catjac1975
Garden Master
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2010
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- Mattapoisett, Massachusetts
Grocery store potatoes will grow. They are treated with a growth inhibitor, however.
nachoqtpie said:Does that mean that they won't grow potatoes?
nachoqtpie said:Ah! Well I guess that makes sense. That kid of mine has 2 neon green thumbs just like his grampa and great grampa. It doesn't seem to matter what that kid plants, it sprouts! LOL
Thanks Steve! I like how you explain these things mathematically .digitS' said: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
I have a hard time getting store bought potatoes NOT to grow! I even grew purple potatoes this year from store bought tatters. Next year I was planning to just use store bought instead of seed potatoes.catjac1975 said:They will,but they are harder to get started.nachoqtpie said:Does that mean that they won't grow potatoes?