Potatoes in the garden

[carebear]

Hi all, I have a garden question. Last fall I harvested my potatoes and put some of them in a box til 'later', of course I forgot about them, and when I opened up the box yesterday, I saw they'd sprouted, of course. Well, the sprouts are about 2 feet long lol, and they have little nodules all up the sprout, I am guessing these are where the potatoes sprout out from. Do you think I could plant the whole long thing, and not have to 'hill' them?

 

[TerriG]

Should be able to. If there is more than one plant growing off of it, you can cut the potato up so that eat part has an eye or sprout. We usually planted around Memorial weekend when I lived in Kent. Not sure if they will hold until then.

 

[carebear]

Hmm...it is warming up so nice, I'm tempted to throw them out in the potatoe bags. Of course, then it would freeze the next day lol!

 

[AnnClaire]

I would suggest that you dig a hole deep enough for the sprout, and wide enough for the taters to grow in loose soil, backfill, and if you have a nice compost pile, dump a good topping of the compost on top. If it freezes, the compost will keep the sprouts nice and warm. Or, if you have enough plastic jugs, cut the bottoms out and use them as cloches over the top of the sprouts ... it will give them a jump start on the growing season, and when they get too big for the milk jugs, they should be large enough to survive any short term frost.

 

[carebear]

I have these nifty things called potato bags, made from the same stuff as a those upside down tomato hanging things. The bags have overlapping slits in the sides, allowing the potatoes to be harvested from the bottom without disturbing the top. They live on my back porch, because space is an issue, so they are somewhat protected from the elements. I put plastic garbage bags over them when I harvested to keep the soil dry-ish for this year, so it should be nice and loose...hopefully. I suppose I could put them out there and if they freeze I'm not out anything really, and I can still go down to Carpinito Bros and pick up some seed potatoes. My compost pile is very sad. It has mold. Eventually it should get there, if the chickens don't spread it all over creation. I've never seen animals more suited to making a glorious mess of everything. They even managed to 'backfill' the lawn from the mulch under the lilac bushes, saved me from having to do it!
Anyway, I can keep the bags covered in case of frost, that's a good idea, thanks! I'm really hoping the nodules I'm seeing on the sprouts are where the potato sends out its tendrils, cuz if I don't have to hill these guys I will be thrilled!

 

[TerriG]

*sigh* I miss Carpinto's.

 

[carebear]

I know huh! I will take pics for you next time I go One year after they had closed they had a bin full of free pattypan squash. We ate a lot of squash that year....