You probably should know about this.

Here is a link that might be useful: EB0958 Late Blight of Potato and Tomato and Its Control in the Home Garden

I think potatoes are second only to tomatoes in terms of vegetable growing popularity - we sure sell a lot of them at the nursery. A generous harvest for not very much effort and with a lot fewer growing issues than tomatoes, too. The varieties that seem to do the best here are thin skinned ones - the 'new' potatoes, 'Yukon Gold', redskin, fingerlings, etc. The russet or baking types with thicker skins are not as productive for home gardens.

You'll find the starts available at nurseries (and other places) in late winter, about the same time bare root stock really hits the market. Potatoes are a cool season crop, so benefit from being planted early and well-established before hot weather hits, which can cause them to bolt.

It's not local, but the UI extension bulletin on growing potatoes contains great info and the process is exactly the same here.

Here is a link that might be useful: growing potatoes

Thanks for the information. I'm going to give them a try late blight or no late blight.

We tend to choose 'Yukon Gold' here on Camano, whether buying them at the store or growing our own.

The native peoples in Island County were encouraging and consuming nettles before European settlers introduced them to potato cultivation, which they took to like ducks to water.

Oak Harbor was the favored place for early agricultural efforts.

Yukon Gold was one of the ones I was definately going to try.

Try some of the fingerlings too - these are great roasted and cost a fortune at the grocery. I like the Russian Banana.

I have real good luck with the French Fingerling. Get something like 13 pounds from one pound of sets under optimal conditions. Tried planting mid-March last year, it was too early and they got burned by frost three times. The batch I planted on Earth Day was ready at about the same time as the early planting and was, not surprisingly, a better yield.

I have missed digging some potatoes on occasion, and these begin to grow really early. From these, I have dug new potatoes in May. New potatoes cooked in their skin with a little mint in the water, slathered with butter -- best meal in the springtime.

I had great luck with new potatoes and the russets that I grew were small, all of the larger ones had brown spots or hollow centers, which I told was water rot.
This year I am going to try yukon gold and new potatoes again.

For really early nugget potatoes, I like Warba. They are often ready in May and have that wonderful new potato taste. I found that a piece of plastic for frost protection helped a lot when planted very early.

I also had good success with Bintje this year, an excellent late season variety something like Yukon (which are fairly early) but I confess that I liked Bintje even better than the very popular Yukon.