Planting Seed Potatoes
For years we've been growing our own potatoes. Although we've been getting decent harvests out of a single raised bed for a family of 3, we recently learned that by "hilling" the potato plants we could yield even more potatoes. Start with quality seed potatoes. We ordered ours from Wood Prarie Farm, a family farm, located in Maine. Today, I planted out a 1/2 raised bed of Butte organic potatoes. They were planted in a trench about 6 inches deep. We don't have a lot of space to plant them 12 inches apart so they were placed 4-6-inches apart. The trench was then partially filled in with 1-inch of soil to cover the potato pieces. As the potatoes grow, the soil will be filled in a few times until it is mounded - called "hilling."
Before planting, the potatoes were cut in half leaving eye(s) in each chunk. This is another step that we've never done in the past. We've always planted the whole potato thinking that is what you were supposed to do. It worked for us, but for an even greater yield this time we are cutting the seed potatoes first as shown in the below video.
Check back in about 4-weeks or so for follow-up photos of our hilling process. We have to wait until the plants grow to at least 5-6-inches tall.
I found this gardening video helpful on how to plant seed potatoes:
Related Links
Wood Prairie Farm Organic Potato Growing Guide
Photos and blog post Copyright (C) 2014 Wind. All rights reserved.
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