Cyrus Gardner, it's not totally bogus at least as I understand it. Basically, the virus is everywhere and all potatoes harvested have it. The virus is harmless to you. If effects the potato by reducing yields... alot. By more than 50% to the best of my knowledge. That's why it's best (ignoring cost) to plant certified, virus-free potato seed. This is produced by tissue culture in a laboratory. The thing is, the virus builds up and increases in strength and effect from one year to the next. So the first-year potatoes in the field become infected but suffer little. Replanting those next season gets worse, and so on. I have no idea how much it is year-to-year. But I'm beginning to think the cost of seed potatoes is too high and I think I will try grocery store potatoes and see how it goes. Hopefully, these potatoes were grown from virus-free seed and the yield reduction won't be too bad. I'll find out. But I would also likely purchase new seed potatoes from the grocery store every year.

Thanks guys... you would think by now I would have remembered to do a search first, but I guess I lost the habit when GW searching capability was down. But thanks, I will definitely pay a visit to Logans or Ace.

Momfryhover, Hopefully someone from your part of the state can tell you exactly where they buy their seed potatoes. Normally, big box discount stores like Wal-Mart have them, and so do home center stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. In all of the above stores, they are prepackaged in little bags, sometimes paper bags and sometimes plastic ones with air holes. Normally, seed potatoes are available in bulk--in bins or barrels--at many farm stores like Tractor Supply Co. or Orschlein's, at local feed and seed stores, etc. Finally, most full-line plant nurseries will carry seed potatoes. And, sometimes the Garden Web sytem is slow to update so you have to wait a while to see your post. Sometimes, if a message doesn't appear after you've posted it, you can click the refresh key on your computer and it will appear on the refreshed page. Dawn

Bon, There are ways you can stretch out the growing season---like planting early-season, mid-season, and late-season types, but there aren't any potatoes that produce well in our heat in the dead of the summer. You would need to plant all your potatoes pretty much at the same time so they could mature before it gets too hot for them. If you plant too late, you'll get lovely, lush green plants that don't have time to form any tubers before the soil is too hot. With potatoes, they have to set and size up their tubers before soil temperatures reach a certain point because after the soil temps are too hot, that's just it and the potatoes aren't going to form any new tubers and the existing tubers aren't going to size up more than what they've achieved before the temps get too hot. With very thick mulch on the ground, you might be able to keep the potatoes setting and sizing new tubers for a month longer than someone who doesn't mulch their potatoes, but there's no guarantees. No matter how or when I plant potatoes or what varieties I use, the single biggest factor that determines if the harvest will be small, average or large is soil temperature. You cannot trick potato plants into thinking the soil is cooler than it is, so you just have to work with the weather we have.. Storing potatoes is tricky in our climate, especially with the potatoes harvested in the heat of the summer, so when I raise more than we can eat fresh before they spoil, I preserve them via freezing or dehydrating them. Some years I have been able to store them in Rubbermaid under-the-bed storage containers in the spare room and they will last for several months, but they do eventually start going bad. They store better if they were raised in fairly dry conditions that left them with a lower natural moisture content. In wet years, I find the potatoes don't store nearly as long. The same thing is true of onions. You could raise Irish potatoes for an early summer harvest and a fall/early winter harvest, and raise sweet potatoes for a fall harvest, with your fall Irish potato harvest falling slightly later than your sweet potato harvest. Sweet potatoes will last a surprisingly long time in storage if they are well-cured before being put into storage. Then, by the time your sweet potatoes are running out, you can fall back or dehydrated potatoes or frozen potatoes...until the next Irish potato crop is ready. I agree with Oldokie that two plantings (spring and fall) are about the best you can hope for in OK with Irish potatoes. Our summer soil temps are too high for a summer crop, and our winter air temps and soil temps are too low for a winter crop. So, we plant in late winter or early spring for a harvest in the June-July time frame, and then we hope it won't get too hot too fast so they have time to make a good crop. My soil tests around 6.8 now, but was in the low 8s (8.0 to 8.2) when we moved here, and I have grown potatoes successfully most years. I wouldn't fret too much about the soil pH because the potatoes are fairly forgiving and will tolerate soil more alkaline than the books say. : ) Books are great for info, as are websites and forums, but you'll find that you often will get different results than what "they" say you will. Dawn