Garden, Plant, Cook!

Monday, December 14, 2009

New Year's Day - Plant Potatoes!

Dear Folks,

My New Year's Day tradition is to plant potatoes, below is a collage of how we set this up in a raised bed.


This is the easiest way to plant potatoes for easy harvesting. Some folks have also used chicken wire tubes or old tires. Any of these concepts work okay.

You can try your hand at potato growing with store bought potatoes which are trying to sprout or have 'eyes' projecting out. Cut the potato into sections with 2-3 eyes per section, let dry on the counter for a couple of days and plant on January 1st. (In the picture you are seeing the 'seed potatoes' I save in my crisper drawer from the prior season growing.)

The most important thing to understand is that the growing potatoes must be covered at all times. Solanine is a toxic chemical reaction to sun light turning the skin of potatoes green and it CANNOT be cooked out.

Continue covering the potatoes as they grow to the depth of the raised container. Plan on harvesting in late Spring.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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1 comment:

school_junque said...

It is past New Year's Day, but I understand that at our elevation of 4000 feet in Arizona, I can plant potatoes in February or March when danger of hard frost is over. Would you recommend panting potatoes in a raised bed made of 3 or 4 old tires? I have seen this done. How many "eyes" would I plant in a bed the size of a tire?