Sources for seed potatoes.

Doccat your last message came just as mine was posting. Great, I will use the leaves and the straw as well. Can't wait! Can you tell us how you prepare your soil for the potatoes? Looking forward to Jan. 14!!

This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 12:51 AM

This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 12:51 AM

gardadore,we use a tiller to prepare the soil, simply because it's easier for us. We have a Troybilt Horse rear tine tiller and it's a piece of cake to set up the bed. I garden organically, so I use compost worked into the soil, you can certainly use a commercial fertilizer if you need to. Potatoes are not really heavy feeders, but I'd pick a fertilizer with a higher middle number. They like the phosphorus. You just need to make sure the soil is loose and loaming and they do prefer a slightly acidic PH around 5.8 And they do prefer full sun.
Do use good seed potatoes and for those of you who are kinda new to this. Once you cut up your seed potatoes you need to let them "harden off" so they will form a callous over the cuts. That take a couple of days, just store in a cool dry place. I normally lay them out on a piece of heavy cardboard in the garage.
And our pile is usually about 4 foot deep. A lot of that depends on how many shoots they are throwing and how high. Those need to be covered, since that's what forming the new potatoes.

I'd really like to thank all of you for the questions. You've made me stop and "think" hard to make sure I'm covering all the details. When you do this for awhile you mental assume everybody knows the "details". I want to make sure those that chose to try this are successful, have great harvests and want to try it again.
Another bonus using this method is that you can use many different varieties in the same patch! Lots of fun to do a little experimenting. Something I sure wouldn't be interested in doing if I had to plant them in rows. Too much work.
My article is scheduled to be published Jan 14th, so stay tuned! LOL

doccat5
i m very excited about growing pots. Usually you have to buy them in a 20lb bag or wrapped in plastic in a package of 4. i always ask " why are they in plastic " and the price of them is out of sight!! I guess it is a marketing thing. ?
anyhow im looking forward to your article. I too love the ME News an there ways of gardening.
can't wait to get the tiller out.
so we cut the pots in 4ths ? or just in half.
when would someone start pots in zone 5b i m in Ohio. ?
where can we look for your article ? in DG or other publications ? can't wait
thanks
sue

Sue, you have me confused...what pots? Although I don't know why you couldn't grow potatoes in a large container, that's an interesting idea. You'd have to have excellent drainage, as taters do not like wet and soggy! That article is scheduled to be published in DG on Jan 14. I have one on growing broccoli and other cole crops in the fall and winter scheduled for Jan 7. My very first, I am so thrilled and excited! LOL

oh sorry pots is short for potatos . I m a lazy typer lol :)
oh good broccli too i hope i can get broccli in this yr too. i got my neighbors in her garden and it got me hooked . it was really good.
im very intested in fall crops . I m hoping to do a greenhouse with fall crops to feed animals and family :)
saw it in ME News an story an thought hmmm i would like to try that.
thanks
sue

Well I've found in my area, broccoli and other cole crops do much better in the fall and winter and there are fewer pests to have to deal with. I do spring sow some broccoli, still haven't had great luck with cauliflower, but I'm trying a different variety this year. Cole crops, like carrots, like a nip of cold. It makes them store their plant sugar and the plants are excellent. With many broccolies, once you cut the main head, side dress your plant and you'll get secondary smaller heads for quite awhile. Good eating. Some of the new hybrids don't do that so read the seed description carefully.

Howdy Folks...

Regarding feeding potatoes, as doccat said it's not a good idea to use too much nitrogen. However, even though they like phosphorus ("the middle number") they really benefit greatly from potassium ("the last number"). Not only does it encourage good overall plant growth/tuber growth but it also keeps your potatoes from being mushy. (Have you ever cook potatoes, especially boiling them, and they practically fall apart into much? Yuck!)

The term doccat is referring to as "hardening off" is to help the cut sides of the spuds to heal over, forming a dry skin over the newly cut part to help decrease the chance of worms/bugs from entering the spuds once they are planted. (Doccat, for your article you might want to refer to that part as "healing" or "skinning over" rather than 'hardening off' as that term is usually used when referring to acclimating plants to the weather before setting them out.)

Gardagore, if you have all the left over straw/leaves you can prepare your tater bed now by putting down about a 3 ft high layer and it'll decompose over the Winter (and also attract earthworms!). By planting time the leaves/straw will be perfect for planting the spuds directly onto (and of course apply your fertilizer/plant food of choice). (If you use manure use it sparingly and now is the time to apply it.) Hopefully you'll have plenty of leaves to use for mulching the plants as they grow.

I'm so tickled, the city has now brought me four loads of leaves that they collect downtown! I'll have plenty for growing spuds, mulching, composting. Now is the time to call your City to see if they will bring you their leaf collection; they have to find someplace to put it!

Looking forward to your article, doccat!
Happy Gardening in All the Gardens of Life!

Shoe

Thanks Horseshoe, I'll have to check the what terminology I used in the article. It's already on the calender to be published.
Good deal on the leaves! We can't do that here, as the land fill composting the leave removal, but we did snag over 60 bags of leaves and I believe I have more coming. The nice young man I got the last batch from was so incensed the landfill personnel made them unbag all the leaves they brought. That's new this year and it would have been nice to let people know that before they got to the site......sigh. Anyhoo, they brought their last bunch of bagged leaves to my house and dropped them for me. He's got my phone number and said they'd give me a call when they got more, did I want more? Oh yeah, bring em on! LOL
Plenty of free black gold makings, works for me!

What kind of potato is best for picking small (new potatoes)? Big potatoes are cheap around here but I like the little ones and they cost a pretty penny. I'm planning to do a round wire cage that I can fit my hand in through the openings to pick little taters.

Variety really doesn't matter, you can rob for small guys anytime once the potatoes get going. Those big ones are the grown up version of the little ones. It's sorta like the more expensive red peppers....which unless they are a specific red variety are the green ones fully ripened out. You can usually pick them up and tell.

Small, is the reason I like to grow alot of veggies. As with potatoes, I love the small tender beans, different squash, beets, turnips and eggplant, the latter three I would not touch until I grew and ate small and roasted them.

Baby veggies are the BEST, gardenglory. And there is no comparison to home grown. We love eggplant and I have a couple of new varieties I want to try, one of which is a white one. I love to try unusual looking veggies. Yellow tomatoes, yellow and purple broccoli, blue taters...........LOL Looks like a rainbow riot!

cathy4 and gardenglory, I like Red Pontiac as well as Kennebec for "new potatoes". Pull some of them young and it whets your appetite and also meets your early potato craving! Then let the rest mature of larger spuds and for storage so you'll have a good supply. Growing them under leaves allows you to do that but if you choose to grow them in hilled rows (soil) you can still dig in and pull a few if you use caution and not upset the plant too much.

You might also want to try your hand at the fingerling potatoes. Although they don't give you a wonderful per-pound harvest many folks like them (and they bring a very high price at the market!). If you buy some fingerling seed potatoes hopefully it'll be your only purchase of them if you allow some to mature, cure them, then use those for next years planting out.

doccat...congrats on your gold mine! You, and your garden, will certainly be enjoying the bounty this next growing season!

Welp, gotta run fix some supper soon. For some odd reason I'm thinking mashed potatoes (and gravy??) might be on the menu. (Wonder where that idea came from??) :>)

Shoe

doccat i am getting a eggplant that is a pea shape. Do you do much with BakersCreek seeds . i spent a good 2 hrs on that site , they have a bean i was looking for but our sold out :( i was bummed. But they seem to have unusual seeds . alot of Asian varietys. I am getting a chinese long bean that is red. :)
Cathy4 would a fingerling be good for pickling ? they are small and might be easier to put in a jar?
Shoe thanks on the info. :) hey that does sound like a great idea to call the city for leaves. Beats raking them myself lol :)
rainbow riot lol cute doccat :)
sue

I love the fingerlings as new potatoes!

hahaha Shoe your making me hungry talking about the gravy yum
i am going to half to try this fingerlings. they sound good. never had them before.
sue

Taynors/Sue, Baker Creek is great! You should feel perfectly comfortable ordering from them. Jere (Jeremiath Gettle) who owns it is also a DG member and pops in from time to time.
Shoe

I just got my baker creek catalog today. I WILL NOT let myself open it until Christmas afternoon after everything is done and all I have to think about is seeds and what I hope will be a good year for veggies. I waited a couple years, finally just had 10 earth boxes delivered. Hard to imagine not gardening and having renewed hope every year.

I just spent about 27.00 and i m sure i will spend more on potatos next !! muwhahaha
Good to know Shoe. I like that site. I still have more to look at.
Gardenglory you have way more control than i do
We just bought 45 acres and 10 are tillable land. I think i might get 1 acre in for myself most being corn and grains. the rest tomatos an potatos. Now i just have to do a watermelon thread lolol :) need more seeds :)
sue

Hi doccat5,

Where should we look for your articles when they get published? I am interested in both the Broccoli and the Potato article.



This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 4:35 PM

Click on the home page and scroll down, look on the right side. Dave publishes 2 articles everyday and you can go to your preferences and sign up for them via e-mail as well if you wish. I got my Baker's Creek Catalog and took it with me to the pizza parlor tonight..Holly moly............I've never seen such an interesting collection of unusual veggies anywhere like these. I was so impressed!

did you see the beans they are to cool .
sue

Thanks doccat! Still more things I have not discovered about DG.

doccat5 I grew a white eggplant last summer and it was really good.Never heard of white and would not have tried it but overheard someone looking for it and heard them say how good it was.I beleive it was casper but am not sure will look up eggplants and make sure.Deanna

I'm looking at the not only the eggplant, but the wild looking beans, melons and cukes..........and white tomatoes? WOOHOO!

I did the Dr.Carolyn white cherry it was good.
have you decided on potatos ? or id i miss that earlier in the post lol :)
sue

I have Kennebecs coming from Johnny's and a Potato Patch special from Wood Field. That one is a mixed bag of yukons, blue ones, and some I've never heard of, but I'm gonna get acquainted with. You need to keep in mind, if you go this way with planting, you are going to get a better yield and you need plan for storage now! I don't have a root cellar, but we did scrounge an old bathtub which DH is going to sink in the ground, insulate and cover.

down the road from me i saw someone put out an old horse troff. Man i got to get me that. I could use that for many things. But it is -1 here and WINDY !! 40mph
your spuds sound good.
sue

Sue, grab that troff and haul it off. The possibilities with something like that , I am sooooooooo jealous. but then this is mainly urban rather than rural...we mostly have folks that act like the other end of the horse. (smile)

I know !!!! I saw it and was like HELLLLOOOO but i can't get it !! to cold didn't have my cartharts on . The wind is realy wild tonight . with snow and ice on roads so i had to hope for hte best and hope it is their tomorrow so i can get it. I just hope i can lift it ? :)
sue