Today, we looked at our cut seed potatoes and they were ready to plant. You want the potato to be dry in the cut area, it will have a white appearance plus it will be hardened to the touch.
Next we pulled out our little tractor to make some hills for planting. Last year we made hills but I planted the potatoes in the valley of the hill then used the hill to cover them up. That was my first time planting that way and it caused more work at harvest time. The potatoes were deeper in the ground requiring more digging which is more time. This year I am planting the potatoes at the peak and only covering them half way with dirt.
This year I am also trying to plant some of our potatoes from the previous year. I tried this last year and only 20% came up and grew successfully. This year we are planting some again but we are cutting off all the long eyes and I am planting the whole potato. Last year I cut them leaving 2 eyes per cut and left the long eyes on the cut potatoes.
We planted just over 500 feet of potatoes between the 7 rows. This is what they look like before we cover them the hay.
Now it is time to cover the rows with hay. If we had harvested wheat straw this would be preferred but not plentiful in our part of the country. We covered the potatoes with 8-12 inches of loose hay. After a few rains this will compact down to 2 inches. If a frost is predicted after they start to grow we will simply add a few some inches of loose hay and this will protect the plants.
We cover our potatoes with hay for 2 reasons: control weeds and keep the moisture in the ground.
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