You Say Po-Tay-Toe, I Say Po-Tot-Oh

Normally I try to plant potatoes as close to Valentine's Day as possible.  This year I was actually a week early.  We'll see how they do.  We got over 11 inches of rain in the month of January and it is pretty muddy out there.  Fortunately, I'm planting potatoes in a raised bed in the side yard. Over the years, it has been raised by amending lots of organic matter into the soil.  Since the level of the soil is higher than surrounding areas, the ground is dry.

I noticed while in Tractor Supply Company the other day that they had a selection of seed potatoes in bins - even some that were blue.  Oddly enough, they were really purple in color, and I was really tempted to purchase them to plant, but I resisted the impulse.  I like Tractor Supply, but I like to patronize our local feed store.  They sell seed potatoes that we've had success with - the LaSoda variety.  They are geared for growing in our zone and are a red potato.  Tricia purchased three pounds and then went back and bought an additional three pounds.

LaSoda Seed Potatoes

I looked them over and saw many "eyes" on them.  Those eyes are the sprouts from which the potato plant will grow.  One might look at that box of potatoes and decide to slice them up to make french fries, but this is where delayed gratification takes root (pardon the pun).  You could definitely cook the potatoes and make a mighty fine potato salad.  However, if you plant them instead and have patience, you'll be rewarded tenfold.

I cut them into chunks, ensuring that there were several eyes on each chunk of potato.  I also want to be sure that each chunk is of decent size.  You'll want to cut them a few days before you put them in the ground to make sure they "scab over."  If they don't scab over (heal), there is a tendency for the potatoes to rot in the ground.

All seed potatoes cut up

Once my potatoes were cut, I wanted to give them a few days to scab before planting.  Then it started raining and was too wet to plant. Finally, on Saturday it was dry enough.  The seed potatoes were shriveling up a bit, but I think they are all still fine to plant.  The cut portion had healed over nicely.

If you flip the potato over, you can see that the eyes have grown a little bit since cutting.  This is a good sign.

I'm growing potatoes using the Back to Eden Gardening method, so instead of using a shovel to turn over all the soil as I would do in previous years, I use a pitch fork to scrape the wood chips out of the way.  Then I dig a hole a couple inches deep so that the potato comes into contact with the soil and I place each seed potato in the hole with eyes (sprouts) facing upward.  Finally I cover the seed potato with several inches of soil.

You can see in the photo above that there are decomposing leaves embedded in the soil.  That's a good thing.  I keep moving and plant each potato 12 inches apart.  In no time at all I had planted the entire 40 foot by 4 foot row.

As soon as they sprout, I'll gently cover them with wood chips.  If the weather cooperates we should have a nice crop.  I'm interested to see how the potatoes fare in the Back To Eden Gardening Method.  One big selling point is that you don't need a shovel to dig the potatoes when it is time to harvest.  You simply pull the plants up and shake and the potatoes will come up.  It is supposed to be much less work and the mulch blocks out grass that may compete. 

Now that potatoes are in the ground, I'll be planting Sweet Corn directly in the garden and will be planting squash and cucumber seeds in seed pots for transplanting later.