Growing potatoes

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Contents 1 Potatoe Culture 2 Frequently Asked Questions FAQ on Potatoe Growing 2.1 Earthing Up Potatoes 2.2 Black Scab in Potatoes

Potatoe Culture

Any good, well-drained fibrous loam will produce Potatoes under right climate conditions. For early Po tatoes, which mature in eight to ten weeks from planting, soil must be particularly rich. A good complete fertilizer at the rate of one-half ton per acre, if applied broadcast, may be used directly for the potato crop. Open furrows three feet apart and three to four inches deep, then plant good sized pieces, each containing not less than two or three eyes, fifteen inches part in the furrows for early Potatoes, and eighteen inches apart for late ones. Spray with Bordeaux Arsenate or Lead Mixture or Paris Green for protection from the potato beetle. Eight to ten bushels will plant an acre.

Frequently Asked Questions FAQ on Potatoe Growing

Earthing Up Potatoes

Q. How and when should Potatoes be earthed up?

A. To cover the young growing tops with a large bulk of soil, as obtains in some gardens, is decidedly a mistake, for in so doing many shoots get badly broken or knocked off, consequently the growth is checked, and the crop suffers. I like to earth up our Potatoes twice during the season. First, by gently drawing a little soil to them when a few inches above ground, and again three weeks later. Previous to the latter earthing we go over the whole plot and remove all superfluous growths from each root, leaving only the two strongest ; at the same time a dressing of soot or wood ash is given. This during the earthing becomes incorporated with the soil, and has a wonderful influence on the foliage and the crop.

Black Scab in Potatoes

Q. My Potatoes are attacked by the black scab disease. Can it be cured?

A. The disease may be introduced with the seeds or sets, or it may be present in the soil from a diseased crop. If scabbed Potatoes are used for seed without having been sterilised, the resulting crop will almost certainly be diseased, and in addition the fungus will pass into the soil, where it is capable of living for several years. But scabbed Potatoes may be used for seed without the slightest danger of spreading the disease if they are immersed for two hours in a solution of pint of commercial formalin (formaldehyde 40 per cent.) mixed with 18 gallons of water. The Potatoes are then spread out to dry, when they may be cut and planted in the usual manner. Care must be taken after the Potatoes have been treated with the formalin solution that they are not used for food, and they should not be placed in sacks or hampers that have contained scabbed Potatoes. Land that has produced scabbed Potatoes should not be planted with Potatoes for several years afterwards. Beet, Swedes, Carrots, and Cabbages are also affected by the fungus ; cereals may be sown with safety on infected land. In the case of gardens and small allotments, where, of necessity, Potatoes are grown every year, the trenches in which the Potatoes are planted should be sprinkled with flowers of sulphur, this being done by means of a bellows apparatus. As you require 45 bushels of Potatoes for table use, you would need to plant j acre, the produce of 1 acre of late Potatoes being about 6 tons, and 45 bushels equals 22^ cwt, so that some margin will be left in excess to account for small or otherwise unusable tubers. It certainly pays allotment holders to grow their own Potatoes with land at Is. per rod, 8 per acre, also many private and public establishments ; your cost of labour, however, is high, 24s. per week, and that may make just all the difference between economical and unremunerative production.