How do you grow potatoes?

[Livin Simple]

I'm curious about how you grow your potatoes and what your success rate is with your method?

I have tried growing them in wire cages with very little luck. I've also tried growing them in a ditch covered in straw.

Can you please share your methods with me? My husband would really like to have a decent potato crop. I plan to plant by March 17th so I need to figure out what I am doing.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[jtcm05]

Hilling them is the best method IMO. I dig an 8" deep trench. Space the seed potatoes 14" or so apart and cover with a couple inches of soil. As they grow, cover them up with soil 3 or 4 times until you're 6" or so above the grade.

[SelfSufficientOne]

Has anyone ever tried the potatoes grown from seed? I got some Gilroy to try this year just out of pure curiosity to see if they will produce any potatoes.

[donsgal]

I'm curious about how you grow your potatoes and what your success rate is with your method?

I have tried growing them in wire cages with very little luck. I've also tried growing them in a ditch covered in straw.

Can you please share your methods with me? My husband would really like to have a decent potato crop. I plan to plant by March 17th so I need to figure out what I am doing.

Thanks for any help you can give.

We are going to try this year for the first time. (We used raised beds). Apparently you use a very little bit of planting medium (only about 5 - 6 inches deep) and plant the eye. Then when the things sprounts and begins to get leaves, once the plant is about 6 inches tall, you bury all but just the top growing part in more planting medium. Then the plant grows again, and when another 6 inches is stick up, you bury all but the top again, and on and on and on until the plant is level with, in our case, he correct raised bed level.

The theory is that all of the leaves that you bury in the medium sprout out as roots and grow potatoes on them. So you have a foot or more of roots and potatoes growing from the bits that you have covered up each time. It gives you a much greater yield than just planting them in the ground and letting them grow. Or so I am told. We'll see.

donsgal

[Bear]

Last year I just put 'em in the ground and they grew :) . My understanding is that they like somewhat acidic soil, and that's what we have here, so maybe that was the secret to success.

[rjzatyko@yahoo.com]

hi, i have never grown them,but i have read that people use tires and garbage cans to grow them,supposley they put the potatoes down on the ground then as they grow they keep adding dirt and the tires or the garbage can so they keep on producing the spuds higher and higher,maby next year i will give it a shot. richard from ky.

[CRAZY1]

We usually dig a hole about 6" deep, put the potatoe in, with at least 3 eyes on it, cover them up. We mound a little dirt and then just keep piling straw on them. When they are flowering they are makin spuds. The straw makes it easy to steal the new ones. Just make sure the base of the plant is always coverd. This keeps the moisture up and the sun off those little baby spuds. This also makes for less digging at harvest.
WE plant on good friday round here. Good luck.

[Phillip]

I just dig a trench and put the potatoes in and let them grow. And when they it time to harvest them I go in and dig them up whith a pich fork.

[Pharmerphil]

First, start with Certified Seed, the "potatoes from seed" thing failed for me.
Cut your seed potatoes the night before you plan on planting, leaving at least two eyes per piece. Place them on a table, flat surface, or in open crates to let the cuts "heal" over.
Now, go work your soil, deep, dig some trenches about a foot wide, and at least 6 inches deep, I prefer 8.
Mound the trench dirt up along the sides of the trench.
ow at this point, I would like to say that although I like the straw idea, all I have ever done was create a MOUSE HOUSE!, so, I stick to tradition.
Yes they do like it a little on the acidic side, but again, a soil test should always be done.
As long as you have soil that drains well, you are ready to grow.
The next morning, place the cuts you made in the trenchees, spaced at about 12-18 inches, making sure your cut sides are DOWN. Pull a few inches of soil over the pieces, about 3-4 inches, firm, not pack the soil, water and wait, as soon as you have about 4 inches of green showing, add some more soil, till just the very top of the foilage shows, continue this step till your plants show the first sign of setting blooms, then stop. By now, your rows should be mounded to about 8-10 inches above the surface of the walkways, and soon, very soon, you can be robbing some of those lil baby tators that we all love! :)

[bluelacedredhead]

I hadn't bothered to grow potatoes for about 10 years. Seemed like a lot of work to me.
But last year, someone gave me a bag of Kennebec and a bag of Yukon Gold's that they thought were too far gone and were on their way to the dump or the compost heap.
I planted them, figuring that if there was anything to harvest it was a bonus, since the seed was free!
I didn't bother to cut any of the seed with the exception of a few very large kennebecs. And put them in good sized holes, in rows 3 feet apart.
I dug them up before frost and to my surprise, for planting them in late June in a short season area, we got enough to take us through until January.
I'll be doing it again this year, but in spring to ensure a bit larger potato.

[CRAZY1]

Hey Pharmer, understand how that could become a mouse house, if your cats arent on their game. We have a siameese that catches everything from squriells to rabbits. Along with mice. We also use wood for heat and use some of the ashes to till into the garden before planting, seems to keep any of the underground pests away. The old pharmers around here told me about it and it seems to work. I guess its the lye produced by the hard wood ashes. But use it sparingly, to much of anything isn't good for the plants or soil. Sorry for my spelling its not always the best. COME ON SPRING!

[Pharmerphil]

I don't even worry about me spellin', or didn't you Notice ! :)
Wood ash is ok, but I tell Ya, I sorta have a "dirt clod" sorta attitude about cats in the garden...and they know it!http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/chobb/hitwithrock.gifhttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/chobb/Whis.gif

[CRAZY1]

Gotcha there pharmer, I feel the same way about the neighbors cats. But mine kills and eats the rabbits and squriels. She can do as she wishes.