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Old 01-01-2010, 09:03 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Wildbilly Wildbilly is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Nov 2009
Posts: 166
Default Planting Potatoes

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,
Pavel314 wrote:

I've been growing potatoes for many years and plant the usual way; I
plant them in a row, below ground level, and hill two or three times
during the growing season.

The other night we were watching a BBC series called "Foyle's War",
which takes place in England during WWII. In one scene, they were on a
farm where people were planting potatoes. They had plowed the field
with a newly acquired tractor into long, parallel ridges, about 2 feet
high and 3 feet apart, and were planting the seed potatoes along the
tops of the ridges. I guess the plan was that the plants would put
down roots into the ridges and produce tubers down there.

Would that really work or was this just poetic license of life on the
farm? I'd always heard that potato plants don't put out tubers below
the level of the original seed potatoe, hence the hilling to build the
ridges around the plants.

Paul


Other than that, "Foyle's War" is a great series. The potato planting
seems a bit whacked though.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

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