Potatoes What To Do?
 

The last of the Red La Soda potatoes we grew back in spring have sprouted eyes. Here it is November and we don't plant potatoes here until mid February.

I wonder what would happen if I were to plant them whole now?

I guess I could try cold storing them in the refrigerator?

or cut the eyes off and use them in the soup I'm going to make tomorrow.

Hmm, what to do?

Got any ideas?

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;513683]The last of the Red La Soda potatoes we grew back in spring have sprouted eyes. Here it is November and we don't plant potatoes here until mid February.

I wonder what would happen if I were to plant them whole now?

I guess I could try cold storing them in the refrigerator?

or cut the eyes off and use them in the soup I'm going to make tomorrow.

Hmm, what to do?

Got any ideas?[/QUOTE]

You can do both.
Cut the eyes out and sprout them and cook the taters in your soup.
The sprouts might take if you leave some meat on them maybe not.


Worth

You can usually just snap off the sprouts and that will delay further sprouting temporarily.

I would look at where you have them stored. Ideally you want them to be stored in a high humidity location below 50 F. 35-38 F is ideal.

There are some things you can do as well if the tubers start to shrivel, to rejuvenate them. Nothing to worry about, and I would not do anything drastic at this point. I have had tubers last several months past when they started to sprout.

Well, here it is almost February, and I still have the same potatoes. The eyes are bigger and they no longer look red. In fact, they look more like something from Fallout 4.

I'll be planting them tomorrow - wonder if they will grow? How would you plant them?

Couldn't load pictures again. I'll try again in a while.

I'm betting they will grow fine Robert.

I plant mine whole. If you plan to cut them, do it the day before you plant and let the cut side dry overnight or at least a few hours. They will grow I'm sure.
KO

Pictures

Them puppies are ready to go in the ground.
Cut them up and leave a sprout on each piece pointing up.

Worth

It worked :)

I am thinking of planting these whole too. We have found that we like new red potatoes more than large ones. The little red new potatoes go well with green beans and in soups.

Our favorite potatoes for most everything else are russets.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;529070]It worked :)

I am thinking of planting these whole too. We have found that we like new red potatoes more than large ones. The little red new potatoes go well with green beans and in soups.

Our favorite potatoes for most everything else are russets.[/QUOTE]

You cant buy new potatoes to save your life.


Worth

When we find them here they are more the size of a medium egg and larger. The smaller large-marble size is perfect to serve with green beans. I can't wait for spring.

yum. nothing beats baby new potatoes and as far as I'm concerned those seed potatoes look just right for planting. they will be up in no time. Just be gentle when you plant them so as not to knock those brittle sprouts off. the smaller ones I would plant whole and the larger I would cut in half but Lots of folks would cut them smaller. I say don't be stingy :)

K

I agree Karen.

Around here, I've seen seed potatoes sold that have way less eyes than those in my original post back in November. In 2015, the seed potatoes sold around here had no eyes. In the picture of me holding a small potato with a large eye - that eye is over 2.5" long. I hope the picture shows up. I wear a size 14 ring - that might help describe the potato eye size.

I have given it more thought and will be planting the small potatoes whole and the 12 larger potatoes I'll cut. That puts off planting day for Sunday instead of tomorrow.

I meant to tell how I saved these potatoes from November until now. I left them in the basket in post #1 on this thread. I put them outside near where they are going to be planted (An almost full sun location) until it was going to be well below freezing in late December. I brought them in and they sat beside our washing machine on the floor for the past month. I left the oak leaves that got mixed in the basket.

If you put potatoes with sprouts less then 4 inches long where they will get lots of light they will grow some small leaves and the sprouts stop growing longer, the nice thing about doing this is the sprouts become hard to break off. I plant them with just the tip of the leaves above ground at normal planting time.

Salt, "The Martian" (movie) has a nice potato planting segment. You wouldn't want to use the same fertilizer though. :lol: I'm too itching to try growing some from my trader joe's batch.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;529044]

I'll be planting them tomorrow - wonder if they will grow? How would you plant them?
[/QUOTE]

Salt thanks to you I am going to do without potatoes for supper tonight.
I have some red potatoes with little sprouts on them in the refrigerator.
I was going to eat them but now I am going to cut them and plant them tomorrow.:lol:

Worth

Worth, :))

It will be a month or two before I plant taters here in ky, but my stash is holding well in the cellar despite the warm December. My favorite spuds are new ones cooked to just fork tender, then flash crisped in lard or bacon grease. My second favorite spuds are this time of year, when they develop sprouts and a little sugar to help them turn golden brown as they fry! Nothing, and I mean NOTHING like a sprouted Kennebec french fried in lard!

I went to the cellar just a bit ago to get a new box for kitchen use, as we ran out over the weekend. I store taters in 25lb. Tomato boxes in the cellar. This makes for easy handling. Here is a new box of Red Pontiac's.
[URL=http://s243.photobucket.com/user/barney097/media/IMG_20160202_163106_zpscbntzaxu.jpg.html][IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff95/barney097/IMG_20160202_163106_zpscbntzaxu.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I almost forgot about this box of big taters I graded out last fall, it has 26 lbs. in it, but only contains 13 taters! I may have to juice them..:twisted:
[URL=http://s243.photobucket.com/user/barney097/media/IMG_20160202_163040_zpsgyg5zh18.jpg.html][IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff95/barney097/IMG_20160202_163040_zpsgyg5zh18.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Salt... that is what my potatoes look like sometimes when I plant. You'll have a fine crop from those. It is better to have them a bit sprouted before planting anyway. I have a couple months to go before I can get mine in, but I am sure they will look worse than that as warm as the winter has been and mine are sitting ina 50#bag in the garage.

I should do a video on how to grow instant mashed potatoes.

Show the soil tilled up and dig a trench and spoon in a box of instant potatoes.
Then 4 months later show the same spot with potatoes growing.8-)

Worth

This is sad.
Last night I watched yet more people try to grow potatoes in the so called potato towers.
None of them got much of anything.
As a matter of fact I could take the same barrel cut it length wise and use both halves to get a huge crop of potatoes by planting 3 or 4 seed potatoes in each one.
Salt I want you to see this I was going to plant potatoes last fall but forgot about it.
Look what this guy is getting out of containers.:shock:
[url]https://youtu.be/dMrkIecqQL8[/url]

A very interesting video Worth. Makes me want to go out and buy some BIG pots to give it a try.

I really like watching the guys videos he knows what he is doing and they aren't boring.

Worth

Wow! How many seed potatoes did he put in each pot?

[QUOTE=ChiliPeppa;530598]Wow! How many seed potatoes did he put in each pot?[/QUOTE]

He has another video on how he planted them.

Looks like 2 or 3 whole potatoes and puts the bottom of the pot in the soil so the roots can grow out the drain holes.

It also looks like he chits his own potatoes.
I am going to do the same thing with some of my tomatoes and peppers this year.

I check out that video.

Hmmm. I saw that video years ago. His results/yields are mostly due to the variety that he planted; which is Sarpo Mira. From what I have read, that variety has to be killed (the green tops chopped off) in order to stop the potatoes from growing ever larger.

I got excited too, when I first saw the video. I recall thinking, wow! a true peasants potato and that I needed to grow it to feed all these little kids running around here. Unfortunely, it is not available to us peasants of the USA. :(

Nattybo
Check this thread.
[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?p=529856[/url]

Will do :)

Here they are growing today (2-26-16)