Potatoes - Hill or no?

Auggie

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Potatoes can be cheap but nothing like a fresh potatoe in August. They taste a lot different than store bought.

Lbrandt:
Dad's last team of horses went in around 1950 and he bought a S Case tractor. Same here with the revamping. Use to get a nickel for every big potatoe bug and one cent for the little red ones. db-2

New potatoes so good because they haven't been killed and the skins haven't set. Storage also impacts the taste of a spud. Best potatoes on the planet are Pontiacs. Dark Red Norlans are a really early variety. We usually have new potatoes by 4th of July.
 


Maddog

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Here's my two cents worth. We plant them after Memorial Day with the rest of the garden so it is after the last frost. Garden tilled and soil fairly dry. Potato rows on roughly 30" centers so can run the tiller between rows with the outer set of tiller tines removed if desired before hilling. Plant by cutting seed potatoes in 1/2 such that both sides have at least one eye. Planted cut side down. Row has a baler twine marker (staked at both ends) to keep the row straight. One person with a hoe digs a shallow pocket for each planting. Pocket roughly 4" deep and spaced say 12" or so. Another person goes behind and places one potato half in each pocket and then walks up and down each row scattering fertilizer 10-10-10 by hand down the row center. Then go back with the hoe and cover up the potato. After the potato plant has sprouted we would then go back and hill the potatoes by hand with a hoe. Taking dirt from each side of the row and mounding it up over the sprouted potato not totally covering the green, potato plant. Height of hill a good 8-10" or so. Sometimes we would go back and hill even higher after the plant gets taller. Good luck. Like my Mom just said, there is nothing like fresh potatoes from the garden. There is no comparison to store bought potatoes. We would dig anytime after the potato plant would die. And we never watered our potatoes, they aren't like other vegetables (say a tomato plant) as they don't need a lot of water to grow. You need the hill for the potatoes to grow, you also don't want any to exposed to the sun as those will turn greenish in color and be bitter tasting. After digging and if you wash them, do NOT dry them in the sun. That is what will cause them to have a bitter taste too. We always dried ours in the shade and then stored them in a potato sack in a cool, dry area.

- - - Updated - - -

Those Late July or August fresh dug potatoes that are hard as rocks are the best. Nothing else comes close. The small B size cleaned up and boiled then mashed with the skin on is pure heaven. Store bought softies don't come close for taste and texture. I know if I put the pencil to it figuring in time spent and such I could buy instore a lot cheaper but taste and satisfaction of growing it your self outweighs the convenience. LB

Spot on!!
 
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WormWiggler

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I see a few poking through, cut side was up on all, depth 7-8", I will hill a bit. Plan for next year, still 8" deep, but only cover to 4" additionally and then bring to grade and eventually hill. And cut side down next year.
 

Maddog

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I see a few poking through, cut side was up on all, depth 7-8", I will hill a bit. Plan for next year, still 8" deep, but only cover to 4" additionally and then bring to grade and eventually hill. And cut side down next year.

I wrote what I learned from my parents who learned from my grandparents. "We" have been doing it this way for over 100 years. Not at all saying it is the only way. Just the way we do it. Good luck! There really isn't a lot of "hard" labor in potatoes. There is no rush to dig them up.

The roots grow from the cut side. Thus why it is down. The vine/green portion grows from the non-cut side. Thus why it is up. : )
 

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