Kevin Lee Jacobs

Gardening, Recipes & Home Décor Tips

  • Home
  • Recipe Index
  • Gardening
    • Annuals
    • Bulbs
    • Forcing
    • Groundcovers
    • Herbs
    • Houseplants
    • Pests
    • Perennials
    • Vegetables
      • Tomatoes
    • Preserving the Harvest
      • Soil
    • Winter-Sowing
    • What To Do When
  • Household
    • Decorating
    • Flower Arranging
    • Good Ideas
    • Etc.
    • House Tour
    • Christmas
  • Shop
  • Ask Kevin
    • Ask Kevin Forum
    • Tips
    • Email Kevin
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • Pinterest

Growing Better Potatoes

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | May 11, 2011 13 Comments

Last updated on December 2nd, 2011

HOW MANY OF YOU are planting potatoes this spring? Need any tips for achieving a colossal harvest? Then be sure to check out my current slide-show at Garden Design (dot) com. There you will find everything you need to know about selecting, curing, planting, hilling and harvesting and storing this superstar among staples.

If you have any specific questions about potato-planting, be sure to post them below. Also – anyone (besides me) fond of Blue potatoes?

Don’t miss anything at A Garden for the House…sign up for Kevin’s weekly newsletter.

Related Posts:
How to Separate and Plant Onion Seedlings
Why Your Grocery Bills will Double in 2011
What Would You Plant in Your Subsistence Garden?
Classic Stuffed Tomatoes Provencal
A Virtual Tour of My Kitchen Garden
How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Rhubarb

Rhubarb Crisp
A Peach of a Shrub: Flowering Quince ‘Cameo’

Comments

  1. 1

    Eric says

    May 11, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Great slideshow, Kevin!

    My local Agway didn't have blue potatoes. I'm so disappointed! I planted kennebec, superior, and red norland.

  2. 2

    Sheila says

    May 12, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Loved the slideshow, love homegrown potatoes! I ordered yukon gold, blue, and kennebec online from Johnnys. I followed your advice from older posts and cut and cured them before planting. They are now sending green shoots up, and I'll start hilling them soon. Very exciting!

  3. 3

    Eric says

    May 15, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Great slideshow! All my potatoes are planted now.

  4. 4

    Adele says

    May 16, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    Loved the slideshow. Lots of great tips there.

  5. 5

    martha says

    May 16, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    hi kevin, happy monday! i loved the spud slideshow, thanks. i have mine in a raised planter and they are growing fast. regarding the top dressings you find suitable… do you think i could make use of the pine shavings that line our new baby chicks brooder box? i have been adding the soiled shavings to the compost but the large volume would be plenty to top up my spud hills if you think this would be a benefit?
    ok, next question… have you ever tried to germinate and grow the potato seed from the aerial fruit?

  6. 6

    Kevin Lee Jacobs says

    May 17, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Good to hear from you, Martha!

    I would not use the soiled pine shavings until they have composted for at least 6-9 months. Why? Because they are too nitrogen-rich.

    Regarding aerial potato-fruits: Unless I'm mistaken, these are baby potatoes growing on stolons (stems) that did not get hilled with soil or straw. The little potatoes are green, of course, because have been exposed to light. I don't think they have enough life-force in them to form sprouts.

    Sounds like you are adjusting well to west coast gardening! Have you planted your amaranth crop yet?

  7. 7

    martha says

    May 18, 2011 at 5:17 am

    hi kevin, the west coast garden is treating us so very well, i love it. we had artichokes, asparagus and peas with dinner tonight, all from the yard.
    i havent started any amaranth yet, i thought i would wait to see how many volunteers i got. sure enough there are a bunch of them coming up from last years seeds.
    i know the uncovered green potatoes you are talking about, this is a different thing.
    the fruits on the potato are up where the flowering occurs, they look like tiny green tomatoes(do not eat these either). my curiosity got me and i had to cut one open last year. they look just like tomatoes on the inside too. at first i wondered if the two nightshades had produced a pomato or something, as the 'maters in my garden were close by.
    it turns out these are called true potato seed and are used to breed and engineer varieties. the big seed repository in europe (is it norway?)stores these to safeguard the diversity of the earths potatoes, they dont keep potato eyes. perhaps the spud chunks we plant and call seed potatoes are only really a place to store the plants energy, to see that the aerial seed develops and becomes viable. cut the fruit when the plant is quite mature, split open and drop the halves in a small glass of water. within a couple of days the tiny seeds will separate from the pulp. …and so this is where i asked if you had used those seeds to germinate or grow from, lol, we have come to the end of our tour.

    thanks for clearing that up about the shavings, i should have known that. they will all go to the compost now.

  8. 8

    Kevin Lee Jacobs says

    May 18, 2011 at 11:06 am

    martha – thanks for the potato-“true-seed”-lesson. Of course when I'd notice these laying on the ground at harvest time, I'd think “damn, I didn't hill high enough!” But these are the seed pods the flowers produce. I've read these seeds do not come true to the parent plant. But it would be fun to grow them some year, and find out what kind of potato develops.

  9. 9

    Patty says

    July 26, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Last week one of my potted potato plants withered so I harvested the pot. It was fun unearthing the goodies! Photos:
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2214784617814.135038.1493520134&l=c17ecc3671&type=1
    video too:
    http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=VvH6bK3Nqkg
    I still have some in a pot, in bags, and in the ground. Is it too late to make the hills on the ones on the ground?

  10. 10

    Kevin Lee Jacobs says

    July 26, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Patty – congratulations! I saw the FB photos. Unfortunately Youtube couldn't locate the video. Is the link broken, perhaps?

    Regarding hilling: do this before the potato vines flower. After flowering, the plants do not benefit from hilling.

  11. 11

    Patty says

    July 27, 2011 at 2:03 am

    I don't know why the link doesn't work. Here is the link to my channel. It is the first video:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/musziklovr?feature=mhee

    Have you grown sweet potatoes? I wonder if a crop would grow the rest of this year in zone 5.

  12. 12

    Kevin Lee Jacobs says

    July 27, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    Patty – this link worked. What beautiful red “spuds” from just one pot!

    I don't have any experience with sweet potatoes…yet.

  13. 13

    susan says

    June 20, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    Question: I have grown potatoes in straw and hay before but have never tried ‘pine shavings. Will they grow or are pine shavings too acidic?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Get my new cookbook!

Buy The Book

RETURN TO TOP
COPYRIGHT© 2009–2023 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | KEVIN LEE JACOBS