fredw
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When can I replant harvested potatoes?

I want to replant some of the smaller potatoes I just harvested. With Covid-19, it's difficult for me to purchase seed potatoes locally.

Can it be done immediately? I think that's probably not the case: otherwise why wouldn't the potatoes have already started to grow when they were sitting in the ground. So is there a time period to wait, or some other qualifying condition? I would like to plant them as soon as possible. I've searched on the internet but can't find anything.

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Gary350
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I think new potatoes have a built in clock they know it is not time for eyes to sprout and grow more potato plants. Last year after I harvested potatoes last week of July I planted all the small golf ball size potatoes in a 35 ft row about first week of Sept. None of those potatoes grew for 7 months until about 2 weeks ago. If you need seed potatoes order them on Ebay or a seed company like Baker Creek. I have learned organic grocery store potatoes grow very well.

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TomatoNut95
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Nope, Baker Creek is out of most of their potato slips, I've already checked them. A ton of gardening stuff is disappearing. I'd try eBay first.

Vanisle_BC
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Just my best guess - put the new spuds in a cool dark place and watch for sprouts? 'watchful waiting' haha.

fredw
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It 's likely true about the "built in clock", but I'm going to try putting them in "a cool dark" place. I've tried putting other potatoes that were recently harvested on a north facing window sill, which is what I do to chit potatoes that already have sprouts, but that hasn't worked yet. So now I'll try putting them in the dark.

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Gary350
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I sprout my potatoes inside dark cardboard boxes at 74 degrees F inside the house. Eyes start sprouting in 2 weeks. sprouts are 2" long in 4 weeks. The warmer & darker potatoes are the faster they sprout. Red potatoes out produce white potatoes about 4 to 1.
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fredw
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So, Gary, do you think they'll sprout very soon after harvesting them, or will I have to wait, for example, 6 months?

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Gary350
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fredw wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:30 am
So, Gary, do you think they'll sprout very soon after harvesting them, or will I have to wait, for example, 6 months?
I don't think new potatoes will sprout soon after digging them up if you do nothing to them. Sometimes a new potato lost in the soil will sprout and try to grow. I had small new potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket once after bucket had several inches of rain in bucket potatoes started sprouting. I noticed same thing after wheel barrel with potatoes got rained on. I have read never wash new potatoes it washes away enzymes that prevents potatoes from sprouting. Maybe washing potatoes with water or soak them in water a few days is the trick to make new potatoes grow sooner. I know grocery store potatoes are soaked in a chemical that prevents them from growing, I have soaked grocery store potatoes in water several days to remove that chemical and it does make most of their eyes start to grow. Organic grocery store potatoes have no chemicals they are kept in cold storage to prevent them from growing once moved from cold storage to warmer temperature eyes soon start to grow. Sunlight seems to prevent potatoes from growing I have done several experiments with potatoes in the window, potatoes exposed to lights inside the house, potatoes in dark places, potatoes in total darkness. Potatoes in total darkness and 74 degrees eyes always sprout and grow first. A few years ago I planted organic grocery store potatoes and seed potatoes at the same time the organic potatoes grew just as well as seed potatoes. I have not found a wide variety of organic potatoes in the store only way to get several varieties is buy seed potatoes. I see, red Pontiac, russet, Yukon gold, organic in our stores. Everyone always says, buy seed potatoes that is probably best. Online commercial potato growers says, 2" to 2.5" diameter potatoes with 7 eyes make the best seed potatoes, reason being a lot of potato is lost planting larger diameter potatoes and 7 eyes is much better than potatoes with only 2 or 3 eyes. I try to select 7 eye potatoes at the garden store but often, 5, 6, 7, eyes is the best I can get. Commercial potato growers do not make cutting they plant whole potatoes I have tried it both ways cutting with 2 or 3 eyes seem to do very well & planting whole potatoes does well too but often I see only 3 or 4 of the 5 or 7 eyes that actually grow on a whole potato. Commercial growers plant 100 acres each time they don't have time to do cuttings like home gardeners do. This year I planted 2/3 row of cuttings and 1/3 row of whole potatoes so far plants from whole potatoes are looking best, need to wait 4 months to see what the new potato crop looks like. It would be nice to do better testing plant whole potatoes with markers that indicate how many eyes each whole potatoes has then compare that to see how many plants actually grow from each potato. Cut the bottom out of 5 gallon buckets then grow potatoes in rows in buckets in the garden to see how many new potatoes are in each bucket. Potatoes have the ability to grow roots any place soil touches the plant same at tomatoes and all the new roots grow more new potatoes, Indeterminate potato plants can be hilled up 2 ft high to get several times more potatoes. Home gardeners fertilizer soil deep below where eyes are planted but fertilizer also needs to be in the soil every time potatoes are hilled up higher, more potatoes will grow from new roots. Online information says, each potato eye becomes 1 plant and each plant will grow 2 to 3 lbs of potatoes. 5 eyes in a 5 gallon bucket with no bottom should grow 15 lbs of potatoes per bucket, 10 buckets = 150 lbs of potatoes total crop. Use buckets with no bottoms only for the purpose of hilling soil up high to get a very large potato crop, plant 5 potato eyes 6" below soil surface to get 5 plants then add buckets a month later after potato plants are 8" tall. Keep filling buckets with soil week after week until buckets are full to the top.

fredw
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Thank you, I'll try some of that.

Vanisle_BC
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fredw wrote:
Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:47 pm
I'm going to try putting them in "a cool dark" place.... I'll try putting them in the dark.
fredw, be sure to let us know if -XX- when they sprout.

"Experience trumps hypothesis" :).

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Gary350
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Update. I harvested new potatoes a month ago. I put 7 golf ball size potatoes in water for 2 days to remove enzymes that prevent potatoes from growing. I planted 7 new potatoes to see if they will grow but they have not. I forgot it is 95 degrees outside I bet potatoes need cooler temperature about 75 degrees to grow. Last year I planted potatoes in Nov nothing grew until mid May. It is not easy to make potatoes grow like we do with seeds. I have planted winter potatoes from grocery store potatoes that were sprouting eyes in the bag and they grew a good crop of winter potatoes. Grocery store potatoes are kept cold until they are ready to sell they are already a year old they sprout eyes quick once they warm up to 75 degrees.



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