How To Grow Potatoes!!
May 24, 2012 in Gardening For Food, Just Talking, Self Sufficiency, slide show self sufficient, Vegetable Gardening by Cathy
Growing potatoes is a very FUN, EASY and REWARDING crop to grow!
If you have never grown anything before, potatoes are the best place to start! They require little care, multiply like crazy and they provide a wonderful treasure hunt come Autumn.
Don’t worry about manure or fertilizers. In fact, adding manure can have negative results with your potatoes. It’s been our experience that the best potatoes grow in soil that grew grass the previous year… AWESOME!
You want to get certified seed potatoes from your local nursery. NEVER try to grow potatoes from the grocery store. Most are sprayed with a chemical to stop the potatoes from sprouting and won’t work (another reason to grow your own). You may, however, keep some potatoes from your own harvest to save for seed potatoes for next year so you will NEVER have to pay for potatoes again. FREE FOOD!!!!
YIPEEEEEE!!!
There are so many varieties!! I love “Russian Blue” and “All Reds” because they are so fun to put in a potato salad. Click HERE to see the ones I grew last year. 
Choose “Yukon Gold” for the ultimate mashed potatoes, “Russet” or “Kennebec” for a fantastic baked potato. The sky is the limit! I try new varieties every year but these 5 I always grow year after year.
Now….look at your potato. You will see “eyes” or sprouts. Some of them will be small so look carefully. Cut the potato into chunks with each chunk having at least 2 “eyes”.
I’M LOOKING AT YOU!!
As you can see this one has 4 eye’s. I could have cut it in half again…… but I’m too lazy.
Now you need to do this 24 hours in advance of planting. This will let the potatoes dry and scab over like the picture below.
At planting time take a string and mark your row. Plant the potato chunks one foot apart like so…..
Then, using a hoe, pile dirt on top of the potatoes from both sides to form a hill. You will need to do this a couple more times as the potatoes start to grow.
I will add more posts as the potatoes grow to teach you about the care of your growing potato plants, how to harvest them and how to keep them in storage!!
Well I need to plant a few more rows so I’ll talk to you soon!!!
I just peel potatoes, throw peels into the compost pile and wait for them to come up, then I transfer them into an area in the organic garden and wait. soooo easy.
LOL!! Really?! I had no idea you could do that! See that is why I love the internet and social media. We can all learn so much! Thank you for the tip Linda!
this is so informative Cathy…and as I said before a trip down memory lane with my Dad’s voice taking me through the planting process.. thank my friend
I think that is why I love gardening Miriam. It is part of who I am…..
I love your straight rows Cathy, we never get that technical here. What is your favorite kind to plant? I love the Yukon Golds and Banana Fingerlings.
LOL! I don’t know if you’d call me technical…hehe! I really love Yukon Gold and Banana Fingerlings too….no joke!! I have to say I love the Russet as well. This year I planted….. German Butterball, Fingerling, Yukon Gold, Russian Blue, Russet, Kennebec and I think Norland (I’ll have to look…I’ve forgotten) LOL
Wow, we always just dug a shallow hole, threw the potato in, and covered it up (in a straight row, of course).
By doing that, I find we only have to build the dirt up once during the summer, and the potatoes are further down, so we don’t have to worry about them getting exposed to the sun as they grow. You just have to dig a bit more in fall. 
I think I might try that!!
We did potatoes last year (never had before ) and we put them down at the end of the garden on the grass and covered with mulch….lots of it…like 2 feet deep and they grew perfectly..it was really neat for sure at the end of the growing season to go and find them.
Oh wow!!! I’ve never heard of growing them like that before! Sounds alot easier than how I do it….