Potatoes, Taters, Spuds

I may be one of the three or four people on the planet who doesn’t like potatoes. I know that’s weird, but there you have it. My husband loves them, though, so this spud’s for him.

I’m trying some in a spot that doesn’t seem to work for anything at all, so in went the red potatoes as a last resort. The spot gets plenty of sun, but plants don’t thrive there. There’s a water problem ~ the earth won’t hold moisture. Potatoes don’t like to stay wet, so this may work for them.

Planted during a waning Capricorn Moon, I’ve got my fingers crossed that they’ll do okay and put an end to this being a doomed spot. The variety I planted promises a harvest in 65 days, so we’ll see.

I transplanted some mums to this spot last year and they were quite successful, but other plants have withered there. If the potatoes do okay, I’ve found my tater bed for a couple of years, but only a couple. Potatoes are supposed to be rotated out of the same spot after a couple of years.

Here’s the word on that from Mother Earth News:

Take potatoes, for example. In the course of a season, the fungi that cause scabby skin patches may proliferate, along with root-killing verticillium fungi (which also damage tomatoes and eggplant) and tiny nematodes that injure potatoes. If you plant potatoes again in the same place, these pathogens will be ready and waiting to sabotage the crop. Read more from Mother Earth News.

Living in the south has brought some miscommunications. My father-in-law once asked me if I like ice potatoes. Ice potatoes? I’d never heard of those, but it certainly piqued my interest. They sounded fresh and crisp. My husband translated for me and it turns out my father-in-law had said “Irish potatoes,” the southern term for red potatoes.

Suggested dates for Spring plantings of ice and other types of potatoes during the waning phase are:

March 11-12 (Scorpio), 15-16 (Capricorn) and 20 (Pisces).
April 7-9 (Scorpio), 11-13 (Capricorn) and 16-17 (Pisces).

There’s an old tale that potatoes planted during Pisces develop toes ~ little bulb-like appendages. I have to try this and see.

Plant potatoes during a waning Taurus Moon in the autumn. It’s among the best of times of the year since potatoes are very much a Taurus (Venus) veggie.

I love the way Peter Cundall grows no-dig potatoes. I’m giving this a try during the waning Scorpio Moon, March 11-12, but not on such a large scale. They call this type of planting “potato hills” here in the south. If you’ve tried this type of planting, let me know how it worked for you and offer up some tips.