Solanum tuberosum can be planted anytime from former leap , until mid - spring , and since the first twenty-four hours of summer is still three week away , it ’s just about the last week that we can found potato here in New England . potato can , and should be plant in the other springiness since they can withstand coolheaded temperature and damp soil , and in a typical year , I would plant potatoes in mid April , but due to a demented frump , two weeks of cold rain , ( which kept us from air - drying cut seed potatoes in the sunshine ) , and ultimately , a rotted bagful of seed potatoes , it seemed that a white potato crop was not potential this year . After opening the seed potato bag , I discovered that only half of the bag was rotten , and the rest of the small , whole seed potatoes , were already sprout .
cum potatoes are shipped to home growers in time for establish in their own gardens , and Johnny ’s Selected Seeds ship this bag or Yukon Gold seed potatoes , in April , but the old bag posture on the back porch , during our very cold and damp spring . After reach the stinky bag , it seemed that all of the potatoes had rotted , but many were still solid , and I resolve to ask Travis , our part - time gardener , to aid prepare the layer in which I was going to plant them .
Seed Potatoes are actually not semen , but modest potatoes that are typically 1 1/2 in diam . The right way to plant them is either whole , or ideally , wait for them to show ‘ optic ’ , and then cut them half or into thirds . acquire potatoes from substantial seed is not recommend since they will not follow rightful to sow , and it would take a couple of years before you could ever get a craw .
The bottom where I develop love apple last year , ( the ones constitute on bale of hay ) turned over ala - Ruth Stout , since now this one - yr old prove bed is mostly decomposed hay . Travis added two lawn cart load of top ground to the bed and turned it into the rotted hay , which go out us with a very porous and sluttish soil , perfect for potatoes , since it was vernacular for New England Yankee farmers to plant potatoes in good order on piles of year - old hay .
Travis cuts each seed potato into one-half or thirds , leave one middle for each part . Since it is tardy in the season to plant , we cheated and let the potato musical composition juiceless in the sun for the entire mean solar day , rather than let them blackleg over for two or three days . The territory temperature is warm , so they should rise quickly .
Each small-arm is set into the composted hay bed , around 4 inches deep . More soil will be hilled around them once they emerge and develop taller ensuring that the potatoes are deep enough not to turn green from the Dominicus , if they organize closely to the surface .
By the end of the day , all of the potatoes were planted , and watered in . All that is left now , is to expect for the new shoot to emerge and then it ’s a perpetual job of weed and hoeing up stain around the radical until we have about 10 inches of soil hill up . Watering well is the trick with potatoes , and it is primal in avoiding potato scab . Crops should never be appropriate to go dry while growing . We will be able to reap unseasoned or ‘ unexampled ’ Solanum tuberosum in 8 or 9 weeks just by hook our hands into the hay and force out a few firm potatoes . The only louse we postulate to worry about is Potato Beetle , which is common here , but they can be controlled organically with 5 % rotenone or pyrethrin ( from Chrysanthemums ) . I may utilise a floating rowing cover , since this is a small raised bed .
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