A book put out by the local Extension Service Office and Master Gardeners says, when planting seed potatoes, "do not irrigate until the plants emerge." I took their word for it, but it sounds odd. I'm used to watering in anything I plant. Has anyone else heard this?
I watered the soil in the raised bed a bit before I planted the potatoes along with peas, lettuce and other cool season stuff. And there's been some rain, so they aren't bone dry.
Jim
I have been wondering if gardeners in some of the rain-soaked parts of the country would be safer to wait very late to plant their seed potatoes.
My potatoes are already in the garden but I don't live where rains have come again and again this spring. I have also never planted potatoes really late - like say the end of May.
It may be a little cold for them but seed potatoes in the crisper drawer should have only very slow sprouting . . . just thinking, here. And, I'm sorry that this is a little off-topic.
(Jim, I think you live very close to where I lived as a kid. Our little farm was between Gold Hill and Rogue River, off highway 99.)
Steve
My potatoes are already in the garden but I don't live where rains have come again and again this spring. I have also never planted potatoes really late - like say the end of May.
It may be a little cold for them but seed potatoes in the crisper drawer should have only very slow sprouting . . . just thinking, here. And, I'm sorry that this is a little off-topic.
(Jim, I think you live very close to where I lived as a kid. Our little farm was between Gold Hill and Rogue River, off highway 99.)
Steve
I tried a little experiment with the first potatoes that I planted this year...
The spot where I planted has a clay base, and it was still pretty cool and wet. The soil just seemed too "heavy" to me. I had an old pile of nearly-decomposed corn stalks (from last year) nearby, so I shredded/powdered those up with my hands, and sprinkled a layer in the bottom of the "trench", topped that with a little soil, added the seed potatoes, and then covered those with a llittle more soil.
That was a few weeks ago, and all the potato plants are up and looking healthy. As I have been hilling the plants, I've been adding older brown grass clippings and pine needles to the soil, to help keep it loose and fluffy.
I don't have a "control planting" to compare, to know whether the techniques above made a real difference or not ... but, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The spot where I planted has a clay base, and it was still pretty cool and wet. The soil just seemed too "heavy" to me. I had an old pile of nearly-decomposed corn stalks (from last year) nearby, so I shredded/powdered those up with my hands, and sprinkled a layer in the bottom of the "trench", topped that with a little soil, added the seed potatoes, and then covered those with a llittle more soil.
That was a few weeks ago, and all the potato plants are up and looking healthy. As I have been hilling the plants, I've been adding older brown grass clippings and pine needles to the soil, to help keep it loose and fluffy.
I don't have a "control planting" to compare, to know whether the techniques above made a real difference or not ... but, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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gixxerific
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