I wouldn't , have not ever, bought seed potatoes from any catalogs. Sometimes Walmart has some at fairy reasonable prices. I just plant store bought. If you are too picky, plant ORGANIC ones from whole foods or elsewhere.

UNLESS you are looking for some exotic , hard to find varieties /

What's the deal? Are the seed potatoes sold by nurseries THAT much better?

The deal is variety selections. If all one is interested in is the common potato varieties then nothing is gained from using the catalog vendors. But if one wants a much bigger selection of types and varieties then the catalog vendors is usually the only option.

As for planting store-bought - many do it with no problems, other find little success and alot of wasted time and effort. I find it depends on the variety and age (how long it was in storage before showing up in the store) of the store bought potatoes. Some of them will sprout easily and grow well in the garden, others never will.

Usually when we are looking for potatoes to plant in the spring what it turning up in the stores have been winter stored for months and sometimes in less than ideal conditions. The have likely had multiple doses of sprout inhibitors. if we are lucky enough to find some recent harvest, some organic, or some better quality brand name ones - great, no problems.

JMO

Dave

Usually I get seed potatoes from the Tractor Supply store near where I live, but I have also planted sprouted white potatoes I bought and didn't cook before they sprouted. I've done this for white, red and yellow potatoes.

My two grow lights were from WalMart and they work just great. I might have to buy another one or two when I get home.

In my area, I have not seen seed potatoes that cheap. I ordered my potatoes from Peaceful Valley and paid about $3 per pound. One of the greatest advantages for me ordering them is that they are delivered around the time I need to plant. My last frost date is May 15th and the places that carry seed potatoes get them in much too early which gives me the headache of figuring out how to store them until it is time to plant. I also find the variety selection quite helpful because where I am at, conditions are certainly not ideal for potato growing so there is a greater chance I can find something that will actually work for my climate/locale.

I just go to Rural King farm supply and buy a 50 lb. bag and some Yukon Gold also. Course, if i wanted purple and such, it costs a lot more. They get them in about now and they are ready to begin sprouting in a few days later and I then lay them out to green sprout.

My local feed and seed store has certified seed potatoes for $1 a pound, but if you buy a fifty pound bag they are $.60 a pound.

They carry about 8 varieties that are suggested for our area. Standards like red Pontiac and Yukon Gold.

They grow better than the ones that I have ordered from seed catalogs before.

I have also planted grocery store spuds and they have always done well. I have some Yukon gold from the store that I plan to plant as soon as the ground gets dry enough. I bought them two weeks ago and when I got them out of the cupboard Sunday they had inch long sprouts all over them.

producing seed potato costs serious money. Retailers can sell them as a loss leader to attract buyers, or as a favour to customers.

I grow from supermarket spuds every year, but if I want different varieties, only online dealers offer them. Remember that you can always buy online once, and then save tubers for the next year. That will make the cost per lb. go way down.