One of the most substantial times in the vegetable garden is taking a garden fork and lightly push it under a clump of potato flora . bring up up the crotch and , as the soil falls away , you ’ll discover a hoi polloi of potatoes . It is a second to savor .
Some will be with child , others small , but for flavor there ’s nothing as delicious as boil , squeeze or scorched homegrown potatoes . Those planted now may be quick to harvest for Christmas dinner .
The potato is a long - uprise crop that takes four to five months to produce a full - sized harvest . white potato are commonly planted in August but hold off in very stale and crisp areas .
freeze can burn the leafy circus tent of spud works , but plants generally recover if the frost is short .
In a warm climate , a 2nd harvest is grown in summer for an fall harvesting . Grow potato as a ironical - season crop in tropical country . In many frost - free regions , white potato vine uprise all twelvemonth round so there ’s always some spuds on helping hand for a repast .
In this article
Potato Facts
Common name : PotatoBotanical name : Solanum tuberosumFamily : SolanaceaeAspect and dirt : Sun ; deep well - drained soilBest climate : coolheaded to tropicalHabit : Tuberous vegetablePropagation : Tubers ( called “ seed ” potatoes)Difficulty : temperate
PLANTING & CARE
Planting that first craw of potatoes can be very confusing for father gardener . This is because potatoes are grown from something that ’s called a “ seed ” but is in fact a small tuber call a “ seed ” potato .
If you ’ve ever had a potato start to sprout indoors before you ’ve had a probability to falsify it , you are well on the way to grow potatoes . source potato are sell by ring armor parliamentary law in garden centers and at hardware depot and are guaranteed virus free , which means good success in the garden .
Seed potatoes may just be set and allow to grow , but they can be helped along if the tubers are bourgeon beforehand .
This is a process called “ chitting ” , done by place the small tuber on a rack or even sitting them in a cardboard testis carton and placing them in a warm spot . It gives them a head commence in a cold climate .
Plant sprouted tubers into trench turn over about 15 cm bass . Space the rows 75 cm asunder and allow at least 30–40 cm between each plant life . incorporated fertilizer into the base of the planting trench .
This depth and spacing is life-sustaining to handle the crop . Part of the growing method is to mound worldly concern around the grow flora ( but do n’t swallow up it totally ) .
This growing method is call “ earthing up ” and is an important part of grow a large crop as it encourages lots of roots to shape below earth that in good turn produce dozens of spuds .
A good layer of ground around the base of the plant also protects the break potatoes from lineal sunshine . Exposure to light leads to a condition squall greening of potatoes .
The immature parts of potatoes are toxic and should not be eaten .
bear on to earth up around the potatoes as the craw grows . Remove weeds on a regular basis . Apply rich pee so the crop does n’t droop . Well - water murphy tend to be larger and tastier than those that are drought emphasise .
TROUBLESHOOTING
Severalpests and diseasesaffect white potato . Rats and mice burrow into the layer and gnaw on the potatoes before harvest . white potato also suffer from various blights including white potato blight , which in the 1840s head to the Great Hunger in Ireland , also simply call the Potato Famine . ironic conditions also run to potato scab .
To manage these diseases in an organic garden it ’s important to have first-class growing conditions , regular lacrimation and well - drained soil . Crop rotation is also vital . One of the ways that diseases diffuse is by grow potatoes in the same garden layer yr after year .
While it ’s easy to move the tater bed around , the sneaky nature of potato often foils the gardener . Even the smallestpiece of potato that ’s left behind at harvest can burgeon forth and grow . Potatoes can regrow themselves in their original bed or turn up in area where they ’ve been open in compost .
It was this persistence of Solanum tuberosum that worsen the spread of blight , which led to the Great Hunger . Many families bet on produce their own potatoes .
As they had very small holding , these Irish potato were merely grown year after year in the same soil and were all the same sort . Once status go far in the soil that prefer the disease , the Irish potatoes had no resistance and the population lost their staple food source .
HARVEST & STORAGE
Flowers indicate that the tubers are virtually quick to harvest . At this stage , cautiously dig under the plant ( known colloquially as bandicooting ) to reap little new potatoes . This early harvest is one of the rewards of growing Solanum tuberosum .
get out the plants farm until the bloom have finish and the radical are dying back so that the ease of the craw can grow into big tubers .
purloin each bunch with a fork , taking tutelage not to damage any tubers as these will not store ( lay out them aside to deplete first ) . dispatch all the tiny Tuber and completely polish off the old plant and its roots . bit left behind will regrow and can spread disease .
Shake the murphy free of ground and store undamaged , disease - free potato in a coolheaded dark place ( not in the refrigerator ) .
Any damaged potatoes and low spuds should be eaten immediately .
Check stored white potato vine on a regular basis and remove any that show sign of decay . Rotten potatoes have a very unpleasant rotten smell that alerts you to a trouble .
SPUDS OF MANY COLORS
There are lots of potato varieties ; many have different - colored skins and some have colourful flesh . Popular livid - skinned variety let in ‘ Desiree ’ , ‘ Dutch Cream ’ , ‘ Kennebec ’ , ‘ Kipfler ’ and ‘ Nicola ’ , all with white flesh .
Red - skinned varieties include ‘ Redskin ’ and ‘ Pink Eye ’ . For something a piffling different , plant a blue - skinned potato such as ‘ Toolangi Delight ’ .
