GROWING POTATOES


Scientific Nomenclature

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Species: S. tuberosum

Binomial name
Solanum tuberosum


The potato was an unknown until somewhere around 200 B.C., when the
Incas in Peru decided to eat some. In 1537, the Spanish
Conquistadores discovered potatoes and brought them back to Europe on
a return trip. The first potatoes arrived in North America in 1621.
Today potatoes are one of the largest food crops in the world with the
United States alone growing about 35,000,000,000 pounds of potatoes
every year. (The average adult consumes 125 pounds of potatoes a year.)

Growing conditions for potatoes is almost identical to tomatoes. The
main difference is potatoes do not start to grow until the soil
temperature is 45°F. The PH should be 5.8 to 6.5 and with a
reasonably fertile ground, you'll normally get a fair crop. As with
tomatoes, it is possible to do things to increase your crop significantly.

Let's look at the normal way to grow potatoes. You should only
consider planting certified seed potatoes. You might say that gee,
those in the grocery store sure look nice, but you will find that they
have been sprayed with something that will keep them from sprouting.
This is not a bad thing, but it makes them so much more difficult to
grow. In fact, I doubt seriously if you can get them to sprout.

Alright, you go and by 5 pounds of seed potatoes with the expectation
of getting 25 to 30 pounds of crop. When you're getting ready to
plant your potatoes, make sure the soil is not too wet, because if it
is you're taking a chance that your seed will rot before they ever get
started. In order to prevent their rotting in soil that is slightly
damp it would be necessary to pre-sprout them and dip the seed pieces
in powdered sulfur. In order to pre-sprout them, place your potatoes
in a warm (70 to 80 degrees F) in the sun. It should not take more
than two or three days for them to sprout. After cutting, the pieces
should be allowed to dry for three or four days before planting. This
allows the fresh cut to scab over and resist attacks by fungus.

Now for the ground. The ground should be worked at least 8 inches
deep, and should have few or no hard clouds or rocks. Dig a trench
eight or nine inches deep and put about an inch of manure or
mushroom compost in the bottom. Now cover this with an inch of good
soil. This is to prevent the seed from touching it and the new
potatoes having 'scabs'. These scabs do not hurt the potato meat but
sure looks ugly. Now place your potato 'seed' on this layer of soil,
with the sprout up and cover with about three inches of soil. Plant
them about 3 inches deep, and if you want your potato crop to be of
larger potatoes, space your seeds about 18 inches apart in the row,
and for small size potatoes about 14 inches apart. When I say size of
potatoes here, I mean, the potatoes that you potentially will harvest.
Now dig two more trenches, one on each side of your seed row. You will
now side dress your seed bed with some good fertilizer. It is
recommended that you use a composted manure for this purpose. If you
do not have manure available you can use 10-20-10, fertilizer. This
fertilizer should be below your seed and should not come in contact
with the seed. It is recommended that you use about 2 cups of 10-20-10
for each 30 foot row of seed. (That means you will have one cup on
each side of the row). Potatoes may be planted as late as June 15.

As your seed grows to about 8 inches tall, hill around the plant with
about 4 inches of soil. This should be done every two or three weeks
until the hill is about a foot or a foot and a half tall. It is done
to prevent the new tubers from being exposed to the sun, which causes
them to turn green. The green on potatoes is toxic to some people.

You can start your harvest as early as three weeks after the blossoms
have finished their run. If you carefully dig around the plant at this
time you can harvest some small to medium size potatoes good for soups
and salads. It will take another three to four weeks for the potatoes
to complete there maturing process. If you want to store your harvest
you need to dig the mature potatoes and allow to 'cure' for 3 or 4
days in the sun. This toughens the skins so they do not bruise as easy
as 'new' potatoes. If it looks like rain you need to move them inside
to 'cure'. When digging you should be careful not to bruise the tender
skin on them as they will not keep as well if bruised. Good idea to
use those that are bruised as soon as possible. By the way, make sure
to keep them watered for at least three weeks after the blossoms fall
as this is the time of their maximum growth. If the vines are still
green at the end of September, go a head and cut them off to give the
potatoes time to mature. The vines you remove should be burned along
with the rest of your trimmings to stop the spread of disease.

Some popular varieties of potatoes are, in the red category: Red
LaSoda, Norland, and Viking. In the white varieties you have Kennebec,
Superior, and Nooksack. That is a far cry from all the seed stock that
is available. You should contact your local garden shop and ask them
to order whatever breed you would like to have. They can make
recommendations as to which breeds are early, medium and late
harvesters. There are even varieties, which are black.

Now let's get to some of the more space saving ways to grow potatoes.
Several different methods are available. If you have old tires laying
around you can stack tires on top of each other and plant your
potatoes inside the stack. Start by breaking up the ground first and
placing your first tire on the bottom starting with the largest tire.
Put soil inside the tire and prop the bead of the tire open so you can
plant your potatoes. When they start to grow, place another tire on
the stack and fill with fresh soil. Keep this up till you have 4 or 5
tires tall. Be sure you water deep enough that the soil gets moisture
all the way to the bottom. The tires should provide some extra warmth
that your plants will enjoy. If you have some chicken wire, you can
make a 5 Foot Circle with that and plant about five hills of potatoes
inside the wire building your hills to the top of the wire. Or, you
can go buy some plastic trash cans and cut the bottoms out and fill
those with two or three hills to the top. Just giving some ideas on
space saving. I personally have Nooksack potatoes planted various
ways. It looks like in my area, they will not be harvested until late
September or early October. They were developed in the Nooksack Valley
of Washington, as I understand it, for french fries for McDonald's.
They are excellent baked or fried, and if allowed to grow to maturity
they are quite large. (One to two pounds each.)
That should complete my article on potatoes.

Jay