Potatoes! I need help!

[applestar]

Zapatay, don't forget that at some point, you'll want to let the potato plant grow out of the straw and develop lots of top growth for photosynthesis to develop the tubers.

One of my potato towers/"silos" looks like this, and I'm not adding any more mulch. Just keeping it watered:

As you can see, it's starting to flower, which some one has said is when you should stop hilling (it might have been jal... or maybe jbest.... I'm sorry I can't remember... ).

[Zapatay]

How tall is the mulch vs green? And why a tower (very cool) and not just a mound of hay?
Sending from blackberry

[gardengrl3]

Hi! I am from Long Beach, California-Where did you buy your potato plant? I saw them on the Burpee website but I don't want to pay that much for the plant when you can buy a whole bag for 99 cents at fresh & easy. I would like to grow poatotes but I don't want to pay too much to get started on another garden project-I just spent alot on a raised tomato bed.

[rainbowgardener]

You can sprout grocery store potatoes. Cut them in chunks, each with a couple eyes. Stand the chunks up (with the eyes upward) like in an egg carton, on a window sill where it will be warm and light. Wait until the eyes sprout and then plant them.

[kgall]

gardengrl3...I just say seed potatoes at my local ace. They are not expensive at all. There you can buy as many or as few as you want. I ordered mine this year and it is the same variety.

I can attest to the face that potatoes will grow back many many times. In my 3 rows of potatoes some are 2 feet tall and some are 2 inches tall! Not easy to hill when that's the case I assure you but they keep coming back despite the cutworms!

[jmoore]

The store bought potato I put into my tower are going crazy. It was a big spud and I'd read that store potato's usually had a sprouting inhibitor so I planted 8 pieces hoping to get a few to take. Well of course they all took, so now I'm wondering if I should pull some to make room. I'm happy to leave them but if I need to pull a few, then I will.

Anyone?

[TZ -OH6]

This will give you the info you need to decide how many plants to grow in a given area.

http://www.cipotato.org/library/pdfdocs/TIBen5099.pdf


Fewer plants = larger potatoes and maximum number per plant. Higher density of plants = smaller tubers, fewer per plant but more pounds of potatoes for the same area up to the point where competition reduces tuber formation of all the plants.

[jmoore]

This will give you the info you need to decide how many plants to grow in a given area.

http://www.cipotato.org/library/pdfdocs/TIBen5099.pdf


Fewer plants = larger potatoes and maximum number per plant. Higher density of plants = smaller tubers, fewer per plant but more pounds of potatoes for the same area up to the point where competition reduces tuber formation of all the plants.

Great info. Thanks for that.

A few of the sprouts are way behind the others, so I think I'll pull those to make some room and see how that works. I should be ready to add level #2 onto the tower this week. It's amazing how well these things are growing.