From the garden
A white potato crop has a definite spot in spring gardens. Make plans now for a mid-March planting date. Planting mid-March gives plenty of time to grow a summer crop after the tubers are harvested in June.
Even gardeners that have never grown potatoes can grow a crop. Potatoes are an easy crop, not fussy about where they are grown. All they need is deep, loose soil, a few months of spring days and nights, and water.
Potatoes are classed as early-, mid-, or late-season types. Early maturing potatoes are grown in West Texas; mid- and late-season types are grown in the Northern latitudes of Idaho and Maine. Common early potatoes are Red Norland and Irish Cobbler; Yukon Gold is midseason but can be grown in our area.
Timing of planting potatoes is important. They need just-right soils for optimum growth. Potatoes are tubers, swollen underground stems, as a cool season crop plant early enough to allow for tuber development during cooler months. For optimum growth, soil temperatures cannot be not cold nor too warm, soil not too wet nor too dry. Plant too early and potato tubers will rot in cold, wet soils; plant too late when temperatures are warm and tubers will mature early at a small size. Plant in mid-March to allow for tuber development in the spring months and be ready for harvest in June.
Potatoes are propagated from certified seed potatoes, vegetative propagules that can be purchased ready to plant or can be made from store-bought tubers.
Every seed potato must have an eye, or bud, the structures from which new plants arise. These are the structures that are an annoyance when a potato that has been stored for a time is being prepared for a meal only to find that sprouts are growing from the tuber. Left to grow, these sprouts will be the propagules for growing a new crop of tubers.
Plant seed potatoes in full sun with eyes facing up in a trench several inches deep and covered with soil, as plants grow mound or hill up soil on the sides of the stems until the hill reaches an eventual height of several inches. Keep moist. Tubers are ready for harvest when tops die back in June.
Harvesting your own potato tubers is a deeply satisfying activity. Try your own crop this spring.
Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
