
Default

Tom,
I wish you could be able to send tubers overseas. I would gladly pay double and the cost of shipping just to be able to try some of your varieties from tubers.

Craig,
In Wisconsin All Blue grew well and the potatoes are easier to peel than the Peruvian Purple. The fingerlings I tried were Rose Finn Apple and Russian Banana, which were good too.

Sari
__________________
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream."
- Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson
svalli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #5
darwinslair
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Lake Minnetonka MN
Posts: 229
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by svalli View Post
Tom,
I wish you could be able to send tubers overseas. I would gladly pay double and the cost of shipping just to be able to try some of your varieties from tubers.

Craig,
In Wisconsin All Blue grew well and the potatoes are easier to peel than the Peruvian Purple. The fingerlings I tried were Rose Finn Apple and Russian Banana, which were good too.

Sari
He can mail you seeds. Just not tubers.

Give it a try.

Tom Kleffman
darwinslair is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #6
Bama mater
Tomatovillian™
 
Bama mater's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 269
Default

Tom, 1lb box for $10 sounds good. What about 3lbs for $20 and or 5lbs for $30? Just a thought.
Bama mater is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #7
shatbox
Tomatovillian™
 
shatbox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Los Angeles County, CA
Posts: 258
Default

I don't have a lot of room to grow so I usually have to go to farmers' markets to buy a few potatoes to plant. 1lb box would be great!

sBox
shatbox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #8
mdvpc
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
mdvpc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 4,386
Default

Tom-I am going to watch this thread to see what you decide-I am thinking about growing in a container some of your potato varieties. Never grown them before.
__________________
Michael
mdvpc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #9
svalli
Tomatovillian™
 
svalli's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63°
Posts: 838
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by darwinslair View Post
He can mail you seeds. Just not tubers.

Give it a try.
I have TPS from Tom, but I would love to grow also tuber varieties selected by him, since the TPS can have quite surpricing results.

This seasons first two true potato seeds have sprouted and tubers from previous sesons TPS are in root cellar so I have plenty of new varieties to grow, but I am getting addiceted to growing a lot of different potatoes. Potatoes are easier to grow up here than tomatoes, so I have now found my self a new obsession .

Sari
__________________
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream."
- Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson
svalli is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #10
Medbury Gardens
Tomatovillian™
 
Medbury Gardens's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Medbury, New Zealand
Posts: 1,881
Default

i know what you mean svalli,this summer here has been a really cloudy & cool,hopeless for any descent tasting tomatoes but my potatoes on the other hand have never been so good.
Medbury Gardens is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #11
Dukerdawg
Growing for Market Moderator
 
Dukerdawg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Westland, Michigan
Posts: 861
Default

Tom, I also want to try tubers and don't need an 8lb box. A smaller package sounds appealing to me as well. Let us know what you decide.

Duane
__________________
May I aspire to live my life so that I may be the man my dog thinks I am.
Dukerdawg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 24, 2010   #12
goodwin
Tomatovillian™
 
goodwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Espanola, New Mexico
Posts: 606
Default

Tom - I'm planning to order a box because I grow for market, but I'm also interested in your potato seed. Do you have some available?
On a side note, that sure is pretty country around where you are. I went to school at Western in Bellingham. Thanks for all your fine work. Lee
goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 25, 2010   #13
Tom Wagner
Crosstalk™ Forum Moderator
 
Tom Wagner's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: 8407 18th Ave West 7-203 Everett, Washington 98204
Posts: 1,157
Default

I didn't mean to hog this thread with my potato offers as it started with ordering from Ronnigers. The outfit in Colorado has control of his name anyway and has only about 50 or so potato varieties. David Ronniger had up to 200 or so years ago! I had sent David about 70 varieties over 20 years ago, and I guess it swamped him. I wanted to send him more but no deal a year or two later as he wanted to cut back. Now he has cut back altogether to let the Colorado folks grow the varieties.

Nevertheless, I think I should offer a small trace of the diversity that I either collect or produce. The one pound box for $10 postpaid is about as cheap as I can go, without just giving the potatoes away at postage cost which is prohibitive to say the least when it comes to potatoes. This is about the lowest price I could come up with so folks could as least try some unique potatoes I have.

I may not stay in the so-called business of offering seed potatoes since research is my goal. If I would die, all of my creations will die too. No one around here is going to carry on what I have spent my life doing and no other bonehead potato person seems to be on the horizon to follow my footsteps.

If anyone wants to help in their own way to help preserve some of this potato diversity, just save seed from the berries of my lines.

Tom Wagner
Tom Wagner is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 25, 2010   #14
mdvpc
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
mdvpc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 4,386
Default

Tom-just send a check for 10.00 to the address on your blog?

I am going to try and grow in containers here in El Paso. I will leave it to you to pick the varieties and send to me in time to plant. I start my tomatoes/peppers, etc in my greenhouse, and guess I could plant in containers in the greenhouse and then move outside when it gets warm.
__________________
Michael
mdvpc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 25, 2010   #15
Tom Wagner
Crosstalk™ Forum Moderator
 
Tom Wagner's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: 8407 18th Ave West 7-203 Everett, Washington 98204
Posts: 1,157
Default

My blog has my address, yes.

It also has some random pictures of my potatoes and tomatoes. One of the nicer things that a sub forum on potatoes here at Tville can do is to have an ongoing performance discussion of all kinds of potatoes. I've seen some great responses from several of the members here that tried my TPS, and now maybe more folks can compare tuber clones for uniqueness. If more participants can grow potatoes from many sources, this forum could be a valuable go-to site.

Tom Wagner
Tom Wagner is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:36 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★