Planting Taters

[PineRidge]

Certified disease free seed potatoes run about $1/lb here in small quantity - The have 100lb sacks and they weigh out. Probably cost around the same as greenmule to buy whole 50 or 100lb sack, but I don't think I can handle that many

We generally get around 10lb for every lb planted here. What sort of yeilds do you guys get?

Last season we planted 10 pounds and we ended up with a lot of spuds. Not shure of the exact amount as my neighbor was digging them also. The ones we dug lasted until Nov. and were darn good eating.

 

[radioman]

When I plant about 5-10 lbs I average about 50-100lbs at end of season. However, last fall was a huge bumper crop and I had the biggest yield ever in my life. I planted 10 lbs and I had over 300 lbs!!! The planting condition and growing season was perfect last year. I had to give away alot of it. I doubt I will ever get this much ever again, but it sure was a very nice surprise last fall.

 

[greenmule]

Actually it was about 40 dollars for about 100 lbs.
The red ones are huge,so unless I cut them,they won't go far.
The kennibecs are small and will cover a lot of ground.
I don't plant all of them generally,I make a certain amount of forrows[my patch],and when that spots filled up,I'm done.But generally plant at least 3/4 of them.

Don't know how many lbs we generally get,enough for probably 5-6 people for 8 months or so.[After that they are so shrunk and wrinkeled up with foot long eyes,about end of march,that we quit eating them and start buying store bought],so more than enough.

Store them in my basement which is half dirt and very damp in a potato bin,if you had a regular celler,where temps stayed as cool as it would but above freezing,they would last most of the year.

Growing up we all had regular cellers,just for canned goods and potatoes,dug into ground with dirt piled on sides,with just a couple foot above ground.

Some people would bury them in a hole,[we never did that],but guess its poor mans celler,they dig a hole,line it with boards,and kinda make a frame sides,than put hay in floor,potatoes hay,potatoes,etc,than boards on top,with more hat and dirt from hole mounding over,you just kinda dug down as you needed potatoes and recovered. be a good way,dark,cool,and moist.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

ok, dummy question, here...

we buy regular taters at the store......small to medium size......fried taters, mashed taters, etc...

how do you get the larger, baking, style taters like we buy at sam's, or individually at the grocery store....

is there a certain type of tater that grows that big or do they just leave them in the ground longer?

 

[PineRidge]

ok, dummy question, here...

we buy regular taters at the store......small to medium size......fried taters, mashed taters, etc...

how do you get the larger, baking, style taters like we buy at sam's, or individually at the grocery store....

is there a certain type of tater that grows that big or do they just leave them in the ground longer?

There are a lot of different varieties of spuds. If you look at this link you will find the larger spuds that are generally used for baking purposes.

 

[greenmule]

Once the tops die,tators won't get any bigger,so.

They got many types,seems like about all you can find in bulk anyways,is yellow[yokon gold],kennibec,and pontiac red.

When we plow ours,we seperate the big ones,and kennibecs get big,we have many every year that are as big or even bigger than the big baking potatoes you buy at store.

How you plant them helps some in size as I'm sure does right growing conditions,etc.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

My garden is looking beautiful I have soaker hoses down each row and 2 manifolds. One with 5 hoses the other 4. Hubby said it looks like spaghetti out there, he said he would have it neater. I told him if he has time next year go for it. I would also like pipe buried to my hose bib deal I fixed out there too, but it works, just hard to mow around. I can do it myself, but I just use a hose from another faucet for now.

I have about decided you will not have much of a garden down here anymore without irrigation.

This way I can do 3 rows a day and every third day the plants will get watered. Did so today and yesterday and I swear they grew several inches.

I think by Monday I will have lettuce and spinach, already have green onions. I have a few tomatoes set on, one is about the size of a golf ball. The plants are all different sizes. I sure hope I get enough produce to can this year. I only had green beans and green tomatoes to can last year. I think watering them, made my beautiful tomatoes rot last year.

My one tiny peach tree has over 5 dozen or more peaches. They are about t he size of table tennis balls. The orange tree must have 200 oranges set on and the grapefruit a few dozen also, its very tiny. I post on several forums if I have already posted this just disregard.

I'm thrilled with my garden so far. Today added 2 egg plant and 8 more tomato plants. My cukes may have been gotten by cold or lack of water so replanted some of them today. Otherwise looking good out there.

 

[PineRidge]

I think it's great that you folks can plant this early in the year. Well for us it's early, around here only the cold weather crops can be put in the garden like onion, lettuce, radish, peas and the like as it's way too cold for anything else. Tuesday we had snow here brrrrr. Last Sat. & Sun I was working in a short sleeve shirt so that's how the weather fluctuates in Ohio this time of the year.

The ground is still to soft to get the tractor in it, checked it out yesterday with the weight of the New Holland.

Here in Ohio if the sweet corn is knee high by the 4th of July then you're right on schedule.

 

[greenmule]

I'll plant some stuff in next week or so here,same time as always. Put my 5 ft kk tiller on my kioti just today,its now set on go.