The first thing you need to do is prepare the potatoes for planting. When you’re a week away from planting, put the potatoes in a warm spot of sun. Let the sprouts grow to about 1/4” to ½” inches long. Before you plant, cut the large seed potatoes into chunks that are about 2” wide and that each have at least two buds. Let them sit at room temperature for two or three days before planting.
To get the best out of your potatoes, make sure they have lots of sun and are planted in loose and loamy soil. Work some compost into the garden bed to get the biggest and healthiest potatoes that you can!
Before planting the potatoes, lots of people suggest applying agricultural sulfur to the sprouts to help prevent fungal disease. Put the agricultural sulfur do is put it in a paper bag and then add the potatoes. Shake them around a bit (to get dusted) and then you’re good to plant. Put them in the holes cut side down with the eye pointing up. Cover them with soil and water well.
After about 5 weeks, you’ll need to “hill” your potatoes. To do this, you just pile soil around the stems. This makes new potatoes grow above the seed potatoes. Hill enough to make sure that the new tubers are never exposed to direct sun.
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