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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Our last frost is technically the first week of April.  I planted Yukon
Gold in a trench in the ground last month on Valentine's Day.  Two of my
 neighbor's did the same.  While no one thinks they are dead, they have
not broken the ground yet for any of us.  A light frost shouldn't hurt a
potato, but what I personally think is that a lot of low temps just
slows down initial growth.  In my experience(and you gotta remember most
of that is growing potatoes in tires), it takes a while to get the vine,
but once the vine hits the sun, they are off to the races and
practically indestructible.
I dug a trench about 12-14 inches deep and then seeded it, pulling over
about a third of the excavated soil.  Once I see the vine, I'll continue
to mound the soil around it, creating a huge bed of potatoes that will
need to be dug.  I'm not looking forward to that.
I plant my sweet potato slips using the hill method.  I mound up good
soil, usually the mound is about 2-3 ft in diameter and as high as I can
make it: Bigger mounds, looser soils, bigger potatoes.  I plant the
slips in the middle, 2 or 3 depending on the size of the mound, and
water them in.  Because sweet potatoes grow so large, I can easily get
20 pounds of potatoes or more from a hill.  The vines, like cukes, seem
to navigate South, so I will be planting them on the north side of my
corn blocks, hoping the vines shade the ground like squash vines do.  I
will also be using squash for this purpose.


Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:
> I bought my seed potatoes yesterday (Yukon Gold). Some things I read
> say to chit them and plant them "as soon as the ground can be
> worked", but others say that they are sensitive to frost once they
> are growing. I usually can't get the bed ready until near the last
> frost anyway (it's usuallly too cold and wet here to work the soil
> until May), but this year, with this phenomonally nice weather, the
> bed is prepared already, but we could have frost for another 2
> months.
>
> When do you all plant potatoes related to your last frost? And do you
> put them in hills or trenches? I'm thinking of planting early, but
> mulching them so the frost won't hurt them.
>
> Lynn Wigglesworth Tioga Co. PA

--
I am having an out-of-money experience.
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, Northwest Georgia, USA