This year I've ordered 28 types of heirloom seed potatoes from around the world, and today I've planted them. Such a messy, cathartic, and beautiful afternoon. I'm beyond excited to see them come up and taste them all!
To see how these planted heirloom potatoes turned out, I've later written a follow-up post about harvesting them:
🌱28 Heirloom Potatoes to Grow with Taste Tests
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🥔The 28 heirloom potato varieties I planted
In rows, starting from the top:
1: Baltic Rose, Desiree, Caribe, Sangre, Rose Finn Apple Fingerling
2: Red Pontiac, Dark Red Norland, Charlotte, Adirondack Blue, Russet Burbank
3: All Blue, Purple Viking, Huckleberry Gold, French Fingerling, Caribe Pre-Nuclear
4: Purple Majesty, Austrian Crescent, Warba Pink Eye, Ozette Fingerling, Red Thumb Pre-Nuclear
5: Carola, Russian Banana, German Butterball, All Red Pre-Nuclear
6: Purple Peruvian La Ratte, Kennebec, Peanut Pre-Nuclear
🛒Seed potato sources
My sources for these seed potatoes were:
- Irish Eyes Garden Seeds
- Wood Prairie Family Farm
- Maine Potato Lady
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
🌱What are pre-nuclear seed potatoes?
The 4 pre-nuclear varieties (All Red, Caribe, Red Thumb, and Peanut) are from Irish Eyes, and this will be my first year growing them. These are the first generation of seed potatoes, grown in greenhouses using tissue culture. They're disease and pest-free, and have higher yields, and the cost is correspondingly higher. I'm really looking forward to seeing how well they do in the garden. Especially because this year I have the Caribe variety in both the regular and pre-nuclear versions, so it'll be really exciting to compare the yields of both types!
🍠Preparing the seed potatoes
In the photo above, I've taken the seed potatoes out of their packaging to "chit" them. This involves exposing them to some light and warmth to pre-sprout the eyes. Some of the sprouts were already fairly long by the time I did this, as I waited for all of my orders to arrive before opening the bags. Next year I think I'll open them as they come in, so the sprouts won't be weak and thin from growing in dark conditions.
After doing some research, with opinions all over the spectrum, I decided not to remove the long sprouts. This would put a lot of pressure on the seed potatoes to start all over with the pre-sprouting, and I decided to conserve their energy and save time by leaving them on. I was really careful not to knock them off while handling them and bringing them to the garden.
For the seed potatoes that were larger than 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter, I cut them carefully with a sharp knife, leaving 2-3 sprouting eyes on each piece. This increases the quantity of pieces for planting, and also helps to reduce the number of stems to a manageable number. Then they won't be competing for light, nutrients, and water, which could result in weaker plants.
Here are some All Blue seed potatoes after cutting. They're gorgeous!
And here are some German Butterballs. They look so creamy and dense, with a beautiful yellow hue. I'm really looking forward to trying out all 28 varieties in so many colors, textures, and flavors, and geographical histories!
The pre-nuclear seed potatoes were really tiny, and needed a couple of days to pre-sprout. So after I cut the larger varieties into large chunks, I waited 2 days for the cut surfaces to dry. And this gave the pre-nuclear varieties time to pre-sprout at the same time.
Above are some pieces left over that didn't have 2 or 3 sprouting eyes on them. These are perfect for roasting! I'm thrilled about the spectrum of flavors, textures, and colors of the various types I'm planting this year.
🌿Planting
🥬Determinate vs. indeterminate potatoes
Here's a pre-sprouted Baltic Rose seed potato that I planted today in the garden. I've grouped the varieties alphabetically into my circular garden bed. I'd debated whether to instead separate them by determinate (early and late) and indeterminate varieties. I'll only be hilling up the soil for the indeterminate varieties, which will grow more potatoes along the stem if I continue to add more soil to the top of the plant as it grows.
The determinate types, on the other hand, will for the most part grow just one "truss" or cluster of potatoes per plant, so they don't need to be hilled up while growing.
I didn't want to have an area of the garden bed with a disproportionate need for more soil that would leave the garden lopsided by the end of the season. So I planted them in alphabetical groupings, and made note on the labels of which ones are indeterminate. That way I can add more soil to those varieties, which are evenly dispersed throughout the garden, instead of overwhelming one side with extra soil.
📏Depth and spacing
I planted them in a zig zag pattern, with the determinate varieties about 3-4 inches (8-10 cm) deep with a spacing of 10-12 inches (25-30 cm), and for the indeterminate ones I planted them about 6 inches (15 cm) deep with a spacing of about 15 inches (38 cm). It was really hard not to give in to greed and try to fit them in more closely!
🍃The planted potato bed
Here's the potato bed today, planted and watered in. My nails and clothes are filthy and my back is sore, but I was sighing with joy the whole time I was out there. It was such a gorgeous mess of bejeweled potato riches to put in the ground on this brilliant spring day. It was really satisfying to pull it all together, just waiting to burst into a beautiful green canvas of very special heirloom potato treasures. I can't wait to see it!
🧅Accidental crop companions
Several of last year's fall crops had decided to resprout in this bed before planting today, and I was so happy to space the potatoes around them: shallots, bunching onions, kale, Italian dandelion, radicchio, radishes, creeping lemon thyme, sweet woodruff, purple orach, catnip, and some random brassicas that I'll be able to identify as they grow. What a satisfying jumble of crops to all grow up together. This was such a wonderful day!
✨More heirloom gardening posts and recipes you'll love
Looking for more heirloom gardening and recipe posts? Try these:
✏️Have you grown heirloom potatoes?
Please let me know in the reviews and comments below!
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