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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Planting potatoes

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  • From: Lucy Goodman <goodows AT infinet.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Planting potatoes
  • Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 07:30:16 -0500

I don't understand, why do you have weed problems with potatoes and how do you use plastic mulch and still hill the taters?

In my experience we use potatoes as a cleaning crop. They generally go where we have weed problems because hilling the spuds 3 to 4 times before harvest generally does the weeds in (even the couch grass) leaving the area clean for the next crop to go into that bed.

I assume if plastic mulch is used there is no hilling done.

We plant two row per bed. Beds are 4' wide. We also do succession planting starting in late April and ending mid July (those spuds are harvested late October/early November and last until March/April in storage

Lucy Goodman
Eaton, OH
Sitting on the edge of zones 5 and 6

SaladG AT aol.com wrote:
I started using the plastic because of weeds, if the potatoes get through the holes before the weeds get a start it really works good. We only plant so many rows a week this way they are ready for digging almost all summer staring in mid to late June which for our area is early for potatoes. Last year we had a hard freeze in Mid May but didn't seem to effect our usual mid June digging. Yield has been very good using this method, last year we were picking up around eight bushels per 100' row. I never have had any trouble with blight, but I do spray for the potato bugs, usually once is usually enough for the season per planting. I spread out our plantings basically because of time to get it all done. We don't hire any help, so we have to spread things out at different times to get things done.
Will very seldom find any green potatoes when digging, and that does seem to be variety sensitive. Yukon Golds seem to have the most if we will find any.
I use a middle buster that I kind of modified to dig the two rows at the same time. I cut the plastic down the middle with a rolling cutter and the plow will lift everything up and out of the ground. After we pick up Potatoes I go back over and pick up the plastic and dispose of it then I usually go replow the row again to pick up what few we didn't get the first time.
Phil
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