How to Plant potatoes

[HappyCappy]

Potatoes- America’s Favorite Vegetable

Potatoes are as easy to grow in the home garden as their cousins, the tomatoes and peppers, but not as many people grow them. That’s a shame, because home gardeners can taste some of the wonderful varieties of potatoes that are not found in the supermarket. Even if you can’t grow your entire years supply of potatoes in the garden, you can grow enough to have some delicious baby new potatoes with several meals. Potatoes can even be grown in containers.
Choosing Varieties
There are hundreds of varieties of potato, each has it’s own unique flavor. Most people are familiar with brown skinned or red skinned potatoes with white flesh, but there are many skin and flesh colors of potatoes as well as sizes and shapes. Some varieties to try are - Russian Banana, French Fingerling, [small, finger sized tubers, unique nutty taste] Yukon Gold, German Butterball, [yellow skin and flesh, buttery taste], Red Gold, Desiree, [ red skin, yellow flesh], Kerr’s Pink, Adirondack Red [red skin, pink flesh], Red Pontiac, Red Norland, [red skin, white flesh] Adirondack Blue, Michigan Purple, [blue, purple skin, blue flesh]. Potatoes with brown skin and white flesh include, Green Mountain, Anoka, Superior, Kennebec and Butte.
Growing Potatoes
Potatoes grow well in cooler areas, Zone 7 and lower. In warmer zones they can be grown as a fall or winter crop. They will grow fairly well in any soil, but prefer sandy soil with a PH of 6.5 or lower. If your soil is alkaline, [ PH above 7], you can still grow potatoes, although they may be more susceptible to disease. Potatoes require lots of water so may not be a good choice where it’s dry. They will not grow well where the soil doesn’t drain well either. Potatoes need full sun.
Potatoes are started from seed potatoes or “sets“. Small seed potatoes are planted whole, while larger ones are cut into pieces. Each piece needs one or more “eyes” or sprouts. The pieces should be allowed to sit for a few days for the cut surface to dry and harden. You can buy several types of potatoes in garden stores, but for the unusual varieties you will have to order from a catalog. You can cut up sprouting potatoes from the grocery store, but it is better to buy certified seed potatoes. It will take about 1 lb. of potato pieces to plant a10 foot row.
Potatoes can be planted outside as soon as the ground is ready to be worked. They will withstand light frosts with no damage. In warm areas, potatoes should be planted in the fall or winter, when day time highs are in the 70’s or lower. Potatoes are a crop that needs to be rotated, so don’t plant potatoes where they were planted last year. They should not be planted where tomatoes, peppers or eggplant grew the year before, as they are all related.
To grow potatoes make a trench in the soil 3-4 inches deep. Place the seed pieces 8-12 inches apart and cover with soil. Rows should be about 3 foot apart. When the potato plants are about 6 inches tall, mound up soil or mulch until just the top leaves are showing. The mounding is done again when the plants are about 6 inches above the first mound. An alternative to mounding with soil is to use straw, dry leaves or other mulch to cover the plants as they grow. This allows you to harvest clean potatoes from down under that mulch very easily. The disadvantage is mulch may be blown or washed away which leaves the tubers exposed to sunlight. Mice like to hide in mulch to nibble on potatoes also.
You can also grow potatoes in containers. A container the size of a half whiskey barrel can easily yield 5 pounds of potatoes. Make sure the container has drainage and that you water it as soon as it feels dry. Use light weight potting soil to half fill the container, press your seed pieces into the soil, and cover the plants stems with mulch as they grow.
Potatoes may suffer from Potato Beetles, Flea Beetles and other insects. The easiest way to deal with those pests is to cover the plants with floating row covers. This light material allows light, air and water to pass through and potatoes do not need to be pollinated to make tubers. Fungal disease can also be a problem with potatoes. Once plants get a fungal disease there is no cure. Crop rotation, and using certified seed potatoes, help prevent disease. Non-organic growers can use preventative fungal sprays, sold in garden stores.
Harvesting
As soon as you see your potato plants blooming, dig down carefully and harvest some new potatoes. If you cover the stems back up and don’t take all the little potatoes, the remaining ones will mature to full size. A few weeks after flowering the potato plants die. This is a signal that mature potatoes are ready. You can dig them now or wait a while, but they must be dug before a hard freeze. Any tubers that you damage should be used right away. Let them dry in a warm, dark area for a few days, then brush the soil off and store in a dark, warm place. Don’t wash potatoes until just before you use them.
Caution
Stems, leaves and all green parts of the plant are poisonous. Green areas on tubers are also poisonous and should be trimmed off before cooking.

~Kim Willis