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Source for fall seed potatoes

 
pollinator
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I live in the mild Southeastern U.S. and should be able to grow potatoes in the fall. But I can only find seed potatoes in the early spring. Does anyone know of a source?

Grow Organic (https://www.groworganic.com/collections/fall-potatoes) sells them, but they won't ship to the east during the fall. Amazon seems to have them, but they're $13/lb.
 
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I guess certified seed, certified organic, fall delivery, narrows the field quite a bit.

All untreated potatoes are seed stock. Are you worried about introducing disease?

If you have already grown potatoes and they were vigorous, give a few tubers some low light therapy for a week or so and use for new seed. Or ask a close neighbour? IMO if the bug/disease can be carried on the local wind, your soil already has it. My 2c.
 
Jake Esselstyn
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Thanks Douglas. I was a bit worried about disease, but have considered throwing caution to the wind. If it's likely already in the soil, then that would simplify things greatly.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Sometimes if you ask locally, people will give you heritage seed they have found resistant to the local pests. You will never find that with a certified label since it's not on the official list and no official grower will touch it. Yet it works.
 
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Because certified seed potatoes are produced in the northern states, and harvest and certification processes are just now finishing, you're unlikely to find any certified seed available.  Potatoes that were harvested mid-summer might be able to sprout in the fall, depending on cultivar. Some potato cultivars have long dormant periods, others much shorter. Commercial potato growers in the South who grow potato during winter go to great lengths to get their seed to sprout.  

I would look in grocery stores for tubers that are showing sprout growth. Make sure, however, that the sprouts are normal in color, with no black. The black indicates treatment with an essential oil sprout inhibitor, usually clove oil.  

As far as disease, seed certification in potato mainly protects you from insect-transmitted viruses, a bacterial disease called ring rot, and from a few other pathogens to limited degrees.  Certification does not protect you from most pathogens that move in the soil adhering to the seed.
 
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Andy Jensen wrote:I would look in grocery stores for tubers that are showing sprout growth. Make sure, however, that the sprouts are normal in color, with no black. The black indicates treatment with an essential oil sprout inhibitor, usually clove oil.  .



What we have done in the past is to buy organic new potatoes or fingerlings from the grocery store. We have never had a problem with them sprouting.
 
Jake Esselstyn
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Thank you all for your input. I went to the expensive grocer and bought some organic potatoes. They're in the pantry, getting dosed with ethylene. I will not worry about disease until it is a problem.
 
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People had good experience with organic baby potatoes from Costco. https://permies.com/t/181479/start-fall-potatoes-hot-climate#1510114

I guess since baby potatoes are harvested much earlier, by mid to late summer, they have been stored long enough to break dormancy and are ready to sprout.

I am testing a different route this year and grew one potato in a 5 gallon bucket in mid February, over 2 months before the last frost date. I had to bring the bucket inside quite a few times when it was too cold. Nevertheless, in early May I harvested 8 spuds. I will use some as seed potatoes for a fall crop.

 
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