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Re: Potatoes

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

On 02:05 AM 8/23/99 -0500, R M Garelis wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Can anyone tell me the spacing for potatoes?
>I have 4 ft. square raised beds. How many potatoes do you
>think I should plant in one bed? I haven't been able to find
>any reference for potato spacing.

Here's what Mel had to say about growing potatoes in the 2/96 OG article:

<quote>

4. DOUBLE-DECKER POTATOES! 

Visitors who look at my Square Foot Garden scheme for the first time
sometimes say "it looks nice, but you can't grow potatoes, can you?" I
reply that "Of course I can! In fact, I get double the usual amount from
each plant." How? By using a method similar to what I do for
scallions-planting the potato at the bottom of a deep hole and gradually
filling the hole with soil as the plant grows.

To duplicate my prodigious potato planting plan, you'll need only 1 square
foot per potato plant; just repeat the technique times the number of
taters, you wish to plant.

You prepare the hole for each plant the same as for scallions. Dig out all
the soil in 1 square foot down to 12 inches deep, and toss the soil into a
wheelbarrow as you dig, mixing some compost and/or leaf mold (and some
sharp sand for you clay gardeners) in with that soil as you go. Then loosen
the soil at the bottom of the hole with a spading fork, and shovel about 4
inches of good compost into the bottom of the hole. Place one seed potato
in the center of the square foot hole, and lightly cover the spud with
about an inch (no more!) of your wheelbarrow mix. Again, you'll still have
a hole in the ground, but not to worry. just add more of the amended soil
each week to cover the new growth as the plant sprouts through the soil,
and continue to do this every week until the hole is filled. By gradually
filling the hole with loose soil, you'll make that potato form a long
underground stem, and the plant will now set taters all along that stem,
producing twice as many tasty tubers as usual. And all that loose soil will
make spud-digging extra-easy at harvest time, too! 

</quote>

jc


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