Russet potato harvest results

[Meadowlark]

I have a first early called, "Foremost" which is a delicious new tattie & my wife's favourite.

That sounds like an interesting variety. I checked and couldn't find anyone anywhere that had foremost seed potatoes, but I'll keep searching. Try them this fall if I can find some.

 

[YumYum]

This year I planted Red Norland

Start with 20 lbs and get 160 lbs that is an increase of 140 lbs.

That is 8 lbs of potatoes per lb of seed potato which aligns with Meadowlarks experiment. Looks good.

Yes, IMO it significantly lowers your production to "cut them thin". Significantly.

Hehe. They weren't potato chips, maybe about 1.5-2x as big as my thumb and roundish. Every cutting sprouted so I figured they had enough energy to sprout. Now that I think about it, there wasn't a single seed cutting left so they must have shriveled up to the max. Usually I would find some of the seed potato left when digging.

 

[Meadowlark]

Hehe. They weren't potato chips, maybe about 1.5-2x as big as my thumb and roundish.

It is very easy to confirm this yourself. Cut a potato chip eye as you call it and plant it next to a fat seed eye...then measure the difference in production. It won't take you long to conclude that its not about optimizing the number of plants, not at all, its about making the right sized seed cutting.

 

[gary350]

That is 8 lbs of potatoes per lb of seed potato which aligns with Meadowlarks experiment. Looks good.


Hehe. They weren't potato chips, maybe about 1.5-2x as big as my thumb and roundish. Every cutting sprouted so I figured they had enough energy to sprout. Now that I think about it, there wasn't a single seed cutting left so they must have shriveled up to the max. Usually I would find some of the seed potato left when digging.

Your right 1 lb of seed potatoes grows 8 lbs of new potatoes. I plant a 2 oz seed potato and grow 1 lb of new potatoes. I cut 4 oz seed potatoes in 1/2 to get 2 plants that grows 2 lbs of new potatoes. I cut 6 oz seed potatoes into 3 pieces 3 plants grow 3 lbs of new potatoes. An 8 oz seed potato cut in 4 pieces grows 4 plants and 4 lbs of new potatoes. 8 cuttings that weigh 1 lb grows 8 lbs of new potatoes.

Here is a picture of a 2 oz potato and 1 lb of potatoes. Looking at this it seems like a terrible harvest to me. 50 years ago in Illinois we planted potato cuttings and it seemed like we had a much larger harvest. I remember planting a bed 3 ft wide 40 ft long then dig up 400 lbs of new potatoes. We had no scales but I remember putting 7 wheel barrels full of new potatoes in the seller.

Here is a picture of my potato bed 160 cuttings will grow 160 lbs of new potatoes. If this is 7 wheel barrels of potatoes that will equal what we grew in Illinois that was 60 years ago. I think we grew a white potato called, cobbler.

 

[YumYum]

@gary350 how deep does your seed potato end up being? Do you hill them to the top of the boards? Cant tell from the pictures.

 

[gary350]

@gary350 how deep does your seed potato end up being? Do you hill them to the top of the boards? Cant tell from the pictures.

I put 3" of dry dead ground up trees leaves on the soil then till it in to make softer soil in a 32" wide bed. I sprinkle 6-12-12 fertilizer on the soil then lay potato cuttings on the soil surface. I use a template board marked off in 8" to lay potato cuttings 8" between each cuttings and 8" between the 3 rows. I have about 12 pine trees I rake up enough dry dead pine needles to cover potato cuttings about 4" deep. My water hose will fill a 5 gallon bucket in 45 seconds. It takes me 12 minutes to put 80 gallons of water on the potato bed. Boards around the bed are a levee to keep water in the bed. Water in the walk area waters weeds & grass. Every time potato bed gets dry I water again. My water bill show 80 gallons of water cost 54 cents. Wait 2 months then fertilize with 1 empty kitchen food can of 6-12-12 fertilizer every week. The new potato row is next to the corn. Once potato plants start growing I will rake soil up along the side of the potato row to create a levee to fill with water to make watering potatoes much easier. I hate to water plants I have learned how to do it the easy way. I have an irrigation hose for the potato bed about 14 minutes of water is 90 gallons.

It is never too late to plant potatoes. I planted a 30 ft row of yellow potatoes this morning. I plant potatoes all summer once a month. My last crop of potatoes this year will be Sept 1st but I sometimes plant potatoes until Dec 28. Hill potatoes up about 4" to keep soil moist. Rain washes hill down so I need rake potato hill up when it needs it.

Here is a photo of todays now potato row and the spacing template. I have planting templates for, 3" to 8". I have a planting template for every thing I grow, corn 5", beans 3", strawberries 6", peppers & tomatoes 18". Melons 12". Onions & garlic 4".

 

[gary350]

Potato Growing Season Length

The growing season for potatoes can range from 50 to 135 days. During the growing season, from the time the potatoes go into the ground until harvest, temperatures should ideally remain between 45 and 80 F. Longer crop will grow larger potatoes.

Red Norland 70-90 days.
Yukon Gold 80-95 days
Kennebec 80-100 days
Red Pontiac 90-100 days
German Butter Ball 110-135 days

 

[YumYum]

Longer crop will grow larger potatoes.

That is what I thought about growing the Russets but they died back before their time. If they had aged right then I would say a better outcome but they obviously can't handle the climate here... Maybe in Idaho but not TN.

The German Butterball has a long harvest date. Did you try those and did they produce well? Meadowlarks chart say they are on par with the Russets and Kennebecs. It is kind of looking like a short season tater will always outdo a longer seasoned one, unless you live in a mild climate.

 

[gary350]

That is what I thought about growing the Russets but they died back before their time. If they had aged right then I would say a better outcome but they obviously can't handle the climate here... Maybe in Idaho but not TN.

The German Butterball has a long harvest date. Did you try those and did they produce well? Meadowlarks chart say they are on par with the Russets and Kennebecs. It is kind of looking like a short season tater will always outdo a longer seasoned one, unless you live in a mild climate.

Online info says russets are a 4 month cold weather crop. I left russet off the potato list TN is too hot to grow them in summer. I have planted russet Oct 1st, then frost kills 1 ft tall plant tops about Nov 5. Tops never grow back winter is too cold. Then I hill plants up with 8" of soil to protect them from freezing. Winter is wet soil stays soft russet potatoes like that. Sometimes I dig up new potatoes about Feb 15 and sometimes I wait until April 1. One year I had 28 plants and dug up 30 lbs of medium size new russet potatoes. TN soil only freezes 1" deep and never stays frozen very long unless it is an extra cold winter. Skins of winter potato crops is very thin and almost as white at the inside of the potatoes. Russets grow much better in TN winter than summer. My garden is a swamp all winter I need to keep my new potatoes above water level all winter. I joke about my winter swamp it needs to be flushed like a toilet. My summer garden is desert almost no rain for 4 months.

I have not grown German butter ball. We bought some at the grocery store and didn't like them so I never grew them. Wife changes her mind which potato she likes best every 6 months so I grow several varieties. It is nice to have different potatoes on the table in different foods. We never peal garden potatoes.

My best summer potato harvest is always Red Pontiac but we don't like the flavor very much. Red Pontiac is a hot weather crop they grow good in my summer desert and 100° hot sun.

 

[gary350]

This lady plants big 1+ lb seed potatoes she thinks genetics of a large potato will grow more large potatoes. It seems to be working for her but she lives in Canada about 50 miles from the USA border and has perfect potato growing weather and good soil too. Maybe I should plant some 1 lb seed potatoes to see what happens.

 

[YumYum]

This lady plants big 1+ lb seed potatoes she thinks genetics of a large potato will grow more large potatoes. It seems to be working for her but she lives in Canada about 50 miles from the USA border and has perfect potato growing weather and good soil too. Maybe I should plant some 1 lb seed potatoes to see what happens.

If you do post the results. They also have a perfect cabbage growing climate.

 

[gary350]

This is another BIG potato video. They grew 2lb Red Norland Potatoes. Largest Red Norland potato I have grown is 1/4 lb. Cool summer weather and very soft moist soil works good for them.

 

[gary350]

Today I am trying something new that I saw on YouTube. Last week I bought 10 lbs of yellow potatoes at the grocery store. I put 47 potatoes in a garden row in full sun all day with the eye end of the potato pointing up. After 1 week in the sun potato eyes are starting to grow green plants. Today I cover up 9 lbs of grocery store potatoes with 2" of soil. I will fertilize later. New potatoes grow out not up, after plants are 8" tall mulch with, straw, dead grass, dry dead tree leaves, pine needles, what ever you have. Today is June 22 clock starts ticking today. I wonder how many day crop generic yellow potatoes are. I always plant cuttings not whole potatoes, I am about to learn if this is, better, same. or worse.

 

[YumYum]

Harvested my Kennebecs. A 20' row of potatoes, 35 plants spaced about 8" apart produced 77 lbs 6.55 oz of potatoes. This was with a shade less than 3 lbs of seed potatoes. So I got 35 oz of potatoes per plant or 26 lbs of potatoes from each lb of seed potato depending on which way you want to look at it.

I tend to look at it as lbs per plant instead of lbs of seeds so that is 2.1 lbs of potatoes per plant. Not great compared to Meadowlarks tests but still a great harvest to me.

If you look at it per lbs of seed potatoes, that is real good but I cut mine real little striving to get one cutting per eye. Some had to have 2 or 3 eyes because I couldn't cut it off. The thing that most impresses me is that most of my potatoes where medium to large. Very few little potatoes.

 

[gary350]

Harvested my Kennebecs. A 20' row of potatoes, 35 plants spaced about 8" apart produced 77 lbs 6.55 oz of potatoes. This was with a shade less than 3 lbs of seed potatoes. So I got 35 oz of potatoes per plant or 26 lbs of potatoes from each lb of seed potato depending on which way you want to look at it.

I tend to look at it as lbs per plant instead of lbs of seeds so that is 2.1 lbs of potatoes per plant. Not great compared to Meadowlarks tests but still a great harvest to me.

If you look at it per lbs of seed potatoes, that is real good but I cut mine real little striving to get one cutting per eye. Some had to have 2 or 3 eyes because I couldn't cut it off. The thing that most impresses me is that most of my potatoes where medium to large. Very few little potatoes.

That is very good, better than what I got. I count lbs of new potatoes per plant also, I got less than 1 lb of new potatoes per plant. I planted 190 cuttings but ended up with about 170 plants. I try to have 1 eye per cutting but often there are 2 or 3 eyes close together that can't be cut. I used 6-12-12 fertilizer. I tilled a lot of dry dead tree leaves into my soil to make it very soft but 3 months later soil was hard like it had no leaves added. I put 4" of mulch on the seed potatoes to block the sun and try not to make soil any harder than it already is. I used irrigation this year but only had to use it 2 times because we had so much rain almost every day. I think I could do better but not sure how.?

I got 121 lbs of new potatoes from about 170 plants = 12 lb of seed potatoes cut to make 1 eye cuttings.