You Say Pototo...............

I say Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, Colorado Rose, and All Blue.


On February 24, I planted my first bed of Yellow Finn, Colorado Rose and All Blue potatoes. I received them in the mail earlier in the month from Peaceful Valley Farms, but was waiting for the eyes to sprout before planting (I put them in a paper bag with an apple to speed things up). When they were ready, I cut them into pieces with at least 3 eyes each, dipped them in wood ash (to protect them from bugs), and planted them. It took about 3 weeks for the little seedlings to sprout above the soil, but you can see them coming up in the photo.



You can plant potatoes 9" deep, but don't cover them with more then 3" of soil right away. As they grow above the soil, you can push more soil around them, so the stem continues to grow upward in the soil. This will give the plant good support for a good harvest, also, potatoes will only grow above the one you planted, not below, so you will get a bigger harvest, since they will have more soil above to grow in.



You also stake and string the potatoes as they grow using the diagonal string pattern to hold the stalks upright (it also keeps the chickens out of that bed), adding more levels of string as they grow taller. I planted these Yukon Gold's on March 19th, on April 4th they started peeking through the dirt.







This photo was taken one month later, on April 18.......looks like I'm gonna have some potatoes this year!








Potato Update:
April 13 - notice all the growth since planting 3" below the soil surface in February! Their big enough to start pushing the dirt around the stems. How nice when things go acording to plan.













May 9, first potato flowers


UPDATE: JUNE 27TH

4 months since planting - when your plants start to turn yellow/brown, and look like they are dying, they are ready to start harvesting.

Harvested bed of Yellow Finn, Colorado Rose, and All Blue