My friend Heather recently sent me a link to this cute little girl and her experiment with getting grocery store potatoes to sprout. I knew that is was best to use seed potatoes because grocery store potatoes were treated, but I didn’t know exactly what they treated them with {Bud Nip}. Bud Nip is a commercial brand of Chlorpropham. It is essentially a herbicide that stops potatoes {and as the little girl mentioned, other produce as well} from sprouting.
I have actually grown potatoes from grocery stores in the past–mostly when I was in a pinch and had waited too long to get seed potatoes. I had pretty good success some of the time, but have also had some epic failures too so I usually stick to seed potatoes just to make the outcome more predictable. The only problem is that there are so many “specialty” potatoes that I can never find as seed potatoes, so what’s a girl to do?
Organic produce is not treated with chlorpropham, so you may have a better time getting them to sprout but getting a wide variety of organic options is sometimes tough. It’s a pretty awesome option for sweet potatoes which are almost impossible to find as seed potatoes here in the Northwest.
Everyone has gone to pull out a grocery store potato, only to find it has sprouted, so what do you think? Do you feel safe using that potato, knowing it had been treated?
I honestly can’t decide. On one hand, if your grocery store potato has sprouted, it’s pretty likely it will work as a seed potato. The Bud Nip is supposed to, well, nip that problem in the bud, so if it sprouts, it obviously hasn’t done its job. On the other hand, the herbicide might still be present.
I thought about the possibility of “making” my own seed potatoes, by sprouting grocery store potatoes {the best I can} and then using the resulting untreated potatoes as my seed potatoes to save a bit of money this year.
After one season, I could use the seed potatoes year after year, provided I stored them correctly. The only risk is that I have heard that you are pretty much begging for blight {and other potato diseases} when you don’t get disease free seed potatoes from year to year. I want to introduce blight to my dirt like I want a hole in my head, so I am a little hesitant.
So, instead, I think I’ll just ask you all how does your garden grow? Do you use regular grocery store potatoes? Seed potatoes? Do you care about chlorpropham?
~Mavis
Kristina says
I will admit that I have done both – used seed potatoes and used ones that sprouted from the store/farmers market. I am not savvy enough to have noticed a big difference since the varieties were different [yukon gold (store) vs. red (seed) vs. blue (farmers market)] so the yields were different. Hmmm, maybe I need to do an experiment this year. 🙂 Any excuse to plant more stuff!
Erika says
I’ve used sprouty red potatoes from the store a time or two. I usually try to buy organic, so I don’t remember if they were or not. The year that I grew 63 lbs of sweet potatoes in a 6’x2’x18″ deep bed, I started with two small bits of sprouty sweet potatoes from the store. Planning to try that again this year (in different containers), making sure to start with organic ones. They do take a very long time to come up, but then they grow and vine like crazy!
Dana B says
Curious what type of container Ericka plans to use this go around.
Cecily says
You can save your best, small, blemish free potatoes and rotate your crops. Although the only sure way to avoid blight is to buy certified disease free seed potatoes each year.
Madam Chow says
Mavis, Wood Prairie Farm in Maine has a large variety of seed potatoes that they sell. Their stuff tastes fantastic.
Madam Chow says
Oops, here’s the link:
http://www.woodprairie.com/category/certified-organic-seed-potatoes
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks for the link Madam Chow. 🙂
Linden says
Just because they have sprouted does not mean they are good to grow—often the treated potatoes sprout but the sprouts die off after a few inches. Best to buy certified seed potatoes and not risk a crop failure.
Debby says
I have used potatoes from the store and the first year I got the blight, So now my soil is contaminated and I have stopped trying to grow potatoes. I also got the blight on the tomatoes. Last year I tried something different and the blight was minimal..I laid down soaker hoses then newspaper with straw on top of it to prevent the soil splashing ‘up’ to the plant when it rains. My plants did very well, even the 2 potato plants I experimented with.
Katie says
Growing in the Southeast (Charleston, SC), I just planted my seed potatoes last weekend. And of course, we have freezing rain this weekend…..go figure. I bought my potatoes this year from our local feed and seed store. $3.50/5lb bag….and I got all 3 varieties they had….gold, white, and red. In the SC we are limited on potatoes that will grow well, so I figure if the local guys were carrying them, then they will work in our soils and climate. We should have a harvest by July.
Our sweet potatoes we buy in “slips”, from local SC growers (www.heavenlyseed.net). I use a combo of heritage varieties and have had great success. We plant mid May for those and harvest in November.
After experimenting both with store bought (organic and non-organic) and seed potatoes over the years, I would never use store bought ever again. Poor production and too much of a pesticide/unknown risk. Seed potatoes all the way!
Diane says
I usually buy seed potatoes, but have used organic potatoes from the market when I planted late and the local nursery where I usually get seed potatoes was sold out. I had good luck with the organic potatoes, but of course could only get a couple of varieties. I would never use treated potatoes; it’s too much of a crap shoot for me. Besides, since you can cut your seed potatoes in pieces before planting, a few pounds of taters goes a long way.
Carla says
Hi Mavis,
It’s not just about the chlorpropham. Seed potatoes, if bought from reputable vendors, don’t have bacterial and viral diseases that other potatoes bought in a market may have. You can, of course, grow potatoes from store-bought ones but there is a chance that they will harbor pathogens. It just depends under what conditions those potatoes in the grocery store were raised. If it were rainy during the growing season, they may harbor bacterial diseases. How much risk are you willing to take? I do grow potatoes that I harvested one year the next year but I know how they were raised and stored. If they are sickly looking I toss them.
Charlene says
Here’s my story on potatoes: I saw your towers last year and desperately wanted to try them. I bought fencing and PVC to act as posts to hold the fence up. Then, I planted all of the organic potatoes that had sprouted in my cupboard. I’m talking 3-4 inch sprouts and starts of leaves. I bought miracle grow potting soil to cover them and watered daily. I added more soil multiple times over the summer. Only a few grew. AT the end of the season I sifted through all of the soil to find potatoes. They were itty bitty and I only got a cereal bowl full. Potato tower fail 🙁 I think I will stick with buying potatoes from the market and use my garden space for things that will actually grow. I live in upstate New York, a very popular place for growing all sorts of produce including potatoes, so it isn’t an environmental issue. Looking forward to seeing your gardens again this year!
The Smallest Acre says
I bought seed potatoes this year (Yukon Gold, Adirondack blue/black). It’s the first time trying to grow in the ground. Last year’s failure was with tires. It got too hot. This year I’m trying to be more disciplined. 50 degree soil, good spacing, etc.
SJ Smith says
I have better luck with sweet potatoes, which are a totallly different plant family.
I’m located in the low desert and they take the summer heat.
This year, I’m trying seed potatoes, and planted in January.
They’ve just begun sprouting. In the past, the crop wasn’t worth mentioning.
If I don’t get a better potato harvest this year, I’ll stop growing them;
and only plant sweet potato slips which I grow myself.
Kimberly says
After attending my 2nd potato growing workshop last year I planted 2-3 varieties in mounds out back. They were my healthiest plants last year but I never got around to harvesting. Now I have 2nd year potatoes poking up out of the ground. Anyone see any problem with me continuing with the mounds and harvesting this year?
Sarina Maynor says
I’ve tried both, store bought and seed tubers. The store bought ones sprouted, I planted them but never saw ANY above ground action, same after digging. I bought Yukon Gold seed potatoes from our local Tractor Supply but they only produced 6 potatoes!?!? Now that we’ve began farming and selling farm fresh eggs and produce to our Farmers Market and CSA, I will definitely only use organic seed potatoes! Thanks for providing the link!
Sarina Maynor
The Full Belly Diaries
kathleen says
That depends. Personally, I don’t think growing potatoes is worth the space (They are cheap to buy + take up a lot of land) unless you are growing funky potatoes you can’t buy at stores. Magic molly, all blue, I saw burpee carries a cool looking striped potato (striped!), fancy fingerlings are pricey at the store, etc. Since they don’t sell these at stores, You would need to buy seed potatoes. As far as seed potatoes go, it’s my unqualified understanding while the seeds potatoes are disease free, it doesn’t mean blight spores can’t travel in the air to your garden. I think the bigger problems are bacterial ring rot, leaf roll, some sort of mosaic virus. I am sure you could contact UW Madison or look up seed certification and find a lab to ask.
Anyway, I grew potatoes that were in my cupboard sprouting I had gotten from the Amish. But I grew them in garbage bags as an exoeriment and it turned out better than I thought. But past stupidity/luck doesn’t measure future success.
Dawn says
How do you know how many potatoes to plant in a bucket (5 gal paint pail). I did my first container potatoes last year and did okay but certainly not what I was lead to believe. I would love better results! I am not savvy and do not have much time on my hands, lol but I am willing 🙂
Ks says
I found 2 shriveled potatoes under the counter, leftover from a regular non-organic 5lb bag from the grocery store. I tossed them into a reusable grocery bag with some soil and had a plant in no time. I later transplanted to a 5 gallon bucket and just started harvesting today. So far so good, I’ve got some delicious looking potatoes.
I’m wondering now, however, if the leaves dying back was a result of whitefly/aphid damage, or if they were actually ready for harvest. Either way, it’s been about 3 months and I’m happy with what I have so far. This is my first year growing potatoes so I don’t have much basis for comparison, but at present I see no issue with using store bought potatoes. Especially if they’re shriveled past the point of being edible, in which case you’ve got nothing to lose and delicious taters to gain.
Beth says
Thank you for the video! I had NO idea about Bud Nip!!! Last year I grew sweet potatoes from starts I grew indoors from two sweet potatoes I purchased at a local market. From two potatoes I wound up with two BUSHELS–and I live alone! I think they worked so well because they were most likely locally grown and must’ve been organic. However, I want to try red skinned potatoes this year and will definitely buy seed potatoes! All the more reason to GROW YOUR OWN!
Kris says
I’m just thinking, if I don’t want to use store-bought potatoes in my garden because they are treated, then do I really want to be EATING them?
Stephanie Thomas-Aca-ac says
wow, that’s what im thinking too. i set up usda alerts and am a little freaked out by all the people getting sick from commercially grown.
Trav says
Mosaic virus? Bacterial infections? What’s next? Alien spawn? It seems logical that if the potatoes we bought in store were infected with these a some stage, then would they would obviously show signs, yet none ever do. I don’t think these organisms lay dormant either, they’re be visible signs of infection. The potatoes you buy in store always look very clean and have to conform to very strict standards. In my opinion, I think it’s all marketing BS – “manufacturing a need” as they say. It’s the same thing with all the other useless junk they try to make you buy, ph meters, micro-minerals, a sprinkler that has a twin blast radius and wipes your hiny as well. Here’s a question for ya’ll, if store bought potatoes might be infected with god knows what, then how do you think they guarantee “virus-free” potatoes? Do they do vigorous pcr analysis of sampled potatoes? NOOO! all they do is monitor the tubers and plants for signs of infection. And where do these potatoes come from? a top secret quarantined lab that exists deep in a concrete bunker drilled into a mountain? Nooppee, they’re from the very same farms that produce the potatoes commercially in the first place. The whole point of producing your own food is to be self-sufficient. Buying into all of this horse do-do doesn’t help.
Diane says
The problem with buying “regular” store-bought potatoes for seed, Tray, is that they are (yes, indeedy) treated to PREVENT them from sprouting, which is exactly what you want seed potatoes to do. Your results in the garden will be unreliable. You CAN buy organically-raised potatoes, if you can get them locally, and get reliable results – I’ve done that before and been very happy with my crop.
Of course, if you grow your own potatoes one year, you can save some of them for seed for the next growing season. It’s a great way to develop potatoes that are adjusted to the microclimate and conditions in your yard.
Tyler says
I’m wondering about using organic potatoes from the store as they would not be treated I imagine.
The problem I have with buying special seed potatoes is finding them! I cannot find them anywhere locally (Southern California) and ordering them online is actually much more expensive than buying potatoes locally. They are also even hard to find online with many retailers being sold out. Maybe I waited too long, but the weather here is so mild you can basically garden year-round so I think I would be fine planting them still if I could just find some.
I may have to bite the bullet and order some potatoes online (only retailer I can find charges $12 per pound plus shipping), though it’s very tempting to just try to plant some organic potatoes from the store.
Anybody here have experience using actual seeds? That seems like the cheapest option but I’m guessing it must be harder since seed potatoes are so popular.
scott boyd says
I buy organic potatoes from the store and they work just fine. I have also bought seed potatoes online and they work fine, no difference , but way more expensive. At the store I can see and pick out the ones I feel have the most eyes or sprouts.
Kathy says
🙂 <3
Debra McCreery says
I live in Idaho, where potatoes are grown commercially. It is illegal to plant grocery store potatoes here and in a number of other states, due to the risk of highly-contagious viral blights. Potatoes are farmed right across the road from my garden, so a blight in my garden could quickly produce crop devastation, spread by neighborhood dogs, birds, pollinators, shoes, or wind. Certified seed potatoes cost no more than grocery store spuds and they are healthy. On the other hand, the farmer across the road is very generous at digging time. Never heard of potatoes being sprayed with inhibitors. Best way to keep them fresh is to leave the dirt on the skin.
Stephanie Thomas-Aca-ac says
thanks for the tip.
AMBB says
I work in a seed potato agency. It IS best to get actual certified seed for all the reasons mentioned in the article and previous posts, especially to reduce the risk of infectious diseases. There are MANY potato seed growers in the state most of which are happy to help you find seed.
It should also be noted: You CAN save and replant a few of the potatoes you actually grew from the seed you purchased, however the health and viability of the seed tends to degrade each year it’s replanted. This can result in a poorer yield over consecutive years. For example: You buy potato seed, plant it, and get spuds. You save a few of those tubers for planting next year. They will probably produce just fine, but may yield less than the previous year. You save some of that crop also and replant those for another years harvest. This crop may do fine as well, but may yield less again and the plants become more prone to viral diseases. This situation has the potential to become more pronounced the more years you repeat the scenario.
So, don’t go more than a couple years without starting fresh with new seed for the best possible yield. Most growers in the state do not ‘re-use’ their seed in this manner for more than 3-4 yrs. When you buy the seed it will say on the ‘certification tag’ how many years it’s been in soil. Idaho now uses a ‘field year’ notation shown as FY and a number 1-7. An FY2 notation, means that the seed you are looking at has been in soil two consecutive years. An FY3 = three years in soil, etc.
Ellie Yellowbank says
While I appreciate all that you say, the question is how do you ever get a first generation seed potato (Seed stock)?
Tyler says
That would be done by planting potato seeds.
Ann B says
Buy tubers (potato seed) from growers that grow seed potatoes OR check out your local nurseries that sell them.
Ann B says
In many states its illegal to use grocery store produce as seed i. Home gardens. Its not just that theyre treated with bud nip. There are intellectual property laws involved with this. But the bigger issue is that produce you get from grocery stores is grown specifically for commercial use vs being grown for seed production. Seed crops are tested and certified to be disease free… in order to prevent the spread of many common plant diseases that are easily spread within ecosystems. In the instance of potatoes and allium species (im from Idaho where its actually illegal to plant uncertified seed), the uncertified potatoes and alliums could infect entire regions which would in turn risk commercial food crops. Theres good reason for it.
On another note… the more times you replant your potatoes the higher chance there is of disease and low yield. This is why potato producers usually plant on a limited generation system. Its recommended to limit your planting to 4-6yrs. I generally atop at 3 and then get new clean tubers. Dont just assume you have potatoes for life from one tuber.
scott boyd says
Just buy organic to plant. organic here in Oregon is easily found. It is cheaper and you can see and pick what you buy. You just dont try it with regular…treated potatoes. Buying through an online company is expensive and you get what they pick out for you and charge shipping unless you buy a large amount. I have had great production from potatoes that I bought from the store. Just remember organic because if they are not, they have been treated with chemicals to keep them from sprouting so they look better longer.