Looks like Atwoods would be my closest. Thanks to all who answered previously.

Where to Buy Seed Potatoes Locally

Bon! I will be praying that Bill can find another job!
I've been there!

George

Thanks, George. We need Him more than ever.

Blessings

bon

Bon, I am sorry to hear Bill lost his job and hope he'll be able to find another one quickly. The economy has been so erratic the last few years, and we've known lots of people who've been downsized, etc., and had to really look hard and for a long time to find a new job. It can be very stressful but I know that y'all will stick together, tough it out and get through it. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, you know.

Even your local Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's and feed stores (like Tractor Supply Company or Orschlein's) have seed potatoes at the right time for planting, and usually they pop up in stores a good month or more before your actual planting time. I usually start seeing them in the stores in early January down here, and since you're further north you might not start seeing them until a couple of weeks after they start popping up in the stores here. The prices are usually better if you buy them in bulk at feed stores, farm supply stores or nurseries as opposed to buying them prepackaged in big box stores.

When the seed potatoes start popping up here in the stores in southern OK and western north Texas, I'll come back and post a message telling you that they are here, so you'll know to start watching for them at your stores up there.

Dawn

Dawn

That's very kind of you. But if you forget, that's okay. Knowing me I'll probably obsess and start asking questions before I even purchase them. LOL I'm really getting tired of this pattern with me, but find mental resolutions once I have some experience growing.

Bill and I were speaking of the varieties of potatoes and how they cook differently. It was fun to banter, but we'll be getting what we get and simply make do. I find any potato can make a decent creamed or mashed with changes in cooking temperature and length of cooking.

I guess it's no different than the variance amongst store-bought potatoes. I was relieved to find it isn't my lazy cooking techniques that ruins the mashed potatoes (or changes them), but dependent upon the availability of the variety carried in the store at that time of year.

At least with homegrown, I can make necessary adjustments on a more permanent basis and make them all while wearing a blind-fold. I make them so frequently for my family I'm sick of them! But love them, they do.

I'll be planning on trying to harvest about 600 lbs of potatoes within the 2 or (hopefully) 3 growing seasons we have.

This should be a logistical nightmare come harvest time(s), but something my obsessive mind can gnaw on and keep me busy. I'm prepping myself for failure, so I can just forget about it, dig and plant more. haha

Although I love the new potatoes, I find it is hard to keep them for very long. I only plant in the early Spring. This year I planted 3 kinds (all from Atwoods), and we ate all of the Yukon Gold very quickly. The only thing I have left are reds, Norland I think, and they are starting to sprout.

I only plant onions in Spring (mostly Candy). They are usually good until January, and of course, you can chop and freeze them to use all year in cooking.

That sound awesome... only planting in spring. Is it a lot you are required to store?

I know about spring and fall planting for potatoes. when is the 3rd planting I have not done well with fall potatoes the tend to be very small and the plants do not like the late summer heat and lack of rain

We will be praying for you I was unemployed for awhile yrs back and saw the stress on my wife trying to make ends meet

Thanks, oldokie!

I've never grown potatoes successfully before. They actually did well, but I was clueless to the growing seasons. that was 2 years ago. Our growing season might be too short for 3 plantings. But I can hope? I'm going by reading information online which might not be suitable to our area.

I have enough room, I might be able to get 3 plots going to split up the harvest of 600 lbs of potatoes using earlies for the spring plantings. I'm assuming with enough space I can plant the springs and, then, a month later plant the next batch, e.g. This part I haven't spent too much time thinking, but it's also dependent upon the variety I get my hands on.

Any suggestions are welcome. I just finished 2 beds for the potatoes and added sulfur to reduce the soil pH. Testing as at 7.2, a little high for taters. Wasn't certain how much sulfur so I went very easy. I don't have a lot of sulfur on hand, anyway.

Blessings!

bon

Bon, There are ways you can stretch out the growing season---like planting early-season, mid-season, and late-season types, but there aren't any potatoes that produce well in our heat in the dead of the summer. You would need to plant all your potatoes pretty much at the same time so they could mature before it gets too hot for them. If you plant too late, you'll get lovely, lush green plants that don't have time to form any tubers before the soil is too hot. With potatoes, they have to set and size up their tubers before soil temperatures reach a certain point because after the soil temps are too hot, that's just it and the potatoes aren't going to form any new tubers and the existing tubers aren't going to size up more than what they've achieved before the temps get too hot. With very thick mulch on the ground, you might be able to keep the potatoes setting and sizing new tubers for a month longer than someone who doesn't mulch their potatoes, but there's no guarantees.

No matter how or when I plant potatoes or what varieties I use, the single biggest factor that determines if the harvest will be small, average or large is soil temperature. You cannot trick potato plants into thinking the soil is cooler than it is, so you just have to work with the weather we have..

Storing potatoes is tricky in our climate, especially with the potatoes harvested in the heat of the summer, so when I raise more than we can eat fresh before they spoil, I preserve them via freezing or dehydrating them. Some years I have been able to store them in Rubbermaid under-the-bed storage containers in the spare room and they will last for several months, but they do eventually start going bad. They store better if they were raised in fairly dry conditions that left them with a lower natural moisture content. In wet years, I find the potatoes don't store nearly as long. The same thing is true of onions.

You could raise Irish potatoes for an early summer harvest and a fall/early winter harvest, and raise sweet potatoes for a fall harvest, with your fall Irish potato harvest falling slightly later than your sweet potato harvest. Sweet potatoes will last a surprisingly long time in storage if they are well-cured before being put into storage. Then, by the time your sweet potatoes are running out, you can fall back or dehydrated potatoes or frozen potatoes...until the next Irish potato crop is ready.

I agree with Oldokie that two plantings (spring and fall) are about the best you can hope for in OK with Irish potatoes. Our summer soil temps are too high for a summer crop, and our winter air temps and soil temps are too low for a winter crop. So, we plant in late winter or early spring for a harvest in the June-July time frame, and then we hope it won't get too hot too fast so they have time to make a good crop.

My soil tests around 6.8 now, but was in the low 8s (8.0 to 8.2) when we moved here, and I have grown potatoes successfully most years. I wouldn't fret too much about the soil pH because the potatoes are fairly forgiving and will tolerate soil more alkaline than the books say. : ) Books are great for info, as are websites and forums, but you'll find that you often will get different results than what "they" say you will.

Dawn

Thank you, Dawn! I'm glad to hear about the pH. I really hate to alter anything.

After reading your post I went back to the Oklahoma State University Potato Guide for a review and find:

"Potatoes should never be planted in fields that have been
in sod or grass the previous year. By avoiding this situation,
one greatly decreases the chance of having wireworm and
grubworm problems."

This is a new area previously populated by bermuda, plantain, nettle and wild sorghum, quack grass as well as some white clover and lambs ears.

I'll be using the Sluggo Pro on the soil as we discussed prior. for the cutworms and grub worms. I have seen wireworms as I continue to lift the soil but not a lot. Of course, I see the icky click beetles, too. Everything I read says there's not much treatment for wireworms other than avoid feeding them (and they don't prefer potatoes, actually).

Now I'm wondering if I should limit planting next year to see what happens and plant something else in their beds.

I plan on 3 different plots in different areas of the garden and as frequent rotation as possible until the micro climate evolves. That's all I can think to do.

Okay. You've addressed wireworms for me before in The Year of the Bug

I'm probably just worrying, again.

bon