Most of the confusion about this comes from using the term "seed potatoes" which is short for "certified seed potatoes". Certified seed potatoes are grown with special attention to monitoring and inspection so that they don't bring diseases into farmers' fields. That is the main difference between them and potatoes grown for eating. All potatoes grown from tubers will be true to type. They are clones of the parent plant. Jim

This topic comes up a lot. I started using a pine bark based mix I think the summer of 2005 based upon that article Al started. My entire container garden consisted of bad practices -- topsoil and compost. Plants still grow in that stuff BTW. Due to the size of my container garden at the time (~200 cubic feet), it was impractical logistically to convert everything to pine bark in one fell swoop. Most of my container garden is on a rooftop so just hauling the material up there is a chore. I made an executive decision to do 50/50. 50% of the mix uses last year's mix and 50% uses pine bark (plus the requisite perlite and other stuff). Gradually, over the years, the entire garden is practically 100% pine bark based. I still reuse 50% of last year's mix and have noticed that pine bark can last a bunch of years. Certain containers that support forgiving plants like morning glories, I only change those containers out every three years. The pine bark does hold up year after year. If you're dealing with a couple of baskets of plants just use fresh mix since it's not that much. If you have a lot of containers and want to limit the amount of work come up with some way to recycle last year's mix. When you introduce new pine bark or whatever into your container garden, an equivalent amount of container mix must be disposed of for whatever new stuff gets introduced. This also becomes a problem for those of us (like me in the city) who have nowhere to put it. Luckily, now, my discarded mix every year is better than the best top soil any big box store has to offer so I have plenty of takers for my discards to put in their in ground gardens. Below is a link to photos of my rooftop garden over the years. The last garden album I kept was 2007 but it'll give you an idea of what it looks like. This year I'm going to put up a new garden gallery -- that is if I have a good year of course. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Click on the Gardening Albums

I have seeds that were left over from last year. They have been kept in the refrigerator in plastic bags, so they should be good. I would like to trade two or three types for one type from you. Multiple-type trades are preferred to make postage costs reasonable. I'd prefer seeds no older than two years old. Please see my exchange list for ideas about what I'm looking for. Belamcanda chinensis / Iris domestica / blackberry lily (36+) Gymnocladus dioicus / kentucky coffee tree (12) Kitaibelia vitifolia / white chalice / cedar cup (24+) Maackia chinensis / chinese maackia (12) Marshallia grandiflora / monongahela barbara's buttons (36) Orthosiphon aristatus / cat's whiskers (these are older - two years?)(36+) Tecoma stans / yellowbells tree (24) Here is a link that might be useful: link to my GardenWeb Exchange List

Squash/pumpkins are exceedingly "licentious." They cross pollinate like crazy. Commercial growers have no motivation either to grow in isolation or to hand pollinate. So, any squash you purchase is likely to carry crossed seed. The odds are great that this is a cross with another c. maxima squash. It's going to be edible and probably very good. But you will only know when you try it. Big Max is also a c. maxima and though edible, it is hardly a "table dainty." It's fun to grow things like this and experiment. But if dependability is real important to you, as in, you want a true Kabocha squash, then it's better to purchase seed. If purity isn't an issue, and if you are okay with variability, this kind of thing can be fun, and, with c. maximas, I doubt you'll get anything that isn't usable as a winter squash. George Tahlequah, OK