A gathering place for vegetable gardeners & allotmenteers

Seed potatoes - expensive?

I've just been shopping 'round for late seed potatoes for winter/Christmas and they seem v expensive. Anyone know of a less expensive supplier?

*Suttons have 2kg for £12.90 inc P&P or 5 potatoes (Maris Piper) £9.90
*Marshalls don't have any.
*Thompson & Morgan have a great offer if you sepnd £18.99 on potatoes, you get 20 Dunluce potatoes free but I only need 6 bags-worth (18 tubers). 20 would be £13.94.

I'm sure the ones I planted earlier this year from the garden centre were only about £2.99 for a bag of Ananya; plenty for the 3 potato sacks me and 2 of my friends each have. They don't stock late potatoes.

By the way, July's Grow Your Own magazine (£3.45) has 2 free offers: 500ml liquid tomato feed from Wilkinson (closes 4 July) & herb collection seeds worth £9.35 (parsley, garlic, chinese chives, chamomile, dill & thyme) you just pay £1.99 p&p. You really DO have to speculate to accumulate!

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Wyman on June 29, 2009 at 8:12am: Hi Sarah,

I buy them off EBay, there's not a great selection at the moment but I did find these maincrop reds 50 for 9£.90 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Taylors-50-ORGANIC-RED-POTATO-ROBINTA-Allotme...|66:2|39:1|72:1686|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary on July 2, 2009 at 4:44pm: Funny that I was going to say pretty much the same thing.

My plan now is just to get a decent crop before the slugs do. I had much more success with Jerusalem Artichokes.... only trouble is they do make you a bit windy.

Happy planting.

Gaz.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary on July 3, 2009 at 7:28pm: Who knows it might even give them a turbo boost to next door's plot. hehehe; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary on July 6, 2009 at 6:52pm: On our allotment, we always ask the old timers the varieties that work best for them and work out which ones to try from that. Desiree seems to be the favourite on our site. We trialled a few varieties last year all of which were from sainbury's. Organic Lady Balfour were very nice even with the slug damage. We do the same thing with tomatoes. This year we trialled four varieties from the supermarket that had a nice flavour plus three free packets from magazines. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Gaz.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rhona on July 28, 2009 at 10:24pm: The reason for not using supermarket potatoes is that they are frequently not disease free & can introduce viruses into the crop. Seed potatoes are usually guaranteed to be disease free. There are also various legislations about this which using them could mean you fall foul of the law. This is particularly important as potatoes are prone to disease & could potentially contaminate commercial crops unless, like me you do not live within twenty miles of a field! Using supermarket tats can yield a poor crop anyhow.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deva deRocher-Barron on August 5, 2009 at 5:51am: Do check out www.Dobies.co.uk, they ave a wonderful catalog and great prices. and a decent selection. The average price for seed potatoes is £6.95 per 3 kg bag or £5.95 per if you order 2 or more packs and combination. That has worked out to about 40 tubers per pack. Usually their personal recomendations on The Garlic or Sshallot for your area is right on and a good place for beginners to start. We are trying to plant by the Moon whenever the weather alows and so far it's working a treat. Deva; ▶ Reply to This