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  • From: jay sleichter <jaysleichter AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Hilling Early Potatoes Late
  • Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 18:33:39 -0700 (PDT)

I am digging my potatoes here in Kansas. I started  planting  them on March 21st. Then two weeks later and two week later.   I usually hill them up and mulch heavy.  Here in the "Wheat State" straw in cheap.  I usually use 2-3 year old round bales of straw.  This way the wheat seed has rotted or sprouted.  I go through 3-4 big round bales a year.

I am going to try something different this year.  I am going to dig all my potatoes earlier and sell for new potatoes and come back and replant the area with more potatoes and other stuff.

I can easily sell "New Potatoes" and it always seems to be harder to sell larger potatoes for a fair price,  unless they are Yukon Gold. 

So, I weeded and hilled up late, like you and I am not going to spend time mulching.  We are very wet and if it turns off dry before I am finished I will water.  I will mulch my later potatoes. 

BTW, 600 pounds of each variety?  That is alot of potatoes. I only plant 130-150 pounds total. 

Just don't make the mistake I did one year and try to hill them up when the soil was too wet.  When it dried out, it was like concrete clods and the potatoes were misshapen. I learned my lesson.

My point is I would try to hill them up, at least you will get more soil coverage and then forget about mulching.  Maybe dig earlier.  I am digging the potatoes that I hilled 3-4 weeks ago.

Jay

--- On Sun, 6/7/09, Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net> wrote:

From: Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net>
Subject: [Market-farming] Hilling Early Potatoes Late
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sunday, June 7, 2009, 5:05 PM

It's been a crazy season here in the mid-Atlantic so far with more
days lost to rain this season that I remember having ever happened
before.

I'm WAY behind on most everything. For about a month now it's been
too wet to hill the potatoes abd at $5 a bale, straw isn't an option.

I have the following varieties planted, probably 600 pounds of each:

Yukon
Kennebec
Red Pontiac
Red Norland
Russet
irish Cobbler
katcdin ("phonetic" spelling)

I'm going to try to find some mulch hay to cover the spuds this week.

The plants are tall and beautiful

All the seeds were planted shallowly.

IT's quite likely that if I don't get some hilling or covering done,
I won't get many potatoes this year.

Most of these potates were in the ground by April 1

The Cobblers and Katcdin have nice big blooms on them right now.

Do you think I'll be wasting my time to try to mulch or hill the potatoes now?

Thanks

-Allan in WV
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