The straw keeps the soil temperature more uniform and about 10☏ cooler, reduces water loss and results in better-shaped tubers. In addition to weed control, strawing has several other advantages. Harvest by carefully removing the straw and picking up the tubers that lie on the soil surface. Pull any weeds that manage to emerge through the straw cover and add more straw through the season if decomposition starts to thin the layer. Potato sprouts should emerge through the straw cover. Place loose straw 4 to 6 inches deep over the seed pieces and between the rows. Potatoes grown by a special cultural method in that they are not hilled or cultivated after planting are called "straw potatoes." The seed pieces and rows should be spaced the same as for conventional cultivation, but the seed pieces are planted at the soil surface. The 24 inch spacing is often beneficial because the plants shade the soil and prevent high soil temperatures that inhibit tuber development. Plant seed pieces 10 to 12 inches apart and cover in a furrow between 1 and 3 inches deep. Small, whole, certified seed potatoes are often the best choice for home gardeners. These may be too small for optimal production. Some garden centers and seed suppliers sell "potato eyes" that weigh less than an ounce. Be sure that there is at least one good "eye" in each seed piece. These seed pieces may be small whole potatoes or potatoes that are cut into 1-1/2 to 2 ounce pieces. Potatoes are started from "seed pieces" rather than from true seed. Late potatoes are best for winter storage. Midseason and late varieties may be planted as late as the first of July. Medium-early plantings, when soils have dried and warmed, may do as well as extremely early, winter-defying plantings. Plants usually recover fully, but the blackened shoots are always demoralizing to the gardener. Potatoes planted in March also may be frozen back to the ground by late frosts. Planting too early in damp, cold soils makes it more likely that seed pieces rot before they can grow. Early, midseason and late varieties all may be planted in March or early April. Potatoes are among the earliest vegetables planted in the garden. If the flavor of these market potatoes suits you, look for seed of Yukon Gold. Many grocery stores around the country now feature some name-brand version of "golden" potatoes, usually this variety. Yukon Gold is a very early bearer of large, round, attractive tubers with a hint of pink around the eyes. Long popular in Europe, these have good flavor and moist flesh, which many people claim requires less of the fattening condiments required by dry-as-dust Russet Burbanks. Yukon Gold is the most famous of the new wave of yellow-fleshed varieties now available. For dependable production in all seasons and the greatest-tasting baked potato ever, Green Mountain is worth the effort to find certified seed. Due to a fairly high number of misshapen tubers, it has all but disappeared from commercial production. Green Mountain is an old semi-rough white variety noted for its great taste. Kennebec (light brown skin, smooth resistant to some viruses, late blight)
#WHEN TO HARVEST POTATOES SKIN#
Katahdin (light brown skin smooth resistant to some viruses, verticillium, bacterial wilts) Norland (red skin, smooth, resistant to scab) Irish Cobbler (light brown skin often irregularly shaped) If possible, use northern-grown seed potatoes that are certified disease free. The following varieties are well adapted to a variety of conditions. Common garden varieties offer better taste, texture and cooking quality for home use anyway. Russet Burbank is the most important commercial variety produced in the United States, but the weather over most of the country is too warm and the moisture fluctuation too great for the production of smooth tubers and good yields.
Some russets and yellow-fleshed types are also grown. White-skinned (actually very light brown) and red-skinned varieties with white flesh are the most common in home gardens. There are more than 100 varieties of potatoes. Potatoes withstand light frosts in the spring and can be grown throughout most of the country in the cooler part of the growing season, but they prefer the northern tier of states for maximal yield and quality. The tubers fail to form when the soil temperature reaches 80☏.
Potatoes are not roots but specialized underground storage stems called "tubers." Maximal tuber formation occurs at soil temperatures between 60° and 70☏. The white potato is referred to as the "Irish potato" because it is associated with the potato famine in Ireland in the 19th century. Potato is a cool-season vegetable that ranks with wheat and rice as one of the most important staple crops in the human diet around the world.
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