Potato Experiment

I planted three types of potatoes back in February. The date here for planting potatoes is around Valentines Day. 

I'm not even sure what varieties I planted. I really need to keep better records. But this year has been a little disrupted and I felt lucky to get anything planted this spring. So maybe I'll start that next year.

One was red. So maybe Red LaSota. One was brown with rough motley skin, maybe White Kennebec. The other a smooth more yellow skin, probably Yukon Gold.

Potatoes seem to grow really well here. Plus they're very easy to plant, tend, and harvest. This year I did a little experiment with the "seed" potatoes. I saved one of my best potatoes from last June and left it out to sprout. I mostly forgot about it sitting on the vegetable stand. It had really sprouted by February. (Sorry, I didn't take a photo of that.) I did this for a couple of reasons. One, to see how long a potato could sit out and sprout and still be plantable. I knew previous generations had done this in a root cellar, but I don't have one so it just sat in the kitchen. Two, to see if I could become independent from having to buy "seed" potatoes in the spring. And three, just because I like experiments. I think this was the Yukon Gold. It did well, so I'm saving one from this season.

A second experiment was to plant potatoes that I'd bought at the grocery store to eat, but that had sat out too long and sprouted. My theory was, if they were a variety good enough to sell, and we liked to eat them, then they'd be a good variety to grow. These were the other two. They did really well. I have saved a nice red one for next year, but decided I'm not so keen on the thick skin one.

I'm tacking on a couple of photos of the stranger shaped ones. For giggles. And the last photo is of the three potatoes I'm saving, along with a couple of sweet potatoes I've been sprouting and will be my next experiment.