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Re: Potatoes

>Hi. I hope someone can give me some good tips on growing potatoes in
>SQFT raised beds.
>I plan to do it for the first time this year but have found so far
>absolutely no information on SQFT spacing and cultivation practices.
>I have read about the trick of planting them in  old tires
>and continually adding tires and soil as they grow but that technique
>would not be suitable for my garden.
>I don't want to plant a whole lot; just enough to have a few meals
>with nice new potatoes. How close together can I plant? Is it necessary to
>keep heaping up soil around the growing plant or is a good thick
>mulch sufficient.
>Any advice and suggestions based on your experience would be very
>much appreciated.
>Thanks.
>Eric.

Just yesterday we prepared and direct seeded our raised bed where we had
potatoes last year.  I couldn't even tell you how many potatoes we pulled
out while we were doing this!  And that was after two very thorough
harvests at the end of last years gardening.  Anyway, I would say that our
square foot potatoes were a success.  We planted five pounds (one pound
each of five varieties) that we purchased from Ronniger's and had very
prolific results with a bare minimum of attention.  Had we actually tended
them, they might have been even better:)  We used a pitting method where we
hand dug shallow pits every other square or so (we were eyeballing it) and
planted four potatoes spaced out in the pit.  As the plants grew, we piled
the dirt back onto them so that there was a deeper potato forming area from
the bottom of the pit, up to the ground level.  For us, it probably wasn't
more than 8 inches or so, but I think it's one of those go as deep as you
can sorts of ideas.  This 4'x12' box also had potato onions that we planted
at the same time with the same technique, and ten or so volunteer giant
sunflowers.  I didn't notice any detrimental effects from the sunflowers on
the surrounding plants, so we just left them.  They made quite a display:)
I don't remember exactly where this idea came from, but I'm guessing it was
an OG article.  Hope this helps a little.

Regards,

Laurie
San Francisco, zone 10
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