I have half a bag of supermarket bought Kerrs Pink potatoes?

Question

that have started to sprout. I bought them and then my own home-grown first earlies were ready to eat to I was eating them instead of the pinks. I hate to waste food so I was wondering - If I planted the pinks in the ground where I harvested potatoes from, is there ANY chance that they might grow at all? Or is it too late to do this now? I know you should use special seed potatoes but I've heard that ordinary potatoes will also grow.

Answer 1

i was just about to ask the same question so thanks for asking. i am now going to plant mine in  compost bags. like others have said, theres nothing to lose. good luck

Answer 2

they'll grow assuming all is right as far as timing and soil there's no reason they wouldn't grow.  my grandfather never bought seeds for potatoes he just cut out the sprouts made big mounds of dirt and put the sprouts in the middle of the mounds

Answer 3

not very appetising as a food when they get old mainly because they boil to nothing.

you can put in where you have taken potatoes as long as you do not make a habit of it otherwise it will cause disease to amass in the soil. you will have to give a good layer of compost for the potatoes as the previous crop will have drained most of the goodness out of the soil.

you dont say where abouts you are if in england you should still have enough time to harvest another crop. the other alternative is to put them in bags with compost and grow them that way i have had quite a good success rate this year doing that.

good luck

Answer 4

Everyone here has great answers.  Go ahead and plant them, what have you to lose?  Potatoes like cool weather best anyway, and when it gets frosty just cover the plants with heavy mulch so their tops stay warm.

Potatoes like lots of organic soil, cool soil and some sun.  Now's the time to plant them!

Answer 5

it all depends when you bought the potatoes ,you can still eat them all you need to do is remove the sprouts and peel them , then use them to make potato salad .

To answer your question ,yes you can cut them into pieces and plant each piece that has a sprout into the ground ,but I really think that's a bit late in the season to do so ,of coarse it all depends on where you live.

Answer 6

The only reason you need special seed potatoes is that they have been treated with chemicals to stop diseases (unless organic).  Some potatoes are also treated with a sprout suppresser, but if yours have sprouted they should be OK. You are perfectly fine to plant your potatoes in the garden - but you may introduce a disease to the soil.  This is avoided by not planting any crop in the same place twice - rotate your plantings to reduce the chance of disease build up - this is what happened in the Irish potato famine!  Best to plant peas or beans in the spot after potatoes.

Answer 7

We might have a long summer.It might work. You've nothing to lose.

I have only bought seed potatoes once. They were a waste of money. Now I always choose the ones like at my local fruit and veg shop. I would't recommend eating them once the sprouts get past about 0.5 cm. Risk of solanine poisoning- small but more significant in pregnant women. Anyway they will be getting stale tasting.