These were some of our taters from last year.
I also had some from the grocery store that look to be from the Norkotah variety.
I think this will totally work.
I had two half-to-mostly-full, 3-gallon buckets of the sprouted taters. They had already started growing so I had to get them in the ground quick. I put them by the pear tree and the garlic in the newly cleared area. I will never remember this.
I think these were $1.99 or so. Fun and easy!
I plant these little onion starts closely together then thin them out as the growing season goes along to be used in salads and such. The remaining ones will then be properly spaced and grow to full size. That's the plan anyway.
I also put in a bunch of white onion sets, and some starts of purple and sweet/candy onions by the broccoli. This is going to be an onion-o-rific year!
Planting potatoes is easier than falling off a log. Seriously. You can read about it here. You can read more about it here. After I made shallow trench for them and then covered the sprouted taters with dirt, we went and got some fresh straw and bedded them down deeply.
Potatoes are great for new garden areas because the straw will improve the soil and help smother out any pesky weeds. I found some poison ivy in this new area so I hope I can be rid of that. *absently scratches arm.....*
Someone asked me if seed potatoes were different than regular potatoes? Nope. But sometimes they will treat eating potatoes to keep them from sprouting. (ew!) So yes, if you have taters from the store and they sprout you can plant them! Might as well try, right?
Our favorite taters are the Yukon Golds. I think they are pretty and they are a good, all around use tater. So we got a 50lbs bag of them. You'll remember what happened the last time I got a 50lbs bag of seed potatoes, right? The never ending potato harvest. Of doom. Oh boy. Potatoes for everyone!
Happy Monday everyone! Are you planting potatoes and onions?
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5 comments:
Yesterday was planting day as well, brassicas and alliums. There will be leeks upon leeks, and sweet onions, and collard brocoli and cauliflower as well.. need a little wearmer for other seeds but happy to have garden going in. Need to cut up the seed taters and they go in soon....
A friend just sent me the link to your Truth About Farming post. LOL, indeed. I'm now a faithful follower. (After a particularly uphill day on the farm we'll sing, with heavy irony, John Denver's "Life on the farm is kinda laid back...")
We're on a farmish homestead in Lanc. Co., PA---beef cattle, chickens, sheep, goats and the occasional feeder pig. And a huge garden that is alternately a blessing and a curse. I have a 5 pound sack of German Butterball potatoes left after putting in my French Fingerling and Kennebec. I'm, frankly, losing interest but potatoes are our main carbohydrate so I'll soldier on.
Do you cut up your potatoes in chunks before planting or just drop the whole thing in the row? My parents taught me to careful cut up the seed potatoes, making sure there were at least 2 eyes per chunk. I recently watched a video of a produce farmer dropping a whole potato in the ground. Would sure save a lot of work.
I second Rebeccas question....
David - they changed our forecast so now MAYBE we wont get a frost. here's hoping.
Thank you, Rebecca!!! Really appreciate your kind words. :-) And yeah - after a while it's all potatoes all the time.
So you want to make sure you have at least two eyes and that you plant them facing up. Some of my sprouted taters could be cut up into several pieces. A few of my actual seed potatoes only had a total of two eyes so I just put them in whole. The only thing you'll be missing by planting them whole is that you'll have fewer plants - I do not know if the resulting harvest will be more or less.
:-)
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