Planting Red Seed Potatoes

It's time to plant seed potatoes again in Zone 9 which includes north east Florida where I live.  Let's say that the winter is over, long gone, only a too recent memory.  In general, potatoes do well in sunny and well drained areas with warm days and cool nights.

Red Seed Potatoes

I've got five pounds (about 2.5 kilos) of white potatoes ad five pounds of red potatoes.  Both are the generic kind--no names.  I don't have a choice but to buy whatever is available at nursery and garden stores.

After cutting up the red potatoes before planting, I placed the pieces on a baking sheet and put them in a cool and airy room to rest, dry, and heal for a coupe of days.  This will somewhat prevent the potato pieces from rotting after planting.

While the potatoes were resting, I was busy making a furrow for planting the seed potatoes 4 inches deep, 8 inches apart and 36 inches between rows, give and take an inch here and there. The potatoes are planted with the cut surface down.

I covered the furrows with a thin layer of pine mulch and then planted the potatoes, covered them up with another thin layer of mulch along with a common commercial garden fertilizer such as 10-10-10, and finally covered the potatoes with soil.  (I made a row and a half,)

Red Seed Potatoes cut and resting

I believe that it is a good idea not to put fertilizer directly on the potatoes to prevent from burns.  Again, fertilize the shoots when they are about 6 - 8 inches tall. The shoots should start showing within 2 - 3 weeks after planting.

This is also a good time to start hilling up the potato shoots to give them more room to grow and to prevent direct sunshine that will make them green and toxic.

It may take 80 - 115 days from planting to harvest.  To test maturity, dig up a sample and if the skin does not come off too easy when rubbed, the potatoes are ready for harvesting.

Sources:  Me and the Garden Help in The Florida Times Union

Happy Gardening!

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