I’ve heard for years that the best time to plant your potatoes is on Good Friday. Now I’m not really sure why it’s a good time. Maybe they actually do come up in a shorter period of time, or maybe it’s just finally warm enough to be out there planting in the garden. Well this year, we finally had a moment to plant and we did it right for once, because it was Good Friday. I’m usually appreciating the sacrifice and gift that God gave for us through His son Jesus on Good Friday, and this time, I was able to contemplate that while enjoying the first warm day outdoors seeding potatoes.
The first thing we did was to clean last year’s potatoes out of the cellar. We have a really nice red potato left over, which we traded for at Farmers Market. The man wanted winter squash and had the nicest hard, smooth potatoes, which he had grown over in the Malo area. And oh, have they tasted good, too! As you can see, laying around on the ground they were starting to grow roots. We just broke the roots off and started cutting up the potatoes for seed. Leave at least two ‘eye’ areas per seed. An eye is the bumpy place where the root is starting to grow. If the seed potato is fairly large we just plant one per hole. So we cut up a couple of buckets worth and begin seeding. We also bought a 50 lb. bag of the Russet Burbank and a bag of the delicious Yukon Gold from the local feed store. Fifty pounds of potatoes seeds makes LOTS of potatoes. We seed about 15 potatoes (cut in half) per 50 foot row. One every 18 inches or so.
Seeding potatoes in plastic mulch is just like seeding in the regular dirt. We use a wide shovel to slice through the plastic and into the dirt. This provides a nice hole in the plastic for the potato to find its way to the light. Also the plastic mulch goes back together because of the thin slice and prevents too many weeds from coming up.
Push the shovel forward. Have your helper drop in the cut potato (It’s nice if they hit the hole most of the time, goes a little faster!). Next, just lift your shovel out and tamp the hole down with the toe of your shoe.
Seed the potatoes about 18″- 24″ apart. Just measure two feet (literally) by stepping it off. Stomp in your shovel at your toe and throw in the next seed. It’s easy and quick, and before you know it, we have 3 rows of potatoes. We seeded 20 rows with those 2 buckets. The only thing that took time was me saying, “Wait I need a picture.” Hope you had a wonderful Easter-Resurrection Day!
