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I've only been growing potatoes for three yrs, and have been buying the seed potatoes from the local big box farm supply store-- "guaranteed virus free." They're cheap, so cost isn't really a factor.
Questions- how common are viruses in potatoes? Where do they come from? Am I likely to get them if this plot of land has never grown potatoes before this, and nobody around me for miles is growing potatoes? Ie- can I just use my own potatoes as seed for next year's planting?
Other plants in the same genus, such as tomatoes, can carry the virus. The virus is carried by aphids. So if a neighbor is growing a virus-infected plant, it can be spread easily to your plants via aphids.
You can certainly try to save some of your own potatoes as stock for next year's crop. But if the seed potatoes you have been using are guaranteed virus-free, I'd go ahead and keep using them. Why take a chance of losing the crop to a preventable disease?
I've only been growing potatoes for three yrs, and have been buying the seed potatoes from the local big box farm supply store-- "guaranteed virus free." They're cheap, so cost isn't really a factor.
Questions- how common are viruses in potatoes? Where do they come from? Am I likely to get them if this plot of land has never grown potatoes before this, and nobody around me for miles is growing potatoes? Ie- can I just use my own potatoes as seed for next year's planting?
I can't speak to potato viruses but rather the pesky potato bug. My parents grew them in our garden and it was our job (little kids) to pick the potato bugs (beetle like insects) off the leaves of the plants. It was a constant job and tedious work but our little hands were good at it. As someone has mentioned already best to rotate the vegetables you're growing.
By virus do they mean potato blight? A uncle of mine ordered starter potatoes from somewhere, Idaho, that had a good reputation on gardening supplies and seeds. He ended up with potatoes infected with blight, ( like the Irish potato famine black rotting potatoes) so his garden was then infected for years won't be able to plant potatoes. Maybe seeds can be treated for blight, but I don't know that.
My mom spoke of how it was the kids job to pick off potato bugs. By the bucket full. Grandparents grew and canned most of their own food and had root cellar in basement, for a family of 12.
I can't speak to potato viruses but rather the pesky potato bug. My parents grew them in our garden and it was our job (little kids) to pick the potato bugs (beetle like insects) off the leaves of the plants. It was a constant job and tedious work but our little hands were good at it. As someone has mentioned already best to rotate the vegetables you're growing.
I don't worry about bugs-- they gotta earn a living too. The pioneer farmers had a saying about planting corn: Four seeds in every hill-- one for the bird, one for the worm, one for the rust and one for me.
Sure will. I guess if they all come down with blood shot, runny eyes, then they must have a virus, right?
Hahahahaha !! Good one. Cracked me up, LOL.
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