The potato produces more calories and protein than any other food crop in terms of space and amount of time. It also stores for up to 6 months under good conditions and can be grown in marginal soil anywhere from sea level up to 13,000 feet. The potato produces about 10,000 pounds of food per acre. A 100 foot row can yield 150-300 pounds of potatoes per year. The average American currently eats about 140 pounds of potatoes per year.
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Here at Chiot’s Run I’ve been focusing on growing food that does not need to be processed for storing, so of course potatoes are at the top of that list. I’ve never grown a large amount of potatoes before, just harvesting 10-15 pounds from my tiny potato plot. This year however I planted tons of potatoes and was pleasantly surprised by my harvest. I ordered the heirloom potato sampler from Seed Savers to share with my sister. I planted about 15 pounds of 9 different types of seed potatoes and I ended up with a harvest of around 200 pounds of potatoes for the winter. I’m very pleased with our harvest, the best part is that potatoes need nothing but to be stored in a cardboard box in the basement, no canning, no freezing, no time/energy used for preservation. I was pleasantly surprised that the fingerling potatoes produced the highest yield. Here are a few photos of my Terrific Tubers. (Here’s a list of the varieties I grew this year)
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Do you grow potatoes in your garden? How many do you grow?
I just started digging my All Blues. The first 2 of 4 rows yielded 20 lbs. They’re much bigger than I’ve ever seen before as well. When all is said and done I should have about 300 lbs of potatoes. The other varieties I grew are yukon gold, kennebec and rio grande russet.
I just pulled up 100 pounds today – mostly Kennebecs, but also some Pontiac Reds. That was from about 100 square feet, I think. Most will go to the food pantry in town, but a bunch will head for the basement. Ten of the pounds are destined for Thanksgiving, for sure!
Those potatoes look great!
My potato story that I’m really thrilled about is some long, overly sprouted potatoes that I planted near the end of July. 9lbs of Norlands planted, and yesterday, less than two months later, I ‘stole’ 10 lbs from the hills. Can’t wait to see how many I get in total. I paid less than $1 a box, as the store was just going to throw them out.
http://wyndsonfarm.blogspot.com/2010/07/missing-memory.html
Do you wash the potatoes before storing them? I ask because as I’ve started picking and curing winter squash, I found that if I don’t wash them, they start growing some gray mold on the outside. It washed right off, but at some point I think it would have impacted the plants if I had not cleaned them up.
Nope, I’ve read that leaving some dirt on them helps them store better. I don’t wash squash either for storing.
I grow reds and yukon golds.
I harvested the yukons a month ago, but the reds are still hanging in there.
I don’t wash my potatoes either, but I do let them cure (in the shade) for a day. It sounds like you don’t cure your potatoes? Does that impact their storage life?
I’m trying to experiment with True Potato Seeds. (those round fruits that sometimes set in the foliage of potato plants.)
I do let them cure for a couple hours in the garden before moving them into the house for a few days. Then I sort them by size and to take out any that have bad spots or are green. Those are eaten right away and the rest are stored.
Wow, I’m so glad I saw this article. I’ve heard so much trash talk about potatoes these days that I’ve all but cut them out of my diet. Your article inspired me to look up the nutritional information and I had no idea how much fiber and protein they had to offer! Thank you.