2008 Potato Gardens

[OmahaJB]

Yesterday I stopped over to my mother's house to check on the garden, prepare some soil (late start on some things), and cut the grass. So far my garlic & potatoes are doing well from what I can tell. That got me to wondering how everyone else's potatoes are doing so far. So rather than just ask that question, I thought it might be nice to start a thread that could be updated by everyone all season long. It might help those less experienced (i.e. ME) get acquainted with different varieties, techniques, and so forth in regards to potato growing. I could definitely learn alot from Tom Wagner and others here.

As for my potato 'situation', I started mine in 10-gallon grow bags. Even though I should have known better after reading some of these threads, I started at least 2 seed potatoes in each bag. In some cases I planted 3 because I had a few tiny seed potatoes. Carola, German Butterball, and Princess La Ratte are the ones I purchased from Ronnigers for my first try at growing potatoes.

At this point there are several stalks(stems?) growing out of each bag. The 10-gallon grow bags are approximately 1/2 to 3/4 filled with soil. I'm slowly filling them up as the stalks grow taller.

Hopefully I haven't crowded them too much by putting at least 2 seed potatoes in each bag, but I still should end up with a couple pounds at least in each. The tricky part is going to be keeping them watered after the spring showers fade away, as it's hard for me to get over there more than twice a week. And I've read that consistent watering is key as far as taste is concerned. Probably saw that on one of these threads.

Would enjoy hearing what everyone else is growing and how things are going with their potatoes. What varieties? What are you growing them in - containers, in hills, raised beds, in the ground? Any special techniques that might be critical for us new to growing potatoes to know about? Any favorites or varieties you wouldn't grow again?

And Tom, it would be interesting to hear about your projects (I believe you do alot of crossing). Have you developed any that you'd like to see become popular with the home gardener? And how many seed potatoes do you start every year? And how many varieties? I'm guessing hundreds?

Anyways, I just thought it might be enjoyable to follow each other's progress this season in this thread. Or just to share info on the topic.

Thanks, Jeff

[svalli]

Week ago we helped my in-laws to plant potatoes. We did 14 at least 20 yard rows. They have Lapuan Niku, Pito, Rosamunda and Yukon Golds. We used tractor and planter to plant the spuds, so it was quite easy.

I also dug two rows by hand for my Peruvian Purples. I planted 50 spuds (some were like prunes, but still had sprouted).

My other potato project I have at home. I promised Tom Wagner that I will keep him posted about this one and finally I am reporting my progress. Tom sent me some TPS, before we moved from U.S.. I planted nine seeds to Jiffy pellets in March. In April I got six tiny seedlings, which I transplanted to plastic cups and moved to the temporary greenhouse in May.


Finally today I planted them to 5 gallon buckets. I buried them so that just the tops are above the soil and I will add more soil when they grow.



I planted them in buckets, because we do not have room for a potato field here in the city and when the tubers form, it is easy to keep them separated. The tubers from this year will be kept for seeds and next year planted to a field we have next to my in-laws' house.

All of the seedlings except one are growing fine, even in the beginning they seemed to be really slow. One of them has really tiny leaves and I do not know if it will ever produce tubers, but I still transplanted it. One of them got purple on the edges of the leaves after I had put them to the greenhouse, I hope that is a sign of purple variety.

[OmahaJB]

Looks good svalli, thanks for sharing. Hopefully, you'll keep us updated throughout the season and into harvest time.

Stopped by and did some work in the garden today. The potato plants sure are responding well to all the rain we've had. They're growing like weeds! We've also had plenty of sunshine which helps. I added more dirt, and think I'll need at least one more bag of Miracle Grow container soil for the 10 10-gallon grow bags. I was skeptical that the bags would actually hold 10 gallons of soil but they will. So there should be enough room for quite a few new potatoes to grow in each bag. I'm not expecting a bumper crop since I crowded them by putting too many in the each container, but they should do ok.

I've read enough comments at different places where people talk about how much better homegrown potatoes are than store bought. I'm very much looking forward to finding out for myself how true that is!

I noticed today that my Carola plants have thick stems. Guess the only thing I can take from that is the plants are strong and growing well. Don't know if that'll translate to big healthy potatoes or not.

Definitely like growing them in containers so far. Will make for easier harvesting in the late summer/early fall.

Anyone else care to share how their potato plants are doing this year?

Jeff

[beef1020]

Nice to see an active thread in the potatoes section!!!

I am new to growing potatoes as well, and i am growing on a pretty small scale, three rows of 4 seeds, German butterball. They are doing great as of now.

They were planted about a foot deep in a trench with half the soil on top. Since then I have filled then in a today hilled them a couple inches as the plants were about 12-18 inches tall.

So far they are looking good. They are being eaten by flea beetles but not enough to spray. The plants are outgrowing the damage so I figure let them be, hopefully some of their predators will show up... I have not seen a single potato beetle yet, when do they normally come around, is it still early?

[OmahaJB]

beef1020,

Hope you keep us updated during the season, as your results so far are mirroring mine, with the exception that you're growing in-ground, and I'm using growbags.

My plants are approximately at the same height as yours. I did see a few leaves that had some damage when I last saw them last weekend, but most leaves have no damage. And one of the varieties I'm growing is German Butterball, so it'll be easy to compare our results.

No idea about the potato beetle. I haven't seen bugs of any type on mine, except that I did see a little damage to a few leaves.

If this goes well using growbags I have no doubt potatoes will be one of my main growouts yearly. I'm anxious to find out how good these will actually taste.

Jeff

[Tomaat]

I grow my potato seeds (Salad Blue & Highland Burgundy Red) in pots, they get around 15 lt growing medium per tuber (as I was running out of bigger pots) but some of them get 20 lt pot/tuber. So far, they have grown very well (tall and breed). I used commercial manured compost mix (25% cow manure, 25% mushrooms compost, 25% leaf compost & 25% top soil).
I think the growing medium is way too rich, the potato haulms has grown so tall (most of them are over 1 metre and 1/2 to 3/4 m breed !).
I had to stake them (and even pruned them too) to prevent them from collapsing. Will not use such medium again next year !

[OmahaJB]

Tomaat,

Sounds like you have some rich soil there. I probably should have staked my plants as well. Today I noticed several broken stalks. Mine have grown quite a bit taller in just the past week. Added more Miracle Grow soil today, but the grow bags will still need at least one more bag. It's getting more expensive than I had hoped, but still worth the effort.

[beef1020]

Worked out in the garden a bit this weekend, hilled most of the potatoes and weeded the rest of the garden.

I have three quick questions. Fist, do potatoes grow in the hill or is that just to make sure no potatoes push out of the soil?

Second, I am starting to see some flowers but none have opened, how long do they take to flower at this point?

Lastly, I say some beetles with 3 stripes, not the 10 striped Colorado potato beetle. I looked them up and they are called 'old fashioned potato beetles', do these do any damage? I have picked off two of them in two weeks...

Last but not least, here are some pics...

[Tom Wagner]

Beef,

I have three quick questions. Fist, do potatoes grow in the hill or is that just to make sure no potatoes push out of the soil?

I had to read this question a dozen times to make sure I would answer it in a flippant way... Potatoes to hill is like apples to tree. I suppose you wouldn't have to hill the potato if you plant the tubers deep enough, but hilling is like concentrating the soil in all its' protectionist, nutritional, tuber shading, temperature tempering, drain-able, oxygen enriching, ways that just make sense. It sure makes it easier to dig.
Hilling just works! Go to hillingpotatoes.com to see how to do it better and why...but, hillingpotatoes.com - did not match any documents

Second, I am starting to see some flowers but none have opened, how long do they take to flower at this point?

I looked at your photos and the vines don't look like they will bloom very profusely. If they do open in a week or so, my guess is the blossoms were be sparse and will abort quickly. Prove me wrong.

Lastly, I say some beetles with 3 stripes, not the 10 striped Colorado potato beetle. I looked them up and they are called 'old fashioned potato beetles', do these do any damage? I have picked off two of them in two weeks...

In a small garden, it is always better to pick off the offending critters as you see them, rather than have to spray or just C'est la vie. Of course if you are a proponent of the latter, you will be cap-à-pied (head to foot) in insectivores!

Hope I gave some réponses désinvoltes.

Tom

[beef1020]

Quick question, I went out to the garden today and about a third of the potato plants are leaning pretty far over. Is this ok, do people usually stake them? They are still green and beginning to flower...

[Medbury Gardens]

Quite normal for potato stems grow more horizontial as the plants mature, well certainly mine do that ever year. What kind of spud are growing beef1020 ??

[beef1020]

Thanks for the consoling words, I am growing German butterball.

[OmahaJB]

I've been posting on a weekly basis in the starting from seed forum updating my garden's progress, so haven't posted much here. So far things appear to be ok with the plants, however I am wondering how long flowers normally stay open on potato plants. Mine bloomed well for about a week. I'm a little worried because it was hot this week and when I visited the garden most of the flowers were dead, and the leaves looked a little wilted and curled. They were watered a couple of times during the work week, but I do think it was just a problem with them not dealing with the heat well. From what I can tell there isn't a major problem.

Well, I'm calculating 5 weeks or maybe a little longer until harvest. Trying to not get my hopes up too much as far as yield goes. Wont be long before I find out!

[svalli]

My TPS potato plants in buckets are growing fine. It is interesting how different all them look. One is still really tiny with small leaves; it looks like a miniature. Couple of them have longer and spindly stems.


My favorite plant has nice short and thick stem and red veins on the leaves. I do not know what kind of tubers it will produce, but the plant looks sturdy and healthy.


Two of he plants have produced side shoots to the top of the soil. I buried the plants while they grew taller so the side stems must now be growing from under the soil. I hope this means that they will produce more tubers.

We have not been by my in-laws for a month, so I do not know how my in-ground Peruvian Purples are doing. We are now on vacation so this week we should drive there and I will do a lot of weeding in my vegetable plot.

[velikipop]

Jeff,

You don't have anything to worry about. Flowers don't last long and some potatoes don't have any. As for harvesting you can start anytime, but you will get a lot of small nuggets rather than larger ones. The longer they are in the ground the longer they will keep. I usually, don't harvest all of my crop until mid-September. Enjoy.

Alex