Last time I got seed potatoes from Johnny seeds I had to order a 5 pound bag and it was way too much for my needs. looking to pick up a few varieties, maybe ~0.5 pounds of each. do you know any sources that sell small quantities of seed potatoes? looking to try Dark Red Norland, Natascha, Purple Viking, and Adirondack Blue.
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I consider āsmall quantityā to be less than half a 100# bag!
A family of 4 should plant 50# at least if they are going to avoid buying potatoes at the market for a year.
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Iām not trying to avoid buying potatoes for the year. just veggie gardening for the fun of it. have you ever gotten a bag of seeds and grown a single plant to give it a try? seeds are fairly cheap so its easy getting more than I need but 5# of certified seed potatoes is both too many for my needs and too expensive for me to play around. Iām sorry Iām not gardening the way you think I should
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Fortunately there are many right ways to do it! Tractor supply, HD, L, may have small affordable amounts but possibly not the varieties you are interested in.
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The problem you face is environmental. Letās say I agree to send you two of the three varieties you seek in small quantities. I could do so but they are not certified. The environmental risk is that you get them uncertified from a member who does not realize he is sending you wormy seeds. Then your garden is infected and you will not be happy when you try to prepare and consume them because the wire worms will get their share first. Worst of all your soil becomes a den of wireworms and the only way you can clean your soil is to starve them out which is what I am doing for the next 3 years. So be aware that if a member sends you some you need to carefully inspect each one to assure you donāt infect your soil. Itās no fun! Otherwise I would agree to ship mine to you! Just a word of caution.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Grand Teton Potatoes - Has sell units that starts by the pound and goes up. Little pricey but that is because shipping is included in the cost. Quality is as good or better than Maine Potato Lady and customer service is alot better. What I really like about his operation is that he will ship when I need the potatoes. Itās difficult finding a place that will ship the potatoes in time for me to plant (yay southern gardening).
May not be certified, but I have gotten certified potatoes from different sources before and certified doesnāt mean disease free.
Tractor supply isnāt bad either but has limited selection and larger amounts. Usually has adirondack blue in my area.
I 
āPurple Vikingā. So pretty! So versatile. I like growing it for french fries.
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Fedco offers 2.5 lb quantities of most varieties. Maine potato lady may offer 1 lb, I forget
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Iām not suggesting anyone on the forum send me seed potatoes. I apologize if that seemed like my intent. Iām looking for a retail location, preferably an online store.
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Try Gurneyās. They sell in small amounts.
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Johnnyās, Fedco, Gurneys, and others are sources for a few varieties. Local Co-opās are a good source though usually limited to 2 or 3 varieties. I highly recommend Sarpo Mira as a decent and very disease and pest tolerant variety.
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havenāt tried that one, but will check it out.
some years back Maine potato lady offered a large Peruvian fingerling called Papa Cacho that sounded really promising. By the time I got around to ordering them a couple of years later theyād stopped selling them.
Iāll put in a recommendation for mythicfarm.com. They sell in 1 lb bags, and theyāre local but I think they ship. Our seed potatoes from them last year were in fantastic shape and grew really well.
Iām not sure Iāve seen anybody selling in <1 lb.
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The late blight resistance of Sarpo mira is appealing, as is high productivity. The name suggested to me that it might be a south american landrace variety too, but I see that its Hungarian. Looks like its a floury type, which is ok, but not my preference. I love waxy potatoes personally. Id think papa cacho would have some inherent resistances. looks like other vendors may have some.
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Also worth mentioning Agway and local feed stores typically stock 1/2 dozen or so varieties and sell by the lb. Ive had good luck replanting and swapping seed potatoes some with friends. Maybe Ill regret it sometime, but the worst Ive seen is some scurf and scab. Size and yield has been unaffected
Question: Can you grow the ones from the grocery store? Or are they sprayed with something?
Grocery Store potatoes are often sprayed with sprout inhibitors. I donāt recommend using them.
A neighbor of mine decided to plant a row of store potatoes years ago. He is a skilled gardener so he did everything right, furrow, fertilizer, covered, even used wood chip mulch. No sprouts emerged. Finally, he dug up one of the potatoes and found it looking exactly as when planted months before.
Iāve also been tempted a time or two to plant store potatoes. Diseases rapidly ruined the effort. Please use certified potato seed!
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You know Iāve never seriously thought about zone pushing for tubersā¦but seeing some of those I might have to reconsider.
Ive been growing yacon here for nearly 15 years. it wasnāt supposed to produce here ostensibly but I harvested around 10 lbs of tubers from my single test plant that first year and have grown it ever since. Itās delicious and easy to grow. Most of the other Andean tubers are some combination of odd and challenging to grow mostly due to day length issues, so Ive yet to try. Youād think āpapa cachoā might have such issues but reading the link I posted, its not from Peru at all, but rather from Chile.
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Iāve been ordering from Wood Prairie Farm for a few years and they are always consistent and reliable with good size and good quality potatoes. Iād recommend them FWIW.
Nice to hear about Sapro Mira! I got some this year and just planted it out a few weeks ago. (Here in CA in my area, we can do 2 potato plantings a year - one in about Feb and one in approx Aug.)
Edit: Also, @Bigmike1116 they definitely do 1lb. I usually get 1lb for a few varieties for my tiny backyard.
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Our local hardware store has them in increments of 1, 5, 10, and 50 pounds. If you have a local feed and seed, check there.
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