I'm trying for the second year but I don't plant them directly in the ground. Instead I plant 6 to 7 starts each in large pots, which are large plastic barrels cut in half with drain holes drilled in bottoms. For soil I get bags of manure compost from walmart and mix it with regular sandy soil from the yard. Them I cover the dirt with a layer of pine needles.

Last year I had the potato pots sitting on dirt next to a bunch of potted up crape myrtle trees. This turned out to be a mistake because the crapes sent roots down out of their pots and then up into the potato pots, plugging up most of the drain holes. As a result at least half of my potatos ended up rotting because the soil stayed too wet. This year I moved the pots onto a concrete slab to try again.

Kara

Ruskin, just a short distance from Palatka, grows some of THE BEST potatoes! Every year, when I go down to Palatka for the gourd show, I pig out on the local french fries and the local blue crab. My once a year, gustatory orgy!
;o) cora

Hi Michael
I have the fingerling potatoes in buckets with about 6 inches of soil on the bottom and as they grow I add hay on top.

I have the blue, red-yellow, red-red, yellow varieties. Planted them Nov 12. I bought from Ronniger. I will tell how they do since this is my first planting in zone 9.
When the freeze hit us they were put in the porch.

By the way, I remember the name of the crop I was telling you about. Is called oca and tastes like sweet potato but better in my opinion. I should be getting soon and planning to plant them the same way as the fingerling.

S

We've grown them here in z9 several times, with good results. I think variety choice is pretty important, as I mentioned in the other thread. Online listings by variety name into the three categories of early, mid, and late season can be found. Most red-skinned are early or short-season and a good choice for z9.

I have them in my raised bed and keep adding soil.
whgille s idea is a good one and I have heard of doing that in apple baskets. Think I may try that next. I do not buy mine I usepotatoes that sprouted in my pantry and I can't eat. works fine!

This is my second season trying to grow potatoes down here in zone 9 Florida. Last year we got a very small harvest from the yukon gold and the all blue potatoes I had gotten from an organic supplier up in Maine (was a challenge to find a seed potato supplier that would ship in the fall rather than waiting till March or April. After having a couple companies send me cards saying the shipment would arrive in spring I made a point of putting my seed potato orders by phone and making sure they would ship in fall before I bought again.)

Anyway, last year we had planted red, white, blue from the place in Maine and fingerlings the other half got from the grocery store. The ones from the place in Maine seemed to do well until they got attacked by ants, we only got a small harvest of the Yukon golds and the blues while the reds were completely wiped out by the ants. Only two of the fingerling potatoes sent up plants out of the two rows planted.

This winter we planted two more rows. One row was half all blue and the other half yukon gold. The other row was some red skinned potato that was sprouting quite a bit that the other half picked up at the market. When the frosts hit, all the red skinned plants were wiped out though we found some really tiny new potatoes in that bed when we went searching, they were tasty but not worth the trouble of preparing the bed for the hand full of new potatoes.
Of the yukon gold and all blues planted in the other row, they suffered from the frosts but have recovered at least to a point and I suspect we may have a chance with them.

I have resolved that if we are gonna go to the trouble of planting potatoes again next winter, we should make a floating row cover tunnel over the rows and leave it in place until after danger of frost is past.

Truth is, sweet potatoes are so easy to grow here that I don't feel a strong need to grow regular potatoes that need to grow through winter but are frost sensative.

Sounds like a timing problem you are experiencing. Don't forget - as already mentioned - there is a major new-potato growers industry in florida, so we know that it is possible to get good results otherwise the industry would not exist. Sounds like you are planting in late fall in expectation that the plants will over-winter? While that's a good strategy for brassicas and some other crops, I don't think it is for potatoes for several reasons. One is that the fruiting of potatoes is daylight sensitive; if you plant in fall you are asking them to fruit when light is shortest while the plant is adapted to doing so when daylentgh is near maximum (typically at higher latitudes planting is early spring and the new tubers are setting in may or june). Second is that the vines are very frost-sensitive, even though the plant prefers cool soil to grow in. Up north I try to time it so that the first leaves are peeking up with the very last frosts. If a few leaves get scorched it's no big deal, the root system that has taken 20 to 30 days to develop is intact.

In florida z9 the last frost that would be much of a problem is probably mid-march at the latest, so one can plant at least four weeks previous to that safely. I'd go six weeks if I were here. So anytime between mid-january to mid-february depending on micro-climate. This allows a good crop of new potatoes before the hot weather and overly-warm soil that potatoes dislike, and sufficient daylentgh at fruiting time. Mature baker/fryer type potatoes are probably not a possibility in florida, but darn good and abundant new potatoes certainly are.

my experience, fwiw--i planted in december. heavy coating of hay and leaves for insulation. they leaved then got burned to the ground five or six times over the winter. and they are now growing happily with no apparent fatalities.

i thought the same thing w.r.t. cold and frosts, and when i've tried in the past to plant them in early spring, they've either not sprouted or they were devoured by flea beatles,e tc.

christine (happy_fl_gardener) showed me hers growing very well in november, which got me to change my ways.

I have heard that fall crops are also possible. That would mean planting in september, I suppose. Large plants killed to the ground 5 or 6 times and the seed tubers in the ground for 4 or 5 months probably means that the plants you see now are sprouted from the mini-tubers made earlier. Are the vines quite thin?

I should think that the late-winter planting would be more productive with cooler ground and gaining daylight instead of losing it as the plants mature.

Growing Potatoes in the Florida Home Garden

I just the other day planted Red la Sodas and red Pontiacs out in the garden. First time I've grown white potatoes in years. So long as I planted at the right time of year I never had any problems growing them before.

You do have to be ready to provide frost protection early on as they pretty well have to be planted before the frost danger has passed unless you're in a particularly favorable area. If the tops get frostbit they will grow back, but it costs you in spud production. They grow rather a lot of them in the Hastings area, but they're right on the river.

.....Alan.

I think you can plant potatoes in Central Florida in Oct., Nov. and Feb. I'm growing them for the first time now. I planted some in the ground and some in an old garbage can with a worn thru bottom. With my luck, the can will be full of potatoes and fire ants come harvest time!

b.t.w., I read that using manure increases the risk of scab on potatoes.

My husband works for Frito-Lay based in Orlando. They have a potato chip making plant there and this is the peak time for commercial potatoes to be harvested from various areas through out Florida. I'm told that there is no spring crop. So, there is no doubt that potatoes planted in the fall can be successful.

I planted some old sprouted red potatoes in October that I would have needed to throw out. I harvested some a couple of months later without killing the plant. When the freezes came the plants died and they never resprouted. I had been wondering if the remaining unharvested potatoes rotted or would they still be there. Well, today when I prepared the ground for planting some green beans, I found the remaining potatoes in the ground in excellent condition. Looks like I need to make a big pan of mashed potatoes!

Christine

christine--interesting that yours didn't resprout--before every freeze i tossed a bunch of hay over the tops of mine and they never completely froze--they always had a bit of green stem left. they're really going to town now that they get a bit more sun.

It's a little hard to imagine that the commercial growers put hay or other protection over hundreds of acres of taters, isn't it?

If you search the EDIS pages for potatoes, you'll quickly find that for florida potatoes (as for pretty much every other plant) there are two separate worlds: south florida, and the rest. South florida potatoes are planted in nov/dec and the harvest just started. North florida potatoes are planted jan/feb and of course the harvest is later. The south florida crop, at least, is vine-killed to hasten ripening which is a pretty nasty process. Probably it's the same for the others.

Michael, I covered everything in the veggie garden with sheets except the potatoes. I didn't care if they froze because they were in the spot that I plant pole beans and I knew that I would be needing that row soon.

Looks like you still have potatoes in your future.

My potatoes grew by accident from my compost pile. When I realized they were growing, I moved them into soil placed in an old rubber tire. My MIL then told me to build a fence and cover them with hay. Well, after 7 mos, I "harvested" my 1st few potatoes. They were delicious!

hi i grow poatoes in zone 9 here in florida every year grow mine in the soil . you need to plant a early type poatoe . i grow pontiac reds they grow great here some of the blues are a early type to. dont try growing mid seson or late types tatters are a cool wheather crop paul

Potatoes are very susceptible to diseases and insects. May I suggest planting disease and insect resistant varieties or planting sweet potatoes, instead. Sweet potatoes aren't even a potato at all. Sweet potatoes are actually a type of morning glory. Sweet potato scan be started the same way as regular potatoes.

I mostly expected them to be infested with worms and/or nematodes, so I've been meaning to harvest them and make more room for tomatoes and peppers. I started digging around in the bed, and realized that the potatoes are very happy and healthy in there. I sneaked out a handful. I'll leave the rest be another month.

Michael
Nice harvest! I am glad your potatoes are fine. It is probably due to adding a lot of organic material to the soil.
Good for you!
Silvia

well, the tops were yellowing and i needed the space for cassava. so, i dug up the 3x3 area and this is what i found...

not bad... zero investment, just a bit of space, and a couple pounds of organic new potatoes. i'd do it again.

since i spent the winter piling mulch, grass, hay and other assorted trash on top, the soil has a nice three inch layer of organic material... should be just right for the cassava's modest needs.

oh, and, the cucumbers have really kicked in for me:

my daughter is a total ham, which i find adorable about 1/3 of the time. i grow cucino, which has only female flowers and great disease resistance. off my two plants i'll get a handful of these tasty little cukes every day until the first week of june... when the PICKLEWORM arrives.

Hi Michael
Your daughter is adorable! She looks a lot like you. And those cucinos look so good.
Great potato harvest too. You must be doing all the right things. Congratulations!
Silvia

I planted four 30 ft. rows this year in December. Even with the freezes I have some really nice red potatoes. I planted them about 6" deep. Lots and lots of water using the ground up tire type seep hose and 2 rows hand water method.
Nice red potatoes now. Of course the seep hose rows did the best. I planted the potato halves or quarters about 6" apart. When planting I applied pasturized chicken manure,10-10-10 garden granular fertilizer and processed
granular sludge. We have received very little rain from planting time until now. Extra dry conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Department of Agriculture Publications