Potato
Name:
Potato
How many plants for average family:
25 per family
Type of plant:
underground stem tuber
Best Varieties:
Many available including
Desiree - pink skin, waxy yellow flesh, good for all except chips
Pontiac - red skin, white flesh, good for boiling and salads
Sebago - white skin, white flesh, good all rounder including chips
Sowing:
Purchase certified seed potatoes to guarantee pest, disease free. Leave out in the sun to go green and shoot before planting.
Plant 10 - 15 cm deep and 30 cm apart. Large tubers can be divided. Sow after frost.
Growing Habit:
Tubers are formed along the stems as the plant grows, so keep mounding soil around the plant to encourage more tubers to form. Always keep growing tip above soil. Potatoes are great "pioneer" plants so use them as a first crop in a new garden bed. The straw and compost used to mulch the bed make great materials for a new garden and the potatoes underground help to break clay soils.
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Growing Conditions:
Rich soil and moisture is needed for a good crop. Keep mulched or mounded to encourage more tubers. You can do this by growing them in old tyres and keep adding another tyre as they grow. If you are concerned about heavy metals being leached from tyres then use some posts and wrap chicken wire around them to about 2 feet high. The wire will hold in the straw and manure as the potatoes grow higher.
"New potatoes" are harvested while the tip is still green and growing. Leave the plant to flower and die back before harvesting the remainder. When storing, keep soil on to prevent exposure to light and stop potatoes turning green. |
Companions:
Beans, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, corn.
Avoid growing in soil that previously had tomatoes, capsicum and eggplant.
Avoid growing with tomatoes, sunflower, cherry, rosemary.
Problems:
Nematodes.
Rotting.
Tips:
1. Ask for salsa on your baked potatoes, rather than sour cream and butter. Not only is salsa much lower in calories, but it adds a "spicy" flavor to potatoes.
2. Magnesium and potassium are linked to blood pressure control, protection from osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and stroke. To add magnesium, have a half-cup of bran and cooked spinach daily. For potassium, eat sweet potatoes, white potatoes, white beans and bananas.
3. If you don't have much space, you can still grow a large range of vegetables in containers e.g. peas and potatoes.
4. An alternative to "strict" low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not "throw out the baby with the bath water". In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbohydrates such as fruit, potatoes and whole grains, retained.
More Information:
Capitol to hold contest on sweet potato planting (Cebu Daily News)
THE provincial government will launch an inter-department contest on sweet potato (camote) production, a move to involve its employees in its campaign to promote the use of sweet potato as a food extender or rice substitute.
Elks Potato Bash tonight (Reno Gazette-Journal)
The Fallon Elks are holding a Potato Bash for the public tonight, Friday, at the Elks Lodge, 93 W. Center St. Cocktails begin at 5 p.m. followed by dinner from 6-7 p.m. The menu consists of baked potatoes topped with just about anything you want. ...
5:44 p.m. -- Famous Idaho Potato marathon course will be diverted because of...
Runners in The Famous Idaho Potato marathon Saturday will be diverted around the Park Center Bridge due to flooding on the Greenbelt, organizers said Friday.
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