Potatoes

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

So I bought a bunch of seed potatoes and the eyes have sprouted (some are 2 inches or more) and the potatoes themselves are starting to wrinkle and shrink.

Is it too late to cut them to plant, or should I just plant them whole?

 

[FarmerDenise]

You can still cut them up for planting. Make sure you have a solid piece of potato for each growing start. I like to leave them out after I cut them, to let a skin form on the cut parts, before I plant them. About a day or two.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Thank you so much for the speedy reply. I know what I will be doing this weekend.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey Crusty!!

golly i remember when you got that name and we all did the name-maker-upper... i dont think i ever laughed so hard! good to see you over here!

yep you can plant them. there is an easy smeasy way.... as FD says, you can cut them up and make sure each sprout get a good piece of tater.... then dig a shallow trench, drop them in, then mulch HEAVILY with clean straw... and then just walk away... easy shmeasy. or you dont even have to dig then trench (i know some folks who do this)....just drop them on the ground and mulch mulch mulch with clean straw. just make sure the taters never see the light of day - remulch or "hill" by mounding up dirt over them

good luck and welcome over here!

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Hey OFG,

It's good to be here.

I am planning to grow my taters in a big plastic garbage can as suggested in this Mother Earth News Article

 

[lupinfarm]

I just dug out my seed taters I bought about a week ago and the eyes are enormous too lol I just planted a bunch today and I have a garbage can I plan on recycling for taters. I'm growing most of mine in 5 gallon buckets, tote boxes, garbage cans, plastic barrels, car tires stacked and so on. Whatever I can get my hands on LOL.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

super! what else ya workin' on?

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Okay, more potato questions.

So the MEN article states one can use sawdust to grow the taters in. I use sawdust pellets for my henhouse and run and was wondering if I can use bedding from the run (which is infused with chicken poop) to top up as the shoots grow taller. I know that too much nitrogen gives green, but not root. So if I can do this, should I also be adding some phosphorus rich fertilizer (like bonemeal)?

 

[old fashioned]

I'm not so sure the fresh chicken poop would be a good thing. I've always heard that it can "burn" and needs to be well composted before use even with other amendments. But I'm no expert here so

PS...I just love your name even my boys peekin over my shoulder

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

I have a bucket with more composted poop and sawdust. I could just put unused pellets in and dampen enough to break down to dust.


Do taters perfer sun or shade? I figure I need to set them up in the right spot before the container gets full and heavy.