Growing Potatoes

[dbjay417]

To anyone who has expirience growing potatoes:

Is it worth it? Are they easy to maintain?

I'm currently having sucess with yams and yucca, which are also root crops. They are kinda a pain in the buttocks to harvest though.

I'm going to see if i can get a small, potato from the supermarket to grow. they say they often don't, but I'm always sceptical of any knowledge attributed to "they".

 

[miss_thenorth]

This will be my first year growing potatoes, too. i have heard they are easy to grow--I would venture to guess as easily as your yams. You are in a completely different part of the world than where i am from.though--You have three leaves on your corn plants--I have three centimetres of snow.

All I know right now is that just make sure you have at least three eyes on the potato you are putting in the ground and let them sprout a bit first. As the potato plant grows, mound the soil up around the base of the plant, to make sure if the tubers come up, they are covered in soil. They need consistent watering, and prefer slightly acidic soil. I'm sure others will respond here that know more, and will correct me if I'm wrong.

The benefit of your living there, is us-northerners can learn from you--b/c we still have several months to wait before we can get into the ground. Good luck!

 

[Reinbeau]

Here's an earlier thread where we talked about growing potatoes. I find them to be a very rewarding crop, I've grown them for years now. I don't get a ton, but the ones I get are yummy!

 

[dbjay417]

thanks for the perspective. i'm gonna try this one plant first to see if things go alright, if they do perhaps I will grow them in number.

 

[patandchickens]

There is nothing better than freshly harvested new potatoes straight from the garden. (Well ok, maybe a ripe peach straight off the tree, but lets not get technical).

I've always mooched 'em offa others, but some year soon I really will try growing my own.


Pat

 

[GreenAngel]

growing potatoes isn't too diffucult but you HAVE to keep them watered or the plants will die and the potatoes will stay small. When the plant starts to flwer thats when they are ready to harvest. WE are going to grow a couple different kinds this year. Blue, calobe, red and yukon golds. The yield out of ares is usually 5 -7 times the amount planted. ex. 20 # yields 100-140 #s of potatoes and patandchickens is right there is no better potatoes then the ones picked freshly from the ground. good Luck!

 

[digitS']

Dbjay, what they may be talking about are potatoes sprayed with a chemical to inhibit sprouting.

See, that's just the opposite of what you want in a seed potato. And, the theys I'm upset with are even the farmers in the field who spray the growing crop to inhibit sprouting after the harvest. Yep, they go out and spray nice green potato plants which suck this chemical in so that it is stored inside the potato tuber. And, this is one way that they use to make more money on the crop.

I DO NOT like this even tho' I understand that this is considered a fairly safe chemical. It is, however, something I cannot even begin to wash off! I have no choice but to eat it!!

That is, unless I grow my own spuds or buy organic, which aren't supposed to be treated in this way. That's something I can advise - if your market has organic, buy those and plant them.

The story is that most of the potatoes in our stores by late Winter are from treated fields. Sometimes, the tubers can overcome this and sprout before they rot in the ground so it is not as tho' it's not worth a try to plant them. But, if you want better assurance that they'll produce - it's best to use something other than what is intended for you to eat . . . . something is backwards here . . . . :/

Steve

 

[sgtsheart]

Was in the co-op today and saw seed potatoes. Can't remember how much, but it wasn't more than 25 cents a pound, I'm sure.

Since they do treat store bought potatoes to inhibit them from sprouting, why bother using them?

You'll get much better results with seed potatoes and there are some interesting varieties out there too.

 

[dbjay417]

Well I live in puerto rico, and the island used to be very agro.

When the US government came here in the 50's they gave the people welfare. That was the first blow to the agro community here. In the 70's the government started mandating the use of certain pesticides and chemical fertilizers on crops and vaccines and feed for animals, and that was pretty much it for the dirt poor farmers round these parts. they stopped living off the land and started living off the government.

With that said, when i go shopping for fruits and veggies, meat, and eggs (when i used to buy eggs) I always buy local.

I'm hoping that the local potato farmer, in true puerto rican fashion skipped out on the extra immediate expenses with little reguard for the long term security.

i could also get my potatoes roadside from a smalltimer like myself. That might work.

As for right now. I am only growing one potato, so I put it in a cupbord right next to an onion to see how many/ how much the eyes mature. It they grow a bit, I'll plant the potato. if they don't its back to the drawing board.

I dont think i could grow a large potato crop because there is all sorts of debris and garbage buried under the property. i cant stick a shovel in the ground without hitting a rock, a root, or glass bottle or other crud.

 

[digitS']

Dbjay, part of one of my veggie gardens was something like that. It was a vacant lot across the alley from where I lived. At one time, there was a house there but all buildings had been removed before I arrived. And, it was obvious that the demo crew was rather casual about the job.

I came on various old pipes and such in the ground. At the back of the lot, was quite a few chunks of concrete. Just on the other side the ground was level but when I dug down, I hit a roll of carpeting !!

The roll was straight up and down in the ground! I have no idea how deep it went except it appeared that the carpet was down there the full width of the roll - maybe 12 feet ! The only thing I could think of was that a septic tank fell in and the crew just threw in the trash at hand.

I could pull the carpet out but it would have taken a mining operation to get the whole roll. Probably shouldn't have but I grew pole beans in that ground for a few years - didn't do worth a darn, but I tried :/ . The rest of the garden soil was okay.

Dbjay, potatoes can be grown under a mulch. The Irish near the coast, I'm told, used seaweed. You need to be cautious here - I once covered my entire planting with flakes of rain-spoiled alfalfa hay.
The plants grew well but this made a wonderful home for the voles. They very nearly didn't leave me a single potato .

Steve