# Organic / NON GMO potato seeds



## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

Where do you buy your organic, non gmo potato and sweet potato seeds?


----------



## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

There aren't any GMO potatoes on the open market.
There aren't any GMO sweet potatoes on the open market.
Potatoes aren't generally grown from seed.
Most potatoes in the grocery stores have been treated to reduce sprouting.
I buy my potatoes from the local feed store. I buy my sweet potatoes as starts from a local greenhouse.


----------



## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

You can buy seed potatoes (not seeds) from Fedco. They have conventional and organic varieties. Organic implies non-GMO...there are GMO potatoes, but I didn't realize they aren't on the commercial market according to what another poster said.


----------



## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

You could always 'try' buying organic potatoes from your grocery store and plant them.
Potatoes as mentioned may be treated so that they don't sprout, I've found organic potatoes from the store grow just fine.


----------



## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

Sweet potatoes, I've found even the organic ones aren't likely to sprout. Unsure if it's the fact that I'm in a cold place and chilled sweet potatoes just seem to not sprout (for me).


----------



## Solar Geek (Mar 14, 2014)

fireweed farm said:


> You could always 'try' buying organic potatoes from your grocery store and plant them.
> Potatoes as mentioned may be treated so that they don't sprout, I've found organic potatoes from the store grow just fine.


I have used Whole Foods org. potatoes for seed for the last 2 years and am very happy with the production. I just asked my Chicago based daughter tonight(!) to buy a few pounds of red, russet yukon. The prices online were ridiculous.

Give it a try.


----------



## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

You can root a Sweet Potato in a jar of water, then break off the "slips" (sprouts) for planting.
Most feed/seed stores have or can get "seed potatoes".


----------



## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

I meant to say seed potato.....derp!! 
Thanks so much for your help!!!


----------



## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Laura Zone 5 said:


> Where do you buy your organic, non gmo potato and sweet potato seeds?


Ahhhh! This question tells me that Spring is getting closer, 'cuz we get it every year.  In one form or another. 

Words and semantics come into play here....

"Potato" is used for both Irish and sweet "potatoes" Sweet: _Ipomoea batatas_...the _Ipomoea_ meaning morning glory. Irish: _Solanum tuberosum_...the _Solanum_ meaning nightshade. They are two different plants entirely. (And that's why Latin names are used...)

Both plant species came from South America, both plants have their edible flesh come from underground....

Both plants have what are known as "True" seeds--actual seeds that develop above ground, on the plant stems. BUT, because of the way these seeds develop(crazy genetics), they do not produce their underground flesh to the same "trueness" to the original plant of the season before it.....taste, color, density, sweetness, starchiness, size, etc,---SO, both plants are generally produced by vegetative propagation, using portions of the plant flesh that grew the season before--both plants are clones of last year's plant. (That's where the resemblance ends...) Well, except one more...Both are perennials(In the colder climate, the frost gets them and we have to figure out a way to restart them....) In the ancient times, they were probably very spindly vines with only one tiny spud, or potato, to a vine, underground(it only takes one to reproduce)--eons of reproduction and the crowding that took place naturally would have done that. But we(humankind) tasted one, found them good, sweet, tasty, cookable--and storable. We figured out ways to select them to make today's potatoes bigger, sweeter, tastier, and yielding more than one to each plant.

Sweet potato flesh is the swollen plant root. Irish potato is a swollen stolon (offshoot of an underground stem).

More semantics: USDA ORGANIC by definition, only refers to food or fiber produced by the organic process spelled out by the National Organic Program--or the Canadian equivalent....

SO, yes, you can take a USDA ORGANIC potato, sweet or Irish, and propagate it vegetatively, to get an organic(notice the small "o") clone, to plant for this season.

Unfortunately, the so-called Irish potato, as it was selected to be bigger, tastier, etc., grew more and more suseptible to viruses and diseases, the longer it was planted year after year from the same original plant material. Hence, growers got together and developed methods to "cleanse" the plant tissue and start over--they called the new "seed" material Certified Seed Potatoes--and they will come nearly always in burlap bags with blue tag certificates on them.... A certified seed potato gives the grower a reasonable assurance level that it will be disease-free--within tolerances, and will be true to cultivator, they are now using DNA tracking as well as inspection.

Now, for the meat and potatoes  of this too-long discourse. If you want to be a "purist", you'll have to find your seed potatoes that are BOTH from Certified Seed Potatoes AND from a grower of USDA ORGANIC potatoes.

The next level would to buy either/or Certified Seed Potatoes at the local garden center or from a catalog---either/or seed potatoes from a USDA ORGANIC grower, local or from a catalog

Next step would be to save your own from year to year, or get USDA ORGANIC potatoes from the grocery store and take your chances that it hasn't been sprayed with peppermint oil, that it hasn't been sitting around too long in the warmer storeroom or exposed to the overhead lights, and so forth.

You can always use organic methods and get reasonable results....I buy Certified Seed Potatoes from my local garden store in Kalamazoo. The purist might look online....the Maine Potato Lady (formerly Ronnigers) is one...another might be Fedco....read the labels.

Hope this has helped.

geo


----------



## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

anniew said:


> You can buy seed potatoes (not seeds) from Fedco. They have conventional and organic varieties. Organic implies non-GMO...there are GMO potatoes, but I didn't realize they aren't on the commercial market according to what another poster said.



http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/crop/default.asp?CropID=16&Crop=Potato

Here's the latest listing of all the potato varieties that have been genetically engineered so far. There are a couple of "notes" to consider: The variety can be modified, but that doesn't mean the production line will have them, since potatoes are clones--so you have the possibility of having a Russet Burbank variety with a GMO line and a non-GMO line. Many of the examples listed are Patented; a patented variety will probably not be sold for home market--BUT it may go into potato chips, boxed potatoes, chicken pot pies and such, or onto the grocery shelf. Another one was developed in Russia. 

Two other possibilities should develop some serious thoughts. One modification event was for starch potatoes...will that gene show up in foodstuff or animal feeds? (I don't know the answer) 

A couple of modifications were to potatoes, using genetic materials from potatoes....in order to confer resistance to potato blight. The question might be, is it ethical to use modification within genera???? Food for thought.

geo


----------

