We grow most of our potatoes for eating as "new potatoes" or for canning so aside from some Yukon Golds for fresh eating we tend to primarily stick with the red skin varieties like Red Norland, Pontiac, Red Cloud, etc. Trying Reddale for the first time this coming year.

Dave

Really all depends on what some of the feed stores have in stock. We usually buy Yukon Golds from a local old time feed store pretty cheap, but I'm hoping to also try some maincrop/late season varieties. Would anyone have any recommendations for a productive maincrop? Any color works :)

I plant mostly Kennebecs...throwing in a few Yukon Gold and maybe 3 or 4 reds.

We started growing Yukon Golds several years ago and are happy with those for just about any recipe/application. But I too would like to try something different like a real good baking potato. A variety that has a nice oval baking shape and doesn't get hollow heart (like large YGs). Appreciate any recommendations for Va climate. Spring is coming.......

I just grow what my local Farmer's Coop sells. Their prices are incredibly good... 50 cents a pound. They usually only sell 3 varieties though... Kinnebecs, Red Pontiac, and Yukon Gold. Those prices, for those varieties, works well for me.

Kennebec is a good baking potato IME. Not really big but an ok serving size for baking.

Dave

My climate is too warm for the best potato results...also too wet some years.

Wayne - Indiana is too warm for best potato results? I can see too wet being a problem as I experienced that one year when I tried to grow potatoes in an in ground bed without sufficiently raised rows and it rained like crazy all spring and I had standing water in the paths.

LoneJack .... "fingerling from Planters Seed and Spice at the KC River market when they get their seed in late February. They seem to always offer a different fingerling every year which is cool."

Thanks for the info .... I'll have to make a run up there in late Feb.

Shell 6A

Shell - Your welcome. Have you been to Planters S&S before? I love that place!

I will try to remember to both PM you and let you know on this thread when their potato seed arrives. I'd hate for you to drive up for nothing. The last couple years it was the last week of February. Sometimes the fingerling is a little later depending where they source it. They have a heated box truck and drive up to Minnesota to get the seed. They get their Dixondale onions in about the same time give or take a week.

They always have Yukon Gold, Kennebec, Norkotah russet, Red Pontiac, Red Norland, All Blue, a fingerling and a few others that I can't remember right now. For onions they always have Candy, Red Candy Apple, Superstar, Copra, 1015 Y, Walla Walla, and a few others as well as Lancelot leeks.

I will be planting more german butterball and yukon gold. So far this winter, both of these are storing the best, with no shriveling or sprouting. My red norlands have already started sprouting, so will have to find a replacement that stores longer.

German Butterball and Kennebec.

Lone Jack, the best potato areas ARE north of me. It gets too hot in June and July many years for the best size development...just fact.

Man, we have had so much water some years.

I’m hotter than you, and got some good size out of mine last year.

Wayne, I have an aunt that lives in southern Indiana with about the same heat zone that I'm in and she seems to grow great potatoes most years. Down here in AR, we'll start hitting the 80's regularly in June and 90's regularly in July and early August, with the occasional 100's. Potatoes seem to grow fine here, so I'd imagine you could still get a good crop up there? I'm just curious as to why you say it's too hot? Maybe you're not planting early enough so that they can enjoy the cool weather before summer heat develops? Not meaning to nag or wrong you, just curious...

I plant early...about April 13-15 for most of them. They grow well, but at tuber increase time, it is warmer than potatoes really like.

There are no commercial potatoes near me. They only begin at the Indiana-Michigan line and even then they are mostly further north. Commercial production in the Midwest is in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota...for a reason.

I have raised some nice potatoes too.

Wayne - your planting date does seem rather late for your area, but you would know better than I what to expect in your garden weather wise. Mid April is when my brother plants his potatoes in his central Wisconsin garden. Here in KC I sometimes push the envelope and plant mine the first week of March rather than the traditional St. Patty's day. I do have to be prepared with mulch and/or frost blankets is the case of an April frost after they have broken ground after 3-4 weeks. Doing this allows me to harvest them all in June or earliest July before it gets really hot. Digging potatoes when it's hot is not my idea of fun!

ETA - My garden is all framed raised beds so the soil warms up faster in the spring which makes a big difference on when I can plant out potatoes, leeks, onions, etc. I don't think I could get away with an early March planting without raised beds.

My intention here is to plant by Mid March is the weather is decent.

Lone Jack, I green sprout the potatoes. They come up quickly. I cannot see planting much earlier and covering them up for late frosts. Also, why are you in a hurry to dig the potatoes and have to store them in hot garages or warm basements or whatever.?

Wayne - I chit mine for a few weeks as well. They may take a little longer to come up in cool soil but they always do within 4 weeks.

I always follow one potato bed with fall carrots that need to be sown by late July, this year another potato bed will have acorn squash following them, and the third potato bed will have fall Brussels Sprouts that need to go in by mid July.

Beating the CPB is also much easier with an early planting. They usually don't show up here until early June and by then the plants are already booming and growing tubers.

I have an enclosed concrete tornado shelter under my front porch that stays around 60 during the summer that works pretty well for storage. And did I mention I don't like digging potatoes in hot weather.

I usually plant pretty early here. Last frost is kind of tricky here. According to Dave's Garden, it's about April 22nd, but quite a few years I've seen late frost into mid May, so certain things like potatoes are tricky. Of course, if I waited until mid May to plant to ensure no frost I wouldn't get much yield because they'd only have a month or two before the heat sets on. Anyways, I try to plan on late March, as we don't often get freezes below 28 by then, and if we do once in a blue moon they can be covered I imagine. This also gives them a chance to sprout before the April rains arrive possibly.

Has anyone tried container potatoes? I watched a video where one guy buries the bottom of his pots where the drainage holes are in the ground so that the roots can grow out to get more nutrients and stay cool. Sounds like a great idea for earlies before the heat arrives. Potatoes keep so well undug in the ground for me unless cold out, so I'd imagine once they die I could place them in the cool shade under some straw and dump out the containers as I need potatoes. Maybe they could be moved into the garage in the winter even. If I mixed my own mix with some homemade compost and/or leaf mold , I'm sure it wouldn't be so pricy as if I bought potting soil. Might be something to try!

I grow 6 or 7 varieties but my main crop is Kennebec. I plant it early to escape some of the potato beetle pressure as I grow organically and pick off the beetles by hand. I also like to dig some up early to sell at the farmers market. They also keep quite well- Last years are still in good shape at this date. I usually get them planted around the 21st of March. I must save my own seed as potatoes cannot be shipped here in Illinois until the weather has warmed some. If they come up and it is still cold I just watch the weather and hill them up if need be.

Nice pictures. I'm not planning to plant potatoes, this year, even though I am from Idaho, but I am planning to grow Jerusalem artichokes for their tubers; also I plan to grow parisian carrots, radishes, bunching onions, and maybe salsify. Though, I mostly grow plants for their fruits or to a lesser extent for their leaves.