Spuds, Taters, Tatties, whatever you like to call them, they form the basis for many a cuisine and they one of the easiest and most rewarding food crops to grow. They are also rich in nutrients.

There are loads of helpful sites on the internet for growing potatoes, if you have never grown them before so in short, here are few tips to provide a successful crop:

• Buy disease free certified seed potatoes. They are not seeds but potatoes grown especially for growing in the home garden and will not bring in disease such as potato scab. This is the reason it is recommended that you do not use grocery store potatoes as they may carry problems you cannot see or be aware of.
• Make the most of the seed potatoes you purchase. A potato is a tuber, a plant propagating structure that has ‘eyes’ , which will grow to form stems of a new plant. Each eye will use the food stores in the tuber to start growth.  A large seed potato can be cut in half or thirds so long as each piece has eyes. This way you will get more plants. It is important the pieces are not smaller than a golf ball because they need those food stores to get going and without enough food stores the plant may not thrive.  This process of cutting the tubers is called ‘chitting’
• Lay the chits out on newspaper or place each in empty egg cartons, in a cool, light position and watch the eyes grow short stout shoots. The drying of the cut surface is important to prevent entry of bacteria. It is like a protective scar growing over the raw flesh of the tuber.
• When the temperature in the ground is appropriate(above 45C approx.) plant the chits. Potato leaves are frost sensitive so you don’t want to plant too early – around a week or two before the last expected frost date. It is always a guessing game but if there is a hard frost predicted and the leaves have emerged, they can be covered.
• To plant the potato chits, dig a trench or make holes about 30 inches apart. Place the tuber pieces down about 5 -6 inches deep.
• Potatoes are heavy feeders so adding a good fertilizer into the trench or holes at time of planting is a good idea. So is adding Sulphur pellets about a couple of tablespoons per plant.
• Water evenly and well.
• Potatoes are sensitive to irregular watering. They do not like to be overly wet and they do not like to dry out. Those conditions can be favourable to the introduction of a bacteria that causes ‘Potato Scab.’ Water evenly and regularly through the growing season.
• Potato scab, Streptomyces scabies looks as horrid as its name BUT it does not destroy the edibility of the potatoes. Peeling scabby potatoes is all that’s need be done.
• Rotating potatoes is very important because of this common problem. Once the bacteria is in the soil it takes several years to die out.  Prevention includes, even consistent watering, rotation and potentially acidifying the soil a little with Sulphur Pellets. Potatoes prefer a slightly acidic environment. For this reason do not add wood ash, lime or other more alkaline materials to what for most of us are alkaline soils in the interior of B.C.
• Hilling potatoes is optional but it does allow more tubers close to the surface to thrive without turning green. To hill, draw up the soil with the back of a rake, up the stems of the plants on both sides.
• When the potato flowers are over and the tops turn yellow, stop watering and allow the soil to dry out for a week or so. Some people like to pick off the flowers to prevent energy going into the fruit which looks like a tomato but is not and is poisonous. Dig up the potatoes and allow them to dry on the soil surface before storing. I prefer not to wash at all. Just allow the soil to dry and fall off. Washing may introduce early rotting if they are not completely dry before storage.
• Potatoes are members of the Nightshade family (Solanaceae)and green parts contain Glycoalkaloids which are poisonous. This substance forms on the tubers when they are exposed to light. Therefore do not eat parts of the potato that are green. This is one of the reasons potatoes are hilled when growing.
• There are many varieties of Potatoes beyond Russets and Whites to choose from and selection is a matter of personal preference. It is certainly fun to dry some early and late varieties. I find the blue varieties a lot drier but they are so much fun to add to the table as are fingerlings and different reds.  

Pictured above are potatoes growing in my garden, The Potato Harvest at Ft. Steele, potatoes growing in Cranbrook Community garden and fire pit roasting potatoes (Yum) at Thanksgiving , Ft. Steele