thinning potatoes

[daugen]

in looking at these pics for another post, I realized the plants were already growing pretty close and leafing out. Is there a minimum distance I should maintain? And do they transplant well to another sparser location if handled carefully? Thanks My understanding is that plants too close to each other limits the size of the potatoes, too much competition for space. Drew

 

[Bird]

It might be interesting to know what others do, but I guess I just went at it differently than you. I tilled the garden, then I planted my seed potatoes simply by laying them on the surface in a row about 6 inches apart. Then I pulled the dirt up and over them from each side, so I had each row "hilled" from the start, before they ever sprouted. Never did any thinning or anything else except watering and using a hoe on any weeds.

 

[daugen]

Bird,
did you do that by hand or with a cultivator? Six inches is the number that I'm pondering here; mine are closer than that. Our second crop which is just coming up was a little shy on potato seeds, so I've got some good places to move a few plants that are way too close. Probably should have already done it, as they are starting to flower. BTW, does the flowering of the plant signify anything other than the flowering, or does it mean that's when the potato starts growing. I'm wondering if there's some farmer's wisdom such that "when the potato flowers, the dirt goes on" or whatever.

I'd like to grow some of these in a clear plastic box and see how it works, like the old fashioned ant farm boxes.

thanks Drew

 

[Bird]

Drew, I used to cover my seed potato pieces by hand with a rake or hoe. But then, since I didn't really have the right kind of attachment for the tractor, I did it with the front end loader. It was a bit slow, but easy; with the bucket dumped part way, lower into the ground then start raising the FEL as I moved forward to push dirt from the near side, then dump the bucket all the way and lower it into the dirt on the far side, and raise the FEL as I backed up to pull the dirt up into a hill over the seed.

I've never transplanted any, and don't recall anyone else transplanting any, so I've afraid I can't help you there.

 

[jdrobison]

we never hill potatoes, we plant them when we plow using a 3 bottom plow. plow 1 strip and lay the seed in the furrow against the turned soil, plow the next strip covering those and your ready to plant the next row in new furrow. lightly disc when done planting and cover ground with staw and watch them grow. :thumbsup:

 

[daugen]

what I'm hearing is that if I get enough dirt over them originally, it's probably ok, but I have lots of hay, and after one more hoeing, I'm going to pack the hay under everything and just relax and wait. They are starting to flower and growing nicely. Bird, I love your use of the FEL, necessity is the mother of invention, and sure shows that a good tool used well can do many things.

So, I'm not going to thin the potatoes, though I did transplant about 70 ears of corn to fill in where things didn't grow; now that was a chore. Will be curious to see how they survive transplanting, as careful as I was. I have a second batch of potatoes coming in now, boy all that green sure makes the garden look nice. Thanks to all.

 

[bp fick]

I run the roto tiller down through the rows, which by itself, tends to throw dirt up onto the potato plants, if I leave all four tines on.

Then I just use a steel garden rake or wide hoe and pull even more up onto the plants. I use mulch with straw. The mulch is more for shade and moisture retention. A great help in achieving size and number of spuds. The main reason for hilling or mulching is sun protection. The sun is brutal hot and can turn surface potatoes that green color you don't want. Oh yeah, don't worry about thinning.

 

[laurelrun]

Wife is trying potatoes in a garbgage can this year. As the plants grow starting with two inches of soil, you keep adding more soil until the can is full and the plants keep growing taller. Harvesting equals turning over the cans. Never tried it, but it's pretty low maintenance. We'll see what the yield brings.

 

[daugen]

I packed in some cheap Ace hardware organic potting soil in and around the potatoes, making sure I got some dirt down in the middle of the plant.
This has to be plenty...next comes the straw and a lot of patience.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I plant mine in a furrow four inches deep and a foot apart with rows at least three feet apart. When they are up six inches high or so I hill them up good with a potato hook with the dirt between the rows. This weeds the rows at the same time. Dust for potato beetles as needed to keep ahead of them. Perhaps hill them a little more to kill weeds as needed in a week or so and by then they should have spread out to fill all the available space and shade out any further weeds. Last time I kept tract of it they yielded 40 to 1.