Well, it's Good Friday and as many gardeners in Zone 5 know, it's time to plant potatoes! Yes, they also say to plant them on St. Patrick's Day, but that's a load of crap because the ground is still frosty. I had quite a few potatoes left over from last year- they are still good to eat but are starting to sprout. I decided to use those as my seed potatoes instead of buying them. Potatoes are extremely easy to plant; dig a hole about 5 inches down, drop a potato in, cover with dirt and make a mound. You can buy seed potatoes or, if you have potatoes that are beginning to grow eyes, you can plant the whole potato. If your potato has several eyes growing, cut it into sections (with each section having an eye) and plant those the same way. They should start sprouting in a few weeks. Potato plants grow about three feet high (sort of bush-like) and start to die off around July or August. When the plants are dead, dig up the potatoes!
We prefer Yukon Gold, but have also planted Russets. I think the Yukon's keep better (considering I still have about 30 pounds from last fall). I've never tried red potatoes, but our neighbor brought us some last year and they were so tender and sweet. They have a shorter growing season, too, as they are dug up much earlier.
That's my gardening lesson for the day, I hope you enjoyed it and found it informative!
1 comment:
that is totally informative! i did garlic last fall, because we like-a the stinky stuff...i saw i big ol' bag of seed potatoes at an unnamed high-end retail gardening establishment here in iowa city for quite a lot of money; so glad i wasn't tempted now that you've told me what to do!
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