economy of growing potatoes?

[MrFalafel]

I've been going back and forth as to whether or not to plant potatoes in my allotment this year. Last year, I dabbled a little and got a few wonderfully tasting potatoes. But this year, the local gardening centres are out of seed potatoes so I'd have to spend about £10 to order some oneline and get them delivered. Add to this the space to grow them which means I won't be able to grow anything else there.

Now I look at my local green grocer who sells lovely potatoes from farms very nearby for very low prices. I'm a bit fuzzy on the numbers but it seems to me that in my currenst situation, for potatoes, I can still be green with low food miles and have fresh potatoes for a lower price than if I grew them myself.

Am I missing something here?

When it comes to tomatoes and all of the rest, I growing for flavour as well as price but for potatoes, its different.

[Annpan]

Most people grow strange varieties of potatoes not widley available... Plus I don't have any local organic farms and I object to excessive chemicals being used on crops. We do our best but we can't afford organic all the time but we try.

My thought is that we though we couldn't be self sufficient in potatoes, but we shall grow some, for flavour and freshness...

You can set up a barter or you can sell some of your more 'luxury' crops and get some local potatoes that way.

[Clara]

This thought has occured to me in the past. So this year I´m growing my spuds in a container - total cost 4 organic potatoes (I´ve not seen the need buy seed potatoes, because if these develop blight I can just dispose of the earth in the barrel, no further problems) and hopefully the return will be a whole barrel full of tatties.

[Cheezy]

Unless your :
1. trying to be as selfsuffish as poss
2. trying to get the earliest freshest potato available
3. growing organic/ heritage varieties not available
4. using the crop to break up ground you otherwise might not get round to cultivating
5. Like growing a few tatties just for the hell of it

It doesn't stack up. But as you can see it's not about finance some times.

HFW often say's it's better to grow stuff that is expensive or difficult to get. Basic staples like spuds,onions,carrots I do grow but by way not enough to do all my own, they take up too much room on a 10x10m allotment (thats why we're going for a second allotment.. to grow all our staples). And then you need to store them properly to make sure you don't waste your harvest.
Spuds are relatively easy to grow. and there is nothing better than just digging up enough for the next few meals , even if that only keeps you in spuds for a few months.

[red]

i find growing spuds very rewarding, and a great way to start/ start over a new veg bed.
We garden without chemicals (you know the added onees.. not things like water...) so thats another reason. however if space was more limited, would not bother. you can choice the flavour and texture you want, though, and freshly dug new potatoes are so lovely..

I never understand why people do onions from sets.. yo have to buy the sets.. and they have been stopped somehow.. is that chemical or with refridgeration? so there is an added not eco part of their production.. and at the end of the day, they taste like.. onions. - but I guess others disagree, or they would not do it.

[chookwoman]

It depends on why you want to grow them. We have limited space, and aren't self sufficient by any means, so grow what we like best and try not to waste space. This year I'm growing some Mayan Gold in a dustbin to see what they're like. There's no way I could ever grow enough to keep us in spuds. Or anything actually.....

[CaundleMama]

I am with you on the space thing,this year spuds are going in huge deep boxes,made out of old pallets with lift out fronts.
Cant beat digging those first spuds

[george]

I think it also depends on how often you eat them. During the summer we have new potatoes from the garden nearly every day which would be expensive if we bought them on that basis.

I found a 2x2m square block provided enough potatoes for 2 of us for 8 months of the year and that is even with eating them often. This is in NZ.

[Millymollymandy]

I grow earlies and 2nd earlies purely for the new spuds, any extra that get stored are a bonus, but I wouldn't bother growing maincrop because I can buy them cheaply and don't have the space or the inclination to grow them (and growing spuds really does my back in).

New spuds here are exceedingly expensive and there's not a lot of choice, nor are they local. The same for red onions, 4 onions for 99c I noticed yesterday!!!

[MINESAPINT]

I live in a cottage on a farm that grows potatoes. I do grow my own & enjoy choosing the varieties that will both beat the blight & provide potatoes that are suitable for different cooking methods especially making chips. This year I am growing 5 varieties Orla, Lady Balfour, Golden Wonder, Pentland Dell & Valor. They of course will be grown organically.

The potatoes on the farm are sprayed with all manner of concoctions on a regular basis & if ever the farmer has provided me with a bag in return for favours done, I find after eating them I inevitably have a sleepless night due to all the chemicals used while growing them!

MINESAPINT

[MINESAPINT]

Sorry, failed to answer the original question.

No question much cheaper & a lot less hassle to buy your spuds.

MINESAPINT

[MKG]

If all spuds were just spuds, I wouldn't bother. But I'm growing in two large bags this year - one for earlies because you just cannot buy anything which tastes like a new potato which was in the ground ten minutes before it was cooked, and another for Pink Fir Apple maincrop - out of sheer curiosity. The bags are sitting on paving slabs, so no growing ground is being taken up.

[Brod]

I must agree with the other contributers it is cheaper and a lot less hassle to buy potatos rather than grow your own, having said that we still plant our own cos:
1) I still get a kick out of lifting preparing and eating my own produce
2) Continuity of supply. If they're planted in my own garden I know I will end up with some spuds rather than relying on somebody elses harvest.
Yes we did loose the main crop spuds to blight last year (and the outdoor tomatoes) but luckily we planted 2 crops of earlys and we're just coming to the tail end of them now.
Paradoxically round here its about £2 cheaper to buy spuds (25 kg sacks) from the wholesaler rather than directly from the farm gate

[Stonehead]

I'm probably not the best person to ask as we grow tatties by the tonne and love putting the work in. Economics is for pointy heads with Politics, Philosophy and Economics degrees and have nothing better to do than run the country badly.

We, on the other hand, have more important things to do, such as growing vast amounts of potatoes for ourselves and the pigs.

Okay, Cheezy made some valid points that apply.

We are trying to be as self-sufficient as possible. We are trying to grow the earliest potatoes, the freshest potatoes, organic potatoes and heritage potatoes.

We also like to have enough potatoes to make potato wine by the five-gallon vat. And we like the sight of a field of potatoes.

But all that is irrelevant in many ways, just as the economics is irrelevant (and is irrelevant to so much of the self-sufficientish thing as most things are "cheaper" from the shops when you get down to it).

We grow potatoes because we love doing so and it would be unthinkable to grow our own veg without having tatties.

And I say that having spent about six hours digging today...

[Bluemoon]

I love growing potatoes, there's something immensely satisfying about putting a meal on the table that is completely home produced. We also live in a city and, although I don't buy from supermarkets, the spuds the greengrocer has available are usually flavourless and never organic. Our local farmers' market tends to concentrate mostly upon speciality products rather than basic veg so really I've no option but to grow my own. Though if I lived in an area where good quality organic potatoes were easily available then I'd probably consider using the land they take up for something else......well except for the first earlies, anyway.