Market Farming

["Craig Gilbert" <GarlicBed AT Comcast.net>]

I understand seed potato is tested for disease (not sure which but: fungus,
blight, others). Once these get in your soil, you can forget good crops of
potatoes. One vendor at our market suggested I not buy her blue potato for
seed or fingerlings as she had had problems with poor crops. I would
hesitate planting culls that perhaps are not healthy.

About fingerlings, if they are large, firm, and have more than one eye, yes
cut them in two. If they are small, plant them whole.

Incidentally, we plant in late February, early March and harvest May to
June. You can also plant fall potatoes in August and harvest early November.
Last year a friend with a Deere with a bucket scoop helped hill potatoes, by
getting buckets of compost and dropping on both sides of our rows. The reach
of the bucket was across two rows. I felt like quite the gentleman farmer
only having to lightly rake the compost over the plants. It was the easiest
work to hill the potatoes by just pointing where to drop the bucket load.  I
plan to plan my rows all along the edges of the garden to facilitate the
same this year.

Craig Gilbert
Atlanta, GA zone 7b


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Willie McKemie" <mf AT austinfarm.org>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 3:44 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] Fingerling potatoes


> One of my grocery store customers just gave me about 5lbs of culls.
> Anyone have any recommendations on growing them?  "Russian Banana
> Fingerling" from Melissa's.  Looks like 25-30 to a pound; should
> they be cut in two?  Am I likely to have any success with them here in
> central Texas?  We have pretty good luck with Red LaSodas cut into
> about 2oz chunks and planted 12"-18" apart.
>
> We have already started our potato planting season and have about a
> month to go.  What should I do to these fingerlings to encourage them
> to sprout?  Keep them warm?  Expose them to light?  Dark?  They show no
> sign of sprouting now.
>
> -- 
> Willie, ONWARD!  Through the fog!
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