It is important that you get your seed potatoes from a reputable source. We bought ours last year from Jungs Quality Seeds (1-800-247-5864, www.jungseed.com) and they grew great. Other quality seed companies carry seed potatoes also. You can find a list of seed companies by going back through our ‘Tip of the Week’ articles.

If you are having pest problems I have several ‘Tips’. First of all, ‘Tip of the Week’ articles from last summer have information on dealing with potato beetles. I used ‘Pyola’ and ‘Surround’ from Gardens Alive. We buy most of our organic products through them. You can find a link to their web site by clicking on the ‘Market Place’ button on the left side of our ‘Home’ page.

You can hand pick the beetles or squash them with two rocks. I used all those methods. Potato beetles are very productive!

I also discovered that the potatoes I grew in over size large pots (at least 5 gallon size) didn’t have any potato beetles. Some people grow them in barrels. I put some compost in the bottom (a few inches) of the pots, put the potato on top, covered with some more compost and waited until I saw growth. When the growth was up a few inches I covered it with more compost, leaving just a little growth exposed. Continue doing this until the whole pot is full of compost. Keep them watered, the compost will feed the growth. I kept my pots on the edge of our driveway and never saw a pest. Maybe the hot driveway was inhospitable towards them. When ready to harvest you just dump the pot or barrel over in the garden and there are all your potatoes sitting, ready to be picked out.

I have also read of people lining the trenches alongside of the potato rows with black plastic. The beetles fall unto the plastic and can’t crawl out and die. You will need to shake the plants to make some of them fall off. I didn’t try this because I wanted the soil around the rows to be handy for mounding up around the plants. Are you ‘mounding’ extra soil around the plants as they grow?

For storage of potatoes go the ‘Harvest Site’, button found on the left side of the ‘Home’ page. There are tips there for storing produce.

Any of you fellow readers have more ‘tips’ for her? Please add any ideas I have forgotten to write down.

Happy Gardening, Diane