Potato dilemma

Hi,
Last year I purchased some "safe" organic potatoes, let them sprout eyes and planted them as one would normally. They produced a ton of potatoes and I decided this year I would order "safe" Yukon Golds.

I received them in February and placed them in a cool, dark place and promptly forgot about them. Realizing that oops! I have some 'taters sprouting yesterday, I went to the closet where the potatoes were (still in the box surrounded with their netting) to see what was left of them.

To my surprise, the eyes on the potatoes are at least 12 inches tall. They look like straws, standing straight up from the potatoes themselves. There are about 20 of these eyes from about 9 potatoes. They have pushed themselves through the netting and out of the top of the box they were shipped in. Are they salvageable? Normally I put a piece of the potato with a 1/4-1/2 inch eye into the soil, but how do I put these eyes in? Just drop the entire potato with it's multiple foot-long eyes into the garden box eye downward? Make a row and lay the foot-long eyes on their sides with the entire potato intact? Or just call it a disaster (an expensive one) and start over next potato planting season?

Thank you for any help anyone can provide me with these "Monster Eyes".

Karen

Hi Karen and to the forum

First off I'm not an expert but have a little experience with what you have going. Last year was my first time trying potatoes and it didn't work out so good. Bad weather and deer eating them, so I only got a couple of pounds out of them. This year I wasn't going to grow potatoes but found one in my recycling bin. It had 8-10 sprouts that were all over 6 inches long. I can't remember where I read that you snap off the long ones before you plant. I did that and cut the potato in half (it was pretty big), put them in a 5 gal bucket and there are now 6 plants growing very fast. I would get them planted and see what happens.
Do a little research about grow them in your area. If you use the search in the upper left you will get 100's of posts on potatoes.

Happy Gardening
Chris

Chris,
Thanks for the welcome!
Did you cover the 6 inch eyes completely after you broke them off, or did you let them stick out of the dirt? This is the part that has me completely baffled as I was able to plant potatoes last year with the "regular" sized budding eyes/potato pieces, but these things are a foot long. I'm thinking of laying them sideways because the entire box is only a foot high.

Karen

I threw out the 6 inch sprouts, dropped the potato in and new ones grew in the bucket.