Planting Potatoes

Every year I face this dilemma. I cut the seed potatoes and let them form a crust, then it seems it takes me too long to get them in the ground. Either it is cold or raining or there is some other challenge. This year, the challenge was that there were weeds growing in the first box I was going to plant in and, even though the second box was relatively weed free, it was the home of a horseradish plant that had been there six or seven years. My fear is that the seeds dry out too much and go past where they will sprout.


It took me two days of after work evening effort to clean out the weeds from the first plot. I don't know if you can judge the size of the pile from the photo, but I bet it weighs 50 lbs. I don't know the name of the weed, but the roots stick to the soil. I will have to run the mess through the chipper shredder to do anything with it.

But I finally got the bed cleared and the Yukon Gold planted. I have kept to my square foot method. I dig a hole in the middle of each square foot; down about 6" to 8" into which I set the potato seed. As the seed sends up its sprouts, I fill in the hole and then add compost.


Taking out the horseradish from the second bed proved an interesting challenge. The roots had grown very large and had gone very deep. What do you do with this much horseradish anyway? Out of a commitment to use what I grow, I feel the need to do something with it, but I'm not yet sure what.


I planted Pontiac Red in the second bed. I did something a little different with them; I put some water in the bucket I kept them in as I carried them around the bed, just enough to wet them a little. There are now 48 seeds in each bed. We expect rain today, but I went ahead and watered each hole.