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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Planting late potatoes in July-August
  • Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:57:39 -0400 (EDT)

I'm extremely interested in this.  Our local farm co-op has a whole bin left over of certified seed potatoes that have shriveled and I figured they were worthless.  But the co-op is really trying to find a home for them.  If short-season, variety, shriveled potatoes can be planted in August in a mild climate, I may just go ahead and experiment.  Thanks for the alternative. Should I soak them in water to restore some of their volume, or just plant them as-is?
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
 
In a message dated 8/13/2010 11:52:43 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, ramoyer AT gmail.com writes:
Mike wrote:
"Planting potatoes now in VA? When do you harvest and how are the yields,
generally?  Interesting to think of in N. KY."

Mike,
Others who plant potatoes in heat of summer please jump in, here's how
and why we do it:
My great uncle Luther in Oley, PA sold fall potatoes at market for
years.  He grew two crops of red potatoes in the same piece of ground.
When I asked how, was told that he saved the very best potatoes in
the spring for the second planting.  In that way, he selected for
tubers that kept until July.

So, the testimony of his fall-dug 'new' potatoes gave me permission.
Wendell Berry wrote:
"If you had a settled, a really settled, thriving, locally adapted
community, which we don't have anywhere, you wouldn't just be
remembering the dead. You'd remember what they did and whether it
worked or not. And so you'd have a kind of lexicon of possibilities
that would tell you what you could do, what you could get away with,
and what penalty to expect from what you couldn't get away with."

I fell into this a few years ago because seed potatoes can be cheap to
free for the asking in July, esp. if you're willing to remove the
good, bad and ugly.  Yukon Golds tend to still be very sound, if you
have the pick of which bags have no rot, and if they have been stored
in conditions that favor shriveling over rotting.  Don't plant rotting
potatoes, to avoid disease.

Think of summer planted potatoes, following spring veggies, as a type
of summer cover crop.  We plant three rows per bed, rows 18" apart, to
get canopy coverage.

I tend to plant deep, then use mulch or hill up a lot of dirt, to
control soil temps.  Colorado potato beetles tend to be less of a
problem.  Drip irrigate as needed.  Yukon Golds are a short season
potato, so July-August plantings generally mature before October
frost.  Can use row cover to get through an early frost.  Have not
compared yields to spring planted, but they're not paltry.

At market, I get a premium for 'new' potatoes, so this is one way to
sell such in the fall.  Our soils rarely freeze, so have also left
them in the ground all winter, digging them as needed until they start
sprouting again in March.  Keeps the neighbors talking.  For
overwintering, need a well drained soil and mulch or good snow cover
during worst freezes.

Still exploring the fine line between laziness and efficiency, still
learning the penalties and rewards of breaking accepted rules of
growing.  This list a big help along those lines.

Richard Moyer
SW VA
Sigh, back out in the heat to trellis late tomatoes.
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