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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
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- From: "Douglas Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>
- To: "Douglas & Hillary Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>
- Subject: [Livingontheland] Potato growing notes
- Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 11:10:46 -0700
I grew potatoes in a plastic trash can: got the idea from a gardener in Santa Barbara. Put in a foot of soil, then the seed potatoes, followed by 6" of soil. As the stems and leaves grow, you keep adding soil, keeping a healthy amount of stems and leaves above the soil. To harvest, you tip the can over and pick out the potatoes. Kim SoCal Potatoes turn green when they are exposed to the sun.
We plant our potatoes deep, maybe 4-5-6". When they are about 6" tall we then "hill them up" by hoeing the soil between the rows up around the plants. We also put on heavy mulch (old hay) at this time. If you do this you will minimize the number of potatoes that will turn green. There will always be some that grow close to the surface and turn green. Throw them across the road. Turning green is another reason we dig our potatoes soon after the vines die back. Once they don't have the shade from the leaves and the rain starts to expose them they will turn green. Someone made a comment about leaving them in the ground till they develop a skin. Ours have a decent skin on them by the time we dig. After digging I wheel the cartload of potatoes into a shed or somewhere that they get some air and will also be in the shade. After a few days we haul them to the basement where we have a big wood box on legs. The box has cracks between the slats so that they get air. I keep a close eye on them for a few weeks. If one rots it will spread to the whole pile and all thats left is mush. If you see any small flies around your potatoes take them out one by one till you find the bad one. Do this as many times as you have to. That's what works for us. Bob in Minnesota. We planted our potatoes about a week/10 days ago. We
use these potatoes for storage so we don't want them to be ready too soon. Have been doing this way for 32 years. The way it works for us if we plant around May 20 the vines will be dead by labor day. We dig them then. We have found that if we wait much longer to dig the fall rains will make digging a real problem. We store these potatoes in our unheated basement. We always have plenty left for next years seed. We are still eating last years potatoes tho they are a little soft and have long eyes now. If you peel them and put them in a pan of cold water they crisp up just fine and work for fried/mashed/boiled/potato salad. These are Kennebecs. Bob in Minnesota |
- [Livingontheland] Potato growing notes, Douglas Willhite, 06/03/2007
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