We raised potatoes for years. Here is a little I know about seed potatoes. Potatoes (tubors) are "clones" unless you use TPS (true potato seed). (very small seeds produced on the top of the plant in small pods) TPS can produce off spring that are different from the parent. There are a couple of ways of propagating new seed potatoes. Tissue culture is one, and there is a newer one that uses hydroponics. There is pre nuclear, nuclear, G1-G6 (generation) As each year goes by for producing seed stock the offspring have a higher probability for getting disease. Also the yield can start to taper off for each successive generation. After G6 we say the seed is "run out" They use stringent testing to check for disease. Good quality eating potatoes can be as good as seed potatoes but are not tested for certification. For example G3 seed grown for table stock might be as good as G3 grown for seed. However table stock is not tested for disease. G3 grown for seed becomes G4 for the following year. If you cut the seed, make sure the cut side "heals" for several hours to a few days (depending on humidity and temp). Tops mancozeb is a common seed treatment used to prevent disease in cut pieces. Also, eating potatoes can be treated to prevent sprouting so they may not work for seed. One disease that is particularly bad for potatoes is late bight. The newer A2 mating is very aggressive. Humidity plays a big part in this disease. Monitoring stations keep track of humidity and after adding numbers up in a special formula spraying notices are sent out to growers. After you start spraying you have to continue through the season to keep it from getting a toe hold in your field. This winter I took some sprout tips and grew some potatoes in small pots. I am going to try to try them this spring for seed. They look disease free and I am curious how well they might produce. Here is a link for some info on potato growing. http://www.panhandle.unl.edu/peyes.htm Alex Pavlista is well known in potato circles.

Likewise I have never planted sweet potatoes in a container or bags. But have seen pictures of those who have and they just let the vines spread out over them and down to the ground. And from the reports I've read they produce well. Production is very hard to predict. Weather conditions can cause production to change a lot. The same varieties I dug up to nine pounds in 010 from didn't produce a pound after the hail and the hot, droughty summer last year. And the one I planted in mid July produced several tubers but none as large as the one they were produced from. I would say the most I dug last season was around 5 pounds. The same variety that produced nine pounds the year before. So very hard to predict. And then again growing in a bag, container may affect production also. Jay

This part of the state used to be orchard, but changes in distribution patterns, like they took out the narrow-gauge train in the early 50's, a lot of them have been bull dozed. There is one recently planted orchard way out on the edge of the Canyonlands National Monument, 40 acres of mixed fruit, a modern, high-tech orchard with drip and so on. Their location is perfect - no normal orchard pests, cool nights and warm days, and they avoid the nasty frosts we get. Anyway, the orchard has changed hands several times, couple bankruptcies in there, and was recently purchased by some folks who didn't get a chance to work it this year, so they let the public in to pick for free. What a bonanza. Everybody and their uncle were out there, tons and tons of free fruit. And yesterday I heard some folks bought up one of the best remaining peach orchards down in McElmo Canyon, and are going to bull doze that and build condos. I'll plant more fruit trees next spring.

Sharon, I look forward to receiving my block! No, Linda and I didn't make the sacks. I'm disappointed about that not working out. I've cut out my block but haven't sewn it yet. My daughter committed a knitted blanket to a camp for disabled kids and it has to be there by Monday. She didn't make enough squares, so she is busy knitting like crazy and I am connecting the blocks for her. So if I am not doing that, I have been in the garden! I feel like I have had such a long summer already, instead of feeling like the summer has flown by. That will probably come later. Dan, good for you. I go crazy when the piles start building up, whether it's fabric, papers or stained glass. So I spent a lot of time this last week also folding all my fabric. I'll post a picture later. I don't have a lot of fabric, but it's all organized now and I can find in an instant what I am looking for. Love it. Got to work at the Master Gardeners garden walk today, make food for another daughters dinner party tonight and maybe find time to clean house today...the last think on my list each day which I never seem to get to in the sumnmer. LOL