POTATOES

If you like potatoes, you’re in luck here at high elevation! Potatoes are one of the things that grow very well here. We’ve often heard stories of homesteaders who came to the mountains of Colorado and grew potatoes. I used to wonder about that, since so much of the soil is rocky, but they must have gotten their draft horses and ploughs to till the soil and removed the rocks by hand. I’m glad we have those raised beds!

One caveat: As I say all over the place in this website, “Every Year Is Different.” Some years I have HUGE harvests of potatoes, other years the harvest is disappointing. I cannot quantify reasons for this. Same varieties of potatoes, planted using the same method, different harvest every year. See more details below.

This photo shows the potato plants growing and overflowing their beds. They were so tall and sprawled out the sides, I eventually pruned the plants back, hoping they’d put more energy into the potatoes, rather than the plants.

HIGH ELEVATION GROWING TIPS:
POTATOES

Knowing that potatoes require somewhat acidic soil (pH 5-6), we need to plan ahead to acidify the soil in the beds to be used for potatoes. Each fall those beds are chosen. I add some pine needles to break down in the soil over the winter, and mulch those beds with more pine needles. We have plenty of pine needles laying around. They don’t add a lot of acid, but I like to use what I have on hand. When those beds are prepared for planting in the spring I add soil acidifiers from the garden center to lower the pH, along with compost and an all-around fertilizer.

Weather permitting, potatoes are generally planted May 15, about a month prior to our average last frost date. I prepare the potatoes by cutting them and “chitting” them. Trenches are dug in the soil about 8-10” deep with the excess soil from those trenches piled along the edges. The seed potatoes are placed in the trenches and topped with a couple of inches of soil, then pine needle mulch. My “companion planting” list tells me that it is helpful to add comfrey leaves to the trench when planting, so I’ve been doing that as well.

Since the potatoes are underground, some light frosts are acceptable prior to sprouting, however I am ready to cover potatoes with frost cloth after they sprout as needed. The tender potato plants are quite susceptible to freezing.

As the potatoes begin to grow taller, the trenches are gradually filled in with soil until eventually the surface is even. As I fill the trenches, I remove and replace the pine needle or straw mulch, and after the trenches are completely filled in, I add more of the mulch as the plants grow, being sure that any potatoes growing near the surface are covered.

Potatoes are left in the ground as long as possible, as the ground provides the best storage area as the temperatures begin to drop. Our potatoes are generally harvested in late October, when we can still dig the soil before it freezes. Potatoes left in the soil too long will no longer be good–you don’t want them to freeze!

SEED POTATOES: PURCHASED OR SAVED?

Most books and websites highly recommend purchasing seed potatoes each year. I wondered why? Are these people all getting kickbacks from the companies that sell the “certified” seed potatoes? What’s the deal?

One year I purchased Pioneer Russet and Desiree potatoes online. These both did very well in my garden, and I was impressed. So, in the spring of the following year, I planted some of these as seed potatoes, in addition to some more seed potatoes I’d purchased.

Results: The Desiree seed potatoes I’d saved grew about the same as those purchased.

Cracked, thin-skinned Pioneer Russet

In the case of the Pioneer Russet, the seed potatoes I’d saved did much better than those purchased. In fact, I wondered whether the seed potatoes I ordered were really the same potato. They looked different than they had the first year, and they did not perform nearly as well. In the second year these potatoes were thin-skinned and many of them cracked in the ground prior to harvest. They were not nearly as abundant as they had been the first year.

"EVERY YEAR IS DIFFERENT"

I don’t really know why, but some years my potato harvest is lacking, when compared with other years. Even when planting the same potato varieties & using the same planting methods, I just cannot seem to control how well the potatoes will grow. There must be something about the weather that changes enough from year to year to affect the results.

One year I did try a different method, which resulted in a small harvest…. see below.

DON'T DO THIS!

One year I tried a new method after reading some articles & watching videos that suggested good success and easier harvesting. Instead of digging trenches in the beds, I laid the seed potatoes on the top of the soil and mulched very well over the top, increasing the depth of the mulch as the potatoes grew.

These potato PLANTS grew abundantly. They were tall & full and falling over early on. However, the POTATOES were somewhat small in size as well as in quantity. Other than that, they were very good, without blemishes. Unfortunately, I planted ALL the potatoes with this method that year, without leaving at least one section done the way I usually do. I don’t know if the small number & size was due to the varieties I’d chosen, the climate that year, or the method, but I highly suspect it was due to the method.

The following year I grew some of these same varieties from the potatoes I’d saved, and using the old trench method they did very well.

POTATO HARVESTING & STORAGE

We leave our potatoes in the ground as long as possible, so the ground will keep them fresh & cold. This allows us to store them as long as possible.

We dig up the potatoes, cure them in a dark place, unwashed, at about 60°F for a couple of weeks, then we place them in bins into our Cold Closet for long-term storage. The potatoes will keep there until the following spring, and are also in good enough shape to use as seed potatoes.