Ordinary organic potatoes should work. Although they are not "certified," they should be fine. I planted a "certified " russet seed potato next to an old shriveled non-organic red potato from the pantry that was sprouting, and the seed potato got out to a fast start, and I was telling myself, 'See, seed potatoes are awesome.' The lousy red potato foliage is now as large as the "certified" foliage. The jury is still out on the actual potatoes. Aside from the digression, I wouldn't hesitate to plant some organic potatoes from the store.

Many people regularly plant store bought potatoes, certified organic or not. Makes no real difference. If you want to pay the extra cost for the certified organic label that's your choice but a potato is a potato is a potato when it comes to planting them.

Dave

Excellent - thanks so much! I'm gonna buy some at the store and just go for it. For an experiment, the timing is certainly more important than the certification.

You can buy it from whole foods market or from the Organic section of your grocery store. But selections is limited. Same goes for garlics. I will never buy them my mail order. Supposedly(they claim) it is certified. Probably 95 % of the potatoes grown in Idaho can pass certification test anyway.

I tried to grow some Klondike Rose from Green Giant. They must have been gassed to kingdom come because they never even thought about sprouting. I did get most of the Klondike Gold Dust growing though.

I disagree... I'm cheap,.. like... super cheap.... but I still won't buy grocery store potatoes or garlic for seed, because it's too hard to come back from plant disease once it's in your soil. Even with crop rotation, if you get it once, you could wind up paying the price for years. It's better to make an initial investment, and then save your own seed potatoes (and garlic). That's how you will ultimately save.