Not sure where you're looking but that's quite expensive. I just got the 2015 Pinetree catalog in the mail today and decided to look at the prices for the things you mention.

-Potatoes are $8-9 for two pounds of certified seed potatoes and it says two pounds plants about an 8' row. 4 pounds of seed potatoes are $13.50-14.50. There are plenty of people plant the potatoes they buy at the store or the potatoes they grew the previous year and have no disease issues with them.

-Sweet potatoes are $18 for 12 plants. Growing your own slips from a storebought sweet potato will cost you almost nothing.

-Onion plants, not sets, are $15.50 for 2 bunches and it says each bunch contains 55-75 plants. If you look around in spring at local nurseries and whatnot you should be able to find onion sets and even onion transplants for cheap.

Rodney

P.S. I'm not recommending Pinetree or anything like that, just giving their prices. Personally, if I were planting these things I'd go with the alternatives I mentioned.

Do you have any nurseries or farm/feed stores around you? Local farm/feed stores often have stocks of potatoes and onions, but not often sweet potatoes. A lot of nurseries carry all three, but sometimes you have to order sweet potatoes in advance.

Home Depot, Lowes , Walmart for potatoes and onion set, flea market for sweet potatoes.

I got potato and onion sets at Home Depot last year and they weren't quality stuff at all. I don't want to go that route again next year.

Is it recommended I grow sweet potato slips from store sweet potatoes in Zone 6?

I'll check out Pinetree and look for other sources online.

My local Agway (farm and feed store) always have potatoes and onions. They will also order sweet potatoes for people but you have to ask.

Pinetree has nice prices... I am thinking about buying the 2 pounds of these maybe for next year.. http://www.superseeds.com/plants-bulbs/spring-veggies/potatoes-sweet-potatoes/kennebec-potatoes.html

Nice dependable variety seems like. Want to get the blight resistance if possible, there is widespread blight in the NE here all the time.

I get potatoes in a 50 pound bag [Kennebecs] from Rural King. I also buy a lesser quantity from them of Yukon Gold.

I get the onions [Candy] from a garden center [ reliable place].

I order through the mail from Steele Plants my sweetpotatoes...good choices.

I recommend Fedco for potatoes, Dixondale for onions, and Steele for sweet potatoes. Don't be too cheap. This is my business and I have lived through many disappointments with orders.

store bought sweet potatoes may be treated to prevent sprouting.

Few years ago, bought some sweet potatoes from Walmart, it took some more time to sprout and not enough slips too.

This post was edited by JCTsai on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 14:15

I've been very happy with my first two years of growing potatoes ordered thru Fedco (Moose's Tubers). Last year it was a sampler of fingerlings and this year a sampler of storage varieties plus our favorite fingerling. Had good luck planting leftover fingerlings that had sprouted in storage. Our farm and feed stores offer a selection but not a large variety.

I experimented last year by planting grocery store potatoes, and they sprouted just fine. For a short row like the OP contemplates, that might be the way to go.

One problem with buying from the Big Boxes is a very limited selection. Growing your own potatoes lets you pick a variety you really like, not whatever the store has in stock.

I also second the advice to buy seedling plants, not sets. I've noted that some other vendors seem to get their onion plants from Dixondale, so you might as well order them direct.

Dixondale has been the best for onion plants price wise for me

I go to my local nursery in spring. They always have 3-4 kinds of certified potatoes, onion sets later too. But I never see sweet potato there.

I live in a rural enough area that there is little to no selection of potatoes and onions in local stores.

I have been pleased with Dixondale for onions and leeks.

I get my potatoes from Woodprairie Farm since I really like several of the varieties there (Butte, Russian Banana in particular) and it's the only place I know that carries both of those. They are wa-a-a-ay up north in Maine and are surrounded by forest, so I don't worry about disease since there's no where it could come from. I often grow leftover potatoes from my previous year's crop and have had no disease issues there either.

Dixondale seems to be the way to go for the onions, thanks.

The nurseries by me have a limited selection and high prices... not really worth hoping I find what I am looking for.

SP slips are much cheaper than someone mentioned above. There is no reason to buy less than 50 slips, and 100 makes more sense. The shipping difference is negligible. I have used "George the Tatorman" in TN for some years - nice big vigorous slips.

After years of re-growing my own irish potatoes, planting grocery tubers, and buying seed-grade stock, I have never imported early or late blight. This concern is clearly massively over-blown for home garden scale. Might as well worry about a real concern: colorado potato beetle. Be prepared for losses - plant twice what you plan.

Pat, A hundred? Wow!

I seem to have little losses concerning white potatoes. The beetles are scarce or non-existent....wasn't always that way.

I have some losses from voles and scurf sometimes in sweetpotatoes...trapped a dozen voles and mice out there this year. Sweetpotatoes do not like too much water or high fresh organic matter

Sounds like I should spray the tubers before planting..

Alright I am making progress. I am getting an onion long day seedling sampler from Dixondale and Kennebec 2lbs from Pinetree or Gurneys. Maybe also get Ailsa Craigs from Dixondale or start my own seed if I have room. Sungold tomatoes picked out.

Now to check out the sweet potatoes. I want to get slips of a shorter season variety, so I will check out the suggestions. Also time to check out all the pepper suggestions in my other thread. Thanks guys!

In most areas CPB overwinters in the margins of fields and gardens. If you grow potatoes in one location for more than a season or two they will find you. Wayne's situation may be due to being near big farming operations and the high use of insecticides in general has eliminated CPB.

Pat, I find that the CPB overwinter apparantly in last years potato bed. They first appear on volunteers from last year's crop. This makes a golden opportunity to kill them off at the get go....not much insecticide spraying here.

Peter, please consider growing something more interesting in flavor than Kennebec. There are so many truly delicious potatoes, and I have not found Kennebec to have much flavor - grew it twice until I found more interesting spuds.

I have only grown sweet potatoes once, this past year. For me, 25 slips were more than enough - I grew a wide row that was 15' x 8' and gave several slips each to a couple of friends. Mine were Beauregard, the only kind I could find slips for. I harvested enough for me for most of the winter. I'll probably try starting slips myself from some of the small roots and then plant them out in the garden when it warms up again.

Babs, your post is ironic to me because IMO Beauregard is inedible. By a huge margin the worst-tasting SP variety in existence.

Alright, what other potato varieties do you all suggest? I really like the idea of blight resistance (esp. late blight) and not a late season variety. My Red Norland potatoes had both Brown Spot and Early Blight last year....

What about the SP varieties? I want an early variety due to my experience with heat-loving plants this year.

This post was edited by Peter1142 on Wed, Dec 3, 14 at 10:01

Peter, When it comes to sweetpotatoes, you can get a mix of a few of three kinds from Steele Plant Co. I like several O'Henrys which are a light sweet yellow. White fleshed ones tend to have less flavor than colored ones...like about all other fruits. There are several orange ones which many like...me not as much.

Sand Hill has a lot of old varieties too.

PNBrown, I'd welcome any suggestions of other sweet potato varieties that will grow and produce this far north, along with sources. I did look around some before I got Beauregard, but didn't find other slips available commercially. I didn't have anything to compare it to, since until this year, it hadn't occurred to me that I could grow them this far north.

Peter, I suggested two of my "must grow" varieties above, Butte and Russian Banana. Butte is a baking potato that I also use for potato soup and mashed. Russian Banana is a large, yellow-fleshed fingerling, though is it much larger than anyone's fingers I know; the largest are banana sized. It's a waxy potato, good for roasting, inclusion in stews since it doesn't fall apart easily when cooked, and also great for potato salad. (Don't try to mash or make potato soup since it's gluey like that.) Both will keep at least into March in my cold cellar. I also like Yellow Finn which is a general use potato with yellow flesh which produces better than Yukon Gold in my garden and is the longest keeper I've grown. All of these have great flavor, have grown and produced well for me in NH for many years regardless of weather, and are ready to harvest by late July to late August, so you shouldn't have any issues with them as far as length of season in MA.

Thanks, Wayne, for the suggestions of Steele and Sandhill for sweet potato varieties.

Sandhill has over 100 varieties of sweet potato. I was thinking of getting from them since I will be purchasing something else from them also.

Can someone recommend a good variety for almost New England (early) that doesn't vine out too much? I was hoping to put it in a semi-normal garden row.

If you order from sandhill you better get on the waiting list now. They have huge demand for the slips. Nobody else is remotely close for variety selection, not by an order of magnitude.

Nhbabs, my standby is korean purple. This year I also grew bunch porto rico. The former is pretty famous as a short-season and heavy producer. IMO it is super-tasty. Not everyone likes the fine-grained white or yellow fleshed types. I love them.

I go to FL for a few weeks every winter. Eventually I would like to set things up so that I grow my year's crop there, where productivity is much easier and about 5 times what it is here. Know anybody who would like to hoe weeds round about June in the florida sun?

Maybe I shouldn't order from sandhill, I don't want to be on a waiting list until next June... I want my order reserved. Maybe I will just go with tried and true Georgia Jets from Steele. How much space would I need to give them between their row and the next?

Man all this planning for next year has been hard! But nearly finished. Too bad it'll be 3 months before I get to start anything.

This post was edited by Peter1142 on Mon, Dec 8, 14 at 8:58

Don't think you can go wrong with Kennebec for potatoes.
Tastes great
Looks great
Keeps well
Dixondale for onions.

I was surprised to read that Kennebecs comprise a little less than 4% of our commercial potato plantings. I plant them, but if there are better and newer ones, why are we so slow to get them.

Peter, You need at least 5 feet wide for a sweetpotato row. YES, they vine out further, BUT you can turn them parallel to the row and keep them narrower.

If you want a compact sweet potato, Amish Bush Porto Rico does pretty well. It is a variant of the old Porto Rico.

My personal favorite is Bradshaw aka Mahon. It is a a very good general purpose sweet potato that produces a good crop even in short season areas. Most important, they are much better flavored and have better texture than Georgia Jet. I've also had very good results with Covington which is a recent release that produces much higher quality sweet potatoes than industry standards like Beauregard.

Sandhill's business is first come first serve. This is why it is important to order early. It is not a matter of being on a waiting list, you will be on a waiting list if you order from virtually any sweet potato supplier. Get your order in early and Sandhill will almost always ship slips in a 2 week window timed for your location.

Mahon is also available from Johnny's this year so if you are ordering from them, consider getting sweet potato plants too.

Johnny's seems to have a minimum order of 100 slips so that's out.

Bradshaw and Amish Bush Porto Rico seem to have similar descriptions. Georgia Jet has some bad taste reviews. Any other recommendations?

Thanks!

Back to Steele?.....Covington, O'Henry

Is anyone else getting a 'Rejected' message merely by previewing and then submitting.

I think the problem stems from the post sitting there too long after 'submit' before anything happens.

I enjoyed reading these posts, I may even try to grow some sweet potatoes this year, just to see what problems I will encounter in this cool moist climate.
I noticed that no one mentioned Red Pontiac potatoes, they have been consistently good producers for me, and seem to rival specific early varieties, although I do not grow them exclusively, I sure feel they are worthy of a mention.

For sweet potatoes I used Georges Tator farm to get slips. Another post mentioned them also - quality was much better than local farm/garden center. I have onions from seed in now - will see how that goes. Potatoes and onion sets did poor this year - to much wet weather early in season. I have potato farmer nearby, will try him for seed potatoes next year. SPs were Nancy Hall and Bouregard - I like both of them, but Nancy Hall was a nice white/creamy, sweeter potato.

The order form on Sandhill says "2013 Sweet Potato Order Form".. and they do not seem to timely answer emails. They call it a "hobby business". I am not really comfortable sending them a check and hoping for the best next year.

So my option is Steele... they don't have many varieties. They sell "bunch" porto ricos.. which don't really seem to be the same as amish bush, they are 110 days. Covington is 100 days... would that be good for Northern climates? They won't go in the ground until it warms say June 1st. 100 days is definitely pushing it for a heat loving plant. Beauregard seems to be faster maturing.

At the moment I seem to be choosing between Georgia Jets and Beauregard. I don't want to try a variety that is 100+ days unless it is tried and true in the NE.

Look this outfit up great selection and products, I've ordered tater seed from the since the 90s and never been disappointed. I think Ronningers has merged with the recently.

Here is a link that might be useful: Potato garden

Ok,

I am buying a long-day onion sampler from Dixondale

12 Slips of Beauregard from Steele (though I doubt I will be able to plant all of them)

and 2lbs of Kennebec, I haven't decided from where yet, probably from Fedco.

I've also picked out my peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes, among other things, that I will be ordering from Johnny's and Burpee.

Now if only it were March :)

If by chance you haven't ordered your potatoes yet, check out potato garden. They have a large variety to choose from and if I remember right average price is probably around $5-7/lb.