Apparently, in long-summer climates, you can grow potatoes twice in one year if you’re clever. I heard that somewhere, but I can’t remember where.
All the data I’ve read on Florida says “NO! YOU CAN ONLY GROW POTATOES ONCE! IN SPRING, WITH A SWING! ON A TRAIN, IN THE RAIN!”
But hey… I’ve got some potatoes with eyes… I’ve got some dirt… and the summer is creeping towards fall. I’m going to plant potatoes in a few weeks and see what happens.
A few weeks ago, somebody gave us piles and piles of “expired” produce from a local grocery store. Some of the food was good – some wasn’t. The bad stuff went to the chickens and the compost… the good stuff we ate… and out of the potatoes, I picked the ones with the most eyes and put them on my windowsill. See those poor things? They want to grow! Who am I to deny them?
In other news, have you ever seen an industrial potato growing operation?
This is the furthest thing from my own homestead, but I’m still impressed as heck:
Wild, eh? Wonder if they keep cropping on that same ground year after year…
Giant machines aside, has anyone ever tried getting a second crop of taters here in Florida?
I’ll let you know how my experiment goes.
UPDATE: If you want to know how to grow grocery store potatoes without worrying about sprout inhibitors, check this out:
4 responses to “Fall potatoes, eyes in my window, plus incredible mechanization”
I planted red potatoes last fall and harvested them at the first frost. My wife likes to use the small ones and these fit the bill. I looked over my notes and didn't record the planting date. I had such a good spring potato harvest I'm going to give the fall a shot. (Central Florida)
That's great, Stevo_61. Glad to know you had some success… it's encouraging. Hope we do okay as well.
BTW, that sounds like my kind of planning… I'm always wondering "when the heck did I plant that?" I think I need to start a better garden journal… all I ever record is harvest weights and numbers.
Autumn taters are no prob here in Georgia… The problem is the voles… But… the missed Spring taters always come up with the cooler temps, and feed the d*$#3d rodents… what they miss… I get to dig.
Also…I was planting the tater eyes & peelings, left-overs from breakfast…(last winter) as early as January… They would come up, get frosted… come up again… repeat… and I got a few taters…
I haven't had many problems with rodents stealing mine, but that may just be luck.
Interesting that you planted as you went along… sounds like a good plan to me.