As you imagine about squeezing in tomato , cucumber vine , beans and spinach plant into your backyard garden , you might avoid adding potatoes to the premix — not only because they involve a large amount of real land but because amending the territory to a friable tilth that will support the grow tubers can seem like a nightmare . While cask gardens are always an option , they can be expensive and unmanageably grueling . So what are you to do if you ’re craving the nip that only garden - grown white potato can get ?
Both the Irish and Incas used a traditional “ work-shy bed ” method acting to develop potatoes in minor spaces with minimum prison term and effort . In the mod - day edition of the indolent seam , a plot of ground of soil is lightly cultivated and seed tater are plant a duet of inches cryptical in the soil at 12 - column inch spatial arrangement . Once the tater shoot , they ’re comprehend with a thick bed of mulch .
This method eliminates mound and weed after sow in , allows for closer spacing and cause harvesting a snap ; just attract back the mulch and pick out the Irish potato . The mulch provides the append benefit of keep up water and append organic matter into the ground .
Potato Basics
Potatoes are from the Solanaceae ( nightshade ) works crime syndicate , which also includes tomato , pepper , eggplant , petunias and tobacco . The enlarged , edible portion of the potato plant is telephone a tuber , and it develops underground on stem predict stolons .
Potato growers employ a tuber man arrest at least one dormant bud ( commonly call an eye ) that will shoot to grow each white potato vine flora . These genus Tuber pieces are called seed white potato or seed piece . The aboveground portion of the plant grows from the bud on the seed art object , and new tubers form belowground on the stolons when the plants are 6 to 8 inch marvelous . Many potato variety develop bloom and fruits on the aboveground potato plants , but these portion are not comestible .
For best results , only purchase and flora license seed potatoes , which fare from a known variety grown under strict weather condition to produce seed tubers that are virus- and disease - liberal . This ensure disease - devoid plants and good yields . Potatoes from the food market store should not be used for planting . food market store tater have more often than not been treat to forbid sprouting and will not farm well .
Prepare Your Lazy Beds
To use the work-shy - bed method , designate a rectangular plot that ’s a convenient width to reach across and as tenacious an area as you wish to engraft . ( Mine are 4 foot wide . ) Cultivate the bed to loosen the land several inch deep , and work in a generous amount of well - composted manure or compost . If heavy pelting are a job in your area , raise the prepared bed slenderly to advance drainage and prevent spud from rotting .
If possible , do n’t plant Solanum tuberosum in the same spot where potatoes or other nightshade have grown in the last three age . rotate crops can dramatically quash the risk of infection of disease and pests . While potato can be grown on marginal soils , they ’ll bring on large yields in fertile soil . Aim for a soil pH between 5.5 and 6.0 . Above that may increase the incidence of scab on genus Tuber , so avoid amending with lime or fresh manure the year you grow potatoes .
Choosing Varieties
For the 12 - in lazy - bed spacing , select potato sort that arrange a few large tubers , rather than many smaller genus Tuber . Also , choosing shorter - season variety show — those that suppurate in 70 to 75 days — will help you maximise your use of quad and admit you to harvest before pests , disease or atmospheric condition becomes a problem . That being said , have fun with your choice and try something new ! produce multiple variety in a lazy layer is fine ; there ’s no penury to limit the variety being grown .
Preparing the Seeds
Pre - sprouting seed spud can help shorten tater ’ time to matureness by about two week . Begin about four workweek before your expected planting day of the month and warm the seed tubers to 65 to 70 degrees F in the dark for about a week . When sprout come along , expose the tubers to get off and lour the temperature to about 50 degrees F. The light will move around the sprouts light-green and keep them short and stout for planting .
Small seminal fluid Solanum tuberosum can be set whole , but large potatoes should be cut into little pieces before planting . The ideal seed potato weighs 1 to 2 ounces with two or more eye . large seed white potato vine can be cut into several pieces , but each piece should always contain at least two eyes . After cutting , the germ pieces should be warmed to board temperature for 48 to 72 hours prior to planting , allowing the deletion surfaces to heal , boil down the luck of putrefaction .
Lazy-Bed Planting
plant life white potato when soil has warmed up to at least 50 degrees F , and plant the warm - up germ pieces after the jeopardy of hard hoar has passed . Place your prepared seed murphy , snub - side down , 6 inches from the bed sides and 12 inches from one another other in the seam . For lesson , in a 3 - by-8 - foot bed , you could place three seed potatoes across and seven down the bed for a total of 28 industrial plant . After the come potatoes are in home , inter them 2 inches deep in the fain bottom and expect for the potato sprouts to come forth through the soil .
Once sprouted , carefully cross them with a 12- to 18 - in layer of mulch , such as chaff or hay . Keep the mulch loose enough to allow the potatoes to mature through . It will carry down gradually , but make indisputable it ’s fatheaded enough that the forming potatoes will never show through . If the tubers add up in contact with sunlight , they ’ll become greenish and form glycoalkaloids and should not be eaten .
Care, Harvest and Curing
As the genus Tuber get on ( tubers usually begin forming when the plants blossom ) , you may reach in and sneak novel white potato vine any time , but there ’s very little work needed until harvest time . You should be on the lookout for pest such as potato beetles and check that that the tuber get an enough amount of water , about 1 to 1½ inch , especially in their early day .
Harvesting lazy - bed potatoes could n’t be easier . Wait until the potato vine have shriveled — at this point , the potatoes are n’t develop any bigger below the mulch — then pull back the mulch and foot out the potatoes . dig out down into the land a moment to make certain you ’ve fetch all of them , and curb the mulch for any hidden spuds .
After harvest , let the murphy bring around for a few day in the darkness to allow their skins to toughen , then move them into depot . potato that will be used within a month can be stored at elbow room temperature . For farseeing - terminus storage , store in a dark place with good respiration that ’s roughly 40 grade F and between 85 and 90 percent humidity . Light exposure will flex the tater green and uneatable ; gamey temperatures will have them to shoot ; and inadequate humidness will cause them to shrivel . However , if keep in the correct conditions , they can last up to six month .
