500 onions, 500 potatos

[Sawyer Rob]

what are you going to do with all those spuds?

That's my question too!

Potatoes are so cheep to buy around here, I don't grow them, I mean you can buy 40 pounds for $5.00, so it's not worth the work to grow them... Same with onions...

SR

 

[Ted Summey]

How do you plant your potatoes? Karen, my wife, is the gardener and last year was her first attempt at growing them. We got a late start and hoped to do better this year, but we haven't done potatoes yet and didn't know you should start so early. She has been reading about raised beds, and then other methods like planting them in old tires and sacks of dirt. From what she has read, they say the red clay soil is too hard for potatoes and if you use something above the red clay, they grow better and you can dig them up easier.

Eddie

You may be able to start earlier, for us in NC once the soil dries in the next few weeks it will be potato and onion planting time. I wait until the risk of hard freeze is passed even though we might get frost.

For potatoes if you have clay, you will need to amend the soil with composted manure, composted leaf mulch, composted saw dust or something similar. I've used composed leaf mulch.

My method for planting 5 100' rows follows. You can down scale as needed.

1. Cut the seed potatoes into smaller chunks ensuring that each chunk has an eye/sprout on it. You can plant a whole potato if they are small
2. In a prepared bed, drop the seed potatoes in a row. Space about 8 to 10 inches apart.
3. I use a tractor with bedding disks to cover the potatoes several inches deep. I try to make my bed about 6 inches wide on top. Keeping the potatoes in the ground covered keeps them from turning green so when I cultivate I run back through the row with the bedding disks to throw soil back up on the plants. It will not hurt them even if you cover them up early on, they continue to grow.
4. Once they start blooming, I stay out of them except to spray for pests or the dig a few "new potatoes"

For my soil type I like to use a fertilizer with high phosphrous and potash and lower nitrogen. Since it is a root crop the P and K will promote root growth. Some N is required but at about half the P and K. I often use 10 10 10 fertilizer with an equal amount of 3 9 9.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My two favourite things! But I concurr with the others, yes your own always taste better, but at what cost?

I leave the gardening to a friend. I couldn't grow anything to save my life. Last year, I am not sure she could either! I once grew carrotts that were no bigger then toothpicks, but cuter then heck. I should have sold them to fancy restaurants for garnishments!