Posted: 7/29/2013 9:53:20 AM EDT
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No pics but I dug potatoes Saturday... My "All Blue" and "Yukon Gold" did ok. I had about 35 feet of "All Blue" and ended up with ~3 five-gallon buckets. I had about 17 feet of Yukon Gold and ended up with about a bucket. 19 feet of Red Pontiac was the real star of the show though. First potato I dug was the size of a softball, they just kept coming. I ended up with 3 full buckets of Red Pontiac and many potatoes that broke 1 1/2 pounds each. 1 1/2 lbs of potato is more than a single person can eat... Probably take a few hours to bake a potato that large too...
I was very impressed considering it's my first year growing potatoes again (been about a decade since I've grown them last). |
I'm jealous of your production
I planted about 40'' of Norland red and Yukon gold along with about 30' of Kennebec. The potatoes came from Johnny's Seeds. I dug the Norland and Yukon and wound up with about 4 gallons of each. The majority of the Norlands were a little larger than a golf ball, but there were a few "normal" size mixed in. The Yukons were somewhat larger, but definitely not the size they should be. Both have excellent flavor though 
I dug one Kennebec plant and those were of normal size. I'm still waiting for the plants to finish dieing off before I dig up the rest. I want as thick of skins as possible with those. I tried something new this year in that I planted the potatoes in straight compost. I don't know if the compost caused problems or the 10" of rain in a couple weeks or the definite lack of potato flowers this year. I think I'm going to go back to the garden composted soil next year. I moved them out of the main garden this year to make room for other things, but if I put the potatoes back in the garden the other things can go in the straight compost. |
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I as well am jealous of the production you are getting. My Norland Reds produced about a 5 gallon bucket and they were a decent size. Yukon Golds are not getting planted again as this is the second year that I did them and they were really small and a lot of them had wire worms.
Kennebec's are still green and I am gonna have to wait to give a report but one plant was dug up for a test and it was loaded with good sized potatoes. |
| i planted 4 hills of yukons and i swear the plants got over 4 feet tall! i haven't grown potatoes in years, so i think it was an ok harvest. definitely more potatoes grown than planted. i harvested them as new potatoes. i can eat them pretty quickly, so i don't need the thick skin. |
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Quoted:
Are potatoes the best bang for your buck in terms of calories per surface area? I always find it very satisfying to grow potatoes.  Somewere just recently I saw a chart that gave rough approximations of calories per square foot or something like that. Unfortunately I can't find it now. But I do want to say I was rather surprised pototoes wasn't at the top. I think beans (dry) and some other things topped the list out with potatoes falling somewhere in the middle I think... |
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Quoted:
Somewere just recently I saw a chart that gave rough approximations of calories per square foot or something like that. Unfortunately I can't find it now. But I do want to say I was rather surprised pototoes wasn't at the top. I think beans (dry) and some other things topped the list out with potatoes falling somewhere in the middle I think... Quoted:
Quoted:
Are potatoes the best bang for your buck in terms of calories per surface area? I always find it very satisfying to grow potatoes. Somewere just recently I saw a chart that gave rough approximations of calories per square foot or something like that. Unfortunately I can't find it now. But I do want to say I was rather surprised pototoes wasn't at the top. I think beans (dry) and some other things topped the list out with potatoes falling somewhere in the middle I think... I'll have to google that. Sounds interesting. 
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I'll have to google that. Sounds interesting. I'd be interested in seeing it too. Everything I've ever heard/read stated that potatoes were the king of calorie crops. One author I was reading described that you can see, in a population over time graph, at which point each civilization began using the potato because it allowed their population to grow dramatically. |