Potato Planting

Today I finally got the potatoes planted - six rows in all.  It is really late for potatoes.  I usually have them planted on Valentines Day.  However, this year we got lots of rain and the ground was too wet to plant back in February.  Today was a good day to get it done.  The cows provided supervision.

Rows worked up and ready for planting.

A little over a week ago, I cut up the seed potatoes so that each chunk of potato would have one eye.  Over the past week, the potatoes scabbed over and healed.  The scab helps keep the potato from rotting in the ground once planted.


Seed potato scab

Planting is simple.  All I did was make a trench in the middle of the row and drop the seed potatoes in, spaced 8 inches apart, and then cover with dirt.  

Drop them 8 inches apart

All done!  1 row of white potatoes and 4 rows of red potatoes. 
 

Potatoes in the ground

Here's a little trick I always do.  Between the rows I put down cardboard pizza boxes or feed sacks to keep weeds from coming up.  Then I put leaves over the top even with the height of the rows on either side.  This serves several purposes:

• Keeps weeds from coming up in the walkways between the rows,
• The leaves rot and compost, becoming organic matter to be incorporated in the the soil next year,
• The leaves help the soil retain moisture so that roots from plants on the rows can draw it. 

Leaves between the rows

And we're all done.  Daisy and Rosie give our job a "Two hooves up" rating.


2013 Potato Patch

 I checked the weather and tomorrow we have an 80% chance of rain.  This ought to get the potatoes growing.  Before long we'll see the potato plants popping up out of the ground.