Potato Planting Help

[KansasBoy13]

We bought some Red Norland Seed Potatoes and while we get the process of getting them prepared, as they are at the moment, do you just plant them like you do any other seeds in the gardens or do they require a different process? I have read that people plant them inside tires and you put 12 inches of straw on top of them? Last year was our first year of gardening and we did pretty well with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, lettuce and broccoli. The crafty coons got through our netting and stole our corn so electric fence is going up this year and our bell pepper plants never took. Any thoughts also on why they wouldnt have made it? Thanks

[Stoneroller]

it's better to plant potatoes in a mound, hence the tire full of dirt, for drainage purposes. you want roots of the plant to get water, but you want the potatoes themselves to be in well drained soil or they will rot. There is a certain end of the potatoe that has to point up but i can't remember how you tell the difference, a quick google search will tell you though.

Peppers took a beating last year with the 50º wet spring and the rather mild summer. They love heat, the more the better. They also like well drained soil. Slugs also LOVE pepper plants, so I don't advise getting mulch near them if you mulch your garden. peppers and tomatoes are both hot weather plants, the hotter the better. so direct sunlight on the soil beneath the plant is good, just have to hand weed.

my peppers didn't do worth a crap last year, but the year before rocked. I blame the weather last year for that as I did nothing different that I can think of...

[Stoneroller]

[Stoneroller]

this guy has over 130,000 videos lol holy crap! i'm pretty sure he has an idea of how to grow potatoes. enjoy.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Peppers took a beating last year with the 50º wet spring and the rather mild summer. They love heat, the more the better.

Mild summer?? Where were you at???

[eric1978]

Mild summer?? Where were you at???

My thoughts, too. Last summer was an absolute inferno, and bone freaking dry. Dollars to donuts we're all in space suits by July this summer. It's gonna be brutal. Why oh why could it not be global cooling instead? I hate St. Louis summers. Yuck.

[KansasBoy13]

Thanks for the videos stoneroller, I never think of going to youtube for information. Exactly what I wanted to know though. Also, about how many potatoes will one plant produce? Debating on how many to plant for the two of us.

[Stoneroller]

last summer was nothing compared the summer before. last year we only had a couple of short stretches of temps in the high 90's low 100's the year before we had 3 seperate week long 100+º temps. So yeah it's kind of relative to what you consider 'hot' I like the summers here. cold weather and cold water suck.

I'm not sure how many potatoes you get off of one plant. I've only harvested potatoes one time with my great grandpa back when I was like 6 or 7. I want to say 5 or 6 spuds are a normal haul from one plant, but that could depend on any number of factors too.

[Wayne SW/MO]

We had temps high enough to cook my peppers last year, and in fact nothing did well because of the heat here.

It's best plant potatoes in something like tires. Mounds are fine if you can keep them up, but you never no, so something like a tire or wooden box set on top of the ground will insure the best yield. Cut your potatoes so that each piece has an eye, then cover it with sulphur and plant it in a high composted soil. I always put 3 eyes in a conatainer.

As to yield, it depends on when you harvest, and the particular strain. Plant all you have or have room for.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I consider 100* days hot. And we had about 2 months worth last year.

Funny thing about that was, I never heard a word out of the climate change naysayers. Nor have I heard out them this year so far. But you usually don't. The only time you hear from them is when you get a dusting of snow in January. Boy, they won't shut up then.