It was time to plant potatoes, and this week I was happy to find that the nursery in my neighborhood had what I needed, without having to get Yukons (my least favorite for cooking). I chose Red Norlands and Kennebecs. I paid $1.91. I've never grown potatoes before, but they were on my list for the garden due to the fact that they are a good carbohydrate source. I chose two varieties just for a little nutritional diversity.
Saturday I covered one of my larger raised beds with a tarp because Sunday we were to have snow and rain in the forecast. I had already cut my potatoes and didn't want to wait another day, thus the tarp. When I took the tarp off this afternoon, once all the snow was done falling, the bed was warm, dry, and ready for easy planting. I had previously turned this bed and added a good amount of my saved compost. I'm trying to be good to these taters!
Saturday I also put up one of my rain barrels. And perfect timing too because I ended up with 50 gallons overnight. So I'm all set to start watering.
Here was my potato process:
In total I have 12 plants in the one bed. My hope is that I end up with a few servings of potatoes a week for winter. 13 weeks of winter. 52-ish servings of potatoes. I hope that is realistic with what I've planted. If you're a potato planting expert I'd love to hear from you and know your estimate.
So far so good. As long as the Hab doesn't blow up I should be ok.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz
Saturday I covered one of my larger raised beds with a tarp because Sunday we were to have snow and rain in the forecast. I had already cut my potatoes and didn't want to wait another day, thus the tarp. When I took the tarp off this afternoon, once all the snow was done falling, the bed was warm, dry, and ready for easy planting. I had previously turned this bed and added a good amount of my saved compost. I'm trying to be good to these taters!
Saturday I also put up one of my rain barrels. And perfect timing too because I ended up with 50 gallons overnight. So I'm all set to start watering.
Here was my potato process:
- Cut each seed potato in half such that at least two eyes were on each piece, and left all to sit and cure for over 24 hours until the cuts were healed and dry.
- Took a layer of soil off a 5'x6' raised bed and placed in buckets in my shed - this to be used as additional mounding soil as needed later.
- Made three deep rows in the bed, piled the soil from the rows on each side - again this soil to be used as additional mounding soil as the plants grow.
- Within each row I placed 4 potato pieces a foot apart, eyes up, into a 2" hole. Covered each potato with 2-3 inches of soil.
In total I have 12 plants in the one bed. My hope is that I end up with a few servings of potatoes a week for winter. 13 weeks of winter. 52-ish servings of potatoes. I hope that is realistic with what I've planted. If you're a potato planting expert I'd love to hear from you and know your estimate.
So far so good. As long as the Hab doesn't blow up I should be ok.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz