I ordered potatoes.

Now what?

IF they need to wait to be planted put them aside and make sure that its,

1. Cool
2. Dark
3. Ventilated

Once you are a few days away from planting you can go ahead and cut up the seed potatoes so that each piece has a few eyes. Put these cut potatoes somewhere with good ventilation and let “green sprout” for a few days.  

Potatoes can’t withstand a heavy freeze so accommodate your planting accordingly to your growing location or microclimate you might be growing them in. I usually plant a few weeks before our last average frost. Sometimes for me planting can depend on the weekend and time I have available

Different varieties will have different growing preferences, check what your varieties might prefer

I was first introduced to growing potatoes years ago while I took a fall gig working as a potato picker. We followed along as the tractor pulled the potato digger across the field. With our spud bud we handpicked into 5gallon buckets, than working together to fill burlap sacks,

Those sacks were left in long rows, and the farmer would follower behind and stitch the bags up and load them on to a trailer.

It was a fun simple gig to make some money while attending classes at the local university. I was able to work the picking and grading potatoes into the days I didn’t have class.

Potatoes can be the great back yard filler. This crop is easy to grow, and can produce a large number of calories for a family. Storage doesn’t require refrigeration.

This year I am experimenting with a few different ways to grow potatoes. I’ve seen a lot of videos and short bits in books about the many ways to grow them, so I’ve decided to give it a try.

The first method, which I’ve done before was long rows in a field. This seems to be the traditional way to grow and if there is a lot of space its an easy method with good results. This year I had some help so It made it a little easier, but the help got cold and hid in a pile of tires. Overall we did about seven 100’ rows, each row 3’ apart from the previous row. The soil was amended with chicken manure, peat, a soil builder before planting, and some bone meal early in the spring. We made furrows a few inches deep and spaced our cut potatoes 8’’ to 14’’ apart on average. {photo} Some of the potatoes were already sprouting, so I hope that they turn out okay this year. Once they were all spaced how we wanted them we covered them with a bit of soil. In a few weeks I will go back out and hill the soil around the growing potatoes so there is only about 2’’ of plant sticking out. This process is what will give the plants the appropriate space needed in the soil to develop tubers that are out of direct light (which can turn potatoes green).

I have tried potatoes out in this field a few times (not this exact spot) without irrigation and got okay results. The yields were not great, but the investment in time and money spent is limited. I will also spray once or twice, staying ahead of potato beetles which can destroy a crop in no time flat.

One thing I’m trying new in my field production of potatoes this year was a covering of straw right after planting. This field is sandy and dries out very fast, and without irrigation, my yields can quickly decrease with a long dry spell. The hope is that the straw will provide some help in the soils ability to retain moisture, as well as build the quality of soil and microbial life. It might get tricky when its time to hill the potatoes, but we will find out in time.

Now the second way I’ve planted potatoes this year is similar to the first. Except I only ran a tiller across the soil to break any weeds and then spread the potatoes in the same spacing down the rows. There was no digging, no trenching and no burying. Once all the potatoes were lined up, I covered them with a heavy layer of straw. I do not plan to hill these potatoes in this row. I will keep layering on the straw as the plants grow.

The third way I am trying this year is a type of potato tower. I took a piece of fencing and cut it so I could make a circle area that was about 3’ to 4 feet in diameter. Inside that area I layered, like a lasagna, different growing media’s, specifically straw, Spent mushroom substrate (compost), Foxfarm happy frog potting soil, peat moss, and of course potatoes. The layers were repeated until I build a tower that was almost half the height of my fence. I plan to build up the straw in the fence as the potatoes grow, somewhat like hilling in the field. I also plant to add a second fence around the first that has a slightly larger diameter, and in that fence, I will build a few layers of compost and straw as the potato plants grow outward from the tower. I’m excited to see what happens.

The final method I’m trying this year, or at least the last time I’ve done was in smaller 3-gallon pots. In the pots I made a 3’’ to 4’’ layer of potting soil. On the soil I put 5 cut pieces of purple potatoes and covered them with a few inches of soil. The pot is about 1/3 full when I was finished, and as the season goes on, I will add a few inches of potting soil until I reach the top of the pot. I am excited to see how this one does. This last experiment was to see how much I could grow in small and possibly larger pots that can be done on a patio, small yard or even adapted for an urban parking lot.

Because potatoes like an acidic soil in each of these methods I used different amounts of peat moss. I will also be using some liquid fertilizers and some granular that are geared for acid growing conditions. In the containers I will only add a few tablespoons of chicken manure, and probably use a compost tea throughout the growing season. The potatoes in the field, well, they are dependent on the rain so I will be praying, dancing, or what ever needs to be done. And worst-case scenario I fill up 55-gallon barrels with water and run a pump to irrigate the field. Those potatoes will actually also have bush beans grown between the rows that will be seeded between the first and second hilling, depending. The potato tower is easy enough that I can water with a few 5-gallon buckets when I go out to check on them.

Overall, I am excited to see how some of these new methods turn out this year. There should be some good yields and, in the end, a good safety net of stored food from these potatoes. The outcome of our 700 row feet of potatoes will be interesting. Part of my goal with them is how little work can I put into a small area to achieve enough yield to have a supply of calories that along with a few other veggies can sustain my family and myself incase of some food shortage or crisis.