2008 Potato Gardens - Page 3

louster · August 2, 2008

Hi Jeff,
My Yukon Golds have completely died back, I've just been digging them as I need them for meals. The others--Red Pontiac, Kennebec, and a variety I think is called Purple Haze? are just about ready, the foliage looks really bad. Like you, I am impatient, and dug a few Red Pontiac for dinner the other night, and they were wonderful. Same with the Yukon Golds, they have been great!! We were without homegrown potatoes for way too long this year.
I plan on digging them a batch at a time over the next few weeks, and either blanch and dry (for scalloped potatoes), or blanch, vacuum seal and freeze (for mashed). I will put as many as I figure we will use the next few months in a makeshift root cellar we are setting up in our basement. So these I want to leave in the ground as long as I can, then cure and store.
Last year was our first ever growing potatoes, and we loved them so much, we doubled the amount we grew this year. As a result, the whole garden is taken up with potatoes and tomatoes, with a couple of zucchinis and peppers thrown in where we could. This fall we will be tilling up some more of the yard....I think we should just forget about the grass and plant it all with veggies!! Unfortunately, my two kids don't appreciate it when I talk like that.

..oh well.

jwr6404 · August 2, 2008

Dug up our Black Potatoes today. It's amazing how productive they are here in the Puget sound area of the PNW.

svalli · August 3, 2008

It is many years since I have grown potatoes in Finland the previous time, so I do not really remember when they are usually dug up here. It happens usually after the vines have been killed by first frost.

I checked my in-ground plants last week and the Peruvian Purples had just started to bloom. The rows were totally covered by weeds, so I had to weed them and hill more soil around the plants. It was hard work, but in the end the rows looked much better.

OmahaJB · August 3, 2008

louster,

When did you plant your potatoes? I started mine in late May. Since I see you don't live real far from where I live in NW Ohio, our seasons should be comparable. However, if you started your's weeks before I did, it would make a difference. I just want to make sure I don't jump the gun!

jwr,

I'll have to do a search for black potatoes. I've seen photos of blue potatoes, but don't recall seeing black. It's great you can grow potatoes in that part of the country. Just from reading posts and corresponding with a gardener up there, I know the PNW can be a challenge sometimes. Maybe not as much for potatoes it seems.

svalli,

Looks like really well tended rows of potato plants. Real nice! And a nice looking garden behind it, too.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone gets for yields, including me!

Jeff

louster · August 3, 2008

OmahaJB,
I planted mine out April 19th. I like to plant the potatoes and usually peas early. If I stagger plantings, I'm not so overwhelmed around Memorial Day.
I plan on leaving a lot of mine in the ground as long as possible, since I read somewhere (probably here) that the longer you can leave them in the ground, the longer they will store. Also, the room in the basement where I plan on keeping them will not cool down till the weather does.
Don't worry, if you planted out in late May, I'm sure yours are right on schedule. Hope you can enjoy some soon!

svalli · August 4, 2008

I just received a frightening call from my mother in-law. They had noticed signs of some sort of blight on my two rows of potatoes on their field. Their potatoes on our field, which we bought this spring and where potatoes have not been growing before are fine, but they have been sprayed twice now.

I should have planted my potatoes on our field, but she told me to plant them next to her vegetable plot in the old potato field, so she could water them if needed.

They could not spray my potatoes, since they had some potato grower come to the big field with a tractor. I have to now go to the local agriculture stores to look, if they have any potato blight sprays suitable for home gardeners. We had quite wet weather for a while so the blight must be a problem now. There are many commercial and home growers in that area, so even if the blight did not come from the soil, there may be a lot of airborne spores to infect potato plantings.

I did not have any signs of potato diseases in my garden in Wiscoinsin, so I know my seed potatoes were clean. I hope that the Peruvian Purples are not very sensitive to this disease and I would be able to harvest some tubers. I should have grown some of them here in the city in my buckets.

Medbury Gardens · August 4, 2008

jwr
Your black potato sounds fascinating can you get a picture of it on here? i`m sure some of us would love to see it.

One month till spring here so i have just planted 20 moie moie potato in pots and will start them off in my earth tunnelhouse, september i will plant them out under plastic.This gives us a twelve month supply in spuds as by the time we have finshed those we can then start eating from last seasons residual crop which i cover in horse poo and sawdust early spring.This area will normally get us through to the main crop.
Richard

svalli · August 8, 2008

We went to see my in-laws and my vegetable garden on Tuesday. I confirmed what they had noticed; the late blight had attacked my potatoes. Leaves on two stems were totally gone, so I pulled them out. It is amazing how rapidly the blight can destroy the vegetation. Some of the plants did not yet have signs of blight on the leaves. I sprayed the plants with a fungicide containing mancozeb and left my sprayer there so my father in-law can spray the plants again next week.

I heard in news that this area has a lot of blight this year. There was a lot of rain in July followed by a week of warm weather, which created perfect environment for the blight.

I hope this fungicide works and the blight does not destroy all of the plants.

OmahaJB · August 24, 2008

For those who haven't kept up with my thread in the 'Starting from seed' thread, I'll post this info here as well.

Yesterday I decided to harvest one of the grow bags to see how productive the plants have been, and to see how big the potatoes are. I ended up with 26 potatoes, average size between .5 and 1 ounce. I use an old postal scale and it measures by the 1/2 ounce. There were a few potatoes that were pebble sized or slightly larger. The largest ones were between 1.5 and 2 ounces.

Boiled a few this morning. Tender flesh as you can imagine for potatoes at this stage of growth. Nice flavored but not strong tasting - not that I really expected them to be. Originally I thought I was harvesting La Ratte, but it was definitely either German Butterball or Carola. Not sure which. I had marked the bags by putting index cards inside coin zips, but the rain got inside. Oh well....

Will wait until at least mid-September to harvest any of the other bags. Still have 10 left.

Jeff

OmahaJB · October 19, 2008

End of the season report for me here in Ohio:

Since this was my first year growing potatoes I realize I shouldn't be too disappointed about the results, especially since I grew them in grow bags. Unfortunately, the results were not good. Besides a few that were maybe 2.5 ounces, the rest were approximately 1 ounce or less. I did get large numbers in 3 or 4 of the bags but they were just too small.

I'll chalk this year up to a learning experience and hope to do better next year, or whenever I next grow potatoes. When I do it'll be an earlier variety and I'll start them much earlier than I did these. These were described as 90-110 days and they had that and more so I don't understand why they didn't grow larger. Perhaps they didn't have enough fertilizer, although I did use Miracle grow soil for some of the soil I used. The vegetation grew very well so I was surprised the potatoes didn't do better.

How did everyone else do this year?

Jeff

Medbury Gardens · October 19, 2008

How big are ya bags Omaha???
I`m having a try at growing spuds in tyres this season just out of curiosty,i`m up to the 5th tyre now.
In our local weekend news paper they had an article in the gardening section that said to put 4 or 5 potatos in one tyre,i think thats too many, i`ve got one in mine with three main stems, even then i think theres only just enough room.
It wont be the lack of fertilizer for your small potatos,they don`t need a lot of fertilizer,all i give my garden spuds is some dug in horse manure and sawdust, my best plant last season i weighed about 8kgs

OmahaJB · October 20, 2008

Medbury,

I used 10-gallon grow bags. Ironically, the largest potatoes grew in one of the bags I had the least amount of soil in, & some of the lowest yields grew in the ones with the most soil. That wasn't across the board mind you, as some of the grow bags filled full of soil had decent numbers. Overall though, disappointing year in terms of size of the potatoes.

So next time I'll definitely be looking for early varieties!

I had two seed potatoes in most of the bags, and 3 or 4 in a couple due to very small size of some of them. Two really is enough as the vegetation was jungle-like.

Good luck, Jeff

mtnclimber · July 9, 2009

I am trying potatos for the first time. I planted three types - Yukon Gold, Pontiac Red and Kennebec. I have an area where I have been dumping leaves for years and it has composted well. I dug trenches about a foot deep and planted the pieces about 4 inches deep below the bottom of the trench. I have been adding soil and now the mounds are about 4 inches high. I planted back in mid-May and everything seems to be doing well. I may try some blue variety next year. Anyone have suggestions on blue varieties that keep well?

August 2, 2008	#31
louster Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Portland, MI Posts: 53	Hi Jeff, My Yukon Golds have completely died back, I've just been digging them as I need them for meals. The others--Red Pontiac, Kennebec, and a variety I think is called Purple Haze? are just about ready, the foliage looks really bad. Like you, I am impatient, and dug a few Red Pontiac for dinner the other night, and they were wonderful. Same with the Yukon Golds, they have been great!! We were without homegrown potatoes for way too long this year. I plan on digging them a batch at a time over the next few weeks, and either blanch and dry (for scalloped potatoes), or blanch, vacuum seal and freeze (for mashed). I will put as many as I figure we will use the next few months in a makeshift root cellar we are setting up in our basement. So these I want to leave in the ground as long as I can, then cure and store. Last year was our first ever growing potatoes, and we loved them so much, we doubled the amount we grew this year. As a result, the whole garden is taken up with potatoes and tomatoes, with a couple of zucchinis and peppers thrown in where we could. This fall we will be tilling up some more of the yard....I think we should just forget about the grass and plant it all with veggies!! Unfortunately, my two kids don't appreciate it when I talk like that...oh well.

August 2, 2008	#32
jwr6404 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: University Place, WA Posts: 481	Dug up our Black Potatoes today. It's amazing how productive they are here in the Puget sound area of the PNW. __________________ Jim

August 3, 2008	#33
svalli Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63° Posts: 838	It is many years since I have grown potatoes in Finland the previous time, so I do not really remember when they are usually dug up here. It happens usually after the vines have been killed by first frost. I checked my in-ground plants last week and the Peruvian Purples had just started to bloom. The rows were totally covered by weeds, so I had to weed them and hill more soil around the plants. It was hard work, but in the end the rows looked much better. __________________ "I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream." - Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson

August 4, 2008	#36
svalli Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63° Posts: 838	I just received a frightening call from my mother in-law. They had noticed signs of some sort of blight on my two rows of potatoes on their field. Their potatoes on our field, which we bought this spring and where potatoes have not been growing before are fine, but they have been sprayed twice now. I should have planted my potatoes on our field, but she told me to plant them next to her vegetable plot in the old potato field, so she could water them if needed. They could not spray my potatoes, since they had some potato grower come to the big field with a tractor. I have to now go to the local agriculture stores to look, if they have any potato blight sprays suitable for home gardeners. We had quite wet weather for a while so the blight must be a problem now. There are many commercial and home growers in that area, so even if the blight did not come from the soil, there may be a lot of airborne spores to infect potato plantings. I did not have any signs of potato diseases in my garden in Wiscoinsin, so I know my seed potatoes were clean. I hope that the Peruvian Purples are not very sensitive to this disease and I would be able to harvest some tubers. I should have grown some of them here in the city in my buckets. __________________ "I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream." - Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson

August 8, 2008	#38
svalli Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Vaasa, Finland, latitude N 63° Posts: 838	We went to see my in-laws and my vegetable garden on Tuesday. I confirmed what they had noticed; the late blight had attacked my potatoes. Leaves on two stems were totally gone, so I pulled them out. It is amazing how rapidly the blight can destroy the vegetation. Some of the plants did not yet have signs of blight on the leaves. I sprayed the plants with a fungicide containing mancozeb and left my sprayer there so my father in-law can spray the plants again next week. I heard in news that this area has a lot of blight this year. There was a lot of rain in July followed by a week of warm weather, which created perfect environment for the blight. I hope this fungicide works and the blight does not destroy all of the plants. __________________ "I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream." - Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson

August 3, 2008	#34
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	louster, When did you plant your potatoes? I started mine in late May. Since I see you don't live real far from where I live in NW Ohio, our seasons should be comparable. However, if you started your's weeks before I did, it would make a difference. I just want to make sure I don't jump the gun! jwr, I'll have to do a search for black potatoes. I've seen photos of blue potatoes, but don't recall seeing black. It's great you can grow potatoes in that part of the country. Just from reading posts and corresponding with a gardener up there, I know the PNW can be a challenge sometimes. Maybe not as much for potatoes it seems. svalli, Looks like really well tended rows of potato plants. Real nice! And a nice looking garden behind it, too. Looking forward to seeing what everyone gets for yields, including me! Jeff

August 4, 2008	#37
Medbury Gardens Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Medbury, New Zealand Posts: 1,881	jwr Your black potato sounds fascinating can you get a picture of it on here? i`m sure some of us would love to see it. One month till spring here so i have just planted 20 moie moie potato in pots and will start them off in my earth tunnelhouse, september i will plant them out under plastic.This gives us a twelve month supply in spuds as by the time we have finshed those we can then start eating from last seasons residual crop which i cover in horse poo and sawdust early spring.This area will normally get us through to the main crop. Richard

August 24, 2008	#39
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	For those who haven't kept up with my thread in the 'Starting from seed' thread, I'll post this info here as well. Yesterday I decided to harvest one of the grow bags to see how productive the plants have been, and to see how big the potatoes are. I ended up with 26 potatoes, average size between .5 and 1 ounce. I use an old postal scale and it measures by the 1/2 ounce. There were a few potatoes that were pebble sized or slightly larger. The largest ones were between 1.5 and 2 ounces. Boiled a few this morning. Tender flesh as you can imagine for potatoes at this stage of growth. Nice flavored but not strong tasting - not that I really expected them to be. Originally I thought I was harvesting La Ratte, but it was definitely either German Butterball or Carola. Not sure which. I had marked the bags by putting index cards inside coin zips, but the rain got inside. Oh well.... Will wait until at least mid-September to harvest any of the other bags. Still have 10 left. Jeff

October 19, 2008	#40
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	End of the season report for me here in Ohio: Since this was my first year growing potatoes I realize I shouldn't be too disappointed about the results, especially since I grew them in grow bags. Unfortunately, the results were not good. Besides a few that were maybe 2.5 ounces, the rest were approximately 1 ounce or less. I did get large numbers in 3 or 4 of the bags but they were just too small. I'll chalk this year up to a learning experience and hope to do better next year, or whenever I next grow potatoes. When I do it'll be an earlier variety and I'll start them much earlier than I did these. These were described as 90-110 days and they had that and more so I don't understand why they didn't grow larger. Perhaps they didn't have enough fertilizer, although I did use Miracle grow soil for some of the soil I used. The vegetation grew very well so I was surprised the potatoes didn't do better. How did everyone else do this year? Jeff

October 20, 2008	#42
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	Medbury, I used 10-gallon grow bags. Ironically, the largest potatoes grew in one of the bags I had the least amount of soil in, & some of the lowest yields grew in the ones with the most soil. That wasn't across the board mind you, as some of the grow bags filled full of soil had decent numbers. Overall though, disappointing year in terms of size of the potatoes. So next time I'll definitely be looking for early varieties! I had two seed potatoes in most of the bags, and 3 or 4 in a couple due to very small size of some of them. Two really is enough as the vegetation was jungle-like. Good luck, Jeff

July 9, 2009	#43
mtnclimber Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Golden, Colorado Zone 4, at 8,500 ft elev. Posts: 2	I am trying potatos for the first time. I planted three types - Yukon Gold, Pontiac Red and Kennebec. I have an area where I have been dumping leaves for years and it has composted well. I dug trenches about a foot deep and planted the pieces about 4 inches deep below the bottom of the trench. I have been adding soil and now the mounds are about 4 inches high. I planted back in mid-May and everything seems to be doing well. I may try some blue variety next year. Anyone have suggestions on blue varieties that keep well?