Thank You Janice! That was very helpful! I have grown Yukon golds for 5
years or so with success, always rotating, but last year the insects were
horrible . . couldn't stay ahead of em. I'm here in Nampa, Idaho. What sort
of insecticide regimine works?
"Janice" wrote in message
...
On 08 Apr 2004 13:17:27 +1200, "Loki" wrote:

il Wed, 7 Apr 2004 12:34:59 -0700, "Greg" ha scritto:

Hello all: New at starting a garden here. I wanted to plant some
potatoes;
the person at home depot told me to put toothpicks in a potato, wait
till
they sprout, and then plant them. Is this true? And if so,

1. Do I take the toothpicks out after I "puncture" them and then the
sprouts grow out of the holes, or do I leave the toothpicks in?

2. Do I bury the whole potato, sprouts and all or do I let the sprouts
stick through the soil?

Thanks everyone!

Sounds like he's confusing potatoes with avocado kernals. Put a seed
potato in light, it will start to sprout from the eyes. It can be
subdivided but potatoes are cheap. So when sprouted a bit, plant it
but leave the green bits in the light.

One can also use any old potato to grow from. 'Eyes' are the dark
bits on a potato. Mine sprout if I keep them too long in the
cupboard.


Piggyback ride...

poking holes in potatoes and putting them in water will most likely
get you the foulest stinking mess you ever smelled!

Potatoes will grow all by themselves, no water necessary at first, the
potato plant makes the tubers to provide food for the plant that will
grow from it until it's established.

Best way is to get seed potatoes about the size of a hen's egg or a
bit smaller, and "chit" them.. put them in a flat with the "rose" end
of the potato up.. rose end is the one with the larger cluster of
"eyes" and leave the potatoes in a bright area that is neither too hot
or cold enough to freeze them. They will develop dark green short
sprouts, rather than those ghostly white ones that develop when the
potatoes start sprouting in the dark. They will sprout when the
potatoes reach a temperature.. I *think* it was over 40°f, but might
be 50°f. Once the seed potatoes have a nice cluster of dark green
buds/sprouts that haven't actually leafed out too much, plant them in
a trench or hole, sprout end up, or wherever you want to plant them,
and cover them with an inch or two of soil. Enough to protect them
from any late frosts (Good Friday is a date that many people use to
guide them in when they should have their potatoes in the ground in
zone 6 anyway). As the potato grows, and leaves appear, cover them
with a bit more soil, and keep doing that until the trench or hole is
filled, and then .. as they grow above ground hoe the soil from either
side of the plant inward to "hill" them up .. leaving a small rosette
of leaves protruding from the top of the hill. Do that about 3 times
up until the plant starts forming flower buds I think.. check on that
it's been a long time. You can also mulch the hills after you've
finished hoeing the soil up to make sure it remains moist .. and also
keeps erosion down and will cover any tubers that might protrude , in
the shade. Green potatoes are bitter, and poisonous.. containing
solanin.. Solenacea or Solinacea .. I think one might be spelled
right.. being the family name. They are in the nightshade family..as
are Tomatoes, and eggplants.

Just keep in mind, potatoes will not form tubers any deeper than the
seed potato is planted. I've read articles about them being grown in
old otherwise work out galvanized trash cans, tires (didn't work well
for me just using a lot of mulch, as I have flood irrigation, needs
more soil with the mulch and watering methods other than flooding.) I
have some mounds of dirt in my yard from when I had someone dig out
trenches of clay loam in order to replace it with sandy soil and peat
moss, in order to plant blue berries. I need to get some more
granulated sulfur out there, and more peat and other acidic products
out there for mulch as my native soil is alkaline to "neutral"
depending on where it is in the yard. Might use a post hole digger to
spike the mound with seed potatoes and fill the holes as they grow,
water the mound with a sprinkler and mulch it with grass clippings
from the lawn around it, just to see if I can do it, as well as get
some kennebeck potatoes! Maybe a few pontiacs or whatever looks good
that can be had for seed.

You can cut up a larger potato, leaving an eye or two on each chunk,
however, you'll get fewer, but larger potatoes that way. You'll
likely bet more, but smaller ones with the whole small seed potato.
That can be somewhat balanced out by rubbing all but a few of the
largest sprouts off .. just before planting it. You have less chance
of the seed potato rotting if it's a small whole one. If you go with
cutting a large potato up .. make sure there's a good chunk of potato
with each eye, and let them set around to dry awhile. .8 to 12 hours.

Ok... I've rattled on far too long.. happy potato planting.. oh..
almost forgot. Only potato growing in water that I know of is to take
a sweet potato or "yam" (just a moister more orange variety of sweet
potato really.. yam is a perennial tropical tuber that is irregularly
shaped and grows about 3 feet deep) .. put the sweet potato into a jar
where part of it is poking down into the water.. without toothpicks..
just make sure the jar mouth is small enough to keep the entire potato
from falling in (or a big enough sweet potato). It will grow roots,
and sprout up pretty leaves and grow a nice vine for ornamental oddity
indoors, or you can break off the sprouts very close to the tuber when
they have several leaves and stem that can then be "rooted" and then
planted out in relatively poor soil, sandy preferably. Rich soil will
just grow more vine. If you're interested in that, there are more
folks who know more about it than me!

So NOW.. b'bye ;-)

Janice