We plant potatoes as the 1st crop on new garden soil where previously was edge of forest since we're in a clearing in the woods. In full sun locations potatoes would produce more. We deal with our location and climate the best we can. Our rocky clay soil is broken up by the potatoes & mulching, so the next crop grows much better! We have a long, cool wet spring in WA state mostly in 40s & 50s until June-ish and in our shady location the soil stays cool until late June or early July. You would think it would be prime potato growing conditions apart from the dappled shade from tall fir trees. We have a larger harvest when we -- --rotate plant families on a 4 year schedule (remove all volunteer tomatoes or potatoes) --don't lime or manure, but do spread complete organic fertilizer according to the bag or box at planting plus some cured homemade compost --use small (M-L hen's egg sized) certified seed potatoes --chit or presprout potatoes inside --mulch well & often with a mix of straw, dried grass clippings from our lawn with no chemicals, coffee grounds, or shredded paper --set up soaker or sprinkler hoses on top of mulch --patrol for slugs and spread iron phosphate bait Less potatoes when we -- --save seed from previous year --plant in containers (large garbage can with holes, composter, 5 gal black pots, smaller cardboard boxes) --don't supplemental water during any 5 day dry span in spring (our summer drought is a given starting 4th of July, so must water then) Nothing beats a homegrown chemical free potato. We just dug the last of them last week. Hope that helps, Corrine

elisa_Z5, it sounds like you live in some interesting topography. Kind of explains why you might have some tricky gardening issues. I have been a flatlander all my life so perhaps I am not the one to be giving you advice. ;-) Mean/Median - I often get my terminology screwed up, I would not be surprised if I used the wrong word. Okay, so you found some dates that you feel are applicable. Your personal gardening experiences should be able to guide you on which date to set in your mind. As an example, lets take the date right in the middle - May 25. I try to plant my potatoes three weeks before my median last frost date, depending on seasonal variations. Whatever the seasonal conditions are, I definitely plant sometime in the three weeks preceding that date, no later (but I would if I had to versus skipping planting altogether). If you were to follow what I do that would put you in the planting range from May 04 to May 25. So it sounds to me like April plantings for you are too early or at the least, risky. Being that you have a mountain climate, I have to assume you have a fairly tight growing season which, for warm weather vegetable types (frost tender), is the total number of days between your absolute last frost date in spring and absolute first frost date in fall. If you are not risk-averse, you could figure a longer season length by using the total number of days between your spring and fall median frost dates (but I guarantee eventually you will pay the price). For potatoes specifically, I would figure that the safe growing season length is the total of days between those median last and first frost dates. All this stuff is important information that you should know in order to select the correct planting dates and to be able to choose correct vegetable varieties and types for your local climate. A potential yield booster would be to choose correct potato varieties for your season length. There is nothing wrong with having an earlier finisher for fresh summer eating but you should also have some longer season varieties that should get higher yields simply because they have more time to grow. You do not want to use varieties that overshoot your season length or they might still be growing when fall frost occurs. Admittedly this is unlikely in the case of potatoes, but it is not impossible. This year we had an early light frost when some of my long season Rose Finn Apple fingerlings still had green foliage on them. The point is that you want to use your growing season to its fullest potential, and knowing all this data is how to do it. :-) I forgot to mention that a very important aid is to talk to local gardeners about when they plant and what varieties, especially any older folks who might have been gardening for many years in your area - might be a source of some valuable information. NOTHING beats local knowledge. Good Luck! -Tom

Lamalu- how big was your wire cage? That sounds intriguing. I've been eyeing off a dumped, wheel-less shopping trolley on my street for a while as a potential planter (it's getting to the point where I'll happily plant in anything that will contain dirt and drain water). Potatoes might be a fun use for it. Did you use potting mix or a compost mix or some other medium in your cage? I guess what I've seen of potato planting situations is that they seem to need to be pretty big to get a decent harvest, so I wasn't sure if I had the space or capacity to try it the proper way. Also I've been told that root crops don't do well the first year in a no-dig garden bed. But if container-grown (or bag-grown or shopping-trolley-grown) could work, I'll try it. pnbrown- I think my initial post was less about a desire to attempt a potato harvest in my compost bin and more a curiousity as to what might happen, something I thought other forum members might have experience with. A lot of gardening is curiosity, don't you find? At the basic level (and I'm still very much a beginner), the notion of putting a seed in some dirt and 'seeing what happens' is how we get our gardens. Not all experiments are destined to succeed, of course, among them probably the compost-bin potatoes.

karma Good point & understandable! :) Mother Nature can be wild at times! lol! But (there's always a but & lots of if's in life) it would still be fun for the those who would like to participate. Many, many things could happen in our lives between now & the fall of 2008. And if Mother Nature should get involved - the two traders could take this into consideration & come up with a solution between themselves. And this is just for fun! :) Enjoy the coffee! Mike note to greylady - Yes I am! :) I've shipped to Canada & would do so again without any hesitation! So - call on your Canadian friends! Let's see what can be offered from Canada! I know 'Sam' has some great plants - as we've traded this past summer! And thanks to her - I have two new brugs I may not have gotten. :)