Re: Potato growing

SwampTroll 6/12/2017, 9:16 pm

I'd keep covering them and let them do their thing. After a while I'd leave them be so they go crazy and give me LOTS of tasty potatoes.

**Turan** 6/12/2017, 9:22 pm

Hill them at 8-10 inches high, and only cover about a third to half of the height. They need exposed leaves in order to grow. Usually you will need to hill about 3 times. They need plenty of time after you have stopped hilling to produce the tubers. I stop hilling when they start flowering, that is new potato time.

A reference guidehttp://irisheyesgardenseeds.com/media/wysiwyg/PDF/growing_potatoes.pdf

bigblue94 6/12/2017, 9:36 pm

The only problem I'm having is I'm out of soil from this box to keep hopefully I can get some more ingredients to make some more if not any ideas so I can keep growing them until they flower these are German butterball potatoes thanks for your help

**Turan** 6/12/2017, 9:52 pm

I often use grass clippings or chopped leaves or hay or straw or pine needles or straight peat. They like leaves/ peat/ pine needles because they are slightly acidic. Roots do not develop on the stems that get buried so MM is not needed.

bigblue94 6/12/2017, 10:03 pm

I may look into the straw add a little more height about 6 inches to the box and use straw then when they get over that height let them go until they flower

SwampTroll 6/12/2017, 10:48 pm

On a separate note has any one tried growing potatoes inside during the colder months? I'm growing mine in a potato bag and was wondering if I could get multiple harvests throughout the year.

**trolleydriver** 7/12/2017, 2:20 pm

My Yukon Gold Potato plants are producing fruit (actually seed heads) that look like cherry tomatoes. The article referenced below says that usually the weather is too hot in July to allow these fruit to develop and in fact the flowers drop off before it can happen. However, due to the cool July that we are getting the flowers are maturing and the seed heads are growing. The seed heads are highly poisonous and the article recommends removing them if little children have access to the plants so that they will not accidentally eat them and get poisoned.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/what_are_those_fruit_growing_on_my_potato_plants

countrynaturals 7/12/2017, 2:25 pm

I have 2 reusable grocery bags with broken handles made from breathable cloth/paper. I'm going to fill them with some kind of mix and plant red potatoes in them when the weather cools off. geek

I also have a sweet potato rooting in water that will (hopefully) give me some slips to plant out this fall. I am definitely wishing away this brutal, non-productive summer. Rolling Eyes

**sanderson** 7/13/2017, 2:48 am

I don't know if there is enough time left before it gets too cold? I think I harvested the last 2 years in October? Any way, before the first freeze. But, here's the thing, it's a good experiment. I think I started growing the slips in Feb? Planted April 10.

**Scorpio Rising** 7/13/2017, 6:08 am

trolleydriver wrote:My Yukon Gold Potato plants are producing fruit (actually seed heads) that look like cherry tomatoes. The article referenced below says that usually the weather is too hot in July to allow these fruit to develop and in fact the flowers drop off before it can happen. However, due to the cool July that we are getting the flowers are maturing and the seed heads are growing. The seed heads are highly poisonous and the article recommends removing them if little children have access to the plants so that they will not accidentally eat them and get poisoned.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/what_are_those_fruit_growing_on_my_potato_plants

Mine have done that every year, TD. Those solid cherry tomato things . They are green and hard.

**Turan** 5/8/2018, 8:50 pm

I am trying out new varieties of potatoes this year, All Blue and Santina. DH asked for a blue potato so All Blue looked the ticket. It is a late season potato. Santina is a mid/early season all yellow potato our local nurserry recommends instead of Yukon Gold. I am growing them in a double layer, first the All Blue and then next month the Santina when I hill. Its an experiment Laughing

Who else has potatoes going?

yolos 5/8/2018, 9:10 pm

I planted a 4' x 8' bed of Red Norland and Russet Norkotah on 2/18. They are hilled with soil and then straw and I am just waiting for them to grow and get bigger. I usually end up harvesting sometime the second or third week of June so it will still be awhile before they are ready to harvest.

Nikko 5/9/2018, 9:12 pm

This year is my first try at potatoes. Growing Adirondack blue and reds. Growing mostly in 7 gallon fabric sacks but I put a few in a raised bed just for fun

SwampTroll 5/19/2018, 4:20 pm

Last year I grew things that could be called potatoes. Most of them were smaller than a quarter.

This year I plan on using last years crops and trying again. Here's hoping it works better and they grow bigger.

Now I just need to wait for the frost to pass so I can get stuff started. Due to a vacation, I was unable to get anything started by seed, so it shall be an interesting day.

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**sanderson** 5/20/2018, 12:57 am

ST, I hope they work. At least they look healthy. Are they the right type of potato to fully mature in your growing season? I think there is a topic on types of potatoes under the Search feature. Hope someone can help. I can only manage to grow small reds in my short-day, but long season, climate.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/20/2018, 9:49 am

Bought 5# of Yukon Gold seed potatoes yesterday! I love them! Plan to get them in today!

**Turan** 6/6/2018, 8:40 pm

So the double layer experiment is commencing. I read it is also called apotato barrel method. I am only doing two layers. The first layer was a long season All Blue. Now, a month later they are all 6" tall or so and I hilled them with a 3-4 inches of soil mix I had set aside for them. On that I lay the sprouted Satina potatoes.

Potato growing - Page 3 06-06_18

Then I mulched/hilled them all well with old hay. I find slugs are not as attracted to hay as they are to straw. I am a little worried I put too much hay on, but it will pack down fast over the next couple of days because I am watering from above for at least a while.
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I plan on hilling one more time, but with pine needles.

**Turan** 9/29/2018, 8:54 pm

The double layer experiment worked well enough. I got 35 pounds from 12 squares. It was a bit costly in amount of seed potato though. One issue was that it is really hard to find all those all blue potatoes! If I do this again it will be with a light colored potato on the bottom layer. Jeesh.

**Turan** 9/29/2018, 10:39 pm

I cooked some of the little potatoes for dinner tonight. Imagine my surprise when the cooking water turned BRIGHT GREEN! Shocked

Turns out that is my alkaline tap water reacting with the purple in the potats. A dash of vinegar fixed it.

**sanderson** 10/2/2018, 2:24 am

The blue potatoes turned the water green? That is so interesting. Thank you for letting us know so if it happens to someone else, they won't be shocked. Shocked

MrBooker 5/14/2019, 12:43 pm

I planted my red potatoes in a 4x8 and so far, they've gone crazy. They've been planted about two months and starting to flower already. Notice how dark green they are and not a yellow leaf to be found.

countrynaturals 5/14/2019, 2:17 pm

Beautiful! Mine turned out to be duds. Sad

**Scorpio Rising** 5/14/2019, 9:31 pm

Mr Booker, that is just NUTS!!!!

I still don’t have taters in...soooo wet here. I love them but honestly they are cheap and if I have to choose, it will be peppers over taters....

However, I have heard that potatoes are one the most over chemical-ized plants ever...grrrr

MrBooker 7/7/2021, 8:09 am

Last week I dug up a Red Pontiac potato with my hands just to check on the growth and found Ants all over the potatoes. They had eaten holes in the one I dug up. I checked a few other hills and found Ants there too but not as bad.

I had to dig up 12 plants to get rid of the Ants. "Ants in my plants and I want to dance"?? <---< Teasing.
I found it strange that I had White Potatoes planted next to the red ones and they had no Ant problems.

MrBooker 7/7/2021, 8:11 am

countrynaturals wrote:Beautiful! Mine turned out to be duds.

All duds and no spuds?????. Sorry. I just HAD to. lol.

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Potato growing