Potatoes Planted

sngrant 3/5/2012, 9:47 pm

I planted my potatoes on 2/29. I barely covered them like Mel indicated in his book and have watered everyday. When should I see something happening? He had mentioned once you see sprout to add more dirt and eventually have 6 inches of Mel's Mix. I have 6 inches of sand on the bottom to make my 12 inches. This is my first shot, so just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.

GWN 3/5/2012, 9:52 pm

what gardening zone are you in?
I do not know my geography that well.
In my zone they would just freeze and that would be the end of them. Smile

Goosegirl 3/5/2012, 9:55 pm

Last year it took almost 2 weeks before I saw my first tater sprout poke through the ground. Give them a bit more time. Up here in SD potatoes don't go in until Good Friday. Not sure what date works best for your area, but I would think they should be safe now down in OK.

GG

sngrant 3/5/2012, 10:06 pm

They say anywhere from 2/15-3/15. We have had frost one of the nights and I covered them with a tarp. It is nice to know that it took a couple weeks.

littlejo 3/5/2012, 10:10 pm

sngrant wrote:I planted my potatoes on 2/29. I barely covered them like Mel indicated in his book and have watered everyday. When should I see something happening? He had mentioned once you see sprout to add more dirt and eventually have 6 inches of Mel's Mix. I have 6 inches of sand on the bottom to make my 12 inches. This is my first shot, so just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.

I planted mine on 2/16 and just had the sprouts come up on 3/3. I'm a little warmer than you so you have some time yet. I will admit, I uncovered mine twice, impatiently waiting.

Jo

jfkelly001 3/5/2012, 10:14 pm

i just planted my potatoes last week.it might take up to a month depending on how deep they are with the cool nights we are having. if we should have a freeze after they are up don't worry about. They will turn black but they will sent up new shoots again. I plant them too early every year and they have always made it and i only live about 15 or 20 minutes from you.

tomperrin 3/7/2012, 6:25 pm

I just finished filling a 2"x3.5' x 8' pine box with MM, having worked on it for more than a week. The ground soil temp is 46F, the box ranged from 55F-66F, depending on the depth, at mid-day. These will not be certified seed potatoes, as my grower doesn't dare ship them till the end of March, if then. I'll be using organic gold and red supermarket potatoes that have sprouted.

BrotherNorm 3/8/2012, 2:22 pm

Mine go in this weekend. A little behind my own personal power curve but I'm still within the planting time frame for where I am. This morning I put all of the cut pieces out on the back deck to scab over. As soon as they do I'll put them in the MM, cover and hope for the best.

I've had plastic sheeting over the area since last week and we've had some warm afternoons so the soil temp should not be an issue.

sngrant 4/17/2012, 1:29 pm

Do I need to trim these back? They are going to choke my carrots out. Lesson learned! I was worried about my:D potatoes growing.

**camprn** 4/17/2012, 1:42 pm

NICE looking plants! the carrots are gonners. Maybe plant them elsewhere.

littlejo 4/17/2012, 1:48 pm

I'm so glad your potatoes are fine! Where abouts did you plant the carrots? Are they up?

I would not 'trim' the potatoes, but if they are shading/leaning over the carrots, you could stake and tie up the tops of the potatoes to let the carrots have some sunshine.

Jo

sngrant 4/17/2012, 1:54 pm

I planted potatoes in 12 of the squares and my carrots in the other four at the end. The carrots are just now barely coming up.

**walshevak** 4/17/2012, 2:11 pm

Planted my potatos on St Paddy's day.

Potatoes Planted Dscn0435

Kay

tomperrin 4/17/2012, 2:17 pm

sngrant wrote:

Do I need to trim these back? They are going to choke my carrots out. Lesson learned! I was worried about my:D potatoes growing.

Outstanding potatoes! We should all be so fortunate.

Tom

Squat_Johnson 4/17/2012, 5:55 pm

I did this last year with a row of peppers. My potato crop was finished sometime in July, and the peppers shot up after they came out of the shade.

**camprn** 4/17/2012, 5:58 pm

Squat_Johnson wrote:I did this last year with a row of peppers. My potato crop was finished sometime in July, and the peppers shot up after they came out of the shade.

Did you just leave the potatoes in the ground until the pepper were done?

Squat_Johnson 4/17/2012, 6:29 pm

No, I had previously had such problems with voles, that I was eager to get the potatoes out of the ground and onto a plate.

I dug them out, and put in a temporary post to convert it to a 1x8 until the peppers were done.

tomperrin 4/17/2012, 7:12 pm

Squat_Johnson wrote:I did this last year with a row of peppers. My potato crop was finished sometime in July, and the peppers shot up after they came out of the shade.

Did you do this on purpose, or was it an accident, like my carrots among the lettuce last year?

I'm thinking it's a great way to do succession planting, especially for the early varieties like Yukon Gold. I could start the peppers from seed now where I have some empty spaces. Even if I miss a potato here and there at harvest, they will keep just fine in the dirt, and I can glean them later. In the meantime, I get a late crop of peppers. Is this rational?

Tom

Squat_Johnson 4/18/2012, 5:10 pm

Not on purpose. Almost no planning. This box just turned out that way by accident.

This year, potatoes in one box, and peppers another.

I am better at succession planting, but totally missed that one.

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