Planting Taters

[PineRidge]

Yesterday I made a trip to Lowes to pick up some materials for a job. As I was passing through their seasonal seed section I spotted bags of potato seed. Grabbed up two bags of reds. You may want to check your local store for availability real soon......

 

[DUMBDOG]

Thanks for the links. By the time I added shipping, 10 lbs was going to cost about $40. Think I will plant something else and buy potatoes from whoever ends up selling them at the Farmers market later.

TSC is a good source of seed potatoes, or any other store of the same type.

 

[SPIKER]

I must be different I dont buy SEED for taters, we have plenty left overs that start sprouting eyes and save the eyes starting early and toss in the garden. they come up too I tilled the garden up this past week and didnt stop to get off and pick up any that popped up, there will be a good umber of volunteers this year as the woman did the digging last fall. We have a habbit of buying 3 or 4 bags by late winter and only eat about 3/4 of them and toss the green and or already sprouting ones into a pail/bucket/box in the basement. there was enough small left overs from last fall that are now sprouted out of the 5 gallon pails down stairs to plant 3 good rows... just need to make sure they get air though them. we put our bucket in front of the de-humidifier so when it kicks on it blows air into around/over them. keeps them from rotting.
mark

 

[PineRidge]

I must be different I dont buy SEED for taters, we have plenty left overs that start sprouting eyes and save the eyes starting early and toss in the garden. they come up too I tilled the garden up this past week and didnt stop to get off and pick up any that popped up, there will be a good umber of volunteers this year as the woman did the digging last fall. We have a habbit of buying 3 or 4 bags by late winter and only eat about 3/4 of them and toss the green and or already sprouting ones into a pail/bucket/box in the basement. there was enough small left overs from last fall that are now sprouted out of the 5 gallon pails down stairs to plant 3 good rows... just need to make sure they get air though them. we put our bucket in front of the de-humidifier so when it kicks on it blows air into around/over them. keeps them from rotting.
mark

I hadn't even thought of saving some of the spuds to be used the following year as seed but that is a good way to save some money and be sure that you have the type that you need come the following spring. Is there anything special that needs to be done other than keep them in a net sack for aeration? Should they be kept in the dark or a cool area?

 

[greenmule]

Only reason I see to save some of your crop and use as seed potatoes is if you couldn't buy them,I plant a 50 bag of kennibec and 50 lb bag of pontiac[think they are 50 lbs? whatever seed potatoes come in] every year,and I don't cut them.
Pretty cheap,even for a poor boy like me.

I've planted a few old potatoes left over from last year,a couple of times,but 1/2 didn't grow. Don't like planting tators and them not all coming up[or most of them anyways]

 

[PineRidge]

Only reason I see to save some of your crop and use as seed potatoes is if you couldn't buy them,I plant a 50 bag of kennibec and 50 lb bag of pontiac[think they are 50 lbs? whatever seed potatoes come in] every year,and I don't cut them.
Pretty cheap,even for a poor boy like me.

Paid 6.00 per 5 pounds of the Russets at WalMart X 2 = 12.00
Paid 3.98 for 10 potatoes of the Reds at Lowe's X 2 = 7.00
Tractor Supply quoted me $5.99 per 5 pounds of spuds Yukon or Kennebec
I think that's reason enough to save some of the taters that you harvest.

 

[impdaddy]

here is my biggest question. Do the dang deer eat potato plants?

 

[greenmule]

Well forgot what I paid last year for a sack of seed potatoes at southern states,don't think it was over 25 bucks or much over anyways. times 2= 50-70 dollars.[they might just be 25 lb sacks,but may be 50??]seed potatoes come in a one size sack at feed stores.

In any case,thats 8 months of potatoes.

Now maybe they have gone way,way up,but doubt if they've went up much anyways.

 

[greenmule]

I've heard they will paw around and eat the tators,don't know,deer don't eat anything in my garden,I got a fence around it.

 

[PineRidge]

We get a few deer and some coons in the garden from time to time. When we see them we put the taters to good use. We hurl them at the invader using a propane powered cannon at over 200 MPH. They usually don't come back real soon.

Here's a picture of one of my son's taking aim at a varmint from the observation deck.