Growing Potatoes from SeedGrowing your own potatoes is not only easy, but can be a whole lot of fun.
Start with purchasing high quality seed potatoes that are free of disease and chemicals. Do not buy potatoes from the grocery store for planting. They’ve been treated to prevent them from "going to seed" and sprouting. The seed potato has buds or "eyes" which will grow into new plants. Cut the seed potato 5 or 6 days before planting. The cut pieces should be about the size of a medium hen egg. Each piece must have one good "eye." The "eye" will provide food for the seed until it develops a root system. Place the seed pieces in a well-ventilated area so they can heal over. One pound of seed potatoes will make 9 or 10 seed pieces. Do not save your seed potatoes for more than one year, as a virus could develop which would reduce your yield. In March, when the soil temperatures are warmer, (about 50F) or about 3 weeks before the last spring frost, plant the potato pieces. Dig a trench 3 inches deep and place the seed pieces about 12 inches apart. Press each seed piece making sure seed has good contact with the soil. Cover the seed with soil. Do not plant deeper than 3 inches. If plants are covered too deeply, they will be slow to break through the soil and will be susceptible to decay and disease. As the potato plant grows you’ll want to occasionally add more compost on top. You can harvest new, young potatoes when the potato plant begins to flower. For storage of full sized potatoes, harvest them when the vines turn yellow or have died-back.
2010 Seed Potatoes Here’s of list of the seed potatoes available at Al’s this season. Shop early for best selection.
ALL BLUE Dark blue skin with almost purple flesh. Plants have beautiful blue flowers that produce lots of oblong tubers. Makes beautiful mash potatoes and great in potato salad for a little more color.
CAL WHITE A great basic white potato. It can produce very large smooth oblong tubers with a thin skin. The plant is large in size and has a great yield.
DARK RED NORLAND An early red that has almost burgundy colored skin with white flesh and shallow eyes. Great fried and in potato salad.
RED PONTIAC An old time favorite of gardeners. It grows well in about any climate. Plants are big which can produce huge white flesh - deep eyed potatoes. Stores well.
RUSSET BURBANK Famous Idaho potato, brown nut skin, great cooked any way a person likes: mashed, fried, boiled or baked. It produces a large leafy plant with good yield.
YUKON GOLD Yellow flesh, smooth, thin skinned with shallow pink eyes. A great potato. Excellent baked or mashed. After they are cooked they appear to already have butter on them. The plant grows large and stands very tall. It sets on early and can produce large tubers. Stores very well. |
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