CUTTINGS See the article in its original context from April 20, 1997, Section 1, Page 42 Buy Reprints TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. A neighbor in south-central Pennsylvania, being of Irish descent and a die-hard traditionalist, insists on planting potatoes on St.
Patrick’s Day. This usually means that within a couple of weeks he is back out in the potato patch, heaping on straw mulch to protect his sprouting spuds from late freezes. Apparently the climate is different in Ireland. Potatoes have a reputation for hardiness, which is why most gardeners plant them far too early.
It’s worth remembering that they are in the Solanaceae family, along with tomatoes and eggplants. Hard frost kills potato foliage, so plant no sooner than two weeks before you expect the last frost. Of course, some gardeners don’t plant potatoes at all, assuming that they are space-hungry vegetables ill suited to small gardens.
It’s true that the average garden will not yield enough potatoes to stock up the root cellar for the winter, but not many gardeners have root cellars anyway. A single plant will produce, at a minimum, three or four pounds of potatoes, and a single seed potato will produce four or five plants. If you plant the seed pieces a foot or so apart in a row, with a couple of feet of space on either side of the row, you will use about 25 square feet of garden space to produce about 20 pounds of potatoes.
That’s not as good as with, say, green beans or tomatoes, but it beats sweet corn. And the rewards can be considerable. You could, for instance, eat real new potatoes. New potatoes are potatoes dug while the plant is still alive and green. They are sweet, because the potato sugars have not yet begun to turn to starch.
- What supermarkets sell as new potatoes are often simply small, mature potatoes, usually red.
- Mature potatoes are dug when the potato vine has died.
- At that point the skin has toughened and the flesh is starchy, which makes for better storage qualities but not a sublime culinary experience.
- If you grow potatoes, you can also indulge yourself in varieties that are unavailable in supermarkets, like Swedish Peanut (a long, thin, fingerling type with golden flesh) or Cranberry Red.
(It’s pink inside.) Both are available from Wood Prairie Farm (49 Kinney Road, Bridgewater, Me.04735; 800-829-9765; free catalogue). Another good source is Ronniger’s Seed Potatoes (P.O. Box 1838, Orting, Wash.98360); it will send a free catalogue if requested by postcard, and it offers dozens of varieties, including the Irish favorite Kerr’s Pink and the delightful fingerling Anna Cheeka’s Ozette.
How many potatoes does one plant produce?
Potatoes are a popular vegetable in home gardens. They are relatively easy to grow and produce well in average soil. How many potatoes each plant produces depends on how well their growing needs are met, the type of potato you are growing, and the weather conditions in your area.
How many pounds of Potatoes do you get from a row?
Yield in Pounds – Under good, weed-free growing conditions, you can expect to get about 50 pounds of potatoes per every 2 pounds of potato seed planted. So, a 10-foot row of potatoes can vary in yield from 15 to 60 pounds, depending on care, weather conditions and whether disease is present. You can expect about three to six regular-sized potatoes and a few smaller ones from each plant.
How long does it take for a potato to grow?
Last Updated on March 13, 2022 by In this post, we will explore the process of how a potato is grown from one. The ” how long do potatoes take to grow ” is a question that I have been asked many times. The answer to this question, is that it depends on the variety of potato.
How many seed potatoes do you need to grow 20 feet?
You can expect to get about 50 pounds of potatoes per 2 pounds of potato seed planted under good, weed-free growing conditions. As a result, the yield of a 10-foot row of potatoes can range from 15 to 60 pounds depending on care, weather, and disease.
Can you grow potatoes from a store-bought potato, you might wonder? Growing potatoes from store-bought ones has no real benefit (soft, sprouting grocery store potatoes make good compost). Plant certified seed potatoes, however, if you feel compelled to grow those sprouting potatoes from the supermarket.
In the same vein, how many seed potatoes do you have in a pound? To determine how many pounds of potato seed you’ll need, divide the number by 10. You’ll need 2 pounds of seed potatoes to plant 20 feet of potatoes, for example, if you plan to plant 20 feet of potatoes.
A pound of seed potatoes produces 10 feet of potatoes on average. Also, Minecraft, how many potatoes do you get from a single plant? A fully grown potato plant can drop up to four potatoes and have a small chance of dropping a poisonous potato as well. How long does it take to plant potatoes? It’s tempting to harvest potatoes as soon as possible in order to eat them, but different varieties can take anywhere from 70 to 120 days to mature.
As a result, while early-season potatoes will be ready to eat by the end of May or early June, some will require a little more patience.