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Can you grow spuds from supermarket bought varieties?

Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,249
in Fruit & veg
I was chatting with a friend who asked if I knew if it's possible to grow potatoes from a bag of supermarket bought spuds that have sprouted eyes.

Thanks

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,340
    Possible but basically pointless. I have tried in the past and never got good results. The spuds that grew were a poor yield compared to proper seed potatoes and were tasteless and watery. I looked into it and apparently supermarket spuds can be treated to stop them growing which is one issue (I'm not sure how true it is though) but they also don't have the disease resistance of seed types so you risk introducing problems that way. Organic ones might not be treated but you're better off eating them and buying proper seed as there's not much difference in cost.

    The one real advantage of growing your own from proper seed spuds is that you can pick and choose varieties to suit your garden and how you want to cook them.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,497
    My daughter once grew butternut squash from seeds from a supermarket squash.Very nice they were too!!
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,249
    Thanks WE - he said he thought they may be treated in some way too.
    I'll let him know not to bother.

    All the best
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Bagpuss57Bagpuss57 Posts: 256
    We grew potatoes in my pre-school class I teach in just for the fun of the process and the year later the new cohort of children were really excited when they started digging to discover potatoes under the soil!. We wouldn't eat them though as they get replanted over again and they just keep developing new tubers for them to dig and play with. It's a struggle now to grow much else in the bed as there are hundreds of potato seedlings popping up! If we were to grow them for eating I'd definitely want to use seed potatoes. 
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,673
    I've had no issues with supermarket potatoes they grow just as well as any seed potato I have tried.
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  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,249
    Thanks for all your replies.
    I guess it's a case of suck it and see.
    I'll let my friend know of your helpful replies
    Many thanks

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,426
    Have never tried this, desided not to grow spuds this year, they take up a lot of room, and then theres the underground pests to contend with.  Read yesterday in my "other" gardn mag, you can grwo sweet potato (before anyone says it, yes I know they arent potatos) scrub them to remove growth retardand, lay them on their side in vermiculite, slightly damp, and they sprout!  Amazing, might have to have a go.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,114
    As stated above, seed potatoes are virus free so one less thing to worry about but I have grown sprouted Charlotte's before and they did OK.   

    Nanny - I found 3 sprouted sweet potatoes in my veggie basket and put them in a tray to carry on sprouting shoots and roots till it was warm enough to plant them out.   In late March I put them in a patch of the veggie plot with plenty pf compost worked in and then watered well and put a cold frame over them.   It's taken a while and lots of watering but I now have 3 healthy looking plants that I am slowly hardening off and plan to uncover completely by the end of this month.   Then they'll need a climbing support and plenty of watering still.   Hope it works and, if not, they have attractive purpley foliage so not all is lost.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • Jolly Gary the GardenerJolly Gary the Gardener Posts: 127
    I have grown potatoes in the past from potatoes that had sprouted in the cupboard.Always had good results but I think that if you used seed potatoes there would possibly be a higher yeild per tuber. They would have been selected for good growth and with supermarket potatoes they would be selected for eating not for planting 

    Enjoy your spuds this year

    Jolly G


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