Try Specialty Potatoes this Spring Part I

As spring approaches, it is time to begin thinking about the first vegetables of the gardening season. Potatoes are among the most satisfying vegetables to grow, but don’t limit yourself to growing the same old round, white types of potatoes each year. There are several potato varieties called “specialty potatoes” that you may wish to try this spring. Specialty potatoes, instead of being round with white flesh, come in a myriad of skin and flesh colors as well as diverse shapes. Specialty potatoes have a unique flavor that makes them ideal for many dishes. Restaurants and farmers’ markets are excellent market outlets for such potatoes

Good quality seed stock is very important. Since specialty potatoes are not widely grown, it is not likely that local seed stock will be available in Missouri. Therefore, you may wish to buy certified seed from a specialty potato nursery.

One of the most popular types of specialty potatoes is called “fingerling types.” Fingerling potatoes yield small, long tubers that are superb for roasting and boiling. Potential varieties of fingerling potatoes include ‘Kipfel,’ ‘La Ratte,’ ‘French Fingerling,’ ‘Austrian Crescent,’ ‘Rose Finn Apple,’ ‘Purple Peruvian’ and ‘Blossom.’ Other varieties of specialty potatoes have excellent quality such as ‘Red Gold,’ a mid-season, round potato with lightly netted red skin and a yellow flesh. ‘Carola’ is a late-season round potato with yellow skin and flesh that has been a high yielding specialty potato in the Central Midwest. ‘Desiree’ is an excellent red-skinned variety, and ‘Purple Viking,’ with its purple skin and red stripes, is an attractive potato at farmers’ markets. If you cannot plant your potatoes after arrival, store them in a dark, cool place like a refrigerator. One pound of seed potatoes will plant 10 feet of row.

As soon as soil temperatures reach 45°F, the potatoes can be planted. For extra, early production of potatoes, gardeners can use cold frames or high tunnels. A high tunnel is a solar-heated, plastic greenhouse that permits vegetable growers to have vegetables throughout the year for market. At the University of Missouri Research High Tunnels (located in Columbia, Missouri), we planted potatoes on February 20th. An additional layer of rowcover is placed over the plants to protect against early freezes.

If you are planting in the open field, you will need to wait 2-4 weeks before the last frost in your area to plant potatoes. After you receive your seed potatoes, you may wish to presprout them a couple of weeks before planting which gives them a boost for earlier production. Presprouting is accomplished by placing the potatoes in a warm room (>50°F) until sprouts are observed on the tubers. Indirect, medium light will form tougher sprouts. If some of the sprouts break off during handling, don’t worry because they easily grow back.

Gardeners can plant tuber seed pieces or whole tubers. If the seed stock is small (size of an egg or less), whole tubers can be planted. Larger seed potatoes can be cut in slices having 2 or more eyes or buds per piece. Since the potato is a root (or more accurately a tuber) crop, the soil needs to be loose and friable for good growth. The optimum pH is 5.5-7.0. I prefer to plant potatoes on a raised bed that keeps the soil warm and well-drained. Make a 6” deep trench and plant the seed pieces or whole tubers about 12” apart. Cover the seed with 2-4” of loose soil. When the potatoes sprout, rake some additional soil into the trench, making a hill. Fertilizer can be applied at planting as a synthetic granular (for example, 20-20-20) fertilizer banded to the side of the seed pieces at about 0.4 lbs of nitrogen per 100 ft2. Compost can be added and mixed with the soil prior to planting, or some gardeners will apply about an inch of compost after the potatoes have emerged from the soil. The hill method of potato culture provides enough soil to form well-shaped tubers and prevents them from being exposed to sunlight that can make them green and inedible.

The next article will discuss mulching, harvesting and storing potatoes.

Lewis Jett, Assistant Professor & State Vegetable Crops Specialist, UMC (573) 884-3287