Alamosa FFA
Seed Potato Project
ESt. 2014
Rockey Farms partners with the Alamosa High School Future Farmers of America club to produce a certified seed potato crop.
For over a decade, the FFA club members and the Alamosa High School Greenhouse Management class work together to plant and care for the crop under the guidance of Brendon Rockey and an Alamosa FFA advisor. The students plant mini tubers, which are seed potatoes Rockey Farms provides from its tissue culture greenhouse. The students are responsible for watering and nurturing the crop while ensuring the greenhouse is in working order.
After 90 growing days and two Potato Certification Service inspections, the seed potatoes are harvested. Rockey Farms purchases the seed potatoes back from the Alamosa FFA club, providing funds to keep the project sustainable and that contribute to the program as a whole.
The Alamosa FFA club reuses the potting soil for its annual flower sale in the spring. Don't be surprised if a potato pops up in your petunias!
2026
Student Supported Agriculture
A new approach to experiential learning
Four Alamosa FFA officers took charge of the 2025-2026 Alamosa seed potato project. Senior and Alamosa FFA President Jessilynn Malouff; Junior and Alamosa FFA Reporter Karsin McGraw; Sophomore and Alamosa FFA Vice President Jocelynn Malouff; and Junior and Alamosa FFA Secretary Emma Cisneros produced 126 pounds of certified fingerling seed potatoes and 75 pounds of round seed potatoes that Rockey Farms will plant in the field as a First Generation crop this spring.
Planting
October 2025
The FFA officers, with help from the greenhouse management class, fill pots with potting soil from Compost Technologies. Once the pots are filled, each one is watered. A tool called a dibbler is used to poke holes in the soil that are then filled with a tiny seed potato also known as a mini tuber.
Inspections
December 2025 & January 2026
Certified seed potatoes are not the same as true potato seed. The latter are the berries collected from the potato plant. Seedlings germinated from true potato seed are genetically unique and will produce mini tubers with different characteristics than the parent plant.
Certified seed potatoes are mini tubers grown for planting that an agency inspects for authenticity, disease and cleanliness.
The mini tubers the students plant in the Alamosa FFA Greenhouse originate in Rockey Farms' tissue culture lab from disease-free plants. The tissue cultured plants are planted in the farm's greenhouse with the goal of producing a crop pure in genetics and health. Mini tubers are selected during these greenhouse harvests for the Alamosa FFA Seed Potato Project.
Students learn that the Potato Certification Service is responsible for ensuring seed potatoes grown in Colorado meet certain standards and disease tolerances. Keeping the seed potato’s cleanliness intact is necessary because diseased seed results in substantial table stock and seed production loses. The certification process includes picking leaves for lab testing and verification of the varieties comprising the crop. Certification, along with breeding programs, are the backbone of the seed potato industry.
Harvest
January 2026
The Alamosa FFA Seed Project harvest in late January brought together family and friends of the project.
The pots are turned over onto a table where hands are used to collect the seed potatoes. The soil is placed into cartons and stored until it is time for the club to plant annual flowers for its spring sale.
Rockey Farms purchases the seed back from the Alamosa FFA club to plant in the field as a first generation seed potato crop.
This project has raised more than $25,000 for the Alamosa FFA club to continue this experiential learning experience since it was established in 2014.
Southern Rocky Mountain
Ag Conference
February 4, 2026
MOnte Vista, Colorado
Jessilynn, Jocelynn, Karsin and Emma shared their seed potato project experience with Southern Rocky Mountain Agricultural Conference attendees shortly after their harvest. They embraced the opportunity to explain the certified seed potato growing process, their opinions on watering, how to deal with failing heaters and what it means to contribute to the food and farm system.
Thank you
Without support, projects like this fail.
Rockey Farms thanks the Alamosa School District, the Alamosa FFA Club, its advisors and its families as well as many others in the community for their ongoing support and enthusiasm to inspire young people to believe in the future of agriculture.