How to Grow Potatoes

Now, any of you who have Irish or Tasmanian roots will remember your father or grandfather planting spuds every year. There is nothing like fresh vegetables straight out of your own plot of dirt. Especially potatoes. They cook quicker than the bought ones (because they have not been genetically modified) and they taste a hell of a lot better too.
The only real drawback with your own home-grown veges is that they don't keep as long as the bought ones. If you go to the supermarket tomorrow and buy a packet of carrots and also pick some from your own garden, you will notice that within 3 or 4 days your garden variety are starting to wilt, where the supermarket ones will last in the fridge for maybe 4 or 5 weeks!!! BECAUSE THEY ARE GM CROPS!!!!
Now, onto what I am supposed to be writing about for you young gardeners.
If you live in Tasmania or Ireland, you will have noticed that you live in a cold climate - DUH!!! In Queensland we are classified as sub-tropical, so I am not familiar yet with the growing seasons, but through trial and error, I am getting there. Potatoes grow best in cool climates and are usually sown in early Spring for a harvest around Christmas time (that is in the Southern Hemisphere). Here in Queensland I have just sown my second crop as the first lot did OK but half were destroyed by the rain we had. Autumn is tomorrow!!!
I usually buy certified seed potatoes from the hardware store or garden shop, but usually half of them are a miserable failure. Back home in Tassie I just let some spuds bought from the greengrocer sprout in a paper bag in the shed and sowed them at the right time. I nearly always had a good crop.
So now I have done the same. Kay selected the type of spud she preferred and I bought 10 of them from the local vegetable market and sowed them yesterday after leaving them in a paper bag in the shed for a couple of months in the dark so they have started to produce growths from their "eyes". I know that these have not been modified in any way. They are quite naturally grown. I'll keep you informed how they go.
Now to the way to do it all:

To prepare the bed I just forked over the top a little - not too deep - and built the sides up a bit, and then laid the spuds on the top and covered them with sugar cane mulch.

 
Be careful not to rub the growing "eyes" off as this is where the spud puts it roots down from and produces those lovely spuds. I hope that I may even get about 1 kg of spuds from each head.

The sugar cane mulch here looks awfully dark, which it is. I had a part bag left from last season and, unfortunately, it was drenched by the rain we had. But no matter, It will still do the job as well and when I lay the new mulch, it will be nice and light and dry!!!




When you lay the mulch, you need at least a depth of a foot (whatever that is in metric!!) and subsequent layers need to be the same depth.

As the potatoes grow through the mulch I will add more layers and they should grow a crop at each layer of mulch. Some gardeners who are pushed for space grow their spuds in old car or tractor tyres. Same procedure, same result. If you have an area that cannot be dug, use the above process without disturbing the ground. Just put the spuds directly onto the ground and cover them with mulch. They will still grow.
One big mistake is to give them too much water. They will tell you when they need watering. The green tops will bend over and look a bit sick, then a hose for about 5 minutes will be enough for quite a while. I don't usually use much fertiliser on spuds and I grow them in the same plot year after year. Maybe every couple of years I might dig in some blood and bone as they prefer a slightly acid soil. Not a good idea to add dolomite lime!!!
When I was a postman I used to admire a front garden where for years spuds grew. I asked the owner why and he told me he was preparing to sow a lawn. Apparently the soil was too thick and heavy for a lawn, so by planting spuds for 4 or 5 years, the soil was broken down. He ended up with a magnificent front lawn and the envy of his neighbours.
As you can tell by this and previous writings, I enjoy gardening and growing my own vegetables. I have recently begun growing a lot of Asian veges that I know very little about, except that this is the ideal cliamte for them.So I hope that I am doing things right!!!
If you would like advice on growing anything at all, please drop me a comment and I will see what I can do for you.