A great way to start is by finding a variety of potato you want and searching specifically for that. Choose a potato that is firm, with a good, even color. Look for any signs of disease or rot.
If the potatoes are already sprouting, check the health of the sprouts. You want nice, thick sprouts. Finally, ask about the specific variety of potato. Does it have any specific disease resistances? Is it more resistant to heat, cold, or drought than other potatoes?
What can you expect from this potato? Technically speaking, you can do that. Any potato will, given enough time, sprout and become a potato plant. Seed potatoes are bred specifically for planting. Repeat every few weeks until 8 inches of soil is mounded. If not hilling, mulch to protect tubers from being exposed to sunlight. Weeding Light cultivation, hilling and mulching help keep weed growth suppressed and increase yield.
Watering After plants emerge keep your crop consistently moist until plants start to turn yellow. Discontinue after that. Harvesting potatoes For new potatoes, gently dig around the plants starting 60 days after plant emerges from soil. Harvest at golf ball size. For Storage, dig potatoes 2 weeks after foliage dies back. Storage Store in cool, humid location and dark location. Controlling pest and disease Successful pest and disease control starts with purchasing only "Certified Seed Potatoes", tilling in or removing the previous year's debris, rotating crop planting areas and keeping the garden weed free.
Colorado potato beetles are common pest and can be controlled with several products Gurney's offers. Gurney's super-lite insect barrier keeps insects off the plants. Oil Away Supreme suffocates the beetle eggs before they hatch. Pyola and Shield-All will kill adults and larvae. Surround at Home Crop Protectant creates a particulate barrier that pest find irritating.
Most of these products work for other potato pest like flea beetles, leaf hoppers and aphids. For disease control, please refer to your local extension publications. Email me when this item is available! Thank You! Ask Us! The Gurney's Farm Follow us on Social. Join our mailing list Subscribe to our email list to receive best offer. When we want to plant more potatoes than we've saved from the previous year's harvest, we start looking for seed potatoes at the grocery store in late January mid-winter in northern latitudes and continue to buy them through till mid-spring.
Many of the potatoes that have been in storage for the winter start to sprout in the warehouses at that time and you can get them for better prices. Choose the variety you like best. Potatoes do not "cross pollinate". This means that, if you plant a russet, by golly you'll get a russet. Note: one of our favorites is the Yukon Gold. Potatoes need days from planting to maturity so count backwards from your first frost date, or when you wish to begin eating your harvest!
The exotic potatoes that come into the markets, and the small, egg-sized, common varieties are usually quite fresh; as they don't keep a long time in storage. They too won't be ready for planting till they naturally go through their dormancy cycle—four to six months. We haven't tried this but I read that you can hasten the dormancy by storing the potatoes in a cool, moist place for a few months and then putting them in a dryer, warmer but still dark area.
If the potatoes you have are only just starting to sprout and the buds aren't very long, keep them in the dark to encourage more sprouting. How many to get? Each plant will take up about 12 - 16 inches of row space. If stored well, they will last for up to six months before starting to sprout again. Figure on pounds of yield per potato you plant. What size should you get? Ideally you will find them that are about the size of a chicken's egg. Larger potatoes can be cut and allowed to skin over so they won't rot when you plant them.
When is it time to plant potatoes? Here in the S. Willamette Valley, unless you have raised beds, you need to wait to plant them till the ground dries out a bit. We planted them in early-April one year, when things were especially cool and wet and they just rotted in the ground. Depending on the variety you plant, they take 13 to 17 weeks to ripen. You may wish to plant them in succession so you'll have some potatoes to eat fresh and, the later harvests will last longer through the winter.
If you buy them in a plastic bag, transfer them into a cardboard box or paper sack so they don't rot before you get to them. Keep them in a cool, dark place, with good air circulation until they sprout.
Layering them in a tub with leaves or straw, or sawdust works too. Just be sure to keep them from freezing. Links to our other potato blogs, go to: Sprouting Potatoes? What to do. How to Plant Potatoes. Planting Potatoes in Clay Soil.
Labels: Garden Tips , Seed Saving. Anonymous October 30, at AM. Isaac Rabinovitch January 11, at PM. Admin May 26, at AM. Alfred Teoh February 24, at AM. Alfred Teoh March 9, at PM. Kasey May 30, at PM. Unknown April 10, at PM. Anonymous June 4, at PM. Gatchi Pinoy November 3, at AM. Goodman12 August 16, at AM. Unknown November 19, at AM. Aparna October 2, at AM.
Unknown July 13, at PM. Unknown July 26, at AM. Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom. These green spheres in Chris' hand contain actual potato seeds but rarely do people grow potatoes from seeds. Ideally, seed potatoes should be about the size of a chicken-egg. Larger potatoes can be cut and skinned over before planting.
Potatoes stored in damp layers of damp leaves.
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