We’ve experimented with planting potatoes as early as January 29th here.
Potatoes appreciate cool weather, but also don’t like hard frosts. This is an issue in Lower Alabama and North Florida, as the weather in later winter swings between 20 and 70+ degrees, often proceeding for weeks without a frost and then suddenly diving well below freezing.
It’s rather ridiculous.
However, potatoes aren’t usually killed by a frost – just set back.
And if you’re ready with some sheets or a layer of straw or leaves, you can protect them through the freezing nights while allowing them to grow through the pleasantly cool weather.
That was our potato patch last winter/early spring, right before an overnight frost event.
We ultimately harvested 232lbs of potatoes.
We’re not great at getting high yields from potatoes for some reason. We probably planted near 100lbs of seed to get that many potatoes. I’m not sure why, but we’ll add more compost this year and see if we can raise those numbers. You should harvest roughly 10 times the amount planted! We’re always doing poorly. Potatoes are not an ideal crop here.
Yet we try, try again.
The Farmer’s Almanac moon-planting calendar says today and tomorrow are good days for planting.
Alright, then, let’s go.
We plan on putting potatoes into the Grocery Row Gardens, as well as into dedicated potato rows.
This year we’re planting 15lbs of Red Pontiac, 15lbs of Kennebec, and some 15lbs of Adirondack Blue potatoes.
We’re also planting 50lbs of Yukon Gold, as Rachel loves those.
Come on, 10-1 yields – this is the year!
7 comments
I love growing potatoes but have never come close to a 10-1 yield! What mulch do you use on your potatoes? I haven’t mulched in the past and thought maybe it would help. I have an abundance of pine straw I was considering using. (I live in NE Florida, Fernandina Beach). Thanks!
I’ve used fall leaves and I’ve used hay or straw. I haven’t tried pine straw.
I’m glad I’m not alone on my yields, though. ;)
We got ours in early January. Have not come up yet. So have not needed to hill them with dirt. Hoping for better year all around than last year.
We can’t plant taters here yet, but I’m itching to start some potato seeds soon!
I planted a flat of potato seeds yesterday – I am excited.
The best potato crop i have ever had was in very deep compost. we had access to separated cow manure (dairy farm used water to flush the barns down to a chopping pump that sent the effluent over a separator, the solids went to a compost pile the fluids went out to a lagoon). the carrots and potatoes grown in the thick compost bed were delicious and the yield was huge, (didn’t use a scale but a 50 to 60 pound sack per row). we were still sharing potatoes through the following July that year.