First harvest from container potatoes

[terracore]

----update, we harvested our first potatoes (skip to new posts to read)

----begin old original thread
I'm growing potatoes in containers for the first time, but cannot find a comprehensive list of indeterminate potatoes anywhere.

Any help?

[Lee M-S]

wouldn't you want determinate? spuds store well, dig them once and you're done...

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[terracore]

I'd rather have a container full of potatoes rather than just one layer on the bottom. This is still possible with determinate types but you have to plant the eyes at different depths.

[rainyjim]

Indeterminate varieties include "Russet Nugget," "Nicola," "German Butterball" and "Elba" potatoes.

Also see: http://ipcm.wisc.edu/download/vgu/Vegeta...0%2316.pdf

Good luck with your container gardening and don't hesitate to contact your local CTAHR extension office with any questions about home gardening.

[MarkP]

I planted some Russet potatoes from the supermarket that had started sprouting. They really took off but I think a couple of them have died off. My brother reported the same thing happening in Kapolei on Oahu. What typically kills potatos?

[terracore]

I'm not a novice yet, so can't relate from experience but here is a good starting point: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fb/potato/potato.htm

Did you grow in the ground, or in a container? I think there are a variety of blights in our soils that would make ground potatoes impractical. And apparently potatoes need both lots of water and also good drainage. Some people say that supermarket potatoes can't grow into viable potato producing plants, other people say that is a conspiracy perpetuated from the people who sell seed potatoes and there are youtube videos showing people using supermarket potatoes as seed and getting big yields.

We did plant a few russet eyes in a container (from a store potato) as an experiment and while I don't know whats going inside the pot, the green part of the plant is growing like crazy, way more growth than the seed potatoes.

[rainyjim]

Late blight of potato caused by Phytopthora (an oomycete - similar to fungi) is the most common disease in Hawaii. You may have heard of it when learning about the Irish potato famine; Phytopthora or plant destroyer... phyto - greek for plant and thor - the norse god of destruction.

Try to keep them in an area with good drainage to reduce phytopthora caused disease; also phosphoric and phosphorous acids may be used as fungicides to help manage the disease.

[Natasha]

Here on the mainland, any potato requires good drainage. That's why we plant them on mounds. That said, there's a huge difference between here and HI. Big green growth usually = teeny produce.

Natasha Ufema

[terracore]

We just harvested our first batch of experimental container potatoes.

We planted two 10-gallon containers with blue potatoes (bought as seed potatoes) and 1 container with russet from the store. Both performed similarly. We harvested early for new potatoes because we wanted to see if the experiment was working. It was. The yield was just over 4 times the potatoes out versus seed potatoes in (using the non-scientific "eyeballed" method). Both varieties were determinate, so the potatoes were only at the bottom of the container. Yield may have been higher if we let them continue to grow.

We have a 4th container ready to check but we didn't harvest yet. Feeling around we can tell it contains an indeterminate type and the potatoes on the top are big, however we brought it inside so that it can start drying out for harvest in a week or two (or else we'll have way too many potatoes).

We have other container potato experiments running with different varieties and I will update when we find out what's happening beneath the surface.

[microage97]

Cool!