Re: cool idea for growing potatoes

**llama momma** 5/22/2013, 5:48 pm

I went through my notes and offer the following that I downloaded from (well don't remember) Anyway here it is:

Early Season Potatoes---- about 65-95 days
Yukon Gold

Early to Mid Season
White Rose

Mid Season-----about 90-115 days
Russet, Superior, French Fingerling

Mid or Late Season
Yellow Finn, German Butterball

Late Maturing---- about 115-135 days
Red Pontiac, Kennebec, Russet Norkotah

It looks like the article used for example late season and late maturing to mean the same thing. Also early season and early maturing seems to be one and the same.

Triciasgarden 5/22/2013, 6:02 pm

Thanks Llama Momma!

Triciasgarden 5/22/2013, 6:07 pm

GWN wrote:VERY COOL WAY TO GROW POTATOES

This is a very cool video I saw on how to grow potatoes and at the same time get rid of an area of lawn, without having to dig it up. Keep in mind it is australia and so make necessary adjustments for MONTHS...

Wow, that is an amazing way to grow potatoes and what a large harvest he got!

Triciasgarden 5/22/2013, 6:09 pm

VJ72584 wrote:The plants in my towers have finally started to bloom. Doesn't look like there will be a lot of blooms - at least not yet. Any idea how much longer it will be until I have potatoes ready?

Wow, your towers are doing an amazing job, your potatoes are beautiful! You will have to take pictures or a video of your harvest!

GWN 5/22/2013, 6:42 pm

Wow, that is an amazing way to grow potatoes and what a large harvest he got!

Seems like a great way to get rid of unwanted lawn as well.... SO I am trying it

bnoles 5/22/2013, 6:44 pm

Great info on those taters llama momma and very useful. I have been thinking of trying a small sample and see how they do for me and with what you provided, I think a have a much better chance at success.

Thanks so much!

Lavender Debs 5/22/2013, 9:00 pm

llama momma wrote:I went through my notes and offer the following that I downloaded from (well don't remember) Anyway here it is:

Early Season Potatoes---- about 65-95 days
Yukon Gold

Early to Mid Season
White Rose

Mid Season-----about 90-115 days
Russet, Superior, French Fingerling

Mid or Late Season
Yellow Finn, German Butterball

Late Maturing---- about 115-135 days
Red Pontiac, Kennebec, Russet Norkotah

It looks like the article used for example late season and late maturing to mean the same thing. Also early season and early maturing seems to be one and the same.

This is some good work Lamamma. I lost a whole day when I first heard about this. So much of what I learned had something to do with season leangth, but also how easy the plant was when it came to machine harvesting. Single crop, easy to machine harvest plant like most gold potatoes turn out to be determinant.

Old fashioned (no one seems to call them heirloom) potatoes like most russets (a couple of them were determinant, but I don't remember which two) and Red LaSoda Potatoes were indeterminant.

Last year we had a good tower experience with Burbank Russets. Couldn't find them in my county this year. I have red LaSoda in the tower this year. I also have a (Nicota??) Russet in another tower but I am a little worried that this is one of the two determinant russetts.

My experience has been that neither banana (Russian?) nor red rose fingerlings are indeterminant even though they are extra long season spuds.

**llama momma** 5/23/2013, 6:53 am

Lavender Debs, good info! I wish the list I offered had more than just a sprinkling of varieties. But we started something good here, so maybe others will add their findings.

Hoggar 5/23/2013, 2:07 pm

Here is a decent article on Making the Most of Your Potato Harvest and another link titled Potato Varieties: A Comprehensive List
Both have good info on what to plant and the results to expect.

yolos 5/23/2013, 9:17 pm

Hoggar wrote:Here is a decent article on Making the Most of Your Potato Harvest and another link titled Potato Varieties: A Comprehensive List
Both have good info on what to plant and the results to expect.

Thanks for those links Hoggar. I read both of them but found conflicting information. For instance, one said the Russett Norkotah was early season and the other said Russet Norkotah was late season. There were a number of other differences. I think this is why it is too confusing to us. Everybody seems to agree that Yukon Gold are early variety though.

Goosegirl 5/23/2013, 10:29 pm

yolos wrote:... Everybody seems to agree that Yukon Gold are early variety though.

That I can verify! Yukon Gold's are definitely an early variety that produces well even in our really short season up here in South Dakota. Only need to hill a bit if some of the spuds expand to the surface where they can get green. Hilling several inches to try for another layer of spuds does not work on these, but they are tasty taters and worth the space!

GG

clightowler 5/23/2013, 10:48 pm

Goosegirl wrote:Hilling several inches to try for another layer of spuds does not work on these, but they are tasty taters and worth the space!GG

Does that mean that Yukon Golds aren't good for growing vertically?

Triciasgarden 5/24/2013, 12:11 am

Great articles, I didn't know there were so many varieties!

Clightowler are you meaning growing potatoes by mounding up the soil around them numerous times?

LittleGardener 5/24/2013, 2:01 am

Goosegirl wrote:
That I can verify! Yukon Gold's are definitely an early variety that produces well even in our really short season up here in South Dakota. Only need to hill a bit if some of the spuds expand to the surface where they can get green. Hilling several inches to try for another layer of spuds does not work on these, but they are tasty taters and worth the space!

GG

Hi GG,
okay, since Yukon Golds are an early variety, does that mean they prefer cooler-temps? And if that's true, then (except for 2 months each in summer + winter) in the PNWet Wink

we could grow them year-round...did I get that right?

Goosegirl 5/24/2013, 7:08 am

clightowler wrote:
Goosegirl wrote:Hilling several inches to try for another layer of spuds does not work on these, but they are tasty taters and worth the space!GG

Does that mean that Yukon Golds aren't good for growing vertically?

Definitely not a vertical variety. The early season spuds only put out tubers in the one level. They will not continue to create tubers up the stem as you hill and bury.

GG

Goosegirl 5/24/2013, 7:13 am

LittleGardener wrote:
Goosegirl wrote:
That I can verify! Yukon Gold's are definitely an early variety that produces well even in our really short season up here in South Dakota. Only need to hill a bit if some of the spuds expand to the surface where they can get green. Hilling several inches to try for another layer of spuds does not work on these, but they are tasty taters and worth the space!

GG
Hi GG,
okay, since Yukon Golds are an early variety, does that mean they prefer cooler-temps? And if that's true, then (except for 2 months each in summer + winter) in the PNWet we could grow them year-round...did I get that right?

Not sure if they prefer cooler temps, but they do tolerate cold well when planted in early spring. April here still gets down to the 20's at night (or lower Shocked

), and the standard spud plant date here is Good Friday. Sounds like you have the makings of an experiment on your hands!

GG

PS - When I have accidentally missed a spud when harvesting, the orphans have sprouted the next year and our winters get down to minus 20F.

**gwennifer** 5/24/2013, 10:40 am

Just to confuse y'all a bit, I planted Yukon Golds last year, as well as German Butterballs which some sites say are mid-season and others say are late season. All were planted in the bottom of 24" deep containers. I hilled them both the same, about 18" total. Even before harvest time, I discovered Yukon Golds poking through the soil clear at the top in both containers planted with them and had to fill in some more. At harvest I found them throughout the containers. The biggest ones were at the bottom though. Later when I harvested the German Butterballs, they were only on the very bottom. Also had a gardening guru here tell me she's had good luck with growth along the stem with Yukons, and plants hers 18" deep because of it.

VJ72584 6/4/2013, 6:10 pm

My brother was here a few days ago and he kept saying his friends had already "picked" their potatoes (he is not a gardener) therefore mine should be ready. I said I was going to wait at least another week. Well, I came home from work today and he had emptied one of the tubes. He also washed the potatoes really well. This is what was in the tube.

cool idea for growing potatoes - Page 2 Potato12

cool idea for growing potatoes - Page 2 Potato12

Now he thinks I should let the rest go a little longer Rolling Eyes

nurzemjd 6/4/2013, 7:22 pm

Here in the PNW, we have a local gardening "celebrity" his name is Ciscoe Morris. He often talks about growing potatoes in a plastic garbage can!

Here is a link: well I guess I can't put the link here because I am new the forums. So .....

if you Google Ciscoe Morris you will find his website. Click on Gardening on the left side, then click on topics on the right side, "Potatoes in a Garbage Can" will appear and you can click on that to read it.

Sorry I could make it a little easier for you to find. Perhaps someone who has been here longer than I could post the link!

I hope some will get some inspiration. Smile

**gwennifer** 6/4/2013, 7:57 pm

nurzemjd wrote:Here in the PNW, we have a local gardening "celebrity" his name is Ciscoe Morris. He often talks about growing potatoes in a plastic garbage can!
...
Sorry I could make it a little easier for you to find. Perhaps someone who has been here longer than I could post the link!

Here's the link: Growing Potatoes in a Container

mschaef 6/4/2013, 11:26 pm

nurzemjd wrote:Here in the PNW, we have a local gardening "celebrity" his name is Ciscoe Morris. He often talks about growing potatoes in a plastic garbage can!

Here is a link: well I guess I can't put the link here because I am new the forums. So .....

if you Google Ciscoe Morris you will find his website. Click on Gardening on the left side, then click on topics on the right side, "Potatoes in a Garbage Can" will appear and you can click on that to read it.

Sorry I could make it a little easier for you to find. Perhaps someone who has been here longer than I could post the link!

I hope some will get some inspiration.

Great site thanks

for sharing

dawn72 6/9/2013, 8:04 am

I like the fencing idea for tires. Last year I grew mine in old tires. This year I just planted them right in the garden but I may try the fence idea next year.
It was easy to harvest them as I just had to flip the tires over and there were all my potatoes!

VJ72584 6/15/2013, 11:07 am

Today we decided to harvest the potatoes. It is getting really hot and they seemed to be dieing off a little. I had two towers left to harvest and two squares in a high hat in the square foot garden. The ones in the towers were mostly smaller and there were some rotten ones. They are mostly on the left hand side in the photo. The ones in the two squares had some beautiful potatoes. The total was 21 lbs today. I spent $3.50 on the seed potatoes so I think it's a win overall. I'll plant again next year but may build them their own box. They got so big they hung over the carrots and radishes planted near them. Maybe a 2 x 4 high built box and add another variety...... already excited for next year.
cool idea for growing potatoes - Page 2 Potato13

cool idea for growing potatoes - Page 2 Potato13

Is this addictive??

Rahab222 3/10/2014, 3:50 am

Okay, llama mamma, THAT was a really cool video on planting potatoes. I have some seed potatoes left that I didn't have an extra box to plant, so I'm going to try this method tomorrow:-) Aren't enough containers usually our downfall? LOVE THIS!

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cool idea for growing potatoes