Preparing for potatoes

It would be a lot easier to plant if all you had to do was go outside, dig a hole, stick a seed in, water and enjoy. But it's not that simple. Well, I take that back...it's not that simple if you want a successful garden. A good gardener will take the time to prep the soil, before putting a single seed in the ground.

Take the potato patch, for example. We started prepping the potato patches back in February, when we gathered a soil sample and sent it off to K-State's soil testing lab. It is important to get more than one soil test, especially if your garden space is a big one. Our soil composition varies tremendously from one patch to another.

Next we worked the soil. This is the third year that this ground has been worked; prior to that, it was native-grass pasture. Still, it had a fair amount of grass and hard crust to work through. Our fabulous friends brought their tractor with a tiller attachment and did the primary (and hardest) work for us. Thanks to Jay's bum foot, our brothers-in-law gave it another run through with our tiller, to break up the big clumps.

We then marked the rows. It wouldn't be that big of deal to skip this step, but since we have so many little helpers (age 10 and under) and friends volunteering (because of Jay's foot), it prevents problems in the long run if we define "walkway" from "planting row." Jay came up with the idea of tying a piece of baling twine to a nail and sticking the nail the ground. Then, one of our helpers walked the twine to the other end of the row and stuck another nail in the ground. We measured over 24 inches and repeated the process with another two nails and piece of baling twine. That became our first planting row. We measured over another 18 inches for another piece of twine, which defined our walking row. Repeat ad infinitum, or for our patch, until we had 8 rows, about 75 feet long.

Our rows for potatoes are closer together because we can get more pounds per square foot that way.  The paths are 18 inches because that allows us to run the tiller down the path and work up the dirt to hill the potatoes with. We don't put in big walkways because they are unused space. If you are growing for your own, feel free to make your rows and paths wider.

This picture also shows the fertilizer already spread.

Based on the soil test and the nutrient needs of the potatoes, Jay determined that we needed to apply 1.5-2 pounds of Nitrogen per 1000 square feet. Our soil pH is also on the high side, so for the last 3 years we have been adding sulfur to our soil to help lower the pH. Our soil phosphorus and potassium are very high, but despite the high number, it isn't always usable to the plant. So, we do need to add some fertilizer.

Kudos to K our photographer.  She's using this
as her 4-H photography and horticulture projects!

We then scatter-spread it down the rows, and then till it in. We prefer to spread the fertilizer only in the rows; that way, you are only fertilizing where you want to grow a crop and aren't feeding fertilizer to the weeds.

That last run of the tiller not only mixed in the fertilizer, it also made the soil particles small enough to make it easier for the potato plants to grow up in a few weeks. We usually add lots of compost and cut back on the fertilizer. However, with Jay's bum foot, he didn't want to make the rest of us work too hard.

Proof that I tilled. I can't wait for Jay to feel better!

Lastly, we dug a trench in each row. Our potato trench was about 6-8 inches deep, and will help make sure the potatoes are at the right height. By heaping all the dirt scooped on the uphill side, we can not only make covering the seed potatoes easier and faster, we can also help make sure any water running downhill won't wash out the potatoes.

More of our friendly helpers!

And finally, we were ready to talk seed...in the next post.

Preparing for potatoes