Re: Potato growing

countrynaturals 5/4/2017, 9:21 am

GWN wrote:
Many people don't realize that there are determinate and indeterminate potatoes. Determinate potatoes such as Red Pontiacs, Chieftains and Yukon gold only grow tubers from just above where the "seed" is planted. Indeterminates such as Russet Nuggets, Nicholas, German Butterballs and Elba grow tubers anywhere along the stem that soil exists. Sounds like indeterminate potatoes are what you are trying to grow by adding boards to deepen the growing medium. There are also early, mid-season, and late season varieties. No I'm not Mr Potatoe Head, too many choices for me. I planted a couple of Yukon Golds that had sprouted from sitting too long on the counter and because I like them.

exactly.... so for this type of growing one NEEDS to use indeterminates...
Another POTATO thing I learned this year. I have a friend who has ankylosing spondylitis, a rheumatologic disorder of the spine (like rheumatoid arthritis, only specific to the back) The rheumatologist suggested he eat red potatoes because they actually have anti inflammatory properties. OF NOTE this rheumatologist is very much by the book and not into alternatives, so for her to say this, I thought was pretty big. SO needless to say I am growing ALL red potatoes this year

I thought I remembered something about red potatoes being a healthier choice. Thanks for the info, Gwn.

RC3291 5/4/2017, 9:24 am

[quote="Turan"]Here is a lovely reference chart I found.
I believe that the category for 'cage' is referring to what I would call tower, a way of growing potatoes to maximize yield, but is dependent of indeterminate type of plants.
I notice that all Xtra late season varieties are good for cages, as are many Late season varieties. Naturally the exception to this they say is the French fingerling. I think that is a typo because for me it does very well. But next year I might try a different type on their list and see if it does better.

https://irisheyesgardenseeds.com/product-category/potatoes/
The chart is what I was trying to find while researching growing potatoes myself. Thanks

**sanderson** 5/4/2017, 9:18 pm

mlpii66 wrote:I planted 100 SF of potatoes last year. Got through most and have seed potatoes for this year!

It doesn't make financial sense to grow them but MAN OH MAN! There is no comparison to the creamy texture of a homegrown to the grainy texture of a store bought tater!

Potatoes - Potato growing - Page 2 3170584802

Amazing potato harvest, just amazing.

mlpii66 5/4/2017, 9:41 pm

sanderson wrote:
mlpii66 wrote:I planted 100 SF of potatoes last year. Got through most and have seed potatoes for this year!

It doesn't make financial sense to grow them but MAN OH MAN! There is no comparison to the creamy texture of a homegrown to the grainy texture of a store bought tater!
Amazing potato harvest, just amazing.

Thanks! It was pretty easy too.

CapeCoddess 5/5/2017, 11:11 am

GWN wrote:
Many people don't realize that there are determinate and indeterminate potatoes. Determinate potatoes such as Red Pontiacs, Chieftains and Yukon gold only grow tubers from just above where the "seed" is planted. Indeterminates such as Russet Nuggets, Nicholas, German Butterballs and Elba grow tubers anywhere along the stem that soil exists. Sounds like indeterminate potatoes are what you are trying to grow by adding boards to deepen the growing medium. There are also early, mid-season, and late season varieties. No I'm not Mr Potatoe Head, too many choices for me. I planted a couple of Yukon Golds that had sprouted from sitting too long on the counter and because I like them.

exactly.... so for this type of growing one NEEDS to use indeterminates...
Another POTATO thing I learned this year. I have a friend who has ankylosing spondylitis, a rheumatologic disorder of the spine (like rheumatoid arthritis, only specific to the back) The rheumatologist suggested he eat red potatoes because they actually have anti inflammatory properties. OF NOTE this rheumatologist is very much by the book and not into alternatives, so for her to say this, I thought was pretty big. SO needless to say I am growing ALL red potatoes this year

Two excellent pcs of info. Thanks.

Something is eating the tops off my newly sprouted potato plants. Sad

Will they still grow?

**sanderson** 5/6/2017, 2:11 am

Sluggo Plus!

newbeone 5/6/2017, 10:35 am

I have never tried growing potato's before but after reading You're post and I had some potatoes in the pantry starting to sprout I built a 3' X 3' X 16" box and planted four potatoes in it, two out of the four made it and not to waste space I planted Malabar Spinach in the empty squares, Well anyway of the two remaining potato plants one really took off it was about two foot tall and wide a real nice looking plant well I went out the other day and the leaves are turning yellow and falling off and now it's a sick looking thing I looked it over and I didn't see any bugs, According to my records I planted on Feb 17. I do have a volunteer cherry tomato plant trying to take over the whole bed.

**trolleydriver** 5/6/2017, 10:45 am

newbeone wrote:I have never tried growing potato's before but after reading You're post and I had some potatoes in the pantry starting to sprout I built a 3' X 3' X 16" box and planted four potatoes in it, two out of the four made it and not to waste space I planted Malabar Spinach in the empty squares, Well anyway of the two remaining potato plants one really took off it was about two foot tall and wide a real nice looking plant well I went out the other day and the leaves are turning yellow and falling off and now it's a sick looking thing I looked it over and I didn't see any bugs, According to my records I planted on Feb 17. I do have a volunteer cherry tomato plant trying to take over the whole bed.

I don't think potatoes like to grow where tomatoes have grown but there may be another reason for the sick potato.

newbeone 5/6/2017, 12:48 pm

Thanks! I was wondering about that. I guess I'm going haft to work on my compost pile to get it hot enough kill the seeds in there, I just hate to kill a freebee when it comes up.

No_Such_Reality 5/6/2017, 4:18 pm

trolleydriver wrote:
newbeone wrote:I have never tried growing potato's before but after reading You're post and I had some potatoes in the pantry starting to sprout I built a 3' X 3' X 16" box and planted four potatoes in it, two out of the four made it and not to waste space I planted Malabar Spinach in the empty squares, Well anyway of the two remaining potato plants one really took off it was about two foot tall and wide a real nice looking plant well I went out the other day and the leaves are turning yellow and falling off and now it's a sick looking thing I looked it over and I didn't see any bugs, According to my records I planted on Feb 17. I do have a volunteer cherry tomato plant trying to take over the whole bed.
I don't think potatoes like to grow where tomatoes have grown but there may be another reason for the sick potato.

Tomatoes and Potatoes are the same plant family and both are heavy feeders. If the tomato is more robust and taking over it's probably just out-competing the potatoes for the nutrients. Unless it's a heirloom, most modern tomatoes are pretty well tuned for robust growth, potatoes not so much (although they're pretty good growers)

mlpii66 5/8/2017, 11:11 pm

Thought I'd give growing a batch of baby potatoes a try so I planted a few in three large plastic nursery pots. I'm calling them Porch-tatoes, (Thank you I'll be here all week). This weekend I'm planning on getting a 4 x 8 bed down in potatoes. I forgot a bout two of those boxes about half full in the downstairs pantry all winter. They have LONG shoots on each potato! So long they were growing up behind the shelves. I plan to lay then down and see how they do. Then I'm hoping to get two 4 x 8 beds in Three sisters. Probably a bit early for them here but I'll hoop for the worst and hope for the best. Potatoes - Potato growing - Page 2 Icon_rolleyes

BeetlesPerSqFt 5/8/2017, 11:34 pm

mlpii66 wrote: I'm calling them Porch-tatoes, (Thank you I'll be here all week).

My sister and I have fond memories of sleeping in "Porch-ugal" one hot,humid summer at my grandparents place (no A/C.)

mlpii66 5/10/2017, 9:37 pm

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:
mlpii66 wrote: I'm calling them Porch-tatoes, (Thank you I'll be here all week).

My sister and I have fond memories of sleeping in "Porch-ugal" one hot,humid summer at my grandparents place (no A/C.)

Porch-ugal! I like it! My sister and I would sleep in an old cabin tent in the yard in the summer. We always had a fire pit to roast hotdogs and tiki torches. In the middle of one balmy night I was sure I heard my childhood nemesis, Sasquatch, lurking about across the road. So I decided I'd take my slumber indoors. Since sis was sleeping so well, I being a conscientious big brother, made sure the fire was cold and put out the tikis and went inside without disturbing her! Next morning as I came out of my room my puzzled parents asked where Betty was. "Still in the tent I guess!" She never lets a chance go by to remind me of it.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/10/2017, 9:47 pm

mlpii66 wrote:
BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:
mlpii66 wrote: I'm calling them Porch-tatoes, (Thank you I'll be here all week).

My sister and I have fond memories of sleeping in "Porch-ugal" one hot,humid summer at my grandparents place (no A/C.)
Porch-ugal! I like it! My sister and I would sleep in an old cabin tent in the yard in the summer. We always had a fire pit to roast hotdogs and tiki torches. In the middle of one balmy night I was sure I heard my childhood nemesis, Sasquatch, lurking about across the road. So I decided I'd take my slumber indoors. Since sis was sleeping so well, I being a conscientious big brother, made sure the fire was cold and put out the tikis and went inside without disturbing her! Next morning as I came out of my room my puzzled parents asked where Betty was. "Still in the tent I guess!" She never lets a chance go by to remind me of it.

That is very telling! My boys would have done the exact same thing!

**Turan** 5/12/2017, 12:09 pm

I got my potatoes planted. They are just covered by soil and then I put about 6" of fluffy hay sweepings over them. When we are past the final frost date I might pull out some mulch to use later. You want a generous amount of vine exposed to the sun to grow leaves and feed the plant.

Here are Irish Eyes instructions for growing in this way~

" Grow a few potato plants, each or in their own wooden box, crib, barrel or wire cage. The container should be about 18x18 inches at the base, about 24 - 30 inches tall, and able to be gradually filled with soft soil or mulch as the vines grow. Set each container atop a well - prepared fertile soil. Plant one strong seed piece and cover lightly with 4 inches of soil. As the vines grow, gradually fill the container with mellow compost, mulch or soil, but always make sure you don't cover more than one - third of the vine's new growth. With some varieties, the underground stolons which produce potato tubers keep on forming new ones for some time. In containers the yield may be increased 200 - 3000 percent compared with open - field culture. This is a great way to grow a lot of potatoes in a very limited space. We recommend doing this with Yellow Finn, Indian Pit, Red Pontiac, or the fingerling types. Watering requirements will be greater however, so check the cages or containers frequently in warm weather.

I added the underlining.

**sanderson** 5/12/2017, 4:39 pm

I bought some red potato seedlings at HD and ignored them. The sprouts grew through the bag holes and I had to carefully cut them loose when I finally decided to plant them, along with sections of sprouting eating red potatoes. The bushy greens are from the neglected HD and the barely-there are the eating potatoes. This is a neglected 2x2 bed with some bagged compost dumped on top. Potatoes - Potato growing - Page 2 Potato22

Potatoes - Potato growing - Page 2 Potato22

Potatoes - Potato growing - Page 2 Potato21

**trolleydriver** 5/12/2017, 5:13 pm

Nice sanderson.

I bought some Yukon Gold seed potatoes a few weeks ago. When I went to take them out of the bag to chit them they had already done so with long things growing out of them. I planted a few in regular soil but still had a bunch to plant. So today I did just that. But instead of planting them in the ground I planted them in the hardware cloth compost bin which was being used to store some leftover material from the earlier compost screening. I took out a good layer of the material then sunk the potatoes into holes I made in the remaining material. The material I took out will be used to cover them as they grow. If they don't grow they will just add to the compost material. As usual another TD experiment.

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**Scorpio Rising** 5/12/2017, 6:15 pm

trolleydriver wrote:Nice sanderson.

I bought some Yukon Gold seed potatoes a few weeks ago. When I went to take them out of the bag to chit them they had already done so with long things growing out of them. I planted a few in regular soil but still had a bunch to plant. So today I did just that. But instead of planting them in the ground I planted them in the hardware cloth compost bin which was being used to store some leftover material from the earlier compost screening. I took out a good layer of the material then sunk the potatoes into holes I made in the remaining material. The material I took out will be used to cover them as they grow. If they don't grow they will just add to the compost material. As usual another TD experiment.

I got a bunch of surprise YGs from my compost pike last year! I thought they would just, ya know,compost. But they wanted to grow, so that they did!

**Scorpio Rising** 5/12/2017, 6:17 pm

sanderson wrote:I bought some red potato seedlings at HD and ignored them. The sprouts grew through the bag holes and I had to carefully cut them loose when I finally decided to plant them, along with sections of sprouting eating red potatoes. The bushy greens are from the neglected HD and the barely-there are the eating potatoes. This is a neglected 2x2 bed with some bagged compost dumped on top.

I think potatoes honestly do better when ignored! They are the quintessential peasant food, ya know!

No_Such_Reality 5/13/2017, 1:44 pm

It seems if you want good potatoes the 'soil' needs to be jus okay. If you want a lot of potato leaves then the soil needs to be good.

I'm experimenting with some French fingerlings from Whole Foods that I'm growing I. The potato tower. The first six inch layer was the left over year old organic store bought major company raised bed mix which was horrible stuff when first bought but now seems quiet nice. The next foot is home blend of 1/3rd mix of 50/50 steer manure (year old) and homemade compost, 1/3rd coconut coir and 1/3rd homemade biochar (figured out home to use a little smoky joe to make it using the free pine tree wood I good that is too sap filled to burn in the fireplace )

Broke off a couple last night filling the next layer. I'm hoping those two pants recover.

SwampTroll 5/15/2017, 7:47 pm

This will be my first year doing potatoes and I'm very excited.

I'm using a potato bag and decided to try my hand at something different - Blue Potatoes.

I absolutely love them mashed, so I thought I'd grow my own and see how things go.

Fingers crossed

**Scorpio Rising** 5/15/2017, 8:24 pm

Can't wait to hear progress reports! bounce

SwampTroll 5/15/2017, 8:41 pm

GWN wrote:
Many people don't realize that there are determinate and indeterminate potatoes. Determinate potatoes such as Red Pontiacs, Chieftains and Yukon gold only grow tubers from just above where the "seed" is planted. Indeterminates such as Russet Nuggets, Nicholas, German Butterballs and Elba grow tubers anywhere along the stem that soil exists. Sounds like indeterminate potatoes are what you are trying to grow by adding boards to deepen the growing medium. There are also early, mid-season, and late season varieties. No I'm not Mr Potatoe Head, too many choices for me. I planted a couple of Yukon Golds that had sprouted from sitting too long on the counter and because I like them.

exactly.... so for this type of growing one NEEDS to use indeterminates...
Another POTATO thing I learned this year. I have a friend who has ankylosing spondylitis, a rheumatologic disorder of the spine (like rheumatoid arthritis, only specific to the back) The rheumatologist suggested he eat red potatoes because they actually have anti inflammatory properties. OF NOTE this rheumatologist is very much by the book and not into alternatives, so for her to say this, I thought was pretty big. SO needless to say I am growing ALL red potatoes this year

Are you talking red skinned potatoes or red fleshed potatoes? *would love to get his hands on some red flesh potatoes*

bigblue94 5/21/2017, 11:30 am

Well the weather has finally turned for the better,time to start planting some potatoes.If i mix up a batch of mels mix on a tarp that would fill a 4x4 x6" inch box then than just scoop out enough to fill 5 gallon buckets would that be okay.

bigblue94 6/12/2017, 8:45 pm

I planted my potatoes in a 4x4 x9 inch deep box it's been 3 weeks and they grown 4 inches above box what do I do keep covering them or let them just grow. I can add to the height of the box

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