Growing Potatoes

So I began harvesting potatoes today. I have three or four different types in the ground but these in the picture are Red Pontiac.

Generally when you purchase potatoes to grow, they come in a package of potato sections and each section should have at least one good eye. Usually a package comes with at least 10 or 12 eyes and as many as 25. I only have space for maybe a dozen in one of my boxes. This year I decided to try planting some of the organic ones I purchased at the grocery store for consumption to give me some flexibility in growing different varieties rather than all the same type. I heard there is some risk of disease planting potatoes from the grocery store but so far they look good. And nonorganic potatoes have probably been treated with preservatives so I doubt they will even grow.

Potatoes prefer slightly acidic soil, so like the case with blueberries, apply sulfur or some acidifier to adjust the PH if necessary. In regards to pests I personally don’t have much problem but there is the dreaded potato beetle which can wreak havoc. I do see a beetle at times but there are never enough to inflict much damage so I don’t spray my potatoes with anything.

When planting, I start off by digging holes for the potato eyes approximately 6”-8” deep and about 2-3’ apart. You want to put the potato section in the ground with the eye pointing up and cover with 2”-3” of soil. As the plants emerge in a couple weeks I let them grow for a while and then start moving the remainder of the soil around the plant until all the soil has been returned to the hole and the bed is smooth. Finally after the potatoes have been growing for about a month, I spread a generous amount of my leaf mulch around the plants so the tubers are well protected. You don’t want the sun to hit the potatoes while they are growing or they will turn green and become toxic.

Here is what the bed looked like back in May after I was done mulching.

And here they were a couple weeks ago looking very healthy and even producing some pretty white and yellow flowers

I usually don’t even think about harvesting until the plants start looking shabby and dying off. This is when I know there probably won’t be any further growth with the tubers under the ground. I staggered my planting which is another advantage of using grocery store potatoes. You cans see the plants on the bottom of the picture not looking too good while others are still green and healthy looking.

I pull the sick looking plant and throw it in the compost and fish around the dirt with a garden glove on and bingo I have potatoes

And that’s about all there is to growing potatoes. You can try them in containers and bags but I’ve never done that so I can’t say if it works well. Thanks for reading and good luck. Please don’t forget to upvote and resteem if you enjoyed this post.