Hello, I love these potatoes and I only find them occasionally in the store.
so I thot - why not grow them from seed?
But I cannot find seed for this online.
I will try my search again, more open, less specific.
Any ideas?
thank you,
ellen
Can’t help you with seed potato, but if you can find them in a store you could try planting those. Organic would be less likely to have gotten any anti-sprouting treatment, but even treated/conventional store potatoes do sprout.
While it is supposedly best to get certified seed potatoes, I have planted store bought ones a few years and they have done fine.
thank you. I realized this, this morning when I was reading around about growing potatoes.
But I’ve already eaten all the potatoes!
Do you find that the potatoes come true when you use this method?
Yes, the plants that grow from the eyes are clones of the originals.
I’ve been looking for Crimson Goldfinger as well, but haven’t found any. There was one store that carried it a few years ago, but I haven’t seen it there. Cinacia says that they sell through Stop and Shop, but I don’t see any at the two local S&S I’ve tried. What store do you find them at?
I found them once at a Stop & Shop in Somerset NJ. But when I went back looking for them, was told they only carry them around the holiday.
then by chance I found them at another Stop & Shop.
I’d second Bob’s comments. Growing potatoes from other potatoes (or parts thereof), the new plant is a clone of the original. Just as your seed potatoes would be.
The risks in using grocery store potatoes is possible disease contamination (although you should be able to see scab and reject or cut that part out), and some risk that those potatoes were chemically or heat treated to kill the eyes. But if you buy potatoes that are starting to sprout, no worries on that score
I still haven’t found them on their own, but I did find a mixed bag from Cinacia which has them mixed in with purple and yellow fingerlings (Purple Peruvian and Russian Banana I think). The problem is that out of about a dozen potatoes in the bag, only 2 were Crimson Goldfinger. And I ate one of them to confirm it…And yes, it was tasty.
Here’s a pic. The Purple Peruvians were also very good, so I’ll probably go back for more, though this time I’ll try to find a bag with more CG in it.
I found it at ACME, a store which recently bought out the A&P’s in my area. They also had bags of French Fingerlings on their own, which I also bought.
Bag:
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I went back to the store and checked each bag. It turns out that there is not a uniform mix, so I was able to find 3 bags composed almost completely of Crimson Goldfinger and Purple Peruvian. The “waste” amounted to ~4 Russian Banana’s. While nothing special, they aren’t a bad potato. But I’ll eat them, rather than saving them to plant.
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I planted a row of them back on May 6th. They’ve grown, but the plants don’t seem to be that healthy. Especially compared to the row of Yellow Haze potatoes which are growing next to them (taller and cleaner leaves). I haven’t sampled any yet, but will post the results when I do.
Were the results worth continuing to grow this variety? They aren’t available in my area and posts here sound like I’m missing out and should track some down to try.
5 years is a bit late to join this thread, but did you get to grow any Crimson Goldfinger?
Just a general comment that the pic of crimson goldfinger potato plants suggests they are infected with potato Y virus. It is carried in the potatoes and is one of the risks of growing potatoes from store bought spuds.
Could be. They didn’t grow very well. I haven’t seen them in the store recently, so I haven’t had a chance to even sample them again in quite a while. If I could order them as seed potato, I definitely would. I should email Maine Potato Lady and suggest it…