The cure for insomnia, aka, my 2012 potato harvest

[thistlebloom]

Yeah, not very exciting...but I thought it would be helpful to my own memory next year if I posted this years potato harvest results.

I planted 30 pounds of potatoes in a new garden area that last year had been a mix of buck brush, snowberry, wild roses and conifer seedlings. Oh, and enough rocks to open a quarry.

This is how it breaks down in pounds planted:
Rose Finn fingerlings - 5 lbs.
Purple Viking - 5 lbs.
Maris Piper - 20 lbs.



I didn't do anything to the soil, just mounded it up into rows. I also thought I didn't have enough time to allow the potatoes to chit, because I'm a world class procrastinator and didn't order them early enough.
And another thing, once the work season got in full crazy mode I sort of neglected the watering chores now and then.
I say all this as some sort of lame excuse to fall back on when you see my less than spectacular harvest numbers.

First off, since Maris P. was new to me last year and did so tremendously better than the other varieties I planted, I deliberately gave it the worst section of garden. The rows that were the rockiest, and had pale ugly soil.
Just wanted to make sure I didn't fudge the results in favor of my new favorite.

And as is my usual bad habit, I crowded them a wee bit. I thought I'd have plenty of room, but the area I was going to make into another row was really just too horrible to sacrifice those poor unsuspecting seed potatoes to.

So, here's how the numbers break down in pounds harvested:
Rose Finn fingerlings - 28 lbs.
Purple Viking - 38 lbs.
Maris Piper - 162 lbs.

So I got a total 228 lbs. harvested for 30 lbs. planted, Not the 3oo lbs. I was hoping for which is sort of the average you can expect, 10 lbs yield for 1 lb. planted.

Next year I may plant them in the same area again, but whatever I plant in this area will have much better soil, as I have already added compost ( lots! ) to the beds.

Here's a sampling of the three varieties:

And these are some Rose Finn fingerlings. No, they're not normal.

I don't know anything about Rose Finn, but if they named the potatoes after her fingers, well, I just hope she sought medical attention.

 

[ninnymary]

Thistle, I think you did great with your potatoe harvest! even though you didn't reach your 300lb. goal. That's alot of potatoe eating your going to be doing.

Mary
BTW, I sent you a pm and you didn't respond. :/

 

[thistlebloom]

Oops! Just sent it back! Sorry!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Wow, those purple vikings are beautiful!! And i think your harvest was awesome...especially compared to my 0 lbs planted 0 lbs harvested this year

 

[nachoqtpie]

So... we're thinking of doing potatoes next year. Do they need full sun? We're probably going to do the "box" method, and I'm trying to plan where I want to put my boxes. I have a couple of places that I can put them, but only 1 that is partially shaded.

The vikings are gorgeous!! I'm sure my husband will want some since he's from MN... (Crazy man!) And.... they are really neat! LOL How do you store them? We don't have a root cellar or even a basement! (Too close to the coast... we would have an indoor swimming pool if we tried!)

 

[catjac1975]

Need lots of sun.

So... we're thinking of doing potatoes next year. Do they need full sun? We're probably going to do the "box" method, and I'm trying to plan where I want to put my boxes. I have a couple of places that I can put them, but only 1 that is partially shaded.

The vikings are gorgeous!! I'm sure my husband will want some since he's from MN... (Crazy man!) And.... they are really neat! LOL How do you store them? We don't have a root cellar or even a basement! (Too close to the coast... we would have an indoor swimming pool if we tried!)

 

[digitS']

Thistle', I started to respond last night but realized I was falling to sleep . . . ..........

To make this interesting, let's go to the University of Maine and see what they are saying on the other side of the US : "Ten pounds of seed will plant about 50 feet of row at eight-inch spacing and about 80 feet of row at 12-inch spacing. Yields vary, but most gardeners should expect between one and two pounds of potatoes per foot of row." (link)

How would your 228 pounds from 30 pounds of seed fit in to Maine expectations ? Well, they are saying that 30 pounds of seed should plant 150 to 240 feet of row and yield 150 to 480 pounds of potatoes. Production in your potato garden looks just fine, Thistle'!

Look, when I went out and cleared a piece of ground of stumps and brush not all that many miles from your garden, about all that did well for me were . . . turnips! I deliberately grew a garden much larger than I though necessary for the first few years. It went from a 50' by 200' garden the 1st year to a 50' by 100' after 3 years and I was sure glad that it was so large there at first!

I like to consider production in terms of Square Feet!

Elsewhere in the U of Maine potato information we learn that "Yields averaged 260 cwt per acre in 2011." So, 26,000 pounds and since an acre is 43,560 square feet; that is .6 pound per square foot. Or, I like to take it to 1 of my 100ft beds and make it 60#/100ft. I do that especially since it looks like getting 100#/100ft is about the best I can hope for .

Steve

:tools

 

[nachoqtpie]

thanks catjac! I've still got a lot to learn I'm afraid!! LOL
Eventually we will figure it all out I think.

 

[catjac1975]

One thing I have done for the last many years is I plant whole potatoes. I do not use fungicides and all the other techniques did not work for me. I would get spotty growth and sometimes really terrible growth. So I plant the potatoes whole get 100% growth. Some would say i am wasting money, but, for me cutting them into pieces was a waste of money.

 

[nachoqtpie]

my son can get them to start from a regular potato from the grocery store!! He just cuts part of the potato out with the eye and sticks it in some dirt! We got ONE potato out of his little experiment last year... but I think it was because I had it in a plastic dog food bag and I forgot to water it one too many times... oooops!