Red Potatoes

I've been told that cut potato pieces with eyes should be in the ground by Valentines Day.  (Lytton Springs, Texas 29.992 N.)  Dear Wife insisted that the cut pieces should air-dry before they are planted, so this year I cut them and basically forgot them for a week.  (They were really dry, almost like potato chips.)  When I planted them, it turns out there were not enough, so I went to the feed store and bought some more Red seed Potatoes (La Sota) that were in a gunny sack from Minnesota.  I cut them, leaving one eye per piece, and planted them immediately.  I finished the bed in the garden with the chain link fence, and put the rest in our old garden that is fenced only with rusty barbed wire.  The seed potato pieces that were cut immediately and planted were the first to show, but the others (over dried) eventually caught up.  The soil in the old garden was topped with compost mixed extremely heavy with biochar made from converting logs from a slash pile. Basically, I've burned a pile of brush over the logs and stumps, etc, and as soon as the flames died down, extinguished the fire with about 100 gallons of acidic rainwater.  There seems to be very little ash, and quite a few pieces of smaller logs that get thrown in the firewood pile.
The potato plants are only six to eight inches apart in soil enhanced with compost and charcoal.  There is no expensive sack fertilizer of any sort, and no sulphur.  They are so close together, the weeds don't have a chance, so I won't have to worry about hoeing or hilling.  (Sun can't get to the bottom of the plant to sunburn the potatoes.)

I screen the charcoal through rabbit wire which has 1/2" by 1" rectangular openings over a wheelbarrow, and then sift compost of top of it and mix it thoroughly and spread it over the bed where the potatoes will be planted.

The garden plot above is in mostly full sun, with some late afternoon shade.

This plot is in the old garden where little saplings on the fence have grown into tall trees.  There is quite a bit of shade, but when the sun is overhead, it is intense.  Remember, these potatoes are grown in Minnesota where there is a lot less radiation.  These are about six inches higher than the plants in full sun.
Hogs can get into this area, and I hope they do not discover tubers, because if they do, these three rows will be destroyed.  Neighbor in Dale tells me they may not bother them, although he has had them go through a sweet potato patch after they were plowed up. and the hogs were looking for small roots, rather than yams.

Here is a photo from March of 2016.  These were hit by a late frost, and recovered.

Photo from 2018 taken on March 17

Another photo from 2016, showing a 5 gallon bucket for size comparison.

In 2016, the potatoes were planted on Jan 28th.

This year, they were planted on 6 Feb, much closer than in previous years.

A photo from April of 2016.  Can't wait!
June 6, 2020  The six foot high Lambsquarters are shielding the potatoes from the sun.  I believe this is a good thing, else the potatoes would be cooked in the soil.  We are still digging them as needed.  Mashed potatoes, potato salad, potato-Leek soup, and roasted potato slices with plenty of seasoning (my favorite).  The roasted potato slices should resemble the french fries from McDonalds.  If 5# of them are made at once, it is best to throw a bag in the freezer, and then make some more in the oven.  (Until we run out of freezer space...)  Donna just found a recipe for making potato salad in the Instant-Pot pressure cooker where the freshly dug potatoes and eggs are cooked at the same time.  (Yeah, scrub them eggs.)  Early season new potatoes were difficult to cook, and took much longer than normal resulting in a few potato salads that had hard uncooked potatoes.  Now that we are into the season, they cook quicker, especially with nature running the thermometer into the mid-nineties.)