Certified Seed Potatoes and Seed Garlic, Shipped From Colorado

Ronnigers has been selling certified seed potatoes for decades, and the variety list has always leaned toward the unusual. You’ll find heirlooms that predate commercial breeding programs, colored-flesh types that don’t show up at garden centers, South American varieties developed over centuries of Andean farming, and newer introductions that work well for market growers looking for something different. There are also standard types — russets, round whites, the reliable workhorses — for those who want the classics in certified form.

The catalog is open to backyard gardeners who want five pounds of something interesting, small farms supplying local markets, and collectors who want to try varieties they’ve read about but never grown. If you’ve been growing the same two or three kinds for years and want to branch out, the descriptions on each variety page are worth reading before you order.

Why Certified Seed Matters

Certified seed potatoes have been inspected and tested for disease — primarily bacterial ring rot, late blight, and the viruses that accumulate in saved seed over time. Grocery-store potatoes are treated to suppress sprouting and often carry disease loads that aren’t visible until they’re in the ground. Potatoes you’ve saved from your own harvest may be clean at first, but disease pressure builds with each generation.

Starting with certified stock resets that accumulation. You don’t have to do it every single year, but doing it regularly keeps yields consistent and keeps problems from compounding quietly over several seasons.

Varieties

The variety list shifts each season depending on what comes in clean and in sufficient quantity from the growing operation. A few categories you can generally expect:

• Fingerlings and specialty shapes — narrow, irregular, or knobby types that don’t work well in commercial harvesting, which is part of why they’re difficult to find in stores. Flavor is often excellent.
• Colored flesh — yellow, red, purple, and blue-fleshed varieties. Some hold color through cooking; others fade to cream. Flavor and texture vary considerably across this group.
• Heirlooms — varieties with documented histories going back decades or longer. Some were developed by specific breeders; others emerged through regional selection over generations. Worth growing at least once.
• Standard types — russets, round whites, and other familiar categories for those who want consistent performance or specific culinary properties.

Each variety page includes notes on flesh color, skin texture, days to maturity, suggested uses, and storage quality. If you’re deciding between two similar options, the descriptions are specific enough to be useful.

Seed Garlic

Garlic ships starting September 1st. Placing an order before that date reserves your variety selection — some strains are limited each season and sell out before shipping begins. You can choose a later shipping date during checkout if October or November fits your planting schedule better. Both are reasonable timing for fall planting in most climates.

Ordering Seed Potatoes

Potatoes are harvested in September. Orders placed before October 1st ship starting on that date. Orders placed during the season ship as inventory becomes available.

One thing to know if you’re planting in the fall: freshly harvested seed hasn’t gone through the dormancy period that winter naturally provides. Spring planting with properly stored seed typically produces 99–100% emergence. Fall planting with new-crop seed averages closer to 80%, because the tuber hasn’t fully cured yet.

Growers handle this in different ways. Some pre-sprout the seed indoors before planting to encourage it to start growing. Others plant immediately and let soil moisture and temperature do the work — this can be more reliable than trying to coax sprouts under artificial conditions. Keep seed above 55°F before planting; potatoes that drop into dormancy at cooler temperatures are harder to restart.

Shipping

Small orders from 1 lb to 200 lbs ship via UPS or USPS in 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 50 lb boxes. During checkout you can compare shipping methods and costs before finalizing.

Orders between 200 lbs and 1,000 lbs use UPS hundredweight service. Online orders in this range are adjusted by us after we receive them, or you can call ahead for a shipping quote.

Orders over 1,000 lbs ship by freight. Call to set these up — the logistics are specific enough that an email won’t cover everything.

Growing Basics

Seed potatoes can be planted whole if they’re small, or cut into pieces with at least one strong eye each. Cut pieces should sit for 24 to 48 hours before going in the ground — the cut surface firms up and is less prone to rot in cold or wet conditions.

Plant 3 to 4 inches deep, about 12 inches apart in the row, with 2.5 to 3 feet between rows. Closer spacing produces more tubers; wider spacing produces larger ones. Hill soil up around the base as the plants grow — this prevents greening from light exposure and gives developing tubers more room.

Early varieties are ready in roughly 60 to 70 days from planting. Late-season types can take 90 to 120 days. Check maturity by pressing your thumb against the skin of a freshly dug tuber: if the skin slides off easily, the potatoes will store poorly. Wait until the skin holds firm before digging anything you plan to keep.

Availability and Questions

Inventory changes through the season. Some varieties sell out early, and others become available as harvest wraps up. If a specific variety matters to your planting plan, ordering early is worth it.

Questions about variety selection, planting timing, or shipping are welcome. Contact details are on the site. We can usually give a more useful answer than anything a FAQ page covers, so reach out directly if something specific isn’t addressed in the catalog.