Here you go, several recent discussions on this question. Plus there is always Walmart or the grocery store.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed potatoes discussions

I buy them at a local nursery but even walmart and Home depot have the seed potatoes...I have done the grocery store buy when I waited too late and all the seed potatoes were gone...didn't make on bit of difference...

Our local Walmart is selling 5 lb bags of seed potatoes for $6. Really hard for me to pass up.

I just bought a small bag of Buttercream potatoes at the grocery store. I'll eat a couple tonight and plant the rest. Never heard of them before.

I get regular eating potatoes at the local farmers' market and use them.

They have interesting varieties and I know they will grow well here!

I buy the walmart bags of small microwaving potatoes that have white, red, and purple potatoes in them. I eat the white and the red, then save the purple ones for planting. I've got a half dozen sitting on my windowsill chitting right now, they're the perfect size for seed potatoes!

You'll hear some people say that certified seed potato is guaranteed to be disease free while eating potatoes are not, but in the end I don't think that really matters. The farmers would have taken just as much care to ensure that their crops were disease free as a matter of profit margins, and the tubers get a far better cleaning and disinfecting to be sold as food than they do as seed.

So IMO, go to the grocery store and sample all of the potatoes they've got, find the one you like to eat, and save a few of them to plant.

Thanks everybody for your responses, I have purchased from walmart for the common ones and that did work out well but I wanted to add something different this year, so i did a google search but don't know any of the companies.

Dave I guess I should have used the search here in the forum I just didnt think of it, thanks for the link ; )

Wendey

Your local farm store. Not only they have the best seeds butyou get excellent advice on what you should do.

Online seed companies have different varieties but they are quite pricey. You can look at Parks seed, Territorial Seed Co. and even Burpee.

i'm doing what endymnion is doing. I have some of those itty bity blue taters in the window that were from the grocery store

the organic section of the grocery store might have some interesting varieties

I keep seeing 'your local farm store' recommended here. In the United States, at least, a majority of us don't live near farms. By the time most of us pay for gas to get to the nearest farm store, we may as well get the much better selection of online/mail order providers.

If you want to buy online, try to find the closest grower to your location. They'll have varieties that will grow in your climate and soil. I'm in Massachusetts, and when I buy online, I buy from Maine. New York would be my next choice.

I've grown from sprouted potatoes in my pantry as well as ones bought at the county co-op (I think all the counties in my state have co-ops) and the Rural King store in Columbus, IN. All have worked very well.

In the United States, at least, a majority of us don't live near farms

More of us do than you think. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a halfway decent sized city that didn't have at least one farmer's market in it.

Farmers' market (farmers selling to consumers) isn't the same as a store selling supplies for farms.

My nearest tractor supply is more than an hour away, so I've never been, and I'm green with envy over other posters' casual mentions of cattle panels and other farm store goodies. Though I probably would have gone there before now if I was clear on how to get some 16ft cattle panels home in our short-bed pickup...

I do live in a semi rural area with a farm store, I did purchased a variety or two there last year and I wasn't to happy with the product.
I decided to buy the Norland red and Yukon gold from Walmart, I also purchased a specialty from and online vendor Grand Teton Organics and yes they were a abit pricey. I didn't really mind the price because all I purchased was 1 type also all orders have free shipping.

emmers, we have a short bed truck also and we just bowed the panels and tied them in, we traveled down the road a little slower but it worked out great but be careful when you open the back so they don't spring out at you.

Thanks everyone I really appreciated the feedback.
Best wishes.
Wendey

Wendey,

How many panels were you able to transport at one time, and how far did you have to go with them?

(Sorry for the off track question, I just have a powerful yen for some cattle panels)

More on topic, I buy my seed potatoes from Irish Eyes online, pricey but that's a secondary consideration for me-I like to buy the tiny tubers because cutting the larger ones seems to make them rot in my soggy soil, I like to buy organic, and I like to buy a decent number of varieties.

~emmers

Hi emmers,

We fenced in our garden and we fenced our property line on one side so each time it was it was at least 8 and maybe more.
Travel was about 30 min by highway and we just went a tad slower. We didn't have any trouble getting them home but getting them out was a bit tricky because they were spring loaded.
I really think you should give it a try.

Thanks for the suggestion of Irish eyes, I went to their website and so many varieties were out of stock, am I late or early, well its ok cus i did find this other shop Grand Teton Organics and they have a really nice site with many varieties and free shipping.

I thought maybe I would get some options from the gardeners here but went on to figure it out for myself.

I really did appreciate all the replies though,
Thanks,
Wendey

Iotts seed farm. Michigan certified seed potatoes.