More than one potato seed in a hole

[villageant]

Hi all,

I planted two potato seeds in each hole because I am using land that has not been used for over 30 years and I was worried that some of my seeds will not produce plants. Now its been 20 days since I planted and I see green leaves all over my garden and all my seeds have grown, so now I have more than 1 potato plant in a single hole? Is this bad? Must I remove the other plant and only leave one potato plan to grown per hole?

*** forgive me for bad English ***

[applestar]

It will partly depend on how far apart you made the holes, and how fertile the soil is (and yes you could give more if it seems necessary by using some composted leaves to hill/mulch with.

But potatoes will produce no matter what -- you will likely end up with more numbers of smaller sized tubers, however, than it might have been possible -- but less number of tubers -- with just one plant per hole.

[Taiji]

Last year I planted up to 3 seed potatoes in one hole due to lack of garden space. I spaced the potatoes about 5 or 6 inches apart in each hole. Holes were about 18 inches apart. And, I used relatively small seed potatoes. I got a harvest like this, not bad, a variety of sizes. This year, I have more space, so am only planting one seed potato per hole. Are you planting true potato seeds, or seed potatoes? No difference maybe as far as how many per hole.

By the way, the plants that produced these got hit hard twice by frost, but still came back and did well. This year, same story; 2 nights ago, heavy freeze, potato plants are all black and shriveled! I guess they'll come back again. (I hope!)