gretagreenthumb, your comment on the long sprouts reminded me of a similar incident a year ago. I had given my neighbor some red potatoes for his garden and he had saved some for seed by placing them in a crawl space. He called me over one day to show me how they had sprouted and the sprouts were sticking up nearly four feet. I laughed and told him I had a similar situation when I had saved some reds in a water heater closet and they would do just fine in the garden.
Here in Montana we plant our potatoes in shallow trenchs. Just deep enough to cover the whole potato, then we mound up about four times as the plants grow. We plant our potatoes about a foot apart in the trenches, so I told the neighbor to just lay the sprouts sidways in the trench and place the next seed potato right on top of the sprouts from the previous layed potatoes. He really didn't think it would work but he had a fine crop in the fall.
I place about 60 seed potatoes each in those cardboard flats we get from COSTCOS. The ones they get strawberries, etc., in, which are very sturdy. I then cover the potatoes with several layers of newspapers and shove them under the shelves in our attached, insulated, but unheated garage. This practice has given plenty of sprouts but none longer than several inches. Regardless the size of the sprout the potatoes do just fine.
GROWING POTATOES IN CONTAINERS - 2011 Discussion
Okay folks, planting time is getting closer for me! I'm so pumped! Checked on my taters this morning and they're sprouting!!
In lieu of wood ashes, what can I use after I cut them? I still have some ashes from last spring (thanks, Linda!), but I'm afraid I won't have enough. Can I use powdered potash?
