Planting Potatoes

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?JNVQD 29 April 2015 Planting potatoes
Three rows of potatoes were planted, type is Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold, and Superior. The seed potatoes,purchased, were planted at two foot centers in the row, depth about three inches, and the rows are two feet apart for a total of 12 in each row. The soil was conditioned with a small Honda rototiller FG110G. Expectation is about four pounds or more from each plant.Ground temperature at four inches is 14 degrees C. Each seed potato was marked with a stake to facilitate digging and watering if necessary.

 

[Steve Randles]

I'm not familiar with those varieties, are they 1st early, 2nd early or maincrop? I'm a little confused with the staking too, wont you see the plants to know where to dig and/or water. If I did it that way I would need over 500 stakes...lol..would make my plot look like a porcupine.

Steve...

 

[Durgan]

I ignore the length of time to maturity. The potatoes are allowed to mature meaning all the vegetation dies off before digging. I dig using a fork and the stake identifies the center of the harvest, hence reduces instrument damage. Watering is by hose which is pushed down the stake and gets moisture to the area required. Obviously this works due to the small number of plants.

 

[headfullofbees]

In the UK we usually plant our potatoes as follows:

1st earlies: 9-12 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart.
2nd earlies: 12 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart.
Maincrop: 15 inches apart in rows 2 feet 6 inches apart.
Are your spacings different because of a different environment, or are they a result of personal experience?
What do you gain from them?

If we left all our spuds until all the vegetation had died down, we'd have a nasty, smelly, blight infested mess.

 

[Steve Randles]

We plant in rows in the UK, then dig along that row with a fork, this too reduces damage by fork, we also water along the row with a hosepipe, it's under pressure so that way we stay off the soil, therefore less compaction and more room for the tubers to swell. I can see your thinking behind the method but cant help but think your trying to re-invent the wheel a little, but gardening is a wonderful thing and everyone does it differently I guess.


I just start at one end of each "hill", no problem finding the harvest


Also, planting 3 inches deep seems too shallow to me, I plant 9 inches deep then earth up another 6 inches on top straight after planting, I earth up again on top of that when the vegetation comes through that...gives me much more stem for the spuds to grow from and so a greater yield overall. If I planted 3 inches deep all my tubers would be at or on the surface of the soil, would get sun then become poisonous as they turned green.

Have you always grown them this way Durgan? It seems to fly in the face of everything ever known, taught or passed down about growing potatoes. And what made you grow this way?

Steve...

 

[Durgan]

This is new pictures to make viewing easier.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZFZLX
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QHBIN 21 August 2009 How a Potato Plant Grows
There is a great deal of information on the Internet about growing potatoes in tires, boxes and indicating that large quantities of new tubers can be produced with high vertical hilling. The view propagated is that potatoes grow from branches all along the main stalk. This is utter nonsense, as the pictures indicate. New tubers are formed around the seed potato and always slightly above it.

My potato growing test box was opened today. The pictures speak for themselves. Clearly there is no advantage in carrying out excessive hilling when growing potatoes. The purpose of hilling is to insure the tubers are covered, since light affects potatoes producing a green appearance, which is an indication of solanine, which is harmful if ingested in large quantities.. For comparison one Pontiac Red was dug in the same row, which was almost identical to the test box potato in appearance.

 

[pixie N.C.]

I don't know the first thing about growing potatoes
My question is, if the soil temp. is 14° , 4" in the ground, how is it possible to water, and it not freeze.

 

[pixie N.C.]

My bad didn't see the C for celsius,am so use to fahrenheit