Planting Potatoes

Saturday, February 15th was the most beautiful day of 2014 so far.  A brilliant sun and clear blue skies with a slight breeze blowing made for a perfect day to get things done on the farm.  I knocked a bunch of things off my list, but wanted to get the seed potatoes in the ground today.  I checked out the piece of ground that I want to plant them in and it was perfect - not too wet.  That was surprising, especially considering all the rain that we've had lately.

Potato ground

The seed potatoes we cut up have scabbed over nicely and the eyes are sprouting.  So we are ready to get our hands dirty and get them put in the gound..

Seed Potatoes

Using my hoe, I quickly pulled up four rows in the nice soil.  A friend of mine gave me some composted chicken poop and wood shavings and I have most of this broadcast over this area.  I think it is going to grow some nice potatoes.

Rows are pulled up

I focused in on this next picture as it shows the nice sprout growing out of the seed potato.  You can also see that there is a lot of organic matter in the soil.

The eye of the potato

My main man, Benjamin helped me to get the potatoes planted after I dug the holes.  You want to plant the seed potatoes 4 inches deep and 12 inches apart.  As they grow, I'll heap dirt and hay around the potato plants.

My bud planting a spud

After I dug the holes, Benjamin put the potatoes in the hole and did a little quality control, making sure that the potatoes were at the right depth and the right spacing from each other.

Benjamin dropping it in the hole

I used a knife to pull dirt over the hole to cover the potato.  The dirt is loose and airy and full of composted organic matter.

Covering up the hole

The way it worked out I have 27 potatoes planted on each row and I'll have to work up one more row in which to plant some additional seed potatoes that I didn't have room to plant on these four rows.

And here is the finished product:  Four rows of potatoes planted.  I have enough seed potatoes for another row, but I'll have to wait for tomorrow as I started running out of daylight.

Got 'em Planted

Finally, I placed hay in the walkways between the rows in order to discourage weed growth between the rows.  I don't like to weed.  This trick helps!!

Hay added to the space between the rows

We will keep our eyes on the rows for sprouts popping up.  If the Good Lord's willing, we'll be harvesting potatoes in early May.  I cannot wait!