Potatoes

[Gary350]

Another good video. Black plastic bags are a low cost way to grow potatoes. I would have never thought of that.

[Gary350]

Growing 235 lbs of potatoes in containers.

[digitS']

Gary,

There was a gardener who told me about her potato gardening. She thought potatoes were suitable plants to grow along her driveway. She wanted them to look like plants in containers, not bags of garbage or something lining her driveway. So, she started them indoors - in bags. Her home had a daylight basement and she would put them in a sunny area. She didn't tell me about watering down there but she may not have needed to during the weeks that they were there.

After they were growing well, she would have her husband move the bags outdoors and along her driveway. (Another job for the hand truck!)

Steve

[Gary350]

8 lbs of Yukon Gold new potatoes from 2 cuttings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo8JpmPKt80

[Gary350]

Today I finally found a low cost way to grow potatoes in pots. Dollar Tree has clothes baskets for $1.25 each plus a 50 cent plastic trash bag inside each basket $1.75 total for each growing pot. There are 100s of YouTube videos of people planting 4 potato cuttings in an 8 gallon pot and harvesting 15 lbs of new potatoes.

[Gary350]

Potato prices at Walmart today 12/8/2022.

Red generic $1.38 for 5 lbs. Pontiac Red $2.49 for 5 lbs. Idaho Red $6.48 for 5 lbs.

Yellow generic $1.49 for 5 lbs. Yukon Gold $3.99 for 5 lbs. Idaho Yellow $5.99 for 5 lbs.

White generic $1.18 for 5 lbs. Russet $2.50 for 5 lbs. Idaho White $6.34 for 5 lbs.

Potatoes hardly seem worth growing but 4 eyes per potato = 4 plants for 15 cent you can grow 1 to 4 lbs of new potatoes per plant.

4 Red Pontiac plants will grow 16 lbs of new potatoes.

4 white potato plants will grow 4 lbs of potatoes.

[imafan26]

You have so many potatoes. Costco has more varieties of the finger potatoes with different colors but the local markets only have three kinds of potato. Russets, white/yellow salad potato, and red potatoes. They are usually only sold loose or in 5 or occasionally 10 lb bags. Only restaurants would get larger bags. I pay more per pound for potatoes than you do. Yours are very cheap.

I rarely buy 5 Lbs of potatoes unless I am going to need a lot of them. I usually buy maybe 2 or 3 large ones at a time and it may still take months to use them if they don't go bad first. Sometimes my potatoes will turn green, rot, or sprout in storage.

[digitS']

I don't remember that we ever grew potatoes in my family garden. And yet, we were a meat and potatoes family. We had the meat - on the hoof. Mom was more interested in "healthy" greens and melons, a favored fruit; Dad, sweet corn .

Living between two potato growing regions (but without the best soil for the crop), I resisted the bother of growing them for several years. Then, the more exotic ones attracted me . I'm frustrated by the shipping expense of seed potatoes and the limited choices in the garden centers. However, I have a wife who especially appreciates new potatoes coming out of the garden in the Summer.

And, so do I! Sometimes, our enthusiasm results in an abundance and then there is a question on storage conditions. The basement is a little too warm and too dry. The situation is made a bit more difficult by wanting to follow the harvest of an early potato variety with those healthy greens . Late Summer, the basement is really too warm.

Steve

[Gary350]

This is the first video I have seen of someone growing potatoes in a full length barrel. They harvested almost 20 lbs of red potatoes. Every video I see red potatoes always out grow white potatoes 4 to 1.

I bought a bag of generic red potatoes and generic yellow potatoes at Aldi's $3 for 5 lbs each. The yellow generic potatoes could be German butter ball potatoes. These yellow potatoes eyes are growing spouts, they are ready to make cuttings to be planted.

The generic red potatoes have a flavor different than Red Pontic, maybe Red Noland??? These red potato flavor is closer to a white potato.

I need 5 lbs of 5 different potatoes to use for seed potatoes May 1st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsz-Gu2FBoo

[Gary350]

Potato names and pictures.

[Gary350]

Fire ants love potatoes. Now I know why our garden has so many fire ants that we never had 5 years ago. TN fire ants are gloss reddish brown color 1/4" long. Google search has several articles about it. TN summer is hot and dry potatoes are a water source for ants. Other garden plants also attract ants.

[Gary350]

This is 1 of the best potato growing videos I have seen so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp2SRPS-syQ

[Gary350]

LOOK how close together this guy plants potatoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkep4LJDp4

[Gary350]

Life cycle of potatoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TByilfjplLw&t=203s

[Gary350]

I have learned something new about potato cuttings. Cuttings must be large enough for plants to live off of the cutting while sprouts are in the process of growing roots & plants. Soil needs to not stay wet other wise cutting rot. Soil needs to dry out between rains & irrigation. Large cuttings keep plants alive when soil is totally dry until roots have finally grown large enough to support the plants.

[imafan26]

Gary, I thought you'd really like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1BWxDEu0P0

[Gary350]

Gary, I thought you'd really like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1BWxDEu0P0

Very creative idea to use what you have available to grow potatoes. Once people learn what works best for them they grow a lot of potatoes. If we have any potatoes in the kitchen pantry with eye sprouts I will grow more potatoes this summer just to see how well some of these ideas work. The trick to growing good new potatoes seems to be, very soft soil, lots of water, lots of P & K fertilizer. 45 years ago I was having excellent luck growing 30 lbs of new potatoes in a stack of car tires but could not understand why that worked but I could not grow potatoes in garden rows like we did in Illinois. My grandfather was growing 400 lbs of new white potatoes every year and it did not seem like he was doing anything special, plant seed potatoes then dig up new potatoes 4 months later. His soil was soft & sandy, about 1" of rain 5 pm every say, highest temperature all summer was 90°f. His garden was not desert like TN. TN soil is hard with clay water does not soak in easy a slow 12 hour rain is good for my potatoes but we never get that in TN June to Sept.

[imafan26]

He added potash, vegetable scraps (bananas are high in potassium as well) and the compost and organic fertilizer which was not specified. He used rice hulls to lighten up the soil. His soil looks heavy. I thought it was ingenious to grow the potatoes from the sides of the bag. It saved space and maximized yield. Also watering with a water tube that doubled as a composter was great. It is a mini keyhole garden without the key hole. His bag was full of potatoes in a small space. I like the water bottle idea. I might try to implement that on some of my containers and make a central water bottle so I don't knock down my plants when I water them, which happens a lot. I would never think to put two bottles together to make it longer.

[Gary350]

I grew potatoes in 1 of these clay pots once. I think our pot had 8 holes in the sides. There were plants growing out of all the side holes and plants growing out of the top. New potatoes split the pot open. YouTube videos show new potatoes split open 5 gallons buckets. Tapered pots allow new potatoes to slide up as they grow larger.

[Vanisle_BC]

My doctor's convincing me to go low-carb, but I've planted all these potatoes. What should I do??

[Gary350]

My doctor's convincing me to go low-carb, but I've planted all these potatoes. What should I do??

Eat them slower.

[Gary350]

Potato Growing Season Length

The growing season for potatoes can range from 50 to 135 days. During the growing season, from the time the potatoes go into the ground until harvest, temperatures should ideally remain between 45 and 80 F. Longer crop will grow larger potatoes.

Red Norland 70-90 days.
Yukon Gold 80-95 days
Kennebec 80-100 days
Red Pontiac 90-100 days
German Butter Ball 110-135 days

[Gary350]

This lady plants big 1+ lb seed potatoes she thinks genetics of a large potato will grow more large potatoes. It seems to be working for her but she lives in Canada about 50 miles from the USA border and has perfect potato growing weather and good soil too. Maybe I should plant some 1 lb seed potatoes to see what happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l02SjyHG-Ns

[imafan26]

I try to stay on a low carb diet too. I don't miss potatoes, but I miss fruit. On a strict keto diet, side effects are bound to happen. But it is good for weight loss and controlling blood sugar. I found the side effects are better with diet cycling. Basically 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off. On the off weeks carbs can be increased to 50 carbs a day, making it a low carb not keto diet. It means I am rarely in ketosis, but staying out of ketosis keeps the side effects down. With a low carb diet there are still some benefits in glucose control and weight loss. It means for me, I do have to count calories. Not a biggie for me. But on 50 carbs a day, I can have one big carb. It usually means I can add a slice of low carb bread, which is dense and bland, or I can add half a lower carb fruit, like half an apple, or a small potato, or rice, but I still have to eat mostly greens for the rest of the carbs. Without raising the carb limit, one potato, one slice of bread, a banana, oatmeal, and most fruits will put me over the carb limit for the day. A medium white potato has 26 carbs, a medium russet potato has 37 carbs, mostly starch and one serving already exceeds the 20 carb keto limit. The other thing is how medium and small potatoes are defined. A new potato might qualify but not a regular store potato. So, as Gary says, you have to eat it slower and maybe have that one potato over a few days. That is a lot like trying to eat just one potato chip.

[Gary350]

I try to stay on a low carb diet too. I don't miss potatoes, but I miss fruit. On a strict keto diet, side effects are bound to happen. But it is good for weight loss and controlling blood sugar. I found the side effects are better with diet cycling. Basically 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off. On the off weeks carbs can be increased to 50 carbs a day, making it a low carb not keto diet. It means I am rarely in ketosis, but staying out of ketosis keeps the side effects down. With a low carb diet there are still some benefits in glucose control and weight loss. It means for me, I do have to count calories. Not a biggie for me. But on 50 carbs a day, I can have one big carb. It usually means I can add a slice of low carb bread, which is dense and bland, or I can add half a lower carb fruit, like half an apple, or a small potato, or rice, but I still have to eat mostly greens for the rest of the carbs. Without raising the carb limit, one potato, one slice of bread, a banana, oatmeal, and most fruits will put me over the carb limit for the day. A medium white potato has 26 carbs, a medium russet potato has 37 carbs, mostly starch and one serving already exceeds the 20 carb keto limit. The other thing is how medium and small potatoes are defined. A new potato might qualify but not a regular store potato. So, as Gary says, you have to eat it slower and maybe have that one potato over a few days. That is a lot like trying to eat just one potato chip.

I am loosing weight too. I don't know how to count carbs so I decided to eat different. I stopped eating sugar and lost 12 lbs very quick. I never liked candy & never eat it. No soft drinks. I like to snack on cookies so I stopped eating them. I have fun growing potatoes but I don't eat very many. I ate some potato salad yesterday and some fried potatoes 5 days ago. I have been eating 1 meat and 3 vegetables & almost no bread. I started eating low fat potato chips I eat them slower so a bag of chips last 1 week. I did not buy more chips at the grocery store so maybe I eat carrots & strawberries instead. I lost more weight. Wife loves potatoes she will eat them for dinner every day. We have 2 college boys living with us they eat more food in 1 meal than wife & I eat in 2 days. These 2 guys love potatoes any way they are cooked, mashed & fried are their favorite. I bought 15 lbs of potatoes they ate them all in 9 days. Yesterday I bought 30 lbs of potatoes, low price food for 2 human garbage disposals, they like fresh cooked pasta too but not left over pasta. If there is 160 lbs of potatoes in the garden these 2 guys get to eat most of them.

Do you know Red Pontiac potatoes have 1/2 the carbs of white potatoes.

[Gary350]

Is anyone growing Fingerling potatoes? What type harvest to you get?

I found a video that shows French Fingerling potatoes produce about 70 new potatoes per plant. Regular potatoes grow about 10 new potatoes per plant. By weights Fingerling potatoes produce about 4 times more than regular potatoes.

French Fingerling potatoes are big about 4 oz potatoes. 70 new Fingerling potatoes will be about 16 lbs.

I never see fingerling seed potatoes sold in our area.

[digitS']

I'm also curious about an expected harvest. My one-time growing of French Fingerlings was not very impressive.

There are a couple of problems with me growing fingerlings. They all seem to have a late days-to-maturity rating. I like to have the potatoes out early so that the bed can be used for a late crop of greens. Late varieties are also commonly available in the produce aisle year around and at low prices. Digging early varieties before they end their season for "new potatoes," what I have been doing lately with Red LaSoda this year -- that is a special gardener's treat, IMO.

I wonder -- if French Fingerlings are so productive, why are their seed potatoes so expensive? The local garden center sells them. I just checked. This Spring, they were $5/pound. The Red LaSoda were $1.70. Seed companies, all at some distance from my home, charge way too much for me to be a regular customer for seed potatoes. It's shipping costs, I suppose. And, I do think that it is important for me to buy certified seed potatoes. They have few problems compared to the few times that I have saved and replanted potatoes.

Steve

[Gary350]

I'm also curious about an expected harvest. My one-time growing of French Fingerlings was not very impressive.

There are a couple of problems with me growing fingerlings. They all seem to have a late days-to-maturity rating. I like to have the potatoes out early so that the bed can be used for a late crop of greens. Late varieties are also commonly available in the produce aisle year around and at low prices. Digging early varieties before they end their season for "new potatoes," what I have been doing lately with Red LaSoda this year -- that is a special gardener's treat, IMO.

I wonder -- if French Fingerlings are so productive, why are their seed potatoes so expensive? The local garden center sells them. I just checked. This Spring, they were $5/pound. The Red LaSoda were $1.70. Seed companies, all at some distance from my home, charge way too much for me to be a regular customer for seed potatoes. It's shipping costs, I suppose. And, I do think that it is important for me to buy certified seed potatoes. They have few problems compared to the few times that I have saved and replanted potatoes.

Steve

I read online French Fingerlings are a 4 month crop. Any potato that is a 4 month crop will be a larger harvest than potatoes that are 3 month crop. Potatoes are no different than corn, 120 day crop is larger harvest than 90 day crop. French Fingerlings, German Butter Ball, Cobbler, are all 4 month crops. I read online that no one puts chemicals on potatoes anymore to prevent eyes from growing. I have been buying grocery store potatoes to plant for 6 years. 5 lbs of grocery store potatoes are $4 to $6 for 5 lbs depending on where you buy them. Aldi's has the best prices $4 for 5 lbs. Walmart in now selling name brand IDAHO potatoes $6 lb. I refuse to buy over priced name brand Idaho potatoes. I don't like buying $5 lb seed potatoes either. You can't dig potatoes up early or make them grow faster. Plant a bed to save space, 3 rows 8" between rows, 8" between plants. There are several French Fingerlings potatoes videos on YouTube 1 commercial farmers talks about French Fingerling as being his cash crop. I have not grown French Fingerling wife does not want small potatoes but video claims they out produce the 3 month potato crops. My potato plants produce 1 lb of new potatoes from each plant, video says they get 2 lbs of French Fingerlings from each plant. We have never eaten fingerling potatoes. I see bags of multi color fingerings in the store it appears the bags have several types of fingerlings in the same bag. When I plant 120 cuttings = about 12 lbs of potatoes they grow 120 plants and produce 120 lbs of new potatoes from a 3 month crop. What I read online says, I should get 2 lbs of new potatoes if I plant 4 month potatoes. No one around here sells 4 month potatoes, if I order 4 month potatoes 5 lbs with postage is $30. That is too expensive. Maybe you should try growing potatoes in 10 or 15 gallon pots then you can move pots to other locations when needed. I can grow 15 lbs of potatoes in a 10 gallon pot but pots are too expensive $15 each. Buy a $1 clothes basket at Dollar Tree put a sheet of black plastic inside the basket.

[digitS']

Gary, this is from Utah State University, 2020-2021, https://extension.usu.edu/vegetableguid ... t-handling :

"Potatoes intended for long-term storage are often treated with sprout inhibitors (pre- or postharvest) to extend storage life."
"maleic hydrazide (MH-30) pre-harvest"
"Chlorpropham (CIPC) ... postharvest"

Steve

[imafan26]

I don't buy a lot of potatoes because I don't eat much and they don't store well in my climate. I have a hard time getting through a 5 lb bag of potatoes unless I am deliberate about how I am going to use them. This time I did plan ahead. I bought a 5 lb bag of potatoes last week. I made baked potato for dinner one day. I made a sausage, onion, potato, cabbage one dish meal I am eating now, potato mac salad (works better with a red potato), roasted vegetables, and a potato hash. I have 3 potatoes left and that is good for me because they are still in good condition.

[Gary350]

We bought a 5 lb bag of Jasmin rice, carbs are different in rice than potatoes??? White potatoes have about 2 times more carbs than red potatoes. Red potatoes are sticky and don't make good baked potatoes, boiled, fried or mashed, potatoes. We have been cooking a lot of stir fry chicken with onions, vegetables, rice. White potatoes cook better than red potatoes. Mashed potatoes made with red potatoes is like a bowl of glue. We have been enjoying eating rice much better than red potatoes. White potatoes are harder to grow than red potatoes and seed potatoes cost several times more than grocery store potatoes. The 2 boys spending the summer with us have eaten 120 lbs of potatoes. It was good had free food they eat 4 times more than wife & I. I can't buy Kennebec potatoes at the grocery store, $4 per lb seed potatoes are too expensive. Walmart has $6 bags of Russet potatoes and Aldi's has $4 generic russet potatoes. Russet potatoes are almost impossible to grow in TN 20 plants produce about 1 lb of new potatoes. The boys both have full time jobs now and are saving money to rent a 2 bedroom apt $1500. a month walking distance from their work. I'm not sure I will grow any more potatoes Kennebec is what we like but seeds are too expensive, it makes better sense to eat rice or russet potatoes.

[imafan26]

I use Russet potatoes for baking and stews. Red potatoes for salads. I just got Yukon Gold potatoes for the first time and I really like them. But I would probably use them like the red potatoes. Sweet potatoes can also replace potatoes in dishes like in roasted vegetables, potato mac salad, and baked or boiled potatoes. We eat more sweet potatoes as snacks than potatoes. I don't usually eat French fries unless I am really hungry or it comes with a meal deal. It is too salty and I don't like fried foods. If the oil they are using is old, I can taste it in the fries. I do like potato wedges, but I usually do that more with sweet potatoes and I don't eat sweet potatoes all that much either. I am trying to incorporate more potatoes into my meals for variety. I do like scalloped potatoes and casseroles with potatoes and rice. Like massaman curry.

White rice does not have that much nutrition, it has a lot of carbs. This is especially true since most people wash the talc off the rice before cooking. It is better if you eat brown rice, but it spoils faster and I don't like the taste of it. The best I can do is hapa haole rice which is a mixture of brown and white rice. Many people here eat rice at every meal. But, I could easily go a week or two without a potato.

The local markets sell loose potatoes, and 5 and 10 lb bags of potatoes. But they don't come in bigger sizes. None of the local stores sells larges size bags, but maybe some restaurant would order them. Most of the restaurants don't have a lot of potato dishes on their menu. There would be maybe 3 potato chunks in a beef or curry stew. Mostly fries which they buy frozen, mashed potatoes, or baked potato.

[Gary350]

I've seen the blue potato, and think it's very interesting! I wonder what blue French fries or mashed potatoes would be like!

We had blue potatoes for dinner last night. They taste no different than Idaho potatoes. If blue potatoes grow better in TN than Idaho I will grow some this year. I wonder if blue mash potatoes will look too gross to eat. There are 2 types of blue potatoes, #1 has blue skin and white color inside. #2 has blue skin and blue potato inside, #2 it what we ate last night color is more of a deep dark purple.

[digitS']

We have used squash and potatoes to make bread for years. It works well – nice, moist loaves. Last year, we tried beets. Not only the usual qualities but sweet! However, I was very uncertain about trying the bread because it is purple. Overcame that easily .

Funny that way. Yellow potatoes mashed look like they are loaded with butter. When the Yukon Gold were not, I was disappointed. DW likes them and it took me several years to learn to appreciate them.

My first thought with purple potatoes was to avoid them! Later, I learned to appreciate Purple Viking – they did so very well in the garden that I had. They have purple skin and the interior is bright, white.

We have grown Purple Majesty several times. Purple inside and out. They are good. I "came around."

Steve

[Gary350]

I have finally learned a few missing pieces to the puzzle, how to grow a large crop of new potatoes. If you sign up to YouTube you can talk to people and ask questions. I found a man in GA and a man in AL that are willing to answer potato growing questions.

1. Plant 5 oz. seed potatoes with, 5 eyes, 2" deep, 6" spacing, the date of your last frost. Each eye becomes a plant and each plant will grow about 1 lb. of new potatoes. 5 plant will grow 5 lbs. of new potatoes. Place a soaker hose on the soil surface before you begin hilling up the potatoes plants. 30 seed potatoes with 5 eyes each should grow 5x30=150 lbs. of new potatoes.

2. Potato plants have the ability to grow more roots anywhere soil touches the plants. More roots will grow more new potatoes. Don't let tops grow too large push soil up around the tops, force plants to grow taller.

3. Plants need plenty of nitrogen at first 15-15-15 is good. You want plants to grow 18" tall as quick as you can so you have lots of roots that will grow lots of new potatoes.

4. Cut back on nitrogen when hills are 12" tall. 6-12-12 fertilizer is good for growing larger new potatoes. Potato plants like lots of water but do not like to stay wet. After soil is dry water again.

5. Wait until plants are dead and dried up to dig up new potatoes. New potatoes take on more weight for 1 or 2 weeks while plants are dying.

Drawing shows how plants grow taller with more potatoes as hills get taller. This is the ideal crop. You can plant 4 eye potatoes or 10 eye potatoes if you have them.

[imafan26]

I have only grown sweet potatoes. I agree, they can take over the garden. It is not practical to grow potatoes here. It is a cool season crop, takes a lot of space if it is not in a container and unlike sweet potatoes the other parts of the plant are toxic. And lastly, I don't eat that many potatoes.

I must admit I was tempted to try it. My potatoes and onions have both decided to start sprouting. I only got the onions a couple of weeks ago. Some of the potatoes are turning green and some have eyes sprouting.

[applestar]

@imafan if you are going to try, I think this is the time for you to plant them since the Japanese YouTubers are starting to post about prepping the bed for planting and getting the seed potatoes ready to plant (pre-sprouting). I think they expect to harvest by Late May~June.

Also, there are potato varieties that are better suited for warmer regions and ones suited for colder regions.

Here, I can’t plant until last week of March at earliest and don’t expect to harvest until late July~August.

[Gary350]

Also, there are potato varieties that are better suited for warmer regions and ones suited for colder regions.

Red Pontiac, Red Norland, Kennebec, are hot weather potatoes. Russet is a cooler weather potato. I have grown a good crop of Russets Aug to Oct but not April to July. I don't know about, French Fingerlings and purple potatoes yet?

I would like to see Japanese white potato growing videos. YouTube search only shows Japanese sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are so easy they grow better than weeds 20 lbs. of new potatoes from each plant.

[imafan26]

Sweet potatoes are easier to grow in the tropics. It grows through the summer heat. Winter sweet potatoes are less productive, I could still eat the leaves or give them to the worms. The biggest problem with them is if they stay in the ground too long they get bored by pests.

Regular potatoes couldn't. Even though it is cold now, if potatoes take 2-5 months to mature. It would be too late. By June the temps will be approaching 88-91 degrees every day. You ha e longer days. My short days stretch the days to maturity in the cooler months when the day length is less than 11 hours. My longest day is just under 14 hours. It is also why I buy "Giant" varieties, because they will never be giants. I am just hoping for bigger.

[Gary350]

I can not find French Fingerling potatoes or purple potatoes in any or our garden stores or grocery stores. After reading a lot of info I think purple majesty & Adirondack are the purple potatoes I need to grow this year if I can buy some. We want potatoes that taste Russet flavor. Yellow & Gold & red skin potatoes are not what we want wife said they are too soft to cook in food they become potato gravy. Purple Huckleberry are low glycemic like sweet potatoes.

I hate to pay $20 a lb. for seed potatoes in a seed catalog to learn what they taste like. Some info I find say, French fingerling are yellow inside, photos show white skin outside. There are also red fingerlings that are white inside.

I always get about 1 lb of new potatoes from each plant. Seed potatoes with 5 eyes will grow 5 plants and should produce 5 lbs of new potatoes. 30 seed potatoes with 5 eyes each, should grow 150 lbs of new potatoes. White potatoes are harder to grow than red, 90% of the videos are red potatoes.

I would like to have a 30 ft row with several different potatoes growing there.
It seems stupid to grow potatoes when 10 lbs. of Russets cost $6. at the grocery store.