Real life. How we plant and save our potato seed (and it works)!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2023
- Your potato's sprouts are out of control! 1 foot, 2 foot, even 3 feet long! Don’t toss them. Plant them! We’ll share everything you need to know about planting potatoes with long sprouts!
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New subscriber here. EXCELLENT video! Straight to the point. No fluff introduction that wastes peoples time and you didn't miss any of the questions I had that I was looking for. I also never wait a day or two if I decide to cut the potatoes. I have always had great success. This is the first year that I have my own seed potatoes from last years harvest. Thank you so much for the very well done video. Don't change anything with your information technique. Straight to the point. No need to "sell" yourself. Your content will do that for you.
Really appreciate your feedback and kind words! All the best with planting your own seed potato this year and thanks for watching!
I know a lot of folks don't have a second refrigerator but I have an old one in my basement. Took the egg sized potatoes before they sprouted, popped them into cardboard egg cartons, others just wrapped in newspaper and put them in the fridge at 42 degrees (put digital thermometer in there and played with it until I had that temp). Stored almost 20 lbs in the bottom drawers No sprouting from August to April. Took them out, put in mild sun to chit them in my parlor. Got my own seed potatoes. Will repeat again this year, cause it worked great.
Awesome! Thanks for the tip! The long sprouted potatoes definitely aren't optimal so this might be something for us to look into more in the future. Thanks for watching!
I do this for years, put hem in the cooling in winter and take them out 2 or 3 weeks before planting. This year and also last year, we had tooo much rain, so the are not planted yet. Maybe next week but they expect more rain but not as cold as it was last weeks.🙈
@@FromScratchFarmsteadjust put potatoes into as much as light over winter even in warm Environment.. sprouts will be small and strong
Finally someone who addresses this issue ,without telling you to get rid of these sprouts/ potatoes!
Thank you from Wales. Uk.
A french gardener in her making.[ PS:too much rain here, for the last 6 months……potatoes would be swimming in the ground! 😂I use raised beds for my potatoes, or big plastic pots]
So good to hear from you and thanks for the comment! We've had a wet spring here too in the midwest US. Wish you the best this growing season! Thanks for watching!
2 important planting tips that were missed:
- Know your variety if it is determinate or indeterminate. The former spread horizontally and hilling is not needed. The latter goes vertical so either hill it or grow in buckets.
- The more sprouts on a potato, the more new potatoes it produces, but smaller in size. If you want large taters to eat, limit sprouts to 1 or 2. If you want tons of new seed potatoes, leave as many sprouts as you can.
Thanks for adding those tips! I've noticed our potatoes have grown on the smaller side, which makes sense with what you mentioned. Thanks for watching!
I was running short on seed Potatoes one year but i had broken off the sprouts .
I figured i had tons of space to experiment so i planted just the Sprouts in a fairly large area to see if they would grow or not.
To my surprise they Grew just FINE !
I planted them leaving them sticking up out of the ground a few inches .
Nobody would have noticed a differance in yield from seed or just the sprouts in what i harvested if i had not told them what i had done.
Wow, that's incredible! I'm continually amazed by the resilience of this plant! Thanks for watching!
In 2023, as an experiment, I removed the long shoots from some of the potatoes about 3 months before I planted them. Those which had the shoots removed, re-grew 3-inch long shoots before planting. I planted them in separate rows. Those with the long shoots took 14 more days to emerge from the soil and the rows were not filled out as well as those which had the shoots removed. I did not make a note on which method produced a better harvest.
This year I am repeating the experiment. Those with long shoots only have one or two, while those which I broke off 3 months ago now have four or more shoots.
Storing the potatoes in a warmer area during the winter keeps the shoots shorter, either that, or giving them better ventilation keeps them shorter.
Also, if you keep potatoes in storage (for up to 18 months), they get rubbery. Wash and scrub them clean, leave the skins on, cut into 3/8-inch cubes, and fry in oil. They will be some of the best fried potatoes you ever had.
That is super interesting! Thanks for sharing! I would definitely agree that letting the sprouts get to this stage is not ideal and more can be done to produce more optimate seed potatoes. We'll have to experiment more with pulling the sprouts sooner in the future.... if we can find the time for it :) Thanks for watching!
I'm only a garden grower in UK so much smaller scale but my seed potatoes always have long sprouts on, like yours, when I come to plant them in the spring. It's not surprising really as they're from a June harvest so it's 8 months or so between harvest/saving and planting which is quite a long time. Anyway, I used to always rub the long sprouts off and 'chit' the 'trimmed' seed potatoes before planting until a couple of years ago when I did this with about half my stock but left the sprouts on the other half. I still 'chitted' the potatoes with the long sprouts, which turned from white to purple. When I came to harvest, I got about 20% more yield (total weight) from the potatoes that I'd left the sprouts on so I've always left them on since then. I know it's only a small scale trial but it supports the view that the seed potato has used energy to create the initial sprouts so taking them off is a 'waste' of this spent energy. Good video, thanks.
Very interesting - thanks for sharing your experience!
I want to add to your information re hilling vs not hilling. The secret to that is this: determinate potato varieties do not need nor will they benefit from hilling. They are predetermined to set only so many babies UNDER GROUND along the roots they produce. Indeterminate potato varieties on the other hand do benefit from hilling because they will grow and produce upward as the plant grows upward, so adding more soil to the plants is beneficial. Just google the varieties you look for or are able to plant to see which kind it is.
Thanks for sharing, that's very helpful! The issue I've had with some of our not-so-common varieties of potatoes is not being able to research which type they are. But they seem to behave like determinate. Thanks for watching!
@FromScratchFarmstead thanks for the info on planting with long sprouts! I enjoyed this video.
This year I'm trying something I've wanted to for years.
I'm planting an indeterminate variety with a tire around it, then I'm going to add tires as it grows and hill it up all growing season. I'm hoping for a HUGE harvest!
At the end of the year, you just knock the tires over, minimal digging. 😊
The video I have been looking for. Short and straight to the point. Excellent! Thank you!
Great! So glad it's helpful!
Potatos are such an important vegetable to know how to grow, and rather easy too.🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Couldn't agree more! And tasty too!! Thanks for watching!
Great video. Just planted a bunch of these a few days ago. Longest stalks I'd had before at about 15 to 18 inches. Intuitively I did what you suggested here, but it's great to see you do this regularly. Thanks
Nice! The yields have been good year after year for us but we have found the size of the potatoes seems to get a bit smaller as you go. We haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I'm guessing one of these years we'll get new seed potato again to kind of restart the process. Thanks for watching!
Straight forward and well explained. Thank you now i can peacefully go plant 150 lbs of yellow potatoes that sprouted 12 inch on me. Thank you :) cheers
We are doing the same thing here! :) Hope you have a great harvest!
Thank you for the tips. I had 3 boxes of red potatoes that looked like a science project gone bad. They had sprouts 8-10 inches long and i almost tossed them out. I will plant them and get 200 plants. Thanks again
You're welcome! Good luck!!
My grandpa taught me yrs ago to dip the cuts in wood ashes. His theory was it kept some insects from invading the potatoes. We are in SE Texas with plenty of insects.
Not sure if it's BS, but I've always done it. And it works for me.
Interesting! Never heard this before.
Wood ash has very beneficial nutrients in it, and a natural fertilizer.
Thank you! Beginning gardener here. Last summer’s crop of potatoes was my first and have been a bit dismayed to see the long sprouts exactly like those you showed. I have been assuming they would be of no value. I am delighted you shared this! I will subscribe and hope to learn more as you share your experience and knowledge.
So glad it was helpful and hope they produce well for you! Thanks for watching!
Well Thanks a lot. This year we will do it. This is the exact issue that we have this year. You Rock!!!!!!! Bruce from Western Canada.
You're welcome!! All the best this growing season!
Mounding is only beneficial with indeterminate varieties, of which there aren't very many. Most potatoes are determinate, or so I believe.
Good to know! Most of ours seem to behave like determinate. Thanks for watching!
Thank you. I have in past planted them with sprout out. Not as good a yield but I did still get some. Good tip to dig them in as well I havesome to try.
You're welcome! Glad this was helpful!
I'm going to plant my next year's potatoes this late fall. I'm always getting taters from 1s that I missed I missed last year. I'm doing that with onions as well. Garlic and onion are in the same family. It's 1 less headache in the spring. They know when to start growing better than us. I'm living in SE Ohio area.
Love these tips! Thanks! We always have rogue potato plants sprout up too that we miss the first time 😊
I had no idea determinate or indeterminate potatoes existed. Thought that was only tomatoes. That settles a argument with my friends who say you have to hill them to get them to produce. It poss cut down on weeds but its never increased my output. So my taters must be determinate. Great video. I just planted some long eyes the same way you did.
From what I've heard, most varieties of potatoes are determinate. Hope you have a great growing season! Thanks for watching!
Awesome video! We have hard, red clay soil here, so we use raised beds. The cost of the bed materials, soil, etc. is quite expensive, but worth every penny come harvest time 😊
Clay can be so tough for growing potatoes! Glad you're able to work around it and, YES, so worth the investment! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this video. This is what our potatoes look like and I've been wondering if I would be able to plant them or if I would have to get some seed potatoes. In NW Wisconsin, I like to plant mine after June 15 as that helps reduce the number of potato bugs that I'll have in the garden. Just this weekend we've been able to get in the garden and begin planting - definitely an exciting time of the year.
Glad it was helpful! That's a good tip with planting later to try and miss the potato bugs. Those guys sure are bothersome. This definitely is a fun time of year in the garden 🙂 Thanks for watching!
One year I planted literally bone dry potatoes that had shriveled completely... AND THEY GREW LOL! Just plugged them in to see what would happen and I got about 15 pounds of potatoes from about a half a pound of shriveled potatoes (which is what they weighed BEFORE they shrank...) so potatoes are EXTREMELY forgiving. They are a bit smaller at harvest, though, so I would grow in containers or in other areas rather than in the main potato area. I'm still getting new sprouts in my garden that I didn't plant from the last two years of having potatoes in a spot. But I'm in TN.
Awesome.
❤😊
That's awesome! Yes, they are definitely forgiving. Thanks for watching!
After so much research I landed on your video! I just bought a crate of red pontiac seed from a farmer a few days ago and due to our crazy weather here in Ohio they are quickly coming out of dormancy! I came so close to trimming those sprouts off 😮
Glad this was helpful!! All the best this growing season :)
Excellent video!
Thank you! This is exactly the information I needed!
Glad this was helpful!!
Our potatoes grow wild eyes by spring as well. The hardest part is just trying not to break the eyes off. We are running a little behind this year but we finally just got ours in the ground a couple days ago.
Yes, untangling the mess and keeping everything intact can be tedious! You may be better off waiting a bit... we got ours in earlier than we normally do this year but the weed pressure has been way higher. Hope everything grows great and thanks for watching!
Wow, never seen sprouts like that! I'd say that's a great method 👍🏽
Yep that’s what all of my last years harvest potatoes look like now. Planting soon but trying the Ruth Stout method with hay instead of straw.
Someone else mentioned this method... will need to give it a try! Thanks for watching!
Thank you thank you thank you ...Exactly what I needed to know!
You're welcome!
Exactly what I was looking for in a video.thamks for the info! :)
Glad it was helpful and thanks for watching!
It's very helpful! I didn't know I didn't have to hill the potatoes!
Glad it was helpful! Some potato varieties are indeterminate in which case they'll do best if you mound them. But many varieties are determinate and don't require mounding. Thanks for watching!
When I was a kid, I remember being scared to go get potatoes for my mom because of the scary sprouts. Question: how do you select for the seed potatoes? Do you save all the scrawny little ones for seed? I’m worried if I do that, I’ll get small potatoes. Thx for the trench idea…will try that next year.
Our biggest criteria for seed potato is to make sure they're not damaged in any way. Honestly, beyond that we don't do that much separating besides portioning out the amount we need. But I know selecting from the biggest, healthiest looking plants in regular seed saving is usually what's recommended, so I imagine saving your best looking potatoes is a good strategy. Thanks for watching!
I too planter my sprouting reds about 4 maybe 5 inches deep. I too mound them as they come up. Hopefully mine turn out.
EXCELLENT VIDEO THANK YOU! Plant 6-8" apart. Keep long sprouts on the potato and lay down sideways with sprouts facing in one directions repeating with all facing the same direction. If cut your potatoes into pieces, put cut side down (you can wait 2+ days once you cut, but he has also just put them into the ground freshly cut). Mound soil up over the potatoes, time planting it before a big rain if possible. Keep them moist. Should see greens about 1 week later. After 3 months you can start harvesting.
Thanks for sharing this run down!
@@FromScratchFarmstead Your video is a keeper! Way more points you mentioned than what I took notes of. Bookmarking for future reference :) You'd laugh if you could see how long the sprouts are on some I need to plant!
Thanks for the great info!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this good information 😊
You bet! Thanks for watching!
potatoes I save myself for the next year sprout much faster and grow more vigorously than seed potatoes I have bought. I also store my seed potatoes in the fridge until around February when I take them out to wake them up under a grow light.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
Great idea. I'm going to try that next year here in the UK 🇬🇧
Awesome! Good luck with it and thanks for watching! 🥔
Great info... thanks 😊
You bet! Thanks for watching!
good idea !
Oops. Wish I had this video two days ago: I have planted my spider potatoes seeds with a third of the stems sticking up out of the ground. Doh!
Whoops! I'll be curious to hear how they do... my guess is you might still be ok and see them grow. Here's to hoping! Thanks for watching!
So how did your potatoes do? I just did this , left some sticking out
@@eileenharder2473 they did GREAT!
great to-the-point video. you answered my questions. thanks. sub'd
Thanks so much for watching!
You can just put the Cut side into ash from wood and they are protected from deseases
Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome thank you !
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
One year I had potatoes growing from my potatoes in the storage room, I cut mine the same day that I plant and always have good luck, tho as a 1400acre potato farmer it is just easier to cut our seed a couple weeks before we plant, we grow indeterminate potatoes so we hill ours, we also plant at 6” deep to start and about 13” apart
Wow, that's a lot of potatoes! Thanks for sharing and watching!
@@FromScratchFarmstead to make it sound like more I could say it’s only 60,000,000 lbs lol
I was afraid of ours 😂 thank you so much!
Ha, can't blame you! Thanks for watching!
Curious - do you always plant your potatoes in the same row or do you till a new row each year? Thanks for sharing your content!🙂
We keep the same rows but rotate what’s planted in them. Potatoes especially is one that you’re not supposed to plant in the same place to avoid pests. We rotate between potatoes and planting the three sisters - corn, beans, squash. Thanks for watching!
dont store them as they start to sprout in the dark, indirect light stops the sprouts going like that and doesnt green the spuds
Good to know! We'll need to try that. Thanks for watching!
Green spuds are good for planting too. No need to disregard those. 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Have you ever had luck getting a yield this way? From my experience, they need to be about 14” apart and when they expend their energy on those sprouts, you won’t get much yield. I throw in a handful of 10-10-10 on each seed and water it before covering. I look forward to a follow up showing how yours turn out, as I always toss the long sprouted ones.
Hey there! We have planted them this way for a couple years in a row now and had good yields each time. Last fall (which was from the same planting that this video was made) we harvested over 300 lbs. of potatoes from a 150' row. Pretty much each plant we dug up had produced a good amount of tubers. And that was with a good amount of weed pressure :) I wouldn't say we've noticed significantly less of a yield planting this way, but the potatoes do seem to grow a bit smaller in size year after year. Thanks for watching!
I would not waste any, no matter the size of the sprouts. I would lay the sprouts sideways, and cover most with the soil, and hope for many potatos. They do want to grow.🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
If you don't want green potatoes (not edible) throw a little soil on them. Or straw.
Good idea! Thanks for watching!
My situation right now with my seed potatoes from my Fall harvest. Self chitted sprouts that are crazy long. I didnt know if I should cut sprouts or only leave a few long sprouts per seed potato? Or just plant in my grow bags. I prefer grow bags, compared to in ground planting and had 40# of potatos last season with 6 bags (10-20# capacity for dirt).
We've never tried the grow bags but that sound intriguing! The long sprouts in the ground has worked well for us. Thanks for watching!
tis lack of light that have them looking like that, not that they are not in the soil...blessings to all
Thanks for watching!
I forgot to ask if you use any fertilizers when you plant?
Hi there! We do typically add something for fertilizer. At a minimum I'll usually mix some of our homemade compost into the soil before planting. But we also have pelletized chicken manure we usually mix in. Any fertilizer option you have available to add fertility to the soil should help! Thanks for watching!
Great video, new subscriber here 😊
So glad this was helpful! Thanks for being here!
Is there a sign that they are ready to harvest or just try at 3 months? I threw 2 in a barrel of soil.Hoping they work. Great video BTW
Once the plant above ground dies back, they are ready to harvest. You can harvest them sooner if you want, they might just not be fully grown and probably wouldn't store as well. Sometimes you can even just dig up a few potatoes, leave the plant there, and let it continue to grow. Thanks for watching!
TL;DW: Have the sprouts sideways along the trench
👍
Thank you very much! Do you prefer to plant determinate or indeterminate potato varieties?
You bet! I believe most of what we grow is determinate but I'm not real sure to be honest. We prefer to do less mounding and just plant and leave them be if possible. Thanks for watching!
QUESTION... what would you suggest can be interplanted with potatos, if you only have minimal space and want to get the most out of what is available to you. Fast growing radishes come to my mind, but I have yet to try that. Any suggestions??🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
That's a good question. The foliage of the potato plant itself ends up being pretty large and sprawling above ground. So you wouldn't want to plant anything too close to them. If you're talking about in rows next to them, then i wouldn't think most any veggie could do fine. I haven't specifically looked into if there are companion plants that specifically benefit potatoes thought, and vice versa. Now we plant them in rows on their own, but when we had smaller garden area living in the suburbs our potato row was next to something like carrots or beets and both did fine. The tubers can be rather sprawling underground too, so you have to account for that. If you try something and have success, let me know! Thanks for watching!
You wouldn’t need to waste so many taters a couple of ways . First store them in a cooler place , if your house basement is too warm did a root cellar . Or periodicly after 8:15 harvest rub off the sprouts anytime they are 1/2” - 1 inch long , this will help the taters stay firm and not mushy or rubbery
Good tips! We'd definitely love to go through the potatoes more regularly once sprouts start and knock them off but finding the time to do so is another story 🙂. Thanks for watching!
WOW- you are 'a seed' of info- thanks!
Ha! Thanks for watching!
Excellent info...may YAH Bless
Thanks so much for watching!
So do we mound up around the new green plant that comes up after your potatoes come up? Its only my 2nd year with taters thank you for the advice
You certainly can! Sometimes it depends how they grow in terms of how much mounding they need. We prefer to plant them a bit deeper to start to avoid mounding up if possible throughout the season. Good luck to you! Thanks for watching!
QUESTION... how deep do you plant your seed potatos??
🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Question…….did you watch the video?
We typically plant them somewhere in the 8-12" range. Thanks for watching!
Im planting Okinawan sweet potatoes, is that what yours are? (Purple inside)
We planted Adirondack blues and magic Mollys!
So is it actually better or worse or the same as using seed potato with just eyes?
does this give better results ,faster or higher yields?
I wouldn’t say it’s better… we were mainly trying to show that it’s possible. When the sprouts get that long the potato has already expended a lot of its energy to get to that point so it starts out at a bit of a disadvantage than a normal seed potato. But once established they generally do fine. Many claim you’ll get smaller yields, which we haven’t necessarily found to be the case, but we do get smaller sized potatoes it seems going this route. Hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
Is there a video on how to save them?
Hey! I think this video shows more of how we store them: th-cam.com/video/l1X9toy4yGk/w-d-xo.html. There may be better long term storage methods out there. But it's simple and it works for us. Thanks for watching!
I have to use 5 gallon buckets , there’s no way I can lay down most of my hairy seeds potatoes from last year, the sprouts are too long. Any suggestions ? Trim? Will they survive or should I just purchase new?
Are they longer than the ones we are showing? We've had some crazy long sprouts and they still always grow and produce potatoes. From our research I don't recommend trimming because you're setting the potato back. But if you do need to trim, I imagine that's better than removing the whole sprout. Or if you're really questioning it, buying new seed potato as you mention may be a fine option. That will probably give you the best production. Thanks for watching!
Hi I live in Ontario zone 5 B I just bought my first poto and eyes are like 12" long. Wish me luck. I have top soil and phagnum peat moss lime granular fertilizer and compost what do you say😊
Hi there! Sounds like you've got a good shot at growing some potatoes! The peat moss, top soil mix with fertilizer should provide a nice light and airy medium for the potatoes to do their thing. Wish you the best and thanks for watching!
Won't those fry in the sun after being in a dark place for so long?
They aren't out for long before they get buried. Thanks for watching!
Do you treat indeterminate potatoes a different way..such as hilling them???
Hi there! To be honest, I've had little luck researching if the varieties we have are determinate or indeterminate. So at this point we treat all of them like they are determinate and don't do any mounding. Plus that's less work throughout the season for us :) Occasionally some potatoes will surface to the top, but we typically grow so many that I'm not concerned about the few that do. Thanks for watching!
Growing potatoes is not rocket science but thanks for video
Thanks for watching!
If I had that much land, I would use the Ruth Stout Gardening method. I use it in small raised beds..no digging , no weeding ,no fertilizers. Just covered with hay and walk away. Harvest just pull back the hay. Easy. Simple.
That sounds lovely! We'll have to really consider that in the future to reduce weed pressure. Thanks for watching!
I've tried that method three times and found that the mice chewed up the tubers, and we lost 50% of the crop. Bury the spuds. Mice don't dig.
@@hughcoutts4020 makes sense. Thanks!
Water growing could save dying children
Thanks for watching!
Oh, I clipped mine down till they were about 2 to 3 inches long and then planted them shit we’ll see what happens
Ha! Whoops. Depending on how much eneregy is still stored up in the potato itself, they may turn out just fine for you! Thanks for watching!
I would also lay those clipped sprouts in the ground, hoping they too produce something...🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Can you just CUT them down to 20% of the length?
I was wondering this.
Forgot a bunch of potatoes in the garage.
Needless to say. 1,5ft long sprouts.
No way I’m wasting food.
Threw them in the ground your way.
Let’s see what comes out ;)
Hopefully you get a great potato harvest! :)
Thanks for watching!!
You talk a lot…. LOL. ;)
Too much talking not enough planting
Thanks for the feedback and watching!
Thanks
You're welcome!
Excellent video!
Thank you!