Tater Tots

Photo by Scott Bauer

Tomorrow is potato day. For those of you who haven't grown potatoes at home, you don't know what you're missing. It is so easy, and so much fun to go out an hour or two before dinner and sneak a few new potatoes right out of a hill and roast them with a sprig of fresh Rosemary from the herb garden. Yum!

I grew red potatoes last year, and we had so many we couldn't eat them all. In fact the sprouted seed potatoes in the image below are the remnants of last year's harvest. This year I plan to can whatever I don't sell at the farmers markets.

However, selling at the markets is something I am planning for in regard to my taters. In addition to the red potatoes from last year, I am planting Yukon and Russet potatoes. I plan to sell some of the red and Yukons as early potatoes, and the remainder plus all of the Russets as storage potatoes.

So in order to prepare, I had to cut each seed potato into pieces containing no more than 3 eyes. Ideally each piece only has 1-2 eyes. More than 3 eyes, and your overall harvest apparently is reduced. So it's a little bit of a trick to leave enough of the potato to feed the buds until they sprout and root once they are planted.

It's also important to let the potatoes dry out and form a callous over the cut. This prevents the seed piece from rotting once it's planted. So that's what I did all afternoon yesterday. By the time I was done cutting pieces, I had more than 400 "tots." That's gonna be a lot of taters!

These are the Russets. I got a little ahead of myself in cutting these. I should have waited for them to have sprouted more, but I want to get them planted this week, so I went ahead and prepped them. Most do have sprouts, although they aren't as prolific yet as my red seeds from last year.

When planting potatoes, dig a trench at least 8 inches deep, and cover the seed piece with the best eyes/sprouts facing up. When the green growth is 8 inches tall, or within 3 weeks, cover all but the top few inches of greenery with more soil.

This should leave you a small green potato top above ground level. All your potatoes will grow in between the seed piece and the soil level. Make sure you keep "hilling" or adding dirt, straw, or compost to keep new potatoes from breaking through the surface and being exposed to light.

For new potatoes harvest at least 60 days after planting, or when potatoes are the size you want. For storage potatoes wait 2 weeks after the vines/bush totally die back. Harvest carefully, especially new potatoes, as they will bruise and injure more easily than the storage potatoes that were properly cured before harvest.

Make sure potato beds have lots of organic matter and compost. I am planting mine in my newest beds, which aren't quite ready yet for other crops. That's the nice thing about potatoes, you can grow them in just about anything, including beds that aren't ideal.These beds have a lot of straw and manure, and were built over the winter. My only concern is that some of the beds may compost and create too much heat, so with those I will reduce the mound and add finished soil to the trenches when I plant. I don't want to bake the potatoes before I harvest!