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This is Positively Farming Media.
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Hello my gardening friends, and welcome to another week of
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counting down the top four episodes of the Just Grow
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Something podcast of all time. This week is the #2 most
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downloaded episode, and it happens to be this year's number
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one episode downloaded almost 250% more than any other episode
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this season. And that is on growing potatoes.
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So just like last week's topic of onions, potatoes are a staple
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in so many households. We eat potatoes at least twice a
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week, if not more. The only starch we eat as
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frequently as potatoes is rice, and I haven't figured out how to
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effectively grow that on a small scale yet, but when I do, I will
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let you know. So for now, potatoes are the top
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home grown starch for us and for many of you.
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This episode was released back in February of this year and I
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timed that to go along with the most common time for planting
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potatoes, which is generally in March in the Northern
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hemisphere, although if you garden in zones 9 or 10 it is
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often earlier than that. The wonderful thing about Irish
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potatoes is that they can be grown just about anywhere in
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ground or in planters or buckets.
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And they can be a quick shoulder season crop that matures in
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roughly 2 months and makes way for a late summer planting of
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something. Or they can spend like 120 days
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in the ground making way for fall planted crops.
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When they're done, you can pick them early for baby potatoes.
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You can leave them late for storage potatoes or anything in
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between, and they are one of the easiest crops for beginners
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because they are pretty hands off, which may be why this
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episode was so popular. So let's revisit your second
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favorite episode of all time. We're ready to grow potatoes.
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Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and I started
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gardening 18 years ago in a small corner of my suburban
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backyard when we moved to A5 acre homestead.
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I expanded that garden to half an acre and I found such joy and
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purpose in feeding my family and friends.
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This newfound love for digging in the dirt and providing for
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others prompted my husband and I to grow our small homestead into
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a 40 acre market farm. When I went back to school to
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get my degree in horticulture, I discovered there is so much
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power in food and I want to share everything I've learned
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with as many people as possible. On this podcast, we explore crop
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information, soil health, pests and diseases, plant nutrition,
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our own nutrition, and so much more in the world of food and
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gardening. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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All right, we're just going to jump right into it.
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Let's dig into potatoes, starting with, as always, the
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basics. The scientific name for potatoes
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is selenium tuberosum, the genus name.
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Selenium is the Latin word Solomon, which means comforting
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or soothing. The species name tuberosum means
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tuber. So it's a comforting tuber.
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And I absolutely agree that the potato is a comfort food.
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Now it's in the plant family Solanacia.
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Those are our nightshades. This is the same as your
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tomatoes and eggplant and Peppers.
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This is important to know for crop rotation purposes because
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they do share many of the same insect pests and specifically
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the same diseases, especially with tomatoes and Peppers, So
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that is definitely something to be aware of if you grow all of
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those plants. Now, potatoes are native to the
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Americas, and wild potato species can be found from the
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southern US all the way to southern Chile.
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Potatoes were domesticated there approximately 7000 to 10
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years ago, so domesticated potatoes have been around and in
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our diet for a very, very long time now.
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Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the
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Spanish in the second-half of the 16th century, which is why I
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find it very funny that we refer to them as Irish potatoes just
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to differentiate them from sweet potatoes when they both
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originated in the Americas. I mean, I get it, they were
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heavily developed as a crop after they landed in Europe, and
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residents in Ireland depended on them as a staple.
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And of course, the potato famine there caused a lot of
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immigration, and those Irish immigrants brought the culture
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of the potato to the US. But I'm curious what the rest of
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the world refers to them as. It's got to be something
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different, right? China is now the biggest potato
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producer and almost a third of all potatoes are harvested in
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China and India. Potatoes are actually the
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world's fourth largest food crop after corn, wheat and rice.
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So they definitely have become an important food stuff for us.
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And so it's a good reason to just grow them ourselves.
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So let's talk about the cultural significance and etho botanical
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uses. Remember, ethno botany is the
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study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the
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traditional knowledge of a local culture and its people.
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These uses are cited as a historical and anthropological
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resource, never ingest the parts of any plant without being
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absolutely positive of its effect upon the human body.
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Please. And on that note, all of the
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green parts of the potato plant contain a toxin known as
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solanine and they should not be ingested, which is also why you
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shouldn't eat the tubers if they are green below the skin.
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Now often times the green skin just means it was exposed to
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excess sunlight and if you peel it back it's fine unless you see
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the meat of the tuber is also green and then it should be
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tossed in the compost. Now, the potato was used in folk
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medicine for the treatment of burns, corns, cough, tumors and
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warts. And this is the one that gets
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me. Reportedly, in Europe, raw
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potatoes were tied behind a person's ears to treat delirium.
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Look, if I'm delirious, I can think of a few other ways you
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could use potatoes to calm me down.
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Like make me some vodka from the potatoes and treat me that way.
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OK, don't tie potatoes behind my ears.
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That's just gonna tick me off and maybe make me even more
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delirious. As far as nutrition goes, A 75g
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serving of diced white potatoes contains 52 calories, 0 fat, 12
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grams of carbs and 1.3g of protein and is a good source of
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vitamins CB6 and potassium with a little bit of magnesium and
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iron to boot. So does all this make you want
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to grow potatoes? Good.
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Here we go. Let's talk about the in ground
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cultivation of potatoes. Now potatoes are a cool season
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crop and most varieties need between 60 and 120 days to
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mature. This is going to depend on the
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variety and the type of potato you are growing.
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You can pick them young for baby potatoes, you can let them
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mature to very large potatoes for storage, or you can harvest
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them anywhere in between those stages.
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Now, a lot of time I will plant 2 rows of the same variety, one
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to harvest early as small new potatoes that we can start
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eating right away, and then one to grow to full size for storage
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through the offseason. You can do this with containers
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too, by having some designated it as early and some as late.
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Now potatoes are typically planted from what we call seed
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potatoes, not actual seeds. The seed potatoes are just the
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best specimens from a crop the year before, put in storage, and
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then used the following year for planting.
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This is true whether you save them yourself, use potatoes from
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the grocery store that have sprouted on you, or you order
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seed potatoes from a supplier. That's not to say the potatoes
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don't produce seeds. They can.
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Potato plants do bloom and they will set fruit.
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Depending on where you're gardening and what your weather
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conditions have been, we get them pretty frequently on ours.
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They're small little clusters of fruits that look like tiny
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little wild eggplant or the fruits of those deadly
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nightshade weeds that you might see.
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Again, they're all in the same family, so that makes sense.
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And these fruits are not edible, but they do contain hundreds of
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seeds. So if you were to harvest and
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replant these, though the seeds may not grow, they may be
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sterile and the plants will not necessarily grow.
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Too true to type because there are literally thousands of
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cultivars of potatoes out there now.
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Many of them are hybrids of some sort.
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So I would recommend sticking to seed potatoes unless you want to
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experiment with growing from seed, which I mean, I'm all
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about a good experiment. So knock yourself out and let me
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know the results. I would love to see that.
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Now, if that's what you wanna try, stick with the more
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specialty varieties or the heirlooms and stay away from the
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more commercial ones. So choose like a German
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Butterball instead of a Yukon Gold.
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But I digress. Let's go back to actual seed
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potatoes. Okay.
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Growing potatoes from actual seed potatoes is easy, and I
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don't know why I didn't include them in that episode about the
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easiest things to grow for beginners.
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Maybe because it requires a little bit of effort in mounding
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them several times during the season, which I no longer do, by
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the way. And we'll talk about that in a
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minute. But it really is simple to grow
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them. So for in ground cultivation,
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you're going to want to do a little bit of prep work just to
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be sure you get the best crop. Remember, these are tubers, and
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tubers are the underground storage organ for a plant.
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They're going to be hungry as they develop, and so you want a
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good amount of organic matter and a good level of fertility.
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If you're struggling with any of that in your soil, work in a
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good amount of composted manure or a high quality compost the
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season before planting. Preferably you can do this just
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before planting if your compost is really well broken down and
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is biologically active, We just don't want it to be too hot so
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it won't burn your plants. But no, they do appreciate
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fertile soil and a soil that is loose without a bunch of
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obstructions to block the tubers as they grow.
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Tight soil is going to mean smaller spuds, so if you have
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heavy clay soil like we do, you definitely want to be adding a
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bunch of organic matter. They actually like the texture
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of a sandy soil, but if your soil is extremely sandy, adding
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organic matter is also going to be a requirement just to be sure
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you've got enough fertility to feed those tubers.
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The ideal soil pH level for potatoes is somewhat acidic
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between 6 and 6.5, but they will actually tolerate soil with pH
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that goes as low as a five. You do want the soil to be well
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drained though, so the tubers don't sit in the water and rot.
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So when you get your seed potatoes, preferably from a seed
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supplier, we'll talk about that here in a little bit.
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You want to store them in a cool place until you are ready to
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plant them if you get them early.
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Once you're ready, you're going to cut those seed potatoes up
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into pieces to increase your yield.
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Can you just toss a whole potato in the ground and get more
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potatoes? Yes, but if you cut it into
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multiple pieces, each having a couple of those little eyes on
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them, which is the point where the sprouts come out, then
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you've just multiplied your harvest.
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Each piece of a seed potato can produce as much as 2 lbs of
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potatoes per plant, so you want more plants from the same number
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of seed potatoes, so slice them into pieces that weigh around an
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ounce or so. That's about half the size of a
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chicken egg, each with two or more eyes or sprouts on them.
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You know, you can do this a day or two ahead of time or even the
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same day. You'll see.
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A lot of advice to let you, like tell you to cut the piece and
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let it dry out a little bit to avoid rotting.
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But we've cut ours the same day as planting plenty of times.
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We've never had a problem with the seed potatoes rotting in the
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ground, and we have pretty wet springs in our area.
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In fact, Wood Prairie Family Farm, who are seed potato
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suppliers in Maine where I used to get my seed potatoes.
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They do the same thing they slice as they plant, but it may
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be more convenient to plop yourself down in front of the TV
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and watch a show and cut them up at the same time.
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So I get that. Just don't cut them too early or
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they can start to dry out and that will affect their
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germination. You can also get an earlier
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germination by warming those seed potatoes up in the house
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for a few days right before you plant them.
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So keep them at around 70°F for two or three days ahead of time
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and you'll cut down on the germination time outside.
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So cold storage while you're waiting to plant, then warm them
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up just a little bit before they go in the ground.
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Oh, and the only reason that I don't get my seed potatoes from
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wood Prairie anymore isn't because I don't like them.
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I love them. It's just because we plant like
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200 to 300 lbs of seed potatoes every year now, so I have to get
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them much more locally than that or I would be spending a
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fortune. But I will link to them in the
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show notes if you want to check them out.
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They have a lot of fun varieties and heirloom potatoes too.
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So when you are ready to plant your potatoes, check your soil
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temperature or use an online tool that shows the soil
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temperatures in your area. I will link to one in the show
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notes. You don't want to plant your
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potatoes until your soil reaches 45°F, about 7.2 Celsius or above
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in the spring. You want them in early enough
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that they'll put most of their green growth on when your air
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temperatures are no higher than 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius.
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But you don't want them in too early or they'll sit too long in
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the soil without sprouting and they could rot.
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So when you plant your potatoes is going to depend on your
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region. In my area this is typically
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around Saint Patrick's Day. Go figure usually sometime
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between the third week in March and maybe the first week in
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April is typical. You don't want the soil to be
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saturated when you plant. Cool soil is fine, but cold and
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wet is not. So you're just going to have to
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time it a little bit. Now, when you're putting the
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potatoes in the ground, plant the seed pieces cut side down
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about 10 to 12 inches apart, or 25 1/2 to 35 1/2 centimeters
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apart in trenches that are about 3 feet or just shy of a meter
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apart. If you want fewer but much
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larger potatoes, or for like a naturally large potato like a
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russet, you might want to space them a little further apart,
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like 15 inches or 38 centimeters.
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If you want lots of little new potatoes, then you can space
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them a little bit closer together.
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Do these a few different ways until you land on a spacing that
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seems to work for you, or do a combination of both.
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We plant slices in the Rose for the new potatoes a little closer
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together than we do the ones for storage purposes because we want
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them to have lots of room to get larger.
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Now, how deep in that trench? Here's a little trick.
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If you are planting somewhere further north in the northern
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hemisphere and your soil temperatures stay cooler for
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longer, you can plant your potatoes as shallow as one inch
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deep or 2 1/2 centimetres. This will allow the seed
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potatoes to get more of the sun's warmth and germinate more
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quickly. Then you will absolutely want to
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heal those up as they grow to protect the stems and protect
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the tubers that will be growing underneath.
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Now if you're in the South or a warmer region, you can plant
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yours deeper, like 4 to 5 inches deep or 10 to 12 1/2
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centimeters. This will keep those tubers
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cooler as your air temperatures begin to quickly rise in the
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spring and make it easier for them to germinate and thrive.
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It can take as long as three weeks sometimes for seed pieces
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to sprout, so keeping them cooler or warmer, depending on
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your climate, can be the key to getting those healthy sprouts.
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So now here's the thing about hilling potatoes.
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I was taught that you mounded the soil up around your potato
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plants to encourage more tubers. I mean literally mounding them
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up to where there was only a few inches of growth at the top.
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And you would do this over and over again throughout the season
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until they started to flower. It turns out that this is only
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really true if you're working with indeterminate potato
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plants. Just like there are determinate
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and indeterminate tomato varieties.
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The same goes for potatoes. But unlike what I was led to
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believe, a lot more has to do with how the foliage, flowers
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and berries grow, and very little to do with the actual
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tubers themselves. So indeterminate potatoes can
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produce a slightly larger yield, but the real difference is that
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determinate potatoes just mature more quickly.
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They are the early and mid season varieties, the plants
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that are fairly short, they usually stay around 3 foot tall
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and they produce most of their flowers all at one time.
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Just like our determinate tomatoes, indeterminate potatoes
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are usually the late season varieties because they need a
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longer time to mature and those plants continue to grow bigger
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with longer stems and lots of flowers as the season
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progresses. These are the ones they usually
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call potato vines because they just seem to keep going, again
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like our indeterminate tomatoes. So when potatoes are growing,
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the tubers form on stolons, those long thin stems that
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emerge out from the main stems. So the thought is or was that
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the longer the underground portion of the plant, the more
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stolons that the plant might grow.
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So yes, if you have an indeterminate potato plant that
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will put out growth over a longer time frame, you might be
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able to increase your yield by the increasing the amount of
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that stem that is underground. So this is the idea behind
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hilling up around the stem. But increasing production is not
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actually the most important reason why we should be healing
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our potato plants. And yes, you can get away with
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not healing them at all. Determinate or indeterminate,
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right? Healing potato plants as they
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grow actually just helps to protect the stems of the plant
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as they grow and it covers the potato tubers as they develop.
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Remember I said earlier that potatoes may turn green if they
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are exposed to too much daylight.
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So while peeling that back may make it safe to consume them,
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the overexposure can actually make them taste bitter.
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Plus the more they're exposed, the more possibility of them
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being damaged before you get a a chance to harvest them.
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So if you plant deep enough from the beginning, you may not need
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to mound around your plants. If you need to plant shallow
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though, because you need that sun to warm the tubers, then you
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will absolutely need to heal these up.
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So once the plants are up out of the soil by about four to six
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inches or 10 to 15 centimeters, start healing them up by using a
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hand hoe or a good rake to just mound the soil up around the
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base of the plant. You can do this once really
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good, or you can continue to build a nice big hill as the
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season progresses, mounting up the soil from between the rows,
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or even just adding fresh layers of compost a couple of times if
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you don't want to dig or rake. Another way to do this is to
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just add a heavy layer of straw mulch.
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Our least backbreaking method to this is to be sure that we plant
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about four inches beneath the soil.
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Come back through once to mound the plants really well.
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Once they've hit about 6 inches tall, put a nice deep layer of
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straw mulch down on top of those mounds and then just call it.
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Good, right? The mulch of course is going to
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help keep the weeds at Bay. It keeps the soil moisture nice
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and even. It keeps the soil cooler for
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longer as the days start to heat up.
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And only doing this one time saves our backs and saves time.
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Now what you decide to do is entirely up to you.
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Play around with different techniques and see what calls to
00:21:03
you. And fair warning, your technique
00:21:06
may change as you get older. Healing potatoes was no big deal
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15 years ago. These days, yeah, I'd rather
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spend my energy elsewhere now. What about growing potatoes in
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containers? This can be anything from raised
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planters to grow bags, wire mesh cylinders to 5 gallon buckets or
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other containers. So you want to put about 3 to 5
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inches or 7 1/2 to 12 1/2 centimeters of soil compost
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mixture in the bottom of your container and then put your seed
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potato pieces on top of that and then cover them with another
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three to five inches of soil. Instead of healing, you can
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continue adding soil as the plants grow all the way up until
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the container is full and then to harvest in big planters just
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dig under the plants and pull the whole mass up.
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But if you grow in bags or in buckets, then you can just turn
00:22:11
the whole thing on its side and dump out the contents.
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And if you're doing this in wire mesh cylinders, pull the
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cylinders up away from the plants or disconnect them from
00:22:20
the side and just let the whole mess fall apart and pull your
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tubers out. Easy peasy.
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Your biggest concern with containers of any kind is
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drainage. I would not recommend using old
00:22:32
wash tubs unless you've drilled holes in the bottom for
00:22:35
drainage. If you use something with a
00:22:37
solid bottom on it, then you're likely going to end up with
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rotted potatoes if you get too much water, so have a plan to
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mitigate that. Other than that, everything else
00:22:47
that you do with potatoes in containers is the same as what
00:22:51
you do in ground. So let's talk about like water
00:22:55
and nutrient requirements. Regardless of where you're
00:22:58
growing potatoes, they will do well with a little bit of
00:23:02
feeding every now and then. It, it takes a lot of energy and
00:23:05
nutrients to grow those tubers. And so if your soil is depleted
00:23:10
at all, the tubers will suffer. So side dressing about four
00:23:14
weeks after planting with a little bit of fertilizer or
00:23:17
amendment that is mainly nitrogen will give them a really
00:23:19
good boost. You can do this again about two
00:23:21
weeks later when you heal them up.
00:23:24
If you're planting in containers, a foliar spray may
00:23:28
be more convenient, or watering with something like a fish
00:23:31
emulsion or a seaweed extract. But if you've amended your soil
00:23:35
really well at the start, though, you may not have to do
00:23:39
anything. Always do a soil test at the
00:23:41
beginning of the season to know what you're working with.
00:23:44
I generally just make sure to use some really good compost and
00:23:48
add a balanced organic fertilizer when I prep the beds
00:23:52
and then that's it and our yields are just fine.
00:23:54
Now, as far as water requirements, potatoes do fine
00:23:58
with the garden standard of one inch of water per week, whether
00:24:02
that's rainwater or from you irrigating.
00:24:04
Of course, the heavier you mulch, the less you'll have to
00:24:08
water, especially if your area generally gets some really good
00:24:11
spring rains. Just know that if you have that
00:24:13
nice sandy soil the potatoes seem to like, you also likely
00:24:18
need to water more frequently because your soil doesn't hold
00:24:21
water as shallowly in the soil as like our clay soils do here.
00:24:26
So make sure if you have to water and this includes
00:24:30
containers, be sure you're doing it deeply and thoroughly.
00:24:34
So if you check the soil with a trowel and it's only wet a
00:24:37
couple of inches down, keep watering until that soil is
00:24:40
saturated. Just make sure it's getting it
00:24:43
about once a week in those dry periods.
00:24:45
Now let's talk about pests. There are two main potato pests,
00:24:49
and those are the Colorado potato beetle and to a lesser
00:24:53
extent, cut worms. Most everybody you'll hear
00:24:56
complain will be about the Colorado potato beetle.
00:24:59
Now, these beetles overwinter in the soil and they become active
00:25:04
in the spring, right about the same time that potato plants
00:25:07
begin to emerge from the ground. The larvae and the adults feed
00:25:11
on leaves, and they can completely defoliate your plant.
00:25:16
They can also attack other plants in the nightshade family,
00:25:19
including your eggplant, tomatoes, Peppers, and ground
00:25:22
cherries. Many pesticides are ineffective.
00:25:26
Your best bet is to make sure that you keep your garden free
00:25:29
of weeds that are in the same family, like the nightshades and
00:25:32
the ground cherries, so that they don't become a host for the
00:25:35
pest. And then you are regularly going
00:25:38
to have to check your plants for the orange egg masses that are
00:25:41
on the undersides of the leaf. Now if you have a small garden,
00:25:45
hand picking like this can absolutely be effective.
00:25:48
Just pick them off, drop the adults in the larvae into a pail
00:25:51
filled with soapy water, or if you find the egg masses, just
00:25:54
remove or crush the eggs. Of course, new adult beetles can
00:25:58
fly into the garden, so be sure that you check your plants
00:26:00
regularly. If they do become a problem, you
00:26:03
can cut down on the population by only growing potatoes every
00:26:08
other year, but this only really works if none of your neighbors
00:26:13
is growing potatoes within about a half a mile radius.
00:26:17
The good news is lady beetles eat potato beetle eggs, so
00:26:21
planting things that help attract ladybugs may help your
00:26:25
situation. And like I said, that other pest
00:26:27
is cut worms. They will chew off the potato
00:26:31
stem at the soil line as it sprouts.
00:26:33
They're not specific to potatoes, and there are a bunch
00:26:36
of different varieties of these worms depending on where you
00:26:39
live. If you have them, you likely
00:26:41
have already experienced them, maybe in another crop.
00:26:44
The best bet is to remove weeds which can serve as alternate
00:26:48
posts to the larvae and then rake up your garden surface
00:26:52
really good before you start to plant Maybe a week or two ahead
00:26:56
of time to expose any larvae that have lived through the
00:26:59
winter and this looks bosom and help to kill them off.
00:27:02
Now as far as diseases are concerned.
00:27:04
For potatoes, anything that affects tomatoes or Peppers or
00:27:09
eggplant like early blight or late blight or verticellium wilt
00:27:14
can affect your potatoes too. So proper crop rotation is very
00:27:19
important if you have experienced any of these
00:27:22
diseases in your area. Potato scab is another one to
00:27:26
watch for. This is a bacterial disease that
00:27:29
causes dark, rough, quirky spots on the skin of the potato
00:27:34
tubers, but it doesn't rot them. Now they may be ugly, but they
00:27:38
are completely edible, so this is not as bad as the other soil
00:27:42
borne diseases that can cause a complete crop failure.
00:27:45
And once disease spores are in the garden, it is often really
00:27:50
difficult to get rid of them. So This is why it's recommended
00:27:53
to always use certified seed potatoes.
00:27:57
You're not going to be bringing in any diseases with your seeds.
00:28:01
If they come from a certified grower, then you can't guarantee
00:28:04
that's the case when it comes to planting the potatoes that you
00:28:08
bought at the store that decided to sprout in your pantry.
00:28:11
Can you grow those? Yeah, for sure.
00:28:14
But you do run the risk of bringing a disease into your
00:28:18
garden soil. So know that risk before you do
00:28:21
it. Or only plant those.
00:28:23
Store potatoes in a container where you can change the soil
00:28:27
out if it ends up contaminated. And there's one more thing
00:28:30
that's not really a disease. It's considered a potato
00:28:33
disorder. It's called hollow heart and it
00:28:38
causes there to be an irregularly shaped hole in the
00:28:42
center of the potato tuber. It's caused by periods of lots
00:28:47
of water and then too little water.
00:28:49
Or it can be caused by not having enough nutrition in the
00:28:52
soil. Now, it does not affect the
00:28:55
taste or the safety of the potato, but if you've
00:28:57
experienced this in the past, be sure to water regularly and add
00:29:01
fertilizer or amendments according to your soil test to
00:29:04
prevent this from happening in future crops.
00:29:07
All right, so how do you know when your potatoes are ready to
00:29:11
harvest? Tubers will start to develop
00:29:15
right around the time the potatoes blossom.
00:29:17
But don't count on this as your only indication your plants may
00:29:22
not always give you blooms. This is going to be variety
00:29:25
dependent and weather dependent, although I hope they do blossom
00:29:28
for you because it really is so beautiful.
00:29:31
Truly, I think it was Marie Antoinette who used to wear
00:29:33
potato flowers in her hair. They really are very pretty, but
00:29:37
even if they don't bloom, you'll still get tubers.
00:29:40
Know the average maturity date of your plants when you when you
00:29:43
plant them and use that as a guide.
00:29:46
The good news is potatoes can be eaten anytime after the tubers
00:29:51
start to develop. If you want to check to see how
00:29:54
mature your potatoes are or you want to start picking them early
00:29:58
for new potatoes, just pull back some of the soil from your hill
00:30:02
or dig some soil out from around the plant in your container.
00:30:05
You can actually pull potatoes from the plants as you want them
00:30:10
and then leave the rest of them on the plant to continue to
00:30:13
develop. Just make sure you cover the
00:30:14
soil back up again. New potatoes.
00:30:17
I keep referring to new potatoes.
00:30:19
Those are tubers that are dug before their skins have
00:30:22
thickened and become tough. The tenderness of the skins
00:30:25
makes them just a little bit more special.
00:30:27
They're very tender and the texture is kind of silky.
00:30:30
Usually you're looking at about 7 to 8 weeks or so after
00:30:35
planting for new potatoes. So if we plant mid March,
00:30:40
usually by mid June we can start digging new potatoes.
00:30:43
In fact, we used to plant blue potatoes alongside our other
00:30:47
varieties so that we could harvest red, white and blue new
00:30:50
potatoes in time for 4th of July.
00:30:52
It's fine. You should try it if you're in
00:30:54
the US anyway. If you want to dig the whole
00:30:59
plant for new potatoes, just remember that the new tubers
00:31:03
will have formed above the seed piece that you planted.
00:31:08
So you should dig down at least a foot or so with a spade or a
00:31:11
shovel and sort of like wedge it up and turn the whole plant
00:31:15
upside down to pick the little tubers.
00:31:18
Now, if you want some new potatoes and some mature
00:31:21
potatoes, harvest some of the plants and leave the rest.
00:31:25
Or, like I said, dig out what you want and then just cover the
00:31:27
other tubers back up again. Whatever's most convenient for
00:31:30
you. Now for potatoes for storage.
00:31:33
You should harvest mature tubers after the plants have dried, or
00:31:38
when you see that those tubers have reached their full size and
00:31:41
you want to do this while the soil is dry, if possible.
00:31:45
The skins are usually thickened on those potatoes about two
00:31:49
weeks after the plants have died back, but if they're full size
00:31:52
and you want to clear the space in the garden, you can pull them
00:31:56
and put them in a warm, well ventilated area to allow the
00:32:00
skin to set. So for mature tubers it may be
00:32:04
easier to dig the hills using a spading fork, or you can use a
00:32:09
shovel or a trowel. Be careful not to Pierce or cut
00:32:13
the tubers with the fork tines or the edge of your shovel.
00:32:16
It's going to happen, trust me, But just try to dig under them
00:32:20
as best you can and lift them up out of the soil.
00:32:23
Of course, if you planted in containers, you can just
00:32:25
disassemble them or dump them and this makes the process a
00:32:28
heck of a lot easier and you actually have less chance of
00:32:30
damage. Now if you do cut into potatoes
00:32:33
as you harvest them, just sort those out.
00:32:36
Don't store those. Eat those first because they
00:32:38
won't hold. Speaking of storage, you're
00:32:40
going to want to choose varieties that work best for
00:32:43
storage. I used to pick one variety that
00:32:45
was just for new potatoes and one variety for storage.
00:32:49
No matter how you do it, this information should be in the
00:32:52
notes of the varieties you're looking at.
00:32:54
Some work better than others, and it's usually based on starch
00:32:57
content, so look for those ones that specifically stay good for
00:33:00
storage. Potato skins for storage should
00:33:05
be difficult to rub off with your thumb, so if you're rubbing
00:33:08
your thumb across the potato and the skin peels back, it needs to
00:33:12
be cured again. Place the potatoes in a warm,
00:33:15
well ventilated area to allow the skin to set.
00:33:19
Keep them undercover or in the dark and give them about 10 days
00:33:22
or so and they should be completely cured.
00:33:25
Check them over. Once they're cured, take any out
00:33:27
that are soft or shriveled or bruised.
00:33:29
Eat those first. Gently brush off any dried soil
00:33:33
that's on the tubers, but do not wash them.
00:33:35
You do not want them wet before you store them.
00:33:38
As a rule, potatoes are best stored in dark, cold, moist
00:33:44
conditions. We're talking 32 to 40°F and
00:33:47
about a 95% relative humidity. This is actually the conditions
00:33:52
of our refrigerators, so if you're not storing a huge amount
00:33:56
of them, you may be able just to store them in the fridge.
00:33:59
But you know, a basement or someplace like that is perfectly
00:34:02
fine too. Now, something that I didn't
00:34:04
know is that potatoes that are destined for frying should
00:34:09
actually be stored warmer than that.
00:34:11
You know how things like carrots or spinach taste better after
00:34:16
they've had a frost or they've been outside during the winter
00:34:18
time? And that's because the cold will
00:34:21
actually induce sweetness in those plants because it's
00:34:26
concentrating all the sugars. Well, potatoes that you're going
00:34:30
to use specifically for frying, like making French fries out of,
00:34:34
should actually be stored at 40 to 50 Fahrenheit instead because
00:34:38
you want to avoid that cold induced sweetening because it
00:34:42
can result in discoloration during frying.
00:34:45
I didn't realize that. So 32 to 40 Fahrenheit for most
00:34:50
of your potatoes, but if you want them specifically for
00:34:53
frying, then you can keep them in a warmer area.
00:34:56
Now, green skin, remember, occurs when the potato tubers
00:34:58
experience exposure to light. So remove any green areas before
00:35:02
you cook the potatoes. Don't consume potatoes with
00:35:05
extensive green areas under the skin.
00:35:08
You also want to remove any sprouts from the potatoes prior
00:35:10
to using them for food. And the longer potatoes are in
00:35:13
storage, the more likely they will begin to sprout.
00:35:17
And so long as you didn't have any soil borne diseases the
00:35:20
previous year, go ahead and plant those in the spring.
00:35:24
And yes, if you knock those sprouts off, they will still
00:35:26
sprout again once you plant them.
00:35:32
I hope this episode gave you all the information you need to get
00:35:35
started on your potato growing journey or to improve the one
00:35:38
that you're already on. If you have any questions along
00:35:41
the way, be sure to reach out. I will be happy to answer any
00:35:44
questions I possibly can. Until next time, my gardening
00:35:47
friends. Keep on cultivating that dream
00:35:49
garden and we'll talk again soon.
00:35:51
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00:35:53
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00:36:12
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