Potatoes
March 2nd, 2011 by Peg TilleryPotatoes
Have you ever tried to grow your own
potatoes? They’re an ideal plant for children and adults to try.
They can be grown directly in our gardens and in containers. Ciscoe
Morris even grows some of his potatoes in a hole-perforated garbage
can.
Traditionally, gardeners plant potatoes on
or around St. Patrick’s Day. Purchase seed potatoes from your
favorite nursery or at a feed store. Some gardeners even buy
organic potatoes to plant in their gardens. The non-organic
potatoes are often treated with a growth inhibitor, so you won’t
want to use those for your potato starts, they won’t germinate.
Cut the potatoes into sections making sure
to leave one or more eyes for each section. Allow several hours or
overnight for the sections to dry out and callous over. Some of the
smaller varieties will need to be planted whole, rather than in
segments. If you’re using the Ciscoe garbage can method, you’ll
keep all the potatoes whole.
Potatoes grow from tubers (what we know of
as eating potatoes). The plants grow from these tubers. When the
plant reaches about six inches tall, cover up the stem and most of
the leaves with soil or straw, leaving one to two inches exposed.
Each time the plant grows taller, cover up more and more of the
stem, always leaving a segment of stem with leaves sticking out. Do
this several times. It’s called “hilling up.” Covering up the stems
allows the plants to produce the potatoes to harvest. The potatoes
are growing in the dark all along the covered up stems. Continue
until the plant reaches one to three feet tall, depending on the
variety. You’ll be watering the plants regularly (at least once a
week, and more in the dryer summer months). You’ll also fertilize
the plants at the beginning.
New potatoes are harvested earlier in the
growing year. Mature potatoes are harvested anywhere from September
through November. Some gardeners leave their potatoes in the ground
through the winter, harvesting them as needed.
The only drawbacks to growing potatoes is
they’re often hard to uncover. You may discover plants popping up
and growing in unexpected places year after year. The only problems
potatoes encounter is blight (a rarity here in our area) and scab.
Scab is more unsightly than harmful to the potato. Scab can be
managed. Avoid potato blight by rotating vegetable crops.
For more information about planting and
growing potatoes call the Extension Office at 360-337-7157. For
Ciscoe’s potato planting method visit
www.ciscoe.com/archive/spuds.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Recent Comments