Quick potato question

[Old Girl on The Hill]

Our feed store just called to say the seed potatoes just came in, great timing because dh is headed to town. I read somewhere that 5 lbs, quartered would make for a 25 foot row of potatoes. Does that sound about right? I have 20# right now, but the way things are disappearing here the minute they arrive, I probably better get more today if I need to.

We grew some from the store last year, and they were so nice, I want to do more, but have no clue re the yield or amount of space I need. We are working up a larger garden space, so there may be extra room, but can't tell yet. Having a bit of a weather break the next couple of days that we didn't expect (70s! But forecast some snow wednesday thru Sat, so we'll see how far we get). Thanks if anyone has an answer.

[Summerthyme]

Oh, boy.... first, you can't exactly plan on "quartering" all the seed potatoes- some may be large enough, many won't be. You NEED a minimum of 2 eyes (sprouts) on EACH piece you plant.

If you figure a 2 ounce piece (which is what is recommended as "optimum"), you'll get 8 pieces per pound... 40 pieces total. Planted 12" apart... yeah, you can get more than 40' of row out of that 5# bag, IF they end up as average 2 ounce seed pieces.

The real rule of thumb for me is how much yield I can count on... and we generally figure on getting around 10# of potatoes from each pound of seed. Obviously there are a lot of factors, but that amount is very possible (we've gotten more, and we've had poor years where yields were less, but that seems to be ballpark)

HTH

Summerthyme

[packyderms_wife]

thank you for explaining that Summer - OC thought I was nuts when I picked up a 10# bag of kennebecs.

K-

[Summerthyme]

Kimberley... why? "too much"? HA! I'll be planting 200# this year, again.

Summerthyme

[packyderms_wife]

Kimberley... why? "too much"? HA! I'll be planting 200# this year, again.

Summerthyme

Yep he thought I bought too much, ook so I did pay too much money for them but Earl May WAS the only place in town that DID have them in stock at the moment so what's a girl to do??? Truth is if he hadn't been with me I would have bought two bags.

So are you direct sewing yours into the ground? I was planning on putting mine into potato beds. We are still learning about growing a decent root crop over here - the challenge never ends.

Tell me all you know please!

Kimberly

[Old Girl on The Hill]

Oh dear. Thanks too for the explanation! I need to go out and do some quick measuring of the new area before dh picks them up, to make sure there is room for something else other than the potatoes, but I'm thinking I need to reduce what I told him to get.

Since we pretty much live on a rock outcrop, we expand our garden by bringing up soil from other areas on the property, and start improving it before use. If I was at my old place, I'd just till another few acres and plant with abandon.

Kimberly - by potato bed, do you mean growing them above ground by stacking more soil around them?

[Summerthyme]

Yeah, they ARE expensive (certified seed). However, I'm convinced it's well worth at least starting with certified IF you can afford it and find the seed. No sense in bringing in some disease from supermarket spuds, if you can help it.

I plant them in long rows, directly in the ground. I experimented with growing some in tires once, but ended up with a collection of some of the sorriest looking, misshapen marbles you can imagine.

I generally plant about 25# of seeds early (usually an early red skinned variety) for all our summer potatoes, and then plant the rest around June 1st for winter storage. We're still getting great quality eating potatoes out of the root cellar. And it's snowing hard right now, so it's way too early to plant here. Sigh...

Not a lot to say, unless I want to write a book! Space the seed pieces about 12-18" apart, depending on variety. The farther apart- within reason- the larger the tubers you'll get, but the giants often end up hollow. About 14-16" spacing seems to be optimum, a compromise which gives good production and reasonably good sized tubers without a bunch of tiny ones which are a PITA to peel.

Remember that the potatoes for ABOVE the seed piece, so plant as deep as you can (within reason, again). Then hill them up at least twice if possible, but stop hilling once you see blossoms- those are a sign that tubers are beginning to form, and you don't want to chop up the baby potatoes hilling after that.

DO NOT go near your patch in the rain, or after a heavy dew- wait for the plants to dry completely. Fastest way to spread disease is to walk or drive through wet plants.

When you're weeding them, peek under the leaves of the potato plants and watch for patches of eggs- usually they're bright yellow or red, and rather easily visible. When you find a patch, crush them up well... that will be one less batch of potato bugs to fight later.

You can try to control Colorado potato beetles by watching closely for the larvae, and then hand picking them. They're brick red- again, fairly easy to see. But they can also completely defoliate a large patch of potatoes almost overnight if you miss some. Depending on whether you're more worried about some unlikely "danger" or starving, spraying with some type of insecticide may be the best choice. I haven't sprayed mine in 3 years, but the year before that, it was spray or give them up... some plants on the end of the row were literally turned into bare sticks overnight, and they were working their way down the rows.

If you DO get late blight, as long as it didn't hit before the plants formed tubers, you still should get a crop. This is where throrough hilling can save you- the deeper the layers of soil between the air and the potatoes underground, the less chance the blight spores will get on the tubers. If you have blight, be especially careful to wait for dry weather before digging. Spread the tubers out and let them cure for a few hours, then sort them and put them in your crates or baskets. ANY spot on the tuber skin which looks "damp" or wet *probably* is blight... put any tubers which show any discoloration like that in a separate basket and check it frequently. If they begin to rot (and believe me, you'll know it- the smell is unreal), take the entire basket out and burn them. (rather than losing a good container, line any basket you're using for "questionable" spuds with some paper grocery bags. Burn the liners with the spuds if you do find infection. Then set the basket in the sun, or rinse it with a bleach solution. This is one really good place for plastic crates and baskets if you can find sturdy ones.)

Store cool and dark, but don't let temps get below about 38°. Lower than that starts changing the starches to sugars. If it happens, don't toss the potatoes- bring about a week's worth up to the warmer part of the house, and store them at room temp in a closed paper bag. In 2-3 days, the sugars will have changed back to starch, and they'll be fine.

Mmmmmmmm... potato soup, potato pancakes, potato bread, hash browns, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, twice baked potatoes, fried potato cakes... (can you tell I've got some Irish in me? LOL!)

Summerthyme

[packyderms_wife]

Thank you very much Summer I turned your posts into a word doc.

Kimberly

[Summerthyme]

That should have been "the potatoes form above the seed piece"! Sorry... too much going on, didn't proofread it in time to edit...

Summerthyme

[joyce1954]

Thank you very much Summer I turned your posts into a word doc.

Kimberly

Yep! Me too! and it is printed for my 'Survival Notebook' too. Thanks Summerthyme!

[ejagno]

I just dug up a 5 gallon bucket full of new potatoes from 12 plants today. I would have prefered to let them get a little bigger but we've had so much rain that I feared they'd rot in the ground if we didn't get them up now. I still have 19 more plants that are in a raised bed that should do well since they are technically above ground. As for quartering, I go by the number of eyes not by simply quartering. Some seed potatoes were planted whole since they only had a couple of eyes on them while others were cut into 3 or more pieces, depending on how many eyes they had. Best of luck!

[Wrenchbender]

I usually buy a 10# bag of kennebecs, maybe I am over generous with the pieces I plant, but I only get about 30 to 40 feet of plants. About 20 years ago my grandma and her brother talked me into planting 100 lbs. It made four 75 foot long rows. It got to the point I could not give them away. I will never do that again. The 8N got a good workout that spring, but it was memorable watching Grandma and gr uncle cutting up all the potatos into seed on the porch.

[Lardel]

As earlier said, how you cut them and how many pieces does depend on how many eyes are on that potato. That being said, I bought 12 pounds and ended up planting three 60 foot rows.

[just me]

I got 50# of Kennebecs and 25# of red's. The red's don't keep well for us and we love "new" potatoes, so we dig those early.

I use the lazy method of planting the whole potato. I know that is a little wasteful, but we are usually push to shove to get them in the ground due to the weather.

I am going to try the garbage bag method on some this year to see how it works. If it works well, I may go to that permanently. We have hardpan here and only about 10-12" of soil to work with and that is heavy clay. Still working on amending the gardens.

[packyderms_wife]

I usually buy a 10# bag of kennebecs, maybe I am over generous with the pieces I plant, but I only get about 30 to 40 feet of plants. About 20 years ago my grandma and her brother talked me into planting 100 lbs. It made four 75 foot long rows. It got to the point I could not give them away. I will never do that again. The 8N got a good workout that spring, but it was memorable watching Grandma and gr uncle cutting up all the potatos into seed on the porch.

20 years ago folks could still get potatoes at the store for a decent price not so much today!

I'll plant the 10 pounds I have and maybe get five pounds of some Yukon Golds to try as well.

K-

[packyderms_wife]

I got 50# of Kennebecs and 25# of red's. The red's don't keep well for us and we love "new" potatoes, so we dig those early.

I use the lazy method of planting the whole potato. I know that is a little wasteful, but we are usually push to shove to get them in the ground due to the weather.

I am going to try the garbage bag method on some this year to see how it works. If it works well, I may go to that permanently. We have hardpan here and only about 10-12" of soil to work with and that is heavy clay. Still working on amending the gardens.

I want to know more about this garbage bag method!!! How do you keep from cooking your potatoes?

[Summerthyme]

Here's a couple of PDF files which are really useful:
http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/potato/research/files/Volume%2037/Thornton.pdf

http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/potato/production/files/Growth%20and%20Development%20chapter-%20web.pdf

The second one is especially good for the basics, in terms of how potatoes grow, when they start producing tubers, etc...

Summerthyme

[Old Girl on The Hill]

This is a great help - I feel a lot better about my odds for this year's potato crop!

I never got ahold of dh before he hit the store, so he got another 17#, for a total of 37#. I measured the future garden area - it will ultimately be 100 x 300, but smaller this year. The old garden area is 30 x 40, so between the two areas, I will be able to plant what I have plus everything else I want to cram in there.

Now if only the weather will cooperate - we just had a light dusting of snow this am, and there really won't be serious planting until sometime in May. Very envious of those of you who are starting now or well underway - the only thing I have are some blueberries indoors that are furry with leaves and flowers already, but that I don't dare put out yet either.

[Wrenchbender]

I cut up the 10#s of kennebecs last night. I put two good eyes on each piece, (some smaller eyes that are close get incorporated into the chunk). I ended up with 42 chunks, (about 60 feet). I have always had good luck with them even when my weeding left a lot to be desired. I am of Irish descent so no potato ever goes to waste:-). Also,, I leave plenty of room to get the tiller between the rows.

[just me]

Kim, the garbage bag method is pretty much the same and the containers mentioned above.

Indigo posted this method on another forum. Cut slits in the bottom for drainage. Roll the sides down but leave a few inches to hold the soil. put a layer of compost on the bottom, lay in the potatoes and cover with more compost. As the plants begin to grow, cover with more compost and/or leaves, rolling the sides up as needed. Continue until you run out of bag to roll up. When you are ready to harvest, slice the side of the bag and let all the potatoes fall out. Add the compost to your garden.

I think since the bag is open, it doesn't cook anything. I haven't tried this yet myself, but I am this year with my red potatoes.

[packyderms_wife]

Kim, the garbage bag method is pretty much the same and the containers mentioned above.

Indigo posted this method on another forum. Cut slits in the bottom for drainage. Roll the sides down but leave a few inches to hold the soil. put a layer of compost on the bottom, lay in the potatoes and cover with more compost. As the plants begin to grow, cover with more compost and/or leaves, rolling the sides up as needed. Continue until you run out of bag to roll up. When you are ready to harvest, slice the side of the bag and let all the potatoes fall out. Add the compost to your garden.

I think since the bag is open, it doesn't cook anything. I haven't tried this yet myself, but I am this year with my red potatoes.

I have some russetts that have sprouted so I think I will try a few bags with them and if it works it works!

Kimberly

[valkyree]

How do people prepare the soil?

do you mix in a lot of organic matter or sand for drainage in your soil for potatoes?

my bag of seed potatoes says to have a pH of 5.5 - does anyone add sphagnum peat moss to lower the pH?

[Summerthyme]

The only real reason to worry about pH is because potatoes are less prone to scab in acid soil. I don't bother... I keep my gardens at around 6.5-6.8, and rarely have problems with scab. Loose soil is good, a lot of manure isn't. Although again- it's mostly because of scab problems... we grew half a ton (at least) of potatoes last year in a garden which had 80 tons of manure applied on 1/2 acre (menfolk need more precise instructions...something I remembered a little too late!) and only one variety showed any scab at all... Purple Viking.

Summerthyme