We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Gerritsen from Wood Prairie Organic Farm in Maine. Jim has been a producer of organic potato seed for over 30 years and knows everything there is to know about growing potatoes.
He’ll share how his organic seed potatoes are produced and some of his favorite tips for maximizing the potato harvest in your backyard garden. He’ll talk about cutting potatoes, chitting potatoes, planting times, and more!
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33 Comments
Amazing video. Learned so much! Can't wait for part 2!
This was the best video you have done in a great while…Fantastic job. Can't wait for the next video, interested in soil type and fertilization…Also great that I didn't have to hear about chickens! Ha Ha….
Very good question and answer session! Questions I wondered about thoroughly answered, like what is happening underground to the tubers when the plant flowers, how long to wait for harvest and dividing seed potatoes. I like to harvest later and as long as we don’t have a wet fall I can just leave them in the ground.
We had a wet spring and had to pull straw back as it encouraged cut worms I believe.
So it sounds like hilling was better with straw vs. soil??
Thank you!
Thank you Jim and Travis for the excellent information. The temp of the ground was interesting. Down here in the panhandle of FL it can be cool, hot and then cool again for several days so that was very helpful & educational on measuring everyday at same time.
Has anyone grown potatoes in weed barrier?
I'm really looking forward to the second part. I'm also looking forward to growing the Sarpo Mira variety as I've seen some monsters grown in the UK. He's a wealth of knowledge and I'm taking notes, even though I've been growing potatoes since I was a child. I don't profess to be any kind of expert in anything.
I use to plant by ‘old timer’ advice, but things are a changing. Our weather is weird. For years we always planted on Good Friday Z5a. I planted a week later, but will push out to 2 weeks later this year. I’m not one to go around covering everything up because of frost/freezes. I also like to harvest in cool of Fall. Not crazy about August harvests—too early—too hot. The only thing that could be a problem is a wet fall and onions have their own schedule.
Cut the seed then sprout? Or sprout first then cut to size?
Great vid great information Travis 👍💪as always!!
Outstanding content. I love hearing from two experts at one time.
QUESTION: Have the seed taters gone through the green sprouting before they are shipped or does one need to get delivery with the month lead time to complete the process.
QUESTION: During green sprouting 75 and dark is easy to do, but how does one manage 50 with light here in the south? How will you manage this, Travis? I can't figure a way I could accomplish this.
Good straw is hard to find. Too much Garzon
What an abundance of information. You know Jim has gone through so much in his carrier Thanks and looking forward to part 2.
Thanks!!! VERY informative!! Can't wait to watch Part 2
BTW- I ordered me some taters!!!!!!!!!!!
Learned ALOT. Thankyou thankyou
so much incredible information!
the hens egg analogy really helped. aphids being the vector for potato disease was good to know.
I've learned from another potato farmer if you are growing in a back yard food forrest polyculture type situation with lots of flowering species ( making some of your brassicas go to flower attract lots predatory wasps and other bugs that eat soft shelled young bugs like baby potato beetles) you don't have to get that scared if you get hit with potato beetles …because if you just wait a week or so the prey brings in the predators and you'll see see they disappear….I couldn't believe it myself…they were just gone…also they have done studies where if half of the potato plant gets hit with potato beetle damage it actually increases the nutrition of the potatoes and yields….probably the plants fear its getting eaten so it better hurry and produce.
Great episode. I got my Hoss and wood prairie farm potato seed order already pre ordered.
I was just recalling another potato tip from the old Rodale Organic Gardening magazines from the sixties. It was suggested to dust your freshly cut potato chits with sulfur powder to ward off bacterial and viral infection while your chits scab over. One benchmark for crop success was the weight ratio of seed potatoes to net yield. As I recall, ten to one was considered an acceptable goal, though my memory is no longer reliable.
Wow Great Travis. I thought the key for me as a container gardener was the number of stems!!! I always chose the biggest tuber without a thought. Highly informative. Growth fundamentals and detail seem to be key as in so many crops. Also the 4 inch depth here in 8b, I was an 8 inch guy.
Was there ever a more perfect food? The Americas gave us potatoes, corn, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins(winter squash), a bazillion variety of beans, and I'm sure other things I don't know about. What I mentioned right there is some folks' whole garden 🙂 Aroostook county is where I wanted to summer at originally.
Which direction do you run your rows
WOW! Travis, this was perhaps the best gardening interview/video I've ever seen anywhere! What great questions you presented and what a world of information Jim has stored in that brain! Outstanding.
It's definitely one of the most informative videos I've ever seen. Unfortunately ran out of time will watch the rest later. Thank you, Travis
So very informative. He did not get too technical – it was fascinating. Thank you both. I'm looking forward to the next video.
I had just made up my mind to not plant potatoes this year… That's definitely out the window now!
Exactly what I need planning this year! Thanks a million!!
Never planted potatoes, but I'm gonna work on that this winter, thanks Travis!
I absolutely love the video. I learned a lot I didn’t know about growing potatoes. Which isn’t much apparently. But there’s one I do know. The horned frogs are going take care of business come Monday. Gonna turn them dawgs into mashed potatoes.
Rah Rah TCU!!!
Rah Rah TCU!!!
Always questioned use of the word chitting. We AMERICANS don't say that. We always just called it sprouting. Great video.
Great content
Great content like this is very beneficial to not only new gardeners, but old ones like us. 😉
Great potato show , thank you
Excellent!! Aphid excluding ? Have to look that up thx Travis interesting info.