I am in Zone 5b. I cannot figure out when to plant potatoes. Is it after the last frost? Before?
Someone help please.
Frost can definitely damage the potato plants. In fact, my potato plants were pretty little plants several inches high and then we had three nights in the low 20's and it killed them all.bri80 wrote:After! Frost can definitely damage potatoes. They'd probably come back but they'd be weakened.
Sorry, I'm such a philistine.... I planted some white baking potato from the grocery store; no idea what it was. That's what I do with garlic also...Taiji wrote:That's great news. What variety did you plant, just out of curiosity?
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This is exactly why you want to plant after danger of frost. Potatoes use their stored energy (starch) to put up fast, early growth. Your goal as a potato gardener should be to produce the strongest, healthiest TOPS by the time the plant flowers and starts tuber growth, because your tuber (potato) production is directly related to how healthy/large your tops are.Gary350 wrote:Potatoes are not hurt by frost so plant potatoes now and don't worry about it. Frost will kill the tops but not the potato plants under the soil. Tops will grow back over and over every time froze kills them. As long as you don't have a hard freeze that lasts for several days potatoes will be fine. Keep your plants out of the mud they do not like to be water logged.
I do the same thing grocery store garlic always does good for me. Last summer we had a bag of grocery store potatoes that sprouted in the pantry so I planted them in the garden they made 2" tall plants that stayed 2" tall for 5 months. I dug the potatoes up all that was there was a piece of potato with roots and a 2" top. That is the first time I every had trouble with grocery store potatoes. My 20' row of seed potatoes that were planted May 1st in 80 degree weather made 50 lbs of tops and 9 lbs of potatoes.rainbowgardener wrote:Sorry, I'm such a philistine.... I planted some white baking potato from the grocery store; no idea what it was. That's what I do with garlic also...Taiji wrote:That's great news. What variety did you plant, just out of curiosity?
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