Planting huge potato sprouts this year

[weterman]

I don't have any pictures, I might take some, but the longest sprout is already planted. One potato had 2 sprouts about a meter long, I layed the sprouts out sideways and planted to see what happens. I'm also planting one with the potato at the bottom of a hole deep enough to hold the hole sprout in there.
Anyone try something like this before?

[jal_ut]

No! However, as long as those sprouts have roots and leaves coming, they should grow and do fine. Be interesting to see how they do.

[applestar]

Haha this seems to be a trend this year

Subject: leggy potatoes plants were started too early in the house

Where in NJ are you? I already planted mine in the beginning of April. I found some overgrown grocery store potatoes as well as my own saved seed potatoes in the back of the pantry

Subject: Potato too far along to plant?

That purple-stemmed one looks NICE! That's the Russian Blue?

I guess you didn't see my post about these


I planted them in the first week or so of April, which was a week later than my usual time to plant potatoes about a month before last average frost. Details are here:
Subject: Applestar's 2016 Garden

They have been sprouting out of the ground and looking pretty healthy. You'll find updates and current photos later in the thread.

You will need very large containers -- I assume you know that? 15 gallons or larger, especially with multiple plants like this. I'm thinking 1-2 plants (1 seed potato piece with 1-2 eyes) per 5 gallon. 1/2 barrel planters will work, or those fabric pots that are popular now -- you can get them in 25 gallon and even larger. They even sell some of those branded as potato pots.

What I suggest you do is lay those started potato plants in the pots on their sides or plop up at 15-30° angle for a few days before planting -- this is a trick I use for planting tomatoes deep. The top of the plants will will respond to gravity upwards so that they are now making a sharp turn to the side at the top. Bury all but the top 4 inches or so.

-- oh, to answer your questions -- new tubers grow on the stems ABOVE the seed potato. So more stem you have buried (So the growing tubers don't see the sun) more chance of tubers developing ( this will depend on fertility of the soil and watering which you will need to monitor closely in containers). You will ALSO want at least 6-8 inches of soil under the seed potato in the container.

Only some potato varieties with wild genetics will bloom -- many cultivated potato varieties have ceased to make flowers (Wildly colored ones tend to bloom more). Flowers are not necessary for tuber formation but can be used for judging maturity of the plants -- tiny new tubers begin to develop by the time they bloom.

...I laid my extra long ones down sideways in a trench and just left the top couple of inches barely covered since I planted in the beginning of April when we were still getting occasional frost. They are growing well and, now, I can't tell the difference from seed potatoes that were just chitted and planted at the same time. Latest photos are in my Garden thread.