Backyard Gardener: Let's Talk Potatoes

To grow things is to lose things — TikTok@Fromthegarden.

Spring is coming; don’t be afraid.

If you never grow, you’ll never know. @fromthegarden

Potatoes in the ground

Potatoes above ground

Whether you are for potatoes or against them, growing them is a great property in the garden. I have grown potatoes early and late in the season, but I have never grown them with the intention of planting something directly after harvest. Let’s talk potatoes and sweet potatoes.

You may or may not know that sweet potatoes are not potatoes. Potatoes are part of the nightshade family and sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family. Cool thing is, you can plant sweet potato slips right after you harvest your potatoes.

I have a new bed for pots and sweet pots this year. Both of these, though from different families, share some of the same diseases: blight and bugs. For this reason, I try to switch up beds for them every year or grow them in cages every other year. New bed is newspaper, then two layers of cardboard and a good layer of leaves. Water all this thoroughly and then top with a mixture of topsoil, compost and vermiculite or perlite to cover the cardboard. Water again and then top with hay, straw or some type of mulch. Now, keep in mind I start new beds in November and December. I got one done in December, and I completed another one in February. The December bed is where the potatoes are going this year.

This bed is about two feet by six feet and I am going to use a two-by-two-foot area for the potatoes. Now, you all know I am a sucker for the sunflowers. However, sunflowers are bad companion plants for sweet potatoes. One of the reasons I am using this bed is because it is in a sunflower-free area. To prep the two-by-two-foot area, I added another layer of compost and dirt and covered it with more straw. I have some potatoes with eyes growing in the kitchen and then I picked up some more seed potatoes at Atwoods. The kitchen potatoes are yellow pots and the seed potatoes are red pots. I am packing them in pretty dense about two inches apart. As the branches grow up, I’ll add more dirt and mulch around the base. I have a couple of chicken wire fence circles I can put around them to give them a little extra support and hold the dirt and mulch around the plants. Pictures to come. These went in the ground in February. The plan is to harvest the potatoes in May and plant sweet potato slips right after. This gives me time to grow the sweet potato slips. (Mini article on growing sweet potato slips at home)

Let’s talk companion plants. First, the bad. No squash, tomatoes or sunflowers. These are all longer-growing plants and will attract the same blights and bugs that will attack the potatoes. For good companion plants for both potatoes and sweet potatoes, try pole beans (not bush beans), corn and nasturtiums. Pole beans and corn will add some shade later in the growing season for your sweet potatoes. Nasturtiums provide great groundcover and will companion vine nicely when your sweet potatoes come in. Other flowers that will be great in this area would be yarrow and sweet alyssum.

This new bed sits in full sun, but on the north side of the house. The potatoes will be on the far north side of the bed. On the far south of the bed, I am putting some of my favorite pole beans, — Scarlett runner beans. Moving north from the beans, will be interplanted beets, kale and bok choy. Right by the pots will be two types of radishes. Now, back to the saying “We are gardeners. We grow things we won’t eat.” I eat radishes; I just don’t eat all the radishes. However, radishes are great companions that keep potato bugs away, so in the ground they go.

This is the first bed of 2024 to be planted. I have a pop-up cloche tent to put on this bed so the plants will be protected until the temp is over 50 every day. If you are starting your own seeds for this season, get on it. And of course, Happy Gardening.

Last Frost Date

April 1-15 for our zone climate map, but according to the hardiness zone map, we are in zone 7a.  When I first started gardening, Ponca City was in zone 6b.  Welcome to global warming.  It is real for us gardeners.  What is the difference between the climate map and the hardiness zone?  What you plant and when.  The climate map indicates the last freeze date for our area can happen more or less between April 1 thru the 15^th.  Those who know, don’t plant anything that can’t handle a cold snap until after April 15^th.  This includes your tender plants like summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, etc…  However, according to the hardiness zone, things that can handle some cold including potatoes, hardy greens like kale and wild lettuce as well as your cruciferous veggies like cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, etc… do just fine with an earlier planting: before that last frost date.  It’s now February.  You need to start your seeds, or find someone to start your seeds for you, if space or animals are an issue, so you can get these early plants that can tolerate some cold, into the ground by mid-March. 

Another tip is don’t forget to harden off your plant starts.  You can’t just take these babies from the warm house and plop them into the cold, cruel ground.  The baby plants (starts) need to be gradually introduced to their new (harsher) environment.  I have a couple of businesses interested in starting seeds for you as part of their business model.  Sunny Creek Trading Post is starting mine for me, but I will need to harden them off after I pick them up.  Four to six weeks for the baby plants before hardening them off.  Plants need to have at least four leaves on them to survive the process. The initial shock of changing their environment will slow down their growth. 

If you would like to check out the hardiness map, you can find that here: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

If you would like to see the last frost date map, you can find that here: http://bit.ly/42nKdjk

Sunny Creek Trading Post can be found on Facebook and they are located here in Ponca City.

The Painted Leaf Plant Studio is a new plant nursery located in Newkirk.  They are primarily focused on colorful houseplants.

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