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hudson___wy

kennebec Potatoes

hudson___wy
9 years ago

We dug up a few Kennebec Potatoes today and were pleased with the size! We have planted Yukon Gold in the past and wanted to compare.

{{gwi:109241}}

Comments (42)

  • calliope
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have good results with Kennebec as well. I like to grow russets, but finding them in seed locally is harder than finding Kennebec. I did mostly Kennebec this year and had a decent harvest, and was pleased with how well they were shaped considering we have heavier clay soil than potatoes like.

  • hudson___wy
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I would like to try some russet potato seed - we live next (two hour drive) to the russet capitol of the world - Idaho. I suppose I could find a potato farmer that would sell me a sack of seed potato but if anyone knows a source for russet seed - would you please share - Thanks!

    We haven't eaten any Kennebec yet - but hope they taste and have texture more like the russets! The Yukon Gold are good - but to pasty/gummy - not as fluffy like a russet - IMO

    We planted some Yukon Gold too

    {{gwi:18516}}

  • calliope
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, I'll be the second person who says that Yukon Golds are gummy. I grew them one year just to try them.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hudson, Fedco sells Russet potato seeds.
    They also sell Katahdin, which is similar to Kenebec in its ancestry but I think the Katahdins taste much better.
    But if you want the very best fluffy, flaky baking potato in the world, I say it's Green Mountain.

    Yukon Gold gummy? Bah! I love them :)

  • Deeby
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Elisa can't join our club !

  • hudson___wy
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Elisa - thanks for the info! Gummy when compared to russets - must be our altitude - not that hard to notice - at least with mashed potatoes! Just ask calliope - I'm not the only one who thinks they are gummy !!

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ha! No club membership for me.
    However, I am an esteemed member of the I Hate Cilantro club.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cilantro: the most offensive food known to man

  • Deeby
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Cilantro haters unite ! Elisa is now my BFF !

  • spartan-apple
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Greetings:

    I do not grow Kennebec but I do grow 'Superior'. It is an early white potato developed many years ago by UW-Madison. Since I did an internship on potato research during my college years there, I am partial to that variety.

    Available from Jung Seed Co in Randolph WI. Boils up nice and had a very nice flavor mashed.

  • hudson___wy
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the info spartan! You don't grow Kennebec - but have you cooked them enough to give us a comparison between Kennebec & Superior? Has anyone else grown both and willing to give us your opinion?

    HERE IS THE WRITE-UP IN THE JUNG CATALOG - KENNEBEC:
    Our most popular potato. This widely grown main crop potato produces excellent yields of large, thin-skinned, oval tubers with white flesh that is dry and flavorful. Cooks and bakes wonderfully and is one of the best for winter storage. Good blight resistance. A late midseason variety.

    HERE IS THE WRITE-UP IN THE JUNG CATALOG - SUPERIOR:
    Long-keeping early white potato. Developed by the University of Wisconsin Superior. Matures early and gives high yields of good size, oval shaped, smooth potatoes with shallow eyes. Bakes and cooks well.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hudson, your potatoes look very nice.

    Yukons are my favorite for food use, have never experienced the pastiness or gumminess mentioned previously. I find productivity to be very poor, however, and I am open to finding a suitable replacement for that reason. Kennebecs and Norlands are my other two mainstay varieties and usually have decent production. Have never tried Superior, sounds interesting to me but not interesting enough for me to replace Kennebec.

    This year weather issues adversely affected my yields of Yukon, Kennebec, Norland, Red Cloud, and Russet Burbank, but I still got decent yields of German Butterball, Carola, and Banana fingerling. I got excellent yields of Irish Cobbler, Red Gold, and Rose Finn Apple fingerling, but that was mainly because the garden in which those varieties were planted never flooded back in June like the other gardens did.

    For fun I tried growing the baby blues (blue skin, white flesh). I did not expect to be impressed, and I was not disappointed. Still want to try Purple Viking.

    My main potato experiment next year will be to do some growouts using true potato seed I harvested this year. Should be interesting and fun to see the results.

    Hudson always wants to see more pics from other people so here is a pic of my Red Golds. Red Gold plants had very good production of consistently average/large but not huge potatoes. The Red Gold production saved my skin this year. :-)

    -Tom

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is the yield of Red Golds from one 50 foot row. Did not count how many plants but I spaced them around 2 feet so that should mean 26 plants. I planted four 50 foot rows, 200 linear feet total of this variety. I do not know how this yield compares to what other people get, but it is very good for around here considering soil type and alkalinity.

  • bart1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    For a great seed potato source, try DeBruyn Seed Co. (link below). The prices blow away Seed Savers or Johnnys or any other place I've found (other than local stores where you don't have to pay shipping charges).

    They also have amazing prices on asparagus crowns

    Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Potatoes & Asparagus

  • hudson___wy
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nice harvest Soilent! It appears Red Gold & Yukon Gold make a great dish - together! Your harvest is similar to mine when compared to Yukon Gold and Kennebec - for what that is worth. Our Kennenbec had larger sized potatoes but the harvest was about the same as our Yukon Golds. The Yukons Golds were a little bit more uniform in size than our Kennebec. Your photo of your Red Gold look similar in size to our Yukon Gold harvest. Thanks for sharing your photos!! You know what they say - a photo is worth a 1,000 words!

    I am always amazed with how many varieties of vegetables (in this case potatoes) there are and how many I have never tried. It seems I get in a rut often and just keep planting the same variety over and over again without considering other options - this forum helps big time in that respect - especially with photos! haha

    Thanks for the source option for seed potatoes Bart!

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I grow Butte, a russet variety that I love the flavor and texture of, from Wood Prairie Farm in northern ME. They do great for me, and produce well, but I have read that in areas without my acid soil they are more likely to have scab issues. I use the Buttes for baking and mashed.

    This year I grew Yukon Gold, which are low producers for me, and Yukon Gem, another yellow potato which we haven't tasted yet, but which produced more than the Yukon Gold. My favorite yellow potatoes are Yellow Finn, which produce well and keep until March in the root cellar, but which aren't as smooth and regular in shape as the Yukon Gold and Yukon Gem.

    My favorite potatoes for potato salad, roasting, and chunks in beef stew are Russian Bananas, a yellow fingerling potato, though they are fairly evenly split between finger-sized and banana-sized. They are waxy in texture, so hold together well over long cooking, but are awful for mashed potatoes or vichyssoise because they are too sticky. I got an enormous amount of these from a ~25' row.

    I only grew Kennebec one year since for me the flavor wasn't particularly interesting compared to the Buttes and Yellow Finns. All of my potatoes keep well, at least into February, and most are edible into March. Many years I can replant from my previous year's crop leftovers.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "Our Kennenbec had larger sized potatoes but the harvest was about the same as our Yukon Golds." - Now see, that is what I do not understand. I have heard that stated from others as well but in a good year I average 2-3 nice sized potatoes along with a couple of marbles under my Yukon Gold hills. My Kennebecs and Norland Reds consistently produce double that amount. The only reason I put up with that poor yield is because I love the Yukon Golds. My solution was simply to plant twice as much as Kennebecs and Norlands, although every spring during planting time I grumble and grouse to myself about having to do this.

    "It seems I get in a rut often and just keep planting the same variety over and over again without considering other options..." - I do not think I would call it a rut if you have found varieties of which you are satisfied and that consistently produce well for you - I would call that success.

    I grew only my mainstay varieties of Yukon Gold, Kennebec White, Norland Red, and Russet Burbank for twenty plus years. The reason they became my mainstays is the simple fact that seed potatoes for these varieties are all that is ever offered at the local fleet supply store, and the seed is dirt cheap ($0.49/pound for years but price went up last year). No surprise to me that they are so commonly available as they are very reliable varieties for gardeners of any experience level. I started growing other varieties simply out of curiosity. At this point I have learned enough to start seeking the longest season varieties I can grow up here, in order to mitigate storage issues so I can better maintain my own seed stock of my less common varieties for replanting.

    I really dislike purchasing seed potatoes via mail order, mainly due to higher prices plus the added expense of shipping costs. Unfortunately it is the only way to acquire less common varieties so I grudgingly accept having to go this route. I am hoping my true potato seed experiments will open some new windows for me. Time will tell.

    I may as well give them a plug: Red Cloud, Red Gold, German Butterball, Irish Cobbler, and Carola were acquired from Ronniger's Potato Garden. They are a bit on the high side cost wise but they have an impressive selection and offer a hard copy catalog by request that contains a lot of good information. They sent me smallish but good quality stock. I have to say I was very disappointed with the first year's harvest from their seed. I saved every last potato harvested that year and used them all for seed stock for next season and got nice harvests. Bottom line is that I will not hesitate to order from them again knowing that I will likely have to expect a two year grow out, which is not that big of an issue to me. I noticed that they carry Green Mountain which I am really interested in now for the variety's storeability as well as its history.

    -Tom

  • sweetquietplace
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm with you, nhbabs...I love Buttes! Strong performance, great yields, high protein and vitamin C. Yummy taste. If you like to eat the skins, IditaRed bakes well and has a thick skin...nice and chewy. Next spring I'll put out a few Bake Kings (Green Mountain x Merrimack) just to try.

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I got Canela last year from Ronniger's and was disappointed with the size of the tubers, as I was growing these for bakers. Because my order for this year got messed up, I planted the leftover egg-sized, sprouting Canelas in April. Got a lot of nice baker-sized potatoes from that unpromising seed.

    I also got some nice, good-sized tubers from a few French Fingerlings from the supermarket, planted as an experiment. Maybe potato farmers need to buy certified seed potatoes, but I'm becoming convinced that it's not always necessary for gardeners, especially with the high shipping cost.

    Still looking for a good early waxy potato for summer potato salad. Norland is early but not at all firm when boiled. Russian Banana is the right texture but not early. Ronnigers is claiming that Peanut is early, but I don't believe it.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A selection of atypically oversize Irish Cobbler potatoes.

  • hudson___wy
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tom - that was a great hill of Irish Cobbler Potatoes!! I have never had a single plant that productive! Thanks for sharing your photos and success - now I am really confused - there appears to be sooooo many good potato variety options to try - including Buttes and Cobbler. Guess we will stay in the rut (success) and continue to plant a couple of new varieties each year for comparison.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is so amazing to me that I have trouble believing it myself, and the photo does not do the potatoes justice. Yesterday I dug up only one hill of Norlands, the end hill in the remaining half row, and got what is shown in the photo. Total weight is a bit over 11 pounds. The potatoes just kept spilling out of the hole. I knew it would be a good hill because it was a huge plant and I watched it grow all summer. Best hill of potatoes I have ever had in my lifetime, and it occurred in one of my worst potato years and the worst growing season in general that I have ever experienced. Go figure. I thought perhaps I accidentally threw in two seeds at planting time, but I doubt it as I am a very careful planter. Also, in my mind two plants growing so close together would have competed and produced fewer smaller spuds. I sure wish all my hills could produce like this, would make life a lot easier for me.

    I also got two high yield hills of Red Cloud. One hill yielded 19 potatoes, 6.25 pounds total weight, the other one yielded 22 potatoes, 5.50 pounds total weight.

    Now, here is the back story: All my oversize potatoes and high yield hills this year and last year came from a twelve foot square section of one garden. I have been trying to figure out why and then I remembered that back in the 1990s I had a pile in that location consisting of half-century old chicken manure/hay/straw mix from cleaning out the old barn. The pile sat there for around 5-6 years until I got tired of looking at it and finally spread it around the garden. Only thing I can think of is that lots of nutrients seeped into the ground where that pile sat and the empowered soil is producing this bounty of potatoes. If that is indeed the correct explanation, then I sure wish I had enough of that old stuff to cover an entire garden two or three feet deep and then let that garden sit idle for five years. It would be big money to do that today being that chicken producers around here know there is a big demand for their "byproduct".

    Did not get the potato harvest finished yesterday because my creaky old back finally gave out on me. Had a good run, I averaged digging 75 hills a day for four days straight. Raining today, missed my golden opportunity to be done with the project. :-(

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Those are big Norlands! Did you plant them late to be harvesting now? I pulled mine 6 weeks ago.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Okay, that does it.
    I'm starting a new thread so that you amazing potato growers can share your methods and secrets. (though the half century old chicken manure will be hard to replicate . . .)

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Some of the more unusual Rose Finn Apple fingerling potatoes that I harvested.

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    soilent - it was the Norlands I harvested earlier. I dug the later varieties in Sept.

    We were having heavy rain, and the Norlands were starting to rot. But I'd already picked a lot of them for summer new potatoes, which is what I plant them for. I don't really want to store them.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "It was the Norlands I harvested earlier. I dug the later varieties in Sept." - Oh, I see. Just out of curiosity, what is your normal spring planting time for potatoes in your zone 5 - is it early April? If other folks want to post when they normally plant their seed potatoes that would be fun to learn about, and perhaps be helpful for folks in your area/zone who might be new to gardening or planting potatoes.

    Old gardeners around here still declare that they always plant their potatoes on Easter weekend. I do not buy it, I think it is a gardening myth. This is completely illogical to me because Easter's occurrence is so variable from year to year and is totally irrelevant to seasonal fluctuations and soil conditions. My simple planting schedule is the third week of April at the earliest or when soil conditions are conducive to it being worked and safely walked on without compacting.

    "We were having heavy rain, and the Norlands were starting to rot. But I'd already picked a lot of them for summer new potatoes, which is what I plant them for. I don't really want to store them." - I know that varieties such as Norland Reds and Pontiac Reds are not considered long storage varieties. My parents taught me to always use the red potatoes first because they do not keep well, but in practice I have never really had too much trouble keeping them in storage. As you, the Norlands are what I harvest for fresh summer eating.

    Funny thing is that all my potato varieties start to sprout in storage around the third week of March, whether they are long storage varieties or not and no matter what I do to delay it from happening so early. They all sprout, incorrectly, like clockwork a couple of weeks before planting time. If only I could get just a two week delay in this occurring, but I have not been successful with my methods so far. Not the end of the world, I just plant the sprouters very carefully starting with the most-sprouted varieties first.

    I had lots of flooding and pooling/saturation here last June, adversely affected most of my gardens. One of those gardens had my main plantings of purchased seed of Yukon Golds, Kennebec Whites, and Norland Reds. The Norlands all rotted before the plants had even dried down completely. Got nothing from those hills but a stench when I turned over the soil. Very disheartening but I was not the least bit surprised. The Kennebecs next to them averaged one or two keepers per hill and the rest were rotted. The Yukons gave me at best one decent tuber per hill and the rest were rotted. Any decent hills of these varieties that I did get were backups using old sprouters I had planted in another garden that did not flood out as badly. Even in that garden around a third of the planting was damaged due to a low spot where water kept pooling on the saturated soil.

    -Tom

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tom - this is the interesting part. What I do with the summer potatoes is plant them around the edges of the bed, so I can reach in and rob them during the season. This year, the fingerlings were in the interior.

    As I was pulling the Norlands and noticing some rot, I checked the nearby fingerlings and found them sound, so I left them be.
    Sure enough, no rot on the fingerlings when I pulled them, nor on the russets in the next patch over.

    As for timing, I try for the first of April, but weather can change all plans.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tom and ltilton -- with your planting schedules, and your respective zones, don't your potato plants freeze and have to start over several times?

    I'm in zone 5 and normally plant one row in mid April, but cover with fleece. Then I plant the rest of my potatoes in late May. Maybe that is why I get low yields some years, because I plant later? But I figure planting later is better than planting earlier and having them all freeze and start over, no?

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well elisa_Z5, you asked for it. LOL

    IN MY LOCATION, the mean last frost date for all three categories of frost (light, moderate, severe) is May 06. 98 percent of the absolute last frosts on record have occurred on or before May 14. The mean last frost dates for moderate (25 degrees to 28 degrees) or severe freezes (24 degrees and colder) are even earlier. The point is, by the time I am planting (hopefully the third week of April) the chances of damaging frost occurring is diminishing rapidly. Take into account that it will take at least a week, if not two, for potato growth to start showing and you can see that there is not much of a frost threat to the plants. Lastly, take into account that young potato plants are surprisingly hardy and can take a light frost with minimal damage, and you can see that by my planting schedule there is actually minimal risk of loss from frosts.

    If I were to plant potatoes any earlier (if it is even possible around here), the chance of frost damage coming into play increases beyond my comfort level. At the other end my goal is to never plant potatoes later than May 07, because after that date I need to be sowing so many of the other vegetable types.

    Of course the timing is ultimately up to Mother Nature. This year I still had some snow on the ground going into the third week of April, which is pretty late for around here but not unheard of. I started planting potatoes in the fourth week but did the bulk of them in the first week of May. No frost events occurred here after the third week of April. That too is unusual but not unheard of.

    All the aforementioned being said, I have on occasion had potato plants nipped by frost, but I have never suffered any serious consequences regarding reduced yield that I can recall. I have never in my 30 plus years of gardening covered any potato plants to protect them. Do not know if it is really relevant or not, but I never mulch potato beds either. I guess a person could put down straw for added protection against a late frost, but I admit I do not see the value in doing so.

    The point I am trying to make is this: Regarding when the correct time is to plant potatoes in your area, know your local frost data. Knowing this information will increase your confidence level by taking out any guesswork, which will then diminish your chances of failure. Those frost charts are critical to me and all my garden planting is scheduled based on this data. Of course after so many years of gardening I know when to plant out or sow all the vegetable types without having to reference the charts anymore.

    Frost charts for locations in your state should be available through state university extension websites or through NOAA or NWS government websites. In my opinion the charts are better than using websites that allow you to just enter your zip code.

    Lastly, in my humble opinion, being that you are in zone 5 you should be planting earlier than what you stated in your post. Your first planting date sounds ok but late May for the rest does not sound right at all to me.

    For a couple of years I experimented with delaying planting of some test rows in order to delay harvest, which would conceivably allow the potatoes to store farther through winter. Was a failure - got reduced yields, more bug issues with the plants, poor storage of tubers. The simple solution was to plant at the normal time and use some longer season varieties.

    Hope this helps,
    -Tom

    This post was edited by soilent_green on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 1:28

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tom gives excellent advice, particularly the reminder that potato sprouts take time to break out of the soil, where they should be protected from frost. In addition, I'm a straw potato grower, so mine are covered from planting time.

    Still, I keep an eye on the longrange forecasts before putting seed into the ground. I also make constant use of of soil thermometer in the spring, because planting in too-cold soil can bring problems.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, I really like the idea of better yields from earlier planting. Maybe keeping an eye on the long range forecast would help . . .

    Most years my April planted potatoes get frozen at least once and start over, and last year my April plantings froze to the ground in late May when we had three nights in a row of moderate frost. That's why I covered my April row this year. Harrumph. Sounds like my zone 5 is more dangerous for potatoes than your zone 4!

    Yeah -- and my zip code is about 2K feet lower than my house!

    Okay, but long range forecast from NWS and hopefully an early to mid May planting with protective mulch . . . sounds like a plan.

    Thank you both for the detailed answers!
    I will leave no stone unturned in my quest for better potato yields :)

  • ltilton
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It's true - not all of a zone is created equal.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yeah, what seems straightforward to me might not be for someone else. Of course the opposite is true as well.

    elisa_Z5, something still does not make sense to me. I am curious and would like to know what the mean last frost date is for your area. Have you found that information? Those mean last frost dates vary wildly within plant hardiness zones. For example, my sister is in the same zone as me, lives 80 miles away, and has a mean last frost date one week earlier than I do. In fact, I find the mean last frost dates far more valuable than plant hardiness zones. Those zones just tend to confuse people because they really have nothing to do with planting dates for garden vegetables. For all we know you might have a later plant date than I or ltilton have.

    Something else to consider is that good and bad microclimates often affect gardens. Your garden might be unusually susceptible to frost damage in its current location.

    If you have to cover your young potato plants on occasion then so be it. It may be annoying to have to do but perhaps it is just something that has to be expected.

    And who knows, maybe it was simply one of the bad years for potatoes in your area and the cycle will now work in your favor for a few years.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My original post about this should have read: I normally plan one row in April, and from now on I'm going to cover it :)

    Very interesting about the mean (I found median, however) last frost dates. There is so much up and down the mountain, and of course the little town we are closest to doesn't have a station, but I compared three places that are most similar to us in elevation, and got median last frost dates of May 26, May 28, and May 22nd. Sometimes the ridges freeze, and sometimes the hollows freeze . . . we are somewhere between the ridges and hollows.

    This has been a very interesting!

    It would be wonderful if this was just an off year--I like that thought.
    From what I planted I should have gotten close to 200 lbs, and only got a little over 100 lbs. It'll be all about the brown rice and pasta this year! At least it was a great pesto year.

  • soilent_green
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    elisa_Z5, it sounds like you live in some interesting topography. Kind of explains why you might have some tricky gardening issues. I have been a flatlander all my life so perhaps I am not the one to be giving you advice. ;-)

    Mean/Median - I often get my terminology screwed up, I would not be surprised if I used the wrong word.

    Okay, so you found some dates that you feel are applicable. Your personal gardening experiences should be able to guide you on which date to set in your mind. As an example, lets take the date right in the middle - May 25. I try to plant my potatoes three weeks before my median last frost date, depending on seasonal variations. Whatever the seasonal conditions are, I definitely plant sometime in the three weeks preceding that date, no later (but I would if I had to versus skipping planting altogether). If you were to follow what I do that would put you in the planting range from May 04 to May 25. So it sounds to me like April plantings for you are too early or at the least, risky.

    Being that you have a mountain climate, I have to assume you have a fairly tight growing season which, for warm weather vegetable types (frost tender), is the total number of days between your absolute last frost date in spring and absolute first frost date in fall. If you are not risk-averse, you could figure a longer season length by using the total number of days between your spring and fall median frost dates (but I guarantee eventually you will pay the price). For potatoes specifically, I would figure that the safe growing season length is the total of days between those median last and first frost dates. All this stuff is important information that you should know in order to select the correct planting dates and to be able to choose correct vegetable varieties and types for your local climate.

    A potential yield booster would be to choose correct potato varieties for your season length. There is nothing wrong with having an earlier finisher for fresh summer eating but you should also have some longer season varieties that should get higher yields simply because they have more time to grow. You do not want to use varieties that overshoot your season length or they might still be growing when fall frost occurs. Admittedly this is unlikely in the case of potatoes, but it is not impossible. This year we had an early light frost when some of my long season Rose Finn Apple fingerlings still had green foliage on them.

    The point is that you want to use your growing season to its fullest potential, and knowing all this data is how to do it. :-)

    I forgot to mention that a very important aid is to talk to local gardeners about when they plant and what varieties, especially any older folks who might have been gardening for many years in your area - might be a source of some valuable information. NOTHING beats local knowledge.

    Good Luck!
    -Tom

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    1 plant of Butte and one of Russian Banana, the first I harvested of each. The flat is 10" wide to give a size idea for the potatoes.

    I plant usually about 3 weeks before the last average frost date, though in a warm spring I may plant as soon as early April with a last average frost mid May. I dig about six inches down and plant potatoes that I have green sprouted, and then cover with about 2" of soil. I backfill against the stems but don't cover leaves as they sprout. I haven't had hard enough spring frosts to damage my plants, perhaps because they are surrounded by soil(?).

  • bart1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm not sure if this is off topic or not but something I read upthread made me want to post it.

    For the past few years I've been planting my potatoes in the spring like normal, but I always buy more seed potatoes than I intend to plant.

    I keep the unplanted ones in paper bags (and then in a cardboard box - for better keeping) in the 'fridge.

    In early August I plant a fall crop of potatoes (this year I did a second one a few weeks later). For my area, planting in August gives the plants enough time to grow and die back before the frost. When the frost comes and/or the tops die, I cover the hills with straw or grass clippings or whatever I have around (fall leaves, obviously).

    The potatoes keep perfectly fine until whenever you want to dig them up. And I mean perfectly!

    I had a former coworker visit me early last spring (he's an old redneck (I mean that in a good way) who used to do a lot of farming and thinks of me as some city slicker who has never used a shovel!) anyhow.............he mentioned he had to go to the store and get some potatoes before he went back home and I told him we could dig some up. This was probably early March and naturally he looked at me like I was crazy and started telling me "you plant potatoes now, not dig them up!" This kept up until I dug up a half dozen perfect looking potatoes......no scab, no blemishes, no nothing. Then he just about went into shock and spent the rest of the visit telling me he could believe it and "I can't wait to show the old lady, she won't believe it either!"

    This post got long.............but the point is, no matter where you are, you can probably get a fall crop planted that will keep well over the winter. And we had the coldest winter since I've been growing here (8 years, and -3 degrees). People in MN will laugh at that, but it still may be worth a try!

    Bart

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks again, folks, for the specific info and ideas.

    Tom -- Thanks for all the math/dates info. Am going to go for earlier, but still safe, planting.
    The locals all plant Kennebec potatoes (in late May). I planted them the 1st year (had good production) but got interested in other types, and liked the taste better. I may have to go back to what grows well here instead of messing around with all these new fangled types! (Carola, Green Mountain, Katahdin, Yukon Gold, Yukon Red Gold)

    nhbabs -- I am going to consider the "recessed" plant idea. Must be good frost protection. (impressive potatoes you've got!)

    Bart -- I actually have a friend near here who leaves his potatoes in the ground all winter, and it works. I think mine would be gone by spring -- vole winter food!

  • bart1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I leave my spring potatoes in the ground all summer and dig them up as needed. I'll put them all out in Nov or Dec before the ground freezes solid.

    I leave the fall potatoes in the ground all winter.

    Last year I had a lot of voles in the garden for the first time and lost some Irish potatoes and ton of Sweet Potatoes. This year, there doesn't seem to be any in the garden. But I also got a little more aggressive in controlling them this year too.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    bart, how did you control them? (the voles)

  • tracydr
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Zones have nothing to do with average first and last frosts or summertime weather. They are simply based on the coldest temperatures seen in that area. For example, some of the Pacific Northwest is in zone 8, which is the same zone as parts of Florida. Obviously, the climate is far different in the PNW as in Florida.

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