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Gary350
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Is there a white potato that grows good in Hot Weather?

I have grown good red potatoes in TN but have not yet found a white potatoes that grows good here in all this spring rain and summer hot weather 89 to 100. It rains too much March to May the garden is a swap.

This years crop is 7 lbs 11 ounces. Potatoes are not very large, skin is ruff as 60 grit sand paper. This is the first year I have planted Kennebec potatoes. This year I mixed about 50% organic material in the soil and fertilized a few times with LOW nitrogen fertilizer.

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Last edited by Gary350 on Tue Jun 27, 2017 10:01 pm, edited 5 times in total.

xtron
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you said wet springs, but potatoes are thirsty critters. from the time the first flower buds form until the plants are about half dead, they need an inch of rain/moisture each week. so keep the water to them, and mulch heavily. on the down side, too much water and you will have baseball size or bigger tubers .... that are hollow.
here in western Virginia I grow red Pontiacs, kennibecks, and Burbank russets.
all I can advise is, keep trying till you figure it out....even the failures are fun and usually good eating.

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jal_ut
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You say the reds do OK? So why plant white? A tater is a tater.

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Allyn
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jal_ut wrote:You say the reds do OK? So why plant white? A tater is a tater.
Actually, that's not true. Different potatoes have different starches in them and so some are better choices than others for the intended uses.

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Gary350
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Allyn wrote:
jal_ut wrote:You say the reds do OK? So why plant white? A tater is a tater.
Actually, that's not true. Different potatoes have different starches in them and so some are better choices than others for the intended uses.
Correct. White potatoes are much better, Baked, fried, mashed, hash browns, potato salad, stew, soup. Red potatoes are sticky and taste like Elmer's wood glue.

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jal_ut
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I don't find that to be true. What the heck are you planting? Try Norland or Red Pontiac.

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applestar
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So I searched for "potato varieties for the south" and out of the results, this University of Georgia seemed like a good place to start

Home Garden Series: Home Garden Potatoes | Publications | UGA Extension
https://extension.uga.edu/publications/d ... mber=C1011


Right away, they say russet potatoes don't grow well.
Are you looking for baking potatoes with dry fluffy flesh?

It looks like most of the ones I've tried are in their new varieties list.

Out of those in this list, I've tried --

- Cranberry Red
- Caribe
- Yukon Gold
- Goldrush

I think I've liked them all. Goldrush was tasty but was planted in a wrong place -- needed more sun. Caribe was neat looking. I'm thinking Cranberry Red was the most wax-like? I prefer the dry-er fleshed potatoes for baking, too, and also kind that holds up in stews (russets just melt), so I typically grow at least two varieties. I tend to make less potato salad, which I think the wax potatoes are good for. I like thin skinned varieties for stewing whole.

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Allyn
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Gary350 wrote:Red potatoes are sticky and taste like Elmer's wood glue.
That usually isn't the case unless you overbeat them. If you overbeat them and work up the starch, they get sticky like glue. I find red potatoes are best for things like potato salad, they get boiled and cut up into chunks, or like parsley potatoes that are cut up and roasted, not mashed or beaten to work up the starch. Russets are good for baking and mashing, and golden potatoes are awesome for frying. They make the best french fries. It all has to do with the length of the starch strands in each variety of potato. It was something I watched in the science segment of an episode of America's Test Kitchen.

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Gary350
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I compare what I grow in TN to what I use to grow in IL if TN crop is smaller I think something is wrong but as we all know, weather, soil, rain, lots of things determine how well your garden grows. In IL my grandfather use to plant a wide 50 foot row of potatoes and get several wheel barrels loads of potatoes about 250 lbs. I helped plant, harvest, and haul potatoes to the cellars. That was 55 years ago I don't remember what type white potato he planted. When I started planting my own garden in IL with grocery store potatoes I had no trouble filling up several 5 gallon buckets full of potatoes. Here in TN I have trouble getting 1 5 gallon bucket with potatoes. I have tried, Idaho, Russet, Red Pontiac, and Kennebec. Red potatoes do the best they must be more suited for this hot wet weather. I planted Kennebec this year, Russet last year, Idaho years before. I get a good quantity of Idaho potatoes none are larger than a golf ball. Russets made larger potatoes but not many potatoes. Kennebec were not large and not many either. MAYBE I should plant 8 rows of potatoes next year that might give we what 1 row use to produce in IL. It will probably be smarter to buy potatoes at the grocery store $2.50 for 8 lbs of Russet. I have not given up yet. I want to stock pile 1 year of food in the pantry every year, tomatoes, beans, corn, potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, peppers. Wife buys an 8 lb bag of potatoes about every month = about 96 lbs.

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applestar
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Maybe try buying potatoes at some of the better local farmstands that sell their own produce -- presumably they grow good productive varieties suited to local conditions. Grocery store potatoes could have been grown anywhere.

You might also find a locally grown source for seed potatoes.

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Gary350
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applestar wrote:Maybe try buying potatoes at some of the better local farmstands that sell their own produce -- presumably they grow good productive varieties suited to local conditions. Grocery store potatoes could have been grown anywhere.

You might also find a locally grown source for seed potatoes.
I am going to Farmers Market next week, when I find someone selling potatoes I am going to ask what variety they grow, and many other questions about their garden and how they grew them.

jeff84
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taller wider hills and looser soil. the bigger hills are more important, the looser soil sure does make harvesting a lot easier. I live in southern Indiana and the easiest digging and most bountiful potato harvest I ever saw was in a sandy flood plane near a river. usually though that particular plot of land was lot to floods, but years that it didn't flood it produced lots of white potatoes. 10x by weight what was planted at least.

I almost forgot the point I was trying to make. those potatoes where planted on top of a 1 ft tall and 4 ft wide hill, then conved with 6 inches. they were hilled as they grew, most of the hills were almost 3 ft tall by the time it was all said and done. basically a raised bed without a frame

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Gary350
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I talked to several people at the farmers market they all say, TN has too much rain you can not plant potatoes the normal way. 5 people said, hill the soil up about 12" make sure potato cuttings are 6" above the garden surface. 1 person said he plants potatoes on the side of a hill and has no trouble with potatoes rotting rain runs off soil is not mud. 1 person said he hills the soil up about 6" sets potato cuttings right on the top surface then covers them over with composted cow manure. No wonder a stack of car tires works so well for me it keeps the potatoes out of the mud. Everyone is planting Kennebec and Red Pontiac potatoes.

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applestar
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GREAT! :D Now you know for sure what you suspected.

I have to say I'm leery of car tires though - think of all the petrochemical mishmash the tires drive through. I have heard that farm tractor tires *might* be less road junk, but then I guess they might have soaked up agricultural chemicals.

What about heat-treated wooden pallets? I realize they don't heat up like black rubber tires, but it doesn't sound like temperature is your problem. They would be another inexpensive way to raise them up, and you could build bigger bunkers.



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