Here's a Youtube video on how to plant potatoes...

[Joanne98]

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/planting-potatoes-video/

[MagickMuffin]

1. I enjoyed the video, but she didn't explain the planting process very well

When planting your potatoes who should always plant the seed potato with the eyes facing up.

I grew up on a mini farm and grew new potatoes. I remember planting them with the eyes facing up towards the sky. But I wanted to be sure so here's a website that details the growing process.

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/potato.html

[Joanne98]

2. Thankyou

[Kolesar]

3. There is some detail about cutting the seed potatoes &airing them out for a few days before planting

Thanks for posting this!

We tried planting seed potatoes three years ago and did not get good results. I plan to try again this year and need to figure it out. There is some detail that potatoes like to grow in "hills". I don't know if that applies for Patti Moreno's raised beds that are raised quite high in those frames.

[Raven]

5. See my Post #4. I think the mounding directs the energy away

from the foliage and back into the roots and the potatoes. And you should let the cut seed potatoes dry for a day or two before you plant them.

[Raven]

4. I plant mine about 6" deep and I thought you had to "mound" them.

I always have. You wait until the foliage comes up and then you bury the foliage. You do that 3 times during the growing season so that you end up with a big mound. Then you wait for the last foliage to begin to die and you can start to dig. That's like an easter egg hunt! I leave my potatoes in the ground and dig them up as I need them. At the end of the season I dig the remaining ones up and store them.

[Kolesar]

6. A ha! Rather like when people bury tomato plants above the first leaves when they transplant them

Tomatoes are related to potatoes. I was wondering what the point of "hills" was. It fundamentally "sounded" to me like a means of concentrating the organic material or a way of getting the plants up out of the wet soil, but it is for another reason altogether. Ha! thanks!

[Raven]

7. I think I'm right on this. It makes sense. When I was in Ireland I

saw the ancient potato mounds...left from the 1800's when the famine came and many Irish left the country. Really, you can still see the mounds. Another thing, learned from the Irish...move your potatoes each year to different parts of your garden. The famine in Ireland happened partially because they grew the potatoes in the same place each year.

[Joanne98]

12. Wow. What a great idea. They are related. I bet that works!

[MagickMuffin]

8. Since so many people responded to my post, I'll reply to this one

When I lived on my farm which was in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas this was back in the 70's. The soil was very sandy almost like a dry beach sand, which when tilled had a moist texture.

My father used his tractor to till the soil. We then went behind with the seeds, (and I do remember cutting them a few days before hand) then covered them up. We didn't plant them in mounds. After the potatoes started growing they didn't seem to need all that much maintenance except for hoeing and looking for potato bugs.

When it came time to harvest, Dad would once again bring out the tractor and drive between the rows with a different attachment and we would start the process of collecting the potatoes.

We only planted New Potatoes, so perhaps they didn't need to be in mounds. We also planted them in the same location each year, IIRC. We usually had a pretty good yield.

So, maybe the Irish didn't have the best soil conditions. Raven, It's interesting that the mounds are still visible to this day. That must've been a wonderful experience to see how the Irish farmers tried to plant their crops. It's truly a shame they were driven from their land because they didn't have the knowledge about crop rotation.

I have heard from reading about vegetable gardens is you should always rotate your crops. I also have read about companion gardens, which is really compelling to me.

The other crops we grew tomatoes (several kinds, I can't remember them all) Beef Steak was my favorite YUM, Okra, Corn, Black Eyed Peas, Green Beans, Squash (which we did grow in mounds) there were already Blackberries when we moved there.

We're hoping to plant a small urban garden this year. Only wish we had the same soil I had growing up.

[Raven]

9. I saw those mounds in the hills of Connemara which is on the west

coast of Ireland. The locals say they have been left alone as a memorial to those who died in the famine and out of superstition that nothing would ever grow there again.

[elleng]

10. 20+ years ago,

my folks had a summer place in Vermont, which included good vegetable garden spot; and it already included asparagus, came with the mortgage! Went up with a friend first spring, and spent weekend harvesting and eating asparagus!

Potatoes were my favorite veggies to harvest; don't recall much about planting, but harvesting was a blast because it was always a surprise! Turn ground under each plant, and see what you've got! How many, small, medium, large, VOILA!

[Raven]

11. Digging them up is my favorite part too...and, they're not too shabby

to eat...melt in your mouth!