Growing potatoes » Seed potatoes

Growing potatoes in box

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:23:13 +0000

A usual method of growing potatoes is to dig a trench, plant the seed potatoes in the bottom and then shovel the dirt back in as the plant grows, covering about a third of it.

But in fact, you can grow potatoes in little spaces using wood boxes.
There is well-known method of planting your potatoes in layers within a tall box where you’re essentially building a potato growing high rise.

Building the box

First of all, you need for building the box:
* six 2-inches by 6-inch boards eight feet long and eight feet long;
*one 2-inhes by 2-inches board 12 feet long;
*2 ½-inch wood screw(96 of them) (You’d better use pine, cedar or redwood, which will resist rot londer).

To build the box cut the 2-by-2 into four lengths of 33 inches. Cut the 2-by-6 boards into 12 lengths of 12 inches, and 12 lengths of 24 inches.

Per-drill the screw holes in 2-by-6 boards and attach the box bottom row on the 2-by-2s.

Planting potatoes in box

Place over prepared soil and full with soft soil and mulch. You should plant seed potatoes four inches deep in prepared soil.

When the vines are about 12 inches above soil, add another board to box and fill with soil.
Be careful not to cover more then one third of the potato plant.
As the potatoes plant grows and you can fill the new space with mulch or soil adding sides to the box.

Harvest

You can wait for a full harvest or if you’re getting antsy for some garden fresh potatoes you can pop a board off the bottom and steal some of the mature potatoes.

Rather soon after planting, you can start removing the bottom boards from your box and carefully reach in for the new potatoes. Replace the soil and the boards. Next time you need potatoes, remove the second board of box 3and “rob” potato tubers from that level.

Growing potatoes in boxes is a really great solution!

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Planting seed potatoes

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:23:52 +0000

Dates for planting seed potatoes will vary from year to year and around the country. The soil temperature should be at least 6°C (43°F).
Potatoes are grown primarily from whole or partial seed tubers.
To reduce the potential for introducing disease into the garden always use certified seed.
If the seed potato tuber is particularly large, it can be cut into smaller pieces. When cutting, make sure the seed piece weighs at least 2 ounces and has one or more “eyes.” The fewer cut surfaces the better.

Less energy will be used to heal the cut surfaces, making more energy available for growth. All cut surfaces should be smooth. Any jagged or torn surfaces will invite seed-piece rot.

Seed of potatoes can be freshly cut and planted into soil.
If the seed potatoes are cut well before planting, place them to store at 50 to 55 degrees F and over 90 percent humidity. This will help the cut surfaces to heal. The healed seed pieces can then be held at low temperatures until planting.

How to plant seed potatoes

You will need 8-10 pounds of seed potatoes for every 100 feet of planted row.
Mark out rows (60cm apart for ‘earlies’ and 75cm apart for main crop varieties) by drawing a straight line with a trowel, marking both ends with a stick
Dig hole 12cm deep for each seed potato, placing the seed potato shoots uppermost and then fill in the hole.
Proceed onwards digging holes (30cm apart for earlies and 40cm apart for main crop) until all seed is planted at the appropriate spacing according to the type.
Generally, soil is hilled or mounded around the plants as they grow. Hills provide room for the tubers to develop, provide added soil drainage, and minimize tuber greening later in the year. It is best to hill around the potato plants within 4 weeks of planting.

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Potato seed preparation

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:13:07 +0000

Best condition of successful potato culture is certified seed. But you can also use your own home grown potatoes seed or seed from a gardening neighbor if you are sure that it is undamaged and free from disease.
The ideal seed size is around 50 to 100 grams (about the size of a golf ball). If the seed is too small, it may not be able to supply maximum energy to the new plant before the plant gets established.

Chitting (Sprouting) of potato seed

It is very important that your tubers using as potato seeds are kept in a frost free area. Spread them out in a cool, well ventilated place prior to sprouting (called ‘chitting’).

All seed potatoes can benefit from chitting and the formation of strong ‘chits’ over several weeks gives faster growth when planted out and heavier crops.
For chitting seed potatoes you can use seed trays, shallow boxes or empty egg cartons. You will notice that the immature ‘chits’ are all at one end (called the rose end).
Place the rose end upwards. Keep in a dark, dry place until you see tiny shoots appearing, then move to a cool (8-10°C), well lit place. Sturdy ‘chits’ will form which should attain 25mm (1 in.) in length.

Tubers can safely stay in their trays until planting conditions are right. If the seed develops a lot of long, stringy sprouts, break off and discard all but one or two; lay these horizontally in the trench when you plant.

Potato seed piece size

After selecting seed potatoes, cut them into seed pieces weighing approximately 1.5 to 2 ounces. Smaller-sized seed pieces usually result in weaker plants and reduced “recovering” capabilities when a late frost injures emerging potato vines. Each cut seed piece should contain at least one eye or short sprout.

An important practice to discourage rotting of potato seed pieces is to “heal” the freshly cut pieces by storing them at room temperature (60–70˚F) with fairly high humidity for 5 to 7 days before planting.
This allows the freshly cut surfaces to develop a protective coating that will help prevent seed decay.