First time to grow potatoes

[sandih]

I planted some potatoes on 3/17 in our raised, ammended irganic bed. The plants are already 4-5 inches tall. I know you're supposed to mound compost or mulch around the plant but I don't know how much of the green plant you're supposed to leave visible. Any help would be appreciated.

[jmeier]

if you are using compost or mulch, mound it up over the entire plant. it will grow through. if you are using dirt, you may need to leave a little bit of green poking through because of possible compaction.

You need to keep the plant well covered so the potatoes are completely shielded from sunlight.

[sandih]

Thanks for the information. A couple of add'l questions if you don't mind...1) the potatoes are in the same large bed as my tomatoes..do they (the potatoes) require more water that the tomatoes? 2) will I know that the potatoes are ready to be harvested when the tops began to turn yello? I would assume that would be late summer?

[jmeier]

Tomatoes prefer to be dried out between waterings, and the potatoes need to be kept relatively moist.

if you are mulching well over the top of the bed, it shouldn't be a big problem.

[dragonfly]

As a general rule, when the potatoes flower, the potatoes are "new" size. When the greens start dying off, unless from pest or disease, they are ready to harvest. I think I usually pick them in mid June or early July.

[lplott]

I have always heard that when the plants lay over then they are ready to be harvested. HOWEVER, I have also heard to keep the dirt pulled up around the stem so you get more tomatoes, so if this is the case they won't fall over. I am going to keep the dirt up around them good this year, so I guess it will be a trial and error as to when to dig them.

[Bill in Arlington]

I have been growing potatoes for several years now and have tried all kinds of methods. But, basicly the potatoe plant makes new potatoes in the soil between the seed potatoe and the top of the ground. So it depends on how deep you planted the potatoe to start with. I currently have an experiment going this year. I planted the potatoe just below the top of the ground then placed a wire cage wraped with black plastic about 3 feet in diameter above it and filled it with a straw like material, actually it was very dried mornign glory vines. The gages were about two feet high and the potatoes have grown thru the top and are very full. We will see how many potatoes we get. The normal way I had planted is to dig a hole a foot or so deep and put the seed potatoe in the bottom and fill with compost. Then when the plant imerged I would start mounding the soil up around it. After the plants have bloomed, usualy in Jun sometime, I will start feeling around the base of the plants with my hands and find potatoes and digg them up and then pull more dirt up around them until the plants finally die and then digg up all the potatoes. I usually have only four mounds and will get any where from 20 to 30 pounds of potatoes. Good luck

[dragonfly]

Bill, that's a pretty impressive crop of potatoes and sounds like a good growing method. Wish I had thought of it before I planted, but will be sure to give it a try next year. Do you use home made compost or do you buy a specific type? thanks for the info.

[sandih]

That's an interesting method. Since nothing I read really indicated how deep to bury the seed potatoes, I just put them a few inches below the groud. I planted on 3/17 and the plants are now over 2 ft. tall with mulch packed around them up to about 4 inches from the top. They look great. So, after they bloom I should be able to reach in and hopefully find some potatoes? This is very exciting.

[Bill in Arlington]

I make my own compost. I bought a Sears 5HP chipper/grinder about 6 years ago and everthing that comes off the shurbs, trees etc is pilled up for mulching. Even the neighbors through in all their stuff. I then put it in a compsot bin purchased from Home Depot 10 years ago and I throw in all the pealings and stuff from the kitchen and a hand full of dry molessas (sp?) occaussionaly, then turn monthly. Seems to work well. As I mentioned this is the first year with the wire cages. I had read were someone's father used the tire method, stacking old tires around the plant so I thought wire cage with plastic would do the same thing.

Good Luck

[sandih]

Well, I obviously did something terribly wrong...or didn't do something I was supposed to have. About 45 days ago, the potato plants bloomed as predicted, then about 3 weeks ago they started dying..again as predicted. I decided to get out the old pitchfork and remove a ton of mulch that we had carefully built up around the potato plants.

Much to my dismay (and that of my husband's) we found a couple of buds on some of the branches and one that was of a fairley decent size but had huge holes in it and that was it. Darn!

I'm willing to try again for fall but have to know what you guys think I did wrong here! Take a look please.

http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v199/sandih/Potato%20let%20down/

[roc3491]

I have grown spuds in denton for 13 years, 20 twenty in colder climate before that. Two crops every year. 3 foot beds work for me. Mulch them with leaves. Blight's a problem, but corn meal really works.
Getting ready to put in an autunm crop, edible size be early November, with no frost.
Sean

[sandih]

How deep do you plant them?
How do you prepare your soil?
How often do you water them?
Do you put any specific ammendments in the soil?
What do you think I did wrong with mine?
How much sun should they get?

[roc3491]

My beds are about 4 to 6 " , I scatter any organic product, except cornglutenmeal, then I plant mine about 5" down . (I am lazy so I don't like have to remold them). Then I place some compost or mulch, when the plant appears I will mulch heavy, but not enough to cover the plant. I did that one year and the plants were very long but no tubbers or just real small.
When the plants appear I give them a mix of cornglutenmeal and dried molases. I do it at least twice during the growing season . I watch for blight , if I see the leaves going brown or burnt looking at the ends I dust them with corn meall, or you can do it Howard's and spray it on. He says it better and more effective that way.
I find that people sometimes make their beds reallly high, I find it dry's out the soil to quick, oh yeah did I mention I rarely water. I only water if it is extremely dry. I try to plant to catch the spring and autunm rains.
Got to work now.
Sean