Are these potato sprouts?

[someone_random]

I'm growing potatoes for the first time. I planted the back on May 9th and have been checking on the raised bed multiple times a week, picking weeds and looking for sprouts. This is what finally came out of the ground roughly in the places that I planted them. One, are these sprouts? and two, what's the grey stuff on the leaves? And are the multiple different sprouts from the single seed potato?

 

[Meadowlark]

One, are these sprouts? and two, what's the grey stuff on the leaves? And are the multiple different sprouts from the single seed potato?

Yes, I think I see three sprouts in the lower half of the photo.

The gray stuff is just a leaf turning green.

Yes, every eye can sprout.

Congrats...you are on the way.

 

[DiggersJo]

yes potatoes

 

[someone_random]

for this batch I didn't bother cutting up the seed potatoes into different segments each with however many eyes, I just planted them full (I didn't have room to grow more plants). Will this cause multiple different competing plants from one seed potato, or are they all part of one plant?

 

[Meadowlark]

Will this cause multiple different competing plants from one seed potato, or are they all part of one plant?

Yes, the three sprouts will compete for the same resources. In my experience, you have two choices at this point depending on what your objectives are:

1) you can let it ride as is and likely get a small yield of small new potatoes or...

2) break off two of the lesser sprouts allowing the third strongest sprout to produce larger and more new potatoes.

It is up to you.

I might add depending on how large that original seed potato was and how many eyes it had, you may or may not see more sprouts come up from that same seed...and the more sprouts, the smaller the new potatoes generally.

 

[Owdboggy]

The way competitive potato growers get huge yields from one potato is to carefully remove every eye from it and plant them all separately. But they do need planting with enough space to develop fully.

 

[Meadowlark]

@someone_random , based on decades of home growing potatoes including conducting experiments and conducting research this is what I have found:

1) Each eye ideally should have 2.5 ounces of potato attached with it to supply the energy needed for growth and production.

Try planting an eye with just the potato peel sometime and you will see. It will sprout but never produce anything but very small new potatoes and very few of them. Also, try planting one of those marble sized new potatoes and see what you get...again very little and very small.

Cut pieces of seed potato should each contain an eye and weigh about 2.5 ounces.

2) When planted, each cut piece should be spaced about 12 inches from the next one. Closer spacing generally yields smaller and often fewer new potatoes.

3) The cut pieces of seed potato should be well dried and coated to protect against rot before planting. For that, I use sulphur. I was taught to use wood ashes for that coating but wood ashes are alkaline and potatoes prefer acidic ph.

 

[someone_random]

Hmmm sounds like I should limit each plant to one eye then. I'm growing these to impress someone and I don't want tiny potatoes Here's how I planted them btw.

 

[someone_random]

ok, not sure if this image shows it well but the sprouts are coming along. Should I start hilling?
for the eyes I've been pulling out the smaller eyes, except for the top right one where I intentionally let two eyes grow near each other to see what would happen (both were growing quite well so I didn't want to disturb them).

 

[Meadowlark]

Your plants would benefit most from weed removal now...hilling a bit later.

 

[someone_random]

heh it was worse a few days ago before my first round of weed removal. I definitely need to do another pass of that.