Planting Potatoes

The potatoes that I harvested last fall were kept in a dark closet over the winter in an attempt to keep them from sprouting.  Apparently they should have been kept in a colder place because they started to sprout some time in late December.  The sprouts have been growing steadily ever since.  I stopped eating them a couple of months ago because they were getting to be too soft and wrinkled for my tastes.  The long sprouts they were growing were going to give me a nice head start on the season, so I kept them for my spring planting stock.

 I had planted three different type of potatoes last year: Yukon Gold, Chieftan, and Purple Viking.  I had just enough of the Yukon Gold to plant one 20 foot row, but had an abundance of the Chieftan and Purple Viking.  I planted one row of each to try to make things even out. The left over sprouted potatoes will be going to a seed swap in a couple of weeks so I can share my over abundance with others in the area.

Planting potatoes with such long sprouts was a new challenge for me since I had never  done it before.  I did a little research and learned that laying them down in a ditch to plant them would be the way to go.  I certainly couldn't dig holes in my soil deep enough to cover these long sprouts, so lay them down I did.  I still planted the actual tubers about a foot apart, but the sprouts overlapped each other in the trenches that I dug.  I am expecting a thick mat of potatoes when they make their way through the soil.  After I covered all the potatoes with soil I laid down the irrigation lines over the rows and turned on the water to make sure all was in good working order.

This year I extended half of my garden beds to the fence line so I only needed to plant one large bed with potatoes. 

 This bed got a thick layer of grass mulch once I had another delivery of grass clippings.  As they grow I will keep adding layers to the mulch to protect the growing tubers from the light so they don't turn green on me.  In a few short weeks I am hoping this bed really comes to life.