before it is not longer true any more because too much time has passed by, here is my post about planting potatoes. in our region you plant them about two weeks before the ice saints in the middle of may. if you are lucky and never heard about the ice saints, it’s a period of couple of days during which there will be very probably night frost, even though you already have very comfortable gardening and planting temperature during the day. for planting tomatoes for example you have to wait until these saints has passed or they will freeze. the potatoes will need this two weeks until the ice saints are over to sprout and to surface.

potatoes are very spacious plants. they will need about minimum 50 cm between the rows and in the rows. before planting, reduce the shoots to one main shoot. place the potato with the shoot to the top in a 10 cm deep planting hole. fill them up and wait.

once the potatoes sprouted and reached a height of about 20 cm you have to earth them up, because the plant will build out the new potatoes on the ground level. if they grew in the light they will become green and toxic. you have to earth up the plants later again, when they get bigger. beside this, there is not much work normally. maybe you will have potato beetles. in this case, you have to collect them and their chrysalises. it is a little bit disgusting if you ask me, but if you have them, you have no choice. as a child i really liked to do that in my parents garden, so they were lucky.

the potatoes are ready for harvest after the florescence. the plants will start to lay down, just as if they were thirsty. just pull them out and carefully dig for the potatoes. in case of doubt, use your hands, not to hoe a potato accidentally.

if you have a cellar with a constantly low temperature you can store the potatoes until the end of winter. and it feels really great to have still some homegrown food in wintertime.