Planting Potatoes
The beds in my vegetable garden are filling up quickly and right on schedule.
Last week, we planted four long beds of potatoes. Potatoes are grown from “seed potatoes”, which are certified disease-free and specially grown in nurseries for planting purposes. Most potato varieties take at least 10-weeks to produce tubers large enough to eat. This season’s “seed potatoes” came from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a small family-owned business located in Ellensburg, Washington.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Irish Eyes Garden Seeds strives to provide a variety of quality organic seed potatoes. The company is one of only 10-certified organic seed potato growers nationwide. I’ve been using their seed potatoes for several years. http://irisheyesgardenseeds.com
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- When preparing the seed potatoes for planting, some of the bigger varieties – bigger than the average-sized chicken egg – are cut into pieces. Each piece should have at least two eyes.
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- Each cut side of potato is then coated with Douglas fir bark dust – also from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds.
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- This dust helps to heal the sliced area, so it doesn’t shrink or curl. The slightly acidic bark is also a natural fungicide and moisture buildup barrier.
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- Ryan carefully dips each piece into the dust until it is completely coated. Potatoes contain 18-percent starch, two-percent protein, and small amounts of vitamin-B6, iron, niacin, magnesium, thiamin, folic acid, and potassium. They are also a good source of vitamin-C, low in sodium and easy to digest.
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- We plant a variety of potatoes every year. Among this season’s selections – ‘Chieftain’, a smooth red-skinned slightly oval tuber with shallow eyes, and white flesh. This potato is medium size and has very good flavor.
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- ‘Cal White’ is a long, white-fleshed potato with white skin. It is an excellent producer and will yield lots of large potatoes.
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- These are ‘Kennebec’ potatoes – short oval potatoes with smooth pale yellow skin, shallow eyes and white flesh. They’re great for fries, hash browns, and many other uses even without peeling.
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- ‘Dark Red Norland’ potatoes produce medium to large tubers with smooth, thin, red skin and shallow eyes, and white flesh. These are also known to be very flavorful. In the back are ‘Malou’ potatoes – mid-season potatoes with round, bright yellow skins and yellow flesh. These have a delicious creamy texture when roasted, baked, fried or boiled.
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- Another popular favorite is ‘Butterball’. These have smooth, thick, golden and netted skin with butter yellow flesh and outstanding taste when steamed or baked.
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- ‘Red La Soda’ potatoes have smooth red skin, deep eyes and white flesh. They’re excellent for boiling and making potato salads. It’s also a great storage potato.
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- ‘Butte’ potatoes are oblong with white flesh and russeted skin. They’re also noted for having 20-percent higher protein content than most potatoes. These are also very high in Vitamin-C. ‘Agata’ is a beautiful yellow-skinned variety with a yellow flesh and a creamy texture when cooked.
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- ‘Defender’ potatoes are late season potatoes suitable for frying and excellent as a fresh market baker.
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- ‘All Red’ potatoes are medium to extra-large tubers with smooth, brilliant red skin, medium shallow eyes and pink swirled flesh that retains its color after cooking. Like most reds, this variety is good for steaming or boiling and makes an attractive potato salad.
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- ‘Yellow Finn’ potatoes have an unusual pear shape, deep yellow-tan skin, and waxy yellow flesh. A buttery taste that is good boiled, baked, fried or included in soups. “Yukon Blush’ is an excellent yellow variety. It produces uniform, round tubers with yellow skin and small red eyes. This is a great substitution for ‘Yukon Gold’.
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- Meanwhile, Phurba prepares the beds down in the vegetable garden. He measures each of the beds to make sure the three planned trenches in each bed are equally spaced. He stretches twine from one end to the other to mark the beds, so every trench is straight.
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- Phurba then digs the trenches under the twine using a right-angle trowel from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It is made of stainless steel, with a five-inch by three-inch blade and a five-inch handle. It’s great for reducing strain on the wrists while gardening.
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- The trenches run the entire length of each bed and are about four to six inches deep. Adding organic matter is a good way to amend the soil before planting, but don’t use matter too high in nitrogen, as too much can encourage the growth of lush foliage at the expense of tuber development.
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- Here are two of our four beds of trenches almost ready for planting. Potatoes can be planted in cooler soils at least 40-degrees Fahrenheit. They do best as rotation crops and should be placed away from where potatoes, tomatoes or peppers were grown in the last two years.
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- All the dirt removed from each trench is pushed to one side and reserved for backfill after all the seed potatoes are planted.
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- All the potatoes are brought down to the vegetable garden and placed in front of the beds in which they’ll be planted – all well coated with the Douglas fir bark dust. The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum.
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- Ryan starts placing the potatoes in the trenches. Potatoes perform best in soil with pH levels 4.8 to 5.5. Potatoes are easy to grow as long as they have access to full sun and moderate temperatures.
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- The seed potato pieces are placed in the trench with eyes faced up and the cut side down. When selecting seed potatoes, avoid planting those from supermarkets in case they were treated by sprout inhibitors.
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- If the eyes are not planted faced up, it’s not the end of the world – the potatoes will find their way, but it may take a little longer for them to develop and grow.
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- As each row is planted, Ryan places a marker, so every variety can be identified. Trenches should also be at least one to two feet apart to give the potato plants ample room to develop.
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- Each bed has four different potato varieties.
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- Once Ryan fills the bed with seed potatoes, Phurba follows closely behind to backfill the trenches with the same nutrient-rich soil, fully covering the potatoes at least four inches.
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- Phurba is careful to cover the seed potatoes without disturbing how they are positioned in the trench.
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- Phurba goes over the beds with a soft rake to ensure every potato is well covered and the area looks neat and tidy.
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- Potatoes need at least one-inch of water per week. Potatoes require less water to grow compared to other staple foods such as wheat, rice, and corn. I cannot wait until harvest time – a first modest harvest of potatoes should be ready about 65 to 70 days after planting.
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