g'day susan,

we do quiet nicely without any digging or amending, we simply place seed potatos on the ground them begin covering them with some humus type material add some mulch than build from thee. we get a return of around 6:1 that is 1 kilogram of seedies returns around 6 kilograms of spuds.

see our instant potato patch presentation.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens instant potato patch

Hi Susan

I am growing different kinds of potatoes in the same bags, they are doing good.

I use potting soil and fill about 1/3 of the bag and put the potatoes in, after they grow I put straw and a little bit of more potting soil.

Potatoes in the bags

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Some were harvested

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Last years potatoes grown in half whiskey barrel

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Silvia

Cool! Thanks. I live in the city and don't have a lot of space. I thought the bags looked like fun, and I can find a few sunny corners for them. I'm really just doing potatoes because I never have before, and I thought it would be fun.

I was just wondering if there was a health issue with using soil that had been amended with (aged) manure.

Anyway, it's still too cold to plant them here ... in fact the seeds still haven't arrived. Can't wait!

Bags (black color) in warm climats has a drawback and that is keep the roots too hot.
Potatoes like their feet cool.
So is I wanted to grow them in bags, I would use WHITE bags,
to reflect the heat. But I have space to grow them in garden.

Everyone is different and YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) but I have lots and lots of Compost and Steer Manure and have NEVER had ANY issues... From each seed (grocery store) I average about 15 potatoes.

This picture was my best Yield last year from one seed, but unlike other posters, I cheat somewhat.....
1, I use the whole seed,
2, I pre-sprout them so I know they are productive (not just hoping )
3, I plant them with every eye pushing out a 3 or 4 " sprout,
they look scary,but it works great.

as I said YMMV, but that's what I do...

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Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Early Potatoes 2009

I think (IIRC) the reason for avoiding freshly manured soil is the increased chance of scab.

This video is of my first potato Harvest of 2009
I think it was around July 4th , I was picking them for "Early Potatoes" around 75 day old ,as you can see in the video the plants are still in great shape and would continue to "bust a move" , if I wasn't so impatient... but I digress... I wanted you to notice my soil in the video,all of my beds are 3' deep and the same soil top to bottom,endless organic material(Steer/Compost etc...)and absolutely no scab or other detrimental issues (except my impatients)

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Here is a link that might be useful: My first potato harvest of 2009

I hope you don't mind me butting into your thread Susan2010, but I figured it was better than starting another one on potatoes and bumping something else off the page!

I would LIKE to grow potatoes this year, but never have before. Can I just buy potatoes at the store and cut them up making sure I have "eyes" on each section, and plant them? Can I buy "baby" or "fingerling" potatoes and plant them whole? I remember reading something about needing to treat cut sections so they don't mold, and also, that grocery store potatoes are treated so they won't sprout. I'd gladly buy seed potatoes, but I don't have the first clue where to buy them or if it's too late to order them now (I'm in Boston).

Lisa

Lisa, I have always bought my potatoes from the organic bin at the local food coop. Organic=no treatment. I prefer to buy the smaller potatoes, and plant them whole, because cut sections (open wound dipped in wood ash) do fail about 20% of the time. You can keep them in a closet in the house until they start sprouting, then plant them.

As others have mentioned, cool roots help. I dump a trash can of unfinished compost on a bed, put the potates in it, then cover with wood chips. No digging, and no work until harvest. In Michigan, I can plant them April 1. They will come out after last frost on their own. One of my favorite crops due to the ease of care.

Lisa,
You can ususally buy seed potatoes at your area garden centers, some feed stores and I even saw some at Lowe's yesterday.
There are differing opinions on whether or not you need to treat the cut area. Personally, I would cut and let dry for a couple days if you're going to cut them. I'll actually go for the smaller sized seed if possible.

You could also plant grocery potatoes though it's possible they've been treated with sprout inhibitor. It's said that you increase the chance of disease by using grocery potatoes. I'll aim to buy seed potatoes but I'll also plant any store potatoes that start to grow in my pantry. I also plan to take my chances by planting the homegrown, pantry-sprouted potatoes I currently have.

Lisa

Your local feed store should have them and if it is like mine, they have the best prices. They only carry common varieties here like Yukon Gold and some Red variety.

Fingerlings and others can be purchased at the store and like glib said look that they are organic.

When you want a specialty that you can not get at the store, then you have look some where else that sells seed potatoes, I get mine from Ronnigers.

If they are small I plant them whole like the fingerlings above if bigger I plant them cut making sure that it has some eyes.

I have them in the black bags with no problem since potatoes can only be grown in winter here in Florida, actually we went through a freeze and they are fine.

And I have been picking mine as baby potatoes.

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Silvia

I have planted potatoes in a heavily manured garden bed. My potatoes tended to get rotten if I didn't snatch them out of the ground when they got mature.

My understanding is that potatoes aren't fussy about soil, so this year I'll be scalping the sod off some more lawn and planting the potatoes into the clay topsoil with only sulfur and some organic lawn food as soil amendments. (Sulfur to try to lower my 7.8 pH).

I am out of control with potatoes this year. I have them planted in rai.sed beds, old garbage cans, old whisky barrels, wire clothes hampers, black plastic pots and I too am trying the black fabric s.mart (potato) bags for the first time.
You can get seed potatoes at nurseries or big box stores. There is no end to the varieties available at my area stores. I always plant small whole potatoes...no cutting.
For soil I use my oak leaf mold, peat moss, sandy topsoil and any good potting soil mixed together. You can add bone meal before you plant. Anything with PH or Phosphorous that is for root crops or bulbs. You don't want to add N or Nitrogen since this will make for big plants but not such a big crop underground and this is where the manure warning probably comes from or maybe it has to do with the scab disease problem (which I think is actually more of a concern for commercial farmers and not so much for hobby gardeners like us).
And as an aside, I think those s.mart bags are pretty neat and probably useful for plants other than potatoes. They come in quite a range of sizes. The bags are a little cheaper if you order direct from the maker rather than through a gar.den supply place.
And I'm pretty proud that I only have one more seed potato left to plant. The problem is finding a place for it. I mean I am full up.
(periods placed within certain words to foil Bing)

I do not know about your soil, but how about using a couple of reusable grocery bags. They are the right size and are breathable, I can blow through them. Oh and of course they are about 11 dollars cheaper per bag. They should last a season and around here they come in the coolest colors. I have red, lime green and dark blue with free store logos on them. Taters in a grocery bag. How cool is that ;-)
Curt

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