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How deep? When should I plant? Is soil important? How many will I get? What about those potato towers? These are some of the questions I had a few years ago when I planted my first potato bed, now I have a few answers to share. For great growing guides and gardening info please check out MIGardener at - https://www.youtube.com/user/MIgardener Potatoes have easily become one of your favorite things to grow and also our most productive! They are easy to grow, easy to store, and give you a huge yield that can be used for so many things. If you haven't grow potatoes before, you should! When planting potatoes in the spring you have to remember to plant early. Figure out when your last average frost is in your area and plant about one or two weeks prior to that. Since the potatoes are protected underground for the first couple of weeks anyway the frost won't hurt them, plus if they do get a nip of frost they are pretty resilient anyway. When you buy your seed potatoes you can cut them into several pieces for planting to stretch them. Just ensure that each section you cut has at least one eye and preferably one that has started a tiny root bud. You can plant each potato piece about 8-10 inches deep in nice loose soil. The looser and lighter the better. I have done some videos on soil mixes and for the potato beds you might even want to adjust and add a bit more peat to it to make sure it stays fluffy. There is no need to fertilize anything as long as you amend with good compost and practice good crop rotation each year. Potatoes towers, yay! no! These internet sensations will claim that you can get huge piles of potatoes from starting a potato plant at the bottom of some barrel or box contraption and then layer soil higher and higher around the plant as it grows. The claim is that the plant will produce potatoes all along the stem on it's way up and you will end up with piles of potatoes from a single plant. This is just not true. The potato plant changes when it starts to grow out of the soil and does not produce tubers or potatoes any longer along any supporting roots that grow from the stem. So don't waste your time! I would however recommend growing potatoes in a raised bed that is at least 12 inches deep as this has proven to be a huge benefit for us. Easier harvest, less weeding, less watering, and less pests are just some of the reasons. If you plant early enough and you get your potatoes out of the ground by July you can plant a second harvest fairly easily even up here in Michigan. This will allow you to double your potatoes per square foot or growing space for any given year and provide pounds and pounds of potatoes for your family. We normally get between 30 and 50 pounds from our 3' by 6' raised beds. Some people will say you cannot grow potatoes from store bought potatoes, this is also not true. We have, on several occasions, tested this theory and had great results. The theory is that potatoes are sprayed with a root inhibitor so they last longer. This is mostly true and it does inhibit root growth and makes the potatoes store longer. But if you wait long enough the potatoes will start to sprout and you can plant them for a perfectly adequate harvest. Hopefully this has answered some questions and maybe even inspired you to get out and plant some potatoes! there is nothing like a homemade French fry! General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20 Please check us out at www.simplesuburbanliving.com and follow us on.... http://www.pinterest.com/simplesuburban/ http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburbanliving http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5 http://www.instagram.com/simplesuburbanliving Daily Beetle by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500025 Artist: http://incompetech.com/