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 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. _______________________________________________ Market-farming 
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