Your favorite place to buy seed potatoes

[OmahaJB]

While reading through all the threads over the last couple of weeks I did notice links to a couple of places to buy seed potatoes from. Unfortunately, I did not write them down. I was about to scan through the threads again but decided it might be helpful to others as well if there was a specific thread on this. Perhaps some of you who have favorite places to buy your seed potatoes from can suggest a few good places to buy from next spring.

Seed Savers Exchange did have 16 varieties to choose from in their seed catalog. Obviously it's too late to buy them now, but I did see three I might be interested in buying in '08, German Butterball, La Ratte & Purple Viking.

I see La Ratte was $13.50 for a 2 1/2 lb. bag, and the other 2 were $9.50. I'm wondering why La Ratte commands $4 more. Is it that much better? Or just in higher demand? Interesting....

Suggestions for other on-line seed potato companies would be appreciated. I'd like to read up on some of the other varieties. Thanks.

Jeff

[FlipTX]

I've only bought from http://www.milkranch.com/ and will buy from them again this August for my fall crop. The price is about two bucks a pound, plus shipping. The potatoes I got were nice and healthy. Click on "potato list" in the upper left to see what they have in stock at any given time.

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Flip,

That's exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately, when I tried clicking on the "add to gunney sack", I kept getting the message "milkranch.com ran into a technical problem. Please try again.". I'll try again in a day or two. I was pleased to see they still had German Butterball & La Ratte available. And for the prices I like!

Thanks again, Jeff

[FlipTX]

I had problems with the website, too, when I ordered. It's best to call them.

[OmahaJB]

Well, I sent an email to them but no reply yet. If I get home early enough tomorrow I might give them a call if I still don't have a message.

Thanks, Jeff

[henry]

Canadian seed Company I have used and like.
www.seedpotatoes.ca

Henry

[FlipTX]

Milk Ranch is now Potato Garden. I haven't ordered since they changed the website. Hopefully it'll be better than the old one.

[feldon30]

They seem to have very few pictures of varieties. Hopefully they update the pictures. The website really could use improving.

[Catntree]

I like Fedco very much. This is their potato tuber company:
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/moose.htm

[jhp]

Hi Jeff, I don't know why LaRatte would be priced higher. I grew it this year and it was the most productive of the four fingerling potato varieties I grew. I'd think more productive would mean more seed to sell and a lower price. Usually, vegetables that produce fewer seeds, warrant a higher price. Maybe their popularity is jacking the price up. Although, I wouldn't know if they are popular or not.

I really like LaRatte. It gave me pretty nice tubers. I noticed that they grew closer to the surface than my other potatoes, so they were easier to find when harvesting and I was able to go out and grab a few whenever we wanted potatoes for dinner. This picture doesn't show that I harvested quite a few that were much longer. They must have been at the bottom of the baskets. I will be growing this potato again next year.



Also wanted to say that I got my potato seed from Milk Ranch. I didn't know they changed the name, so I'm glad I found this thread. I didn't have any problems ordering last year at all. I think I remember that they did have more pictures on the old site. If you click the link that says "blog" on the new site, it does say that they are in the process of adding the photos to the new site. Anyway, I thought their seed potatoes were good. They arrived at the time I asked, they were still firm and looked good. I thought their prices were the best I found online. Not sure if that is still the same with the new site, but I have a feeling it is.

Jen

[OmahaJB]

Flip,

Thanks for the update on the new website for Milk Ranch. I do planning on growing some next year. I've heard they can grow in fairly low-light areas which means they'll be perfect for a part of my growing space that sits directly on the north side of my mother's house and only gets 4-5 hours of sunlight a day. I'll have to decide on a couple varieties (from a list of a few different ones I'm considering).

CatnTree, Thanks for the tip on Fedco. Will have to check them out also!

Jen,

I have to ask - how many pounds of potato seed did you plant to get that many potatoes? I ask because I noticed it's sold by the pound. That looks like a GREAT harvest! Did you do anything special to the soil to ensure a nice crop? My space wont be large enough to get that many potatoes so I'd like to maximize the potential for each planted. You should be proud of those 3 baskets of potatoes.

Jeff

[Catntree]

Hi,

NP on Fedco.

I grow my potatoes in pretty low light. They do pretty well. I Harvested/am harvesting about 400 pounds this year.

It's pretty cool...the potato plants act more like tomatoes in low light in that they get very viney. Yield is lower in shadier areas, but it's still a good veggie to choose for those locations.

Tree

[OmahaJB]

Tree,

Just curious, how many pounds do you plant to harvest a crop of 400 lbs.? That's a lot of taters!

Jeff

[gardenhappy]

Anyone planted potato's in florida?? First year here and getting ready to plant fall garden and here you can plant potato's now,we love all blue,ukon gold,caribe,fingerlings,...

[Catntree]

oh...about 50 lbs.