Potatoes

[big rockpile]

I am on my second year growing in Bags Potatoes.

I haven't had any luck growing them this way.

My wife is following a couple they tried several ways of growing and found the best way just plant them in the Garden and hill.

Ok so just plant in the Garden. This is where the questions come in.

Will Tomatoes and Peppers do better in the Garden?

Will Peppers Cross Polinate I'm wanting to keep seed plus I'm needing Hot Peppers and have some Sweet Bell?

Just double the size of my Garden. So it is now 20X40.

big rockpile

 

[Meadowlark]

I am on my second year growing in Bags Potatoes.

I haven't had any luck growing them this way.

My wife is following a couple they tried several ways of growing and found the best way just plant them in the Garden and hill.

Yep, been the best way forever...

Will Tomatoes and Peppers do better in the Garden?

Yes, 30% better on average than containers.

Will Peppers Cross Polinate I'm wanting to keep seed plus I'm needing Hot Peppers and have some Sweet Bell?

They can cross pollinate especially if planted within about 30ft of each other...only would affect the seed.

 

[skinyea]

Kinda early in the season for Missouri to say potatoes not a success.

I have found it fairly easy to grow Potatoes in bags. I do tend to get more out of the garden though.

Last year in pots I averaged 3 LB per plant and in garden 4.2LB per.

Make sure pot have good drainage and good soil.

 

[Meadowlark]

...Last year in pots I averaged 3 LB per plant and in garden 4.2LB per.

That's 29% reduction...close enough to the 30% I stated.

 

[big rockpile]

Kinda early in the season for Missouri to say potatoes not a success.

I have found it fairly easy to grow Potatoes in bags. I do tend to get more out of the garden though.

Last year in pots I averaged 3 LB per plant and in garden 4.2LB per.

Make sure pot have good drainage and good soil.

They are 10 gallon Fiber Pots. I had some in the Greenhouse in Raised Beds.

I'm tired of messing around. Plant stuff in my Garden.

big rockpile

 

[gary350]

Plant potatoes in rows is best. Till 4" deep then plant seed potatoes with 5 eyes 8" apart 2" deep. Each eye grows a stalk and each stalk grows 1 lb of new potatoes. 30 seed potatoes with 5 eyes = 150 stalks = 150 lbs of new potatoes. Be sure to till in 6-12-12 fertilizer before you till the soil. Start hilling up potatoes when plants are 6" tall. Pots work great 4 seed potatoes with 5 eyes in each pot = 20 lbs. of new potatoes. This year I am doing water tower irrigation, put fertilizer in the bucket then fill it with water. Red potatoes are more productive than white potatoes about 4 to 1.

 

[Meadowlark]

... Be sure to till in 6-12-12 fertilizer before you till the soil.

So, what if your soil tests out at 36 ppm of total nitrogen, 63 ppm of phosphorus, and 111 ppm of potassium?

How do you know what everyone's soil needs are without a soil test?

 

[big rockpile]

Well my New Crop of Potatoes is coming up in Fiber Pots. I planted Kennebecs.

It's too late to consider planting in the ground.

big rockpile

 

[gary350]

I have 3 rows of potatoes in the garden. Each row is 32 ft long with 48 seed potatoes in each row. Each seed potatoes has 5 eyes that will grow 5 plants each. 48x3x5=720 plants. Each plant will produce 1 lb. of new potatoes. Most of the potatoes are white Kennebec potatoes with a few Red Norland, some Adirondack and some French Fingerling. Harvest should be about 720 lbs of new potatoes. Plants are 2 ft tall, hills are 14" tall, today I put 2" of aged mulch on all the hills to hold moisture. Our hot 100°f dry desert weather with no rain has not started yet. It has been 4 years sense I put 10,000. lbs. of 1 year old ground up tree leaves on my garden. First year soil test 8ph, 2nd year 7ph, 3rd year 6ph, each year after that soil stays at 6 ph. This year I am using 21-20-20 fertilizer on potatoes. 21 is Ammonium sulfate potatoes likes slightly acid soil. Plants only get 1 lb of fertilizer for a 100 ft row once a week.

 

[Meadowlark]

I have 3 rows of potatoes in the garden. Each row is 32 ft long with 48 seed potatoes in each row. Each seed potatoes has 5 eyes that will grow 5 plants each. 48x3x5=720 plants. Each plant will produce 1 lb. of new potatoes. Most of the potatoes are white Kennebec potatoes with a few Red Norland, some Adirondack and some French Fingerling. Harvest should be about 720 lbs of new potatoes.

Interesting math.... The minimum size cut of a seed potato for planting in my experience is about 2 ounces (see attached photo of 2-ounce red potato harvested today) and to get 720 two-ounce pieces would mean 1440 ounces or about 90 pounds of seed potatoes. How many pounds of seed potatoes did you use to get 720 plants?

At that rate of 90 pounds of seed potatoes and expected harvest of 720 pounds of new potatoes, your productivity would be an average of 8 pounds of new potatoes per pound of seed potato. That is about what I normally see for white/gold potatoes give or take. However, that would be very low productivity for red potatoes that I normally see.

The size of the seed cut has a direct correlation to the eventual size of the harvest, in my experience. Going lower than about 2 ounces of seed cut results in reduced yield.

People say they can plant potato peels and get potatoes. Yes, but the yield is significantly reduced without that cut material providing support/nourishment for the new plant.

I have done a lot of experimenting on the size of cut. Of course, the cut has to have "eyes" but it also has to have some substance to support the new plant. In my experience, below 2 ounces the resulting productivity falls off significantly down to just peelings. It is better, again, in my experience to have less plants if more plants means going below that 2-ounce threshold.

Potatoes are certainly an interesting and rewarding home garden veggie.

 

[gary350]

Interesting math.... The minimum size cut of a seed potato for planting in my experience is about 2 ounces (see attached photo of 2-ounce red potato harvested today) and to get 720 two-ounce pieces would mean 1440 ounces or about 90 pounds of seed potatoes. How many pounds of seed potatoes did you use to get 720 plants?

At that rate of 90 pounds of seed potatoes and expected harvest of 720 pounds of new potatoes, your productivity would be an average of 8 pounds of new potatoes per pound of seed potato. That is about what I normally see for white/gold potatoes give or take. However, that would be very low productivity for red potatoes that I normally see.

The size of the seed cut has a direct correlation to the eventual size of the harvest, in my experience. Going lower than about 2 ounces of seed cut results in reduced yield.

People say they can plant potato peels and get potatoes. Yes, but the yield is significantly reduced without that cut material providing support/nourishment for the new plant.

I have done a lot of experimenting on the size of cut. Of course, the cut has to have "eyes" but it also has to have some substance to support the new plant. In my experience, below 2 ounces the resulting productivity falls off significantly down to just peelings. It is better, again, in my experience to have less plants if more plants means going below that 2-ounce threshold.

Potatoes are certainly an interesting and rewarding home garden veggie.

View attachment 102985

Red potatoes out produce white potatoes about 4 to 1 sometimes. We don't like red potatoes I was not going to grow red but I had 6 potatoes from last year so I planted them. I count 25 stalks coming up out of the soil from 6 potatoes. I planted potatoes this year March 15 but should have planted March 1st. We were having every day rain can't plant potatoes in mud. Probably 2 bs. of these seed potatoes.

I bought 34 lbs of Kennebec seed potatoes. I hand picked 96 potatoes I want 5 good eyes on each seed potato. I also had 33 Kennebec potatoes saved from last year to use for seed potatoes about 5 to 10 lb. Some potatoes had 6 or 7 eyes, I am not cutting off 2 eyes to get 5 eyes.

I had 10 big Russet potatoes with 10 to 12 eyes on each seed potato I did not cut them either there was probably 7 lbs. They are planted 8" apart also.

Adirondack had 5 eyes also. I probably bought about 15 lbs. of them.

Dutch Blue potatoes was a 1.5 lb. bag half of them sprouted the other half rotted.

Fingerling was 5 lbs and only about 2 lbs sprouted the rest rotted before they sprouted. These are the size of my thumb with 1 to 2 eyes.

I'm not sure that I had 90 lbs of seed potatoes?

Red 2 lbs.
Kennebec 34 lbs and 5 or 10 lbs.
Russet 15 lbs
Adirondack 7 lb
Dutch 1 lb
Fingerling 2 lbs.

About 71 lbs. of seed potatoes.

 

[Meadowlark]

So, at 71 pounds of seed potatoes and 720 cut seed pieces that would be about 1.6 ounces per cut on average. That is about 20% less than the 2-ounce size I consider minimum for seed pieces.

I will be interested in your harvest amount. If you get the 720 pounds forecast from 71 pounds of seed, that would be a productivity ratio of just over 10 pounds of new potatoes per pound of seed potato. For reds that is low, but for white is very good. Since you have a mix, it will be interesting to hear the results.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Minor detour on this thread:

How long do you expect between placing seed potatoes in the cold ground and having plants emerge? I put potatoes in the ground 2 weeks ago and still don't see anything above ground. I did find evidence that squirrels dug at least one up.

 

[Meadowlark]

@Mr_Yan ,

In my experience, in addition to weather and planting depth, there are a couple of other factors that are important in determining the answer to your question: 1) to what degree are the "seeds" chitted out and 2) how long ago were the seed potatoes actually harvested?

1) Seed cuts with eyes showing and well developed and beginning to push out will make above ground plants far faster than seed cuts without prominent eyes. It can make several weeks difference. To me, the reason for chitting out your seed, is so that you will get above ground plants timed exactly at last frost date...not before and not after very much. I always plant my seed about Valentines Day and expect to see young plants pushing up by first week in March. Plants that push up much later have significantly reduced production due to heat here and plants that push up sooner are in danger of late frosts reducing production. It's a fun game to play.

2) Different varieties of potatoes have different dormancy requirements ranging from one to three or even four months in my experience... but all potatoes require some dormancy period before they will respond to chitting or in ground planting. I don't know any way around this. Commercial growers full well understand this and account for it. Hence, if you try to plant seeds with a dormancy requirement of two months, it may take three months or even more for them to push up new plants. I have seen this especially in some russet types which seem to have the longest dormancy requirements... see below table.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Thanks @Meadowlark

I planted Kennebeks and less than 1/2 of the eyes had sprouts. At least I know these came from a good supplier (not some big box store). And if I'm waiting for last frost I, historically, have over two weeks still.