The Crafty Cultivator

Since I am trying to simplify my gardening for later of this summer (we have some big things happening), but I still want to grow at least some of our food… enter Potatoes.

I will be growing these in old tree pots (10-15 gallon size). So there will be no digging to do when I likely won’t be able to dig anything. All I will have to do is reach into the soil at a much more manageable level, or get my husband to dump the pots out for me so I can get the treasure out much easier.

While I want to grow all the different, more “weird” varieties all the time, this year, I am just keeping it pretty simple. There are still 4 different varieties I have chosen, but they are generally pretty main-stream.

Yukon Gold

• Yellow Skin, Yellow Flesh
• Pretty popular, standard multi-purpose potato.
• Registered in 1980, but took 66 crosses of different potatoes over 30 years of breeding to get it to where is is.
  • A google search on “Yukon Gold Potato” brings up a ton of history and variety of information so I’m not going to regurgitate it here.
• 60-80 days to harvest
• Early to Mid-Season / Determinate

Chieftain

• Red Skin, White Flesh
• Bred in Iowa by A.E. Kehr in 1957, and selected by the Horticulture Department at the University of Iowa. Developed and released in 1966. Registered in Canada in 1973
• 80-100 days to harvest
• Mid-Season / Determinate

Warba

• White Skin, White Flesh, pink/red eyes
• Bred at the Minnesota Agriculture Experimental Station at St. Paul Minnesota in 1927
• 75 days to harvest
• Very Early Season / Determinate

Alaska Bloom

• White Skin, White Flesh, pink/red eyes – (Looks very similar to Warba)
• This variety originated from a cross made at the AFBI breeding station in Loughgall, Co. Armagh, UK in 1996.
• Mid-Season – 90-105 days to harvest
• I grew this one last year and it was one of the best performers through my neglect during the heat wave we had. Originally I was just going to stick to the 3 varieties above, since they came in a bulk pack all together, but when I saw these, I knew I had to add them back again this year.

Determinate vs Indeterminate Potatoes – This system of classifying potatoes isn’t terribly reliable, (the “season” measuring system is much better at classifying potatoes) but I do see it gaining traction in some of the gardening groups I am in, so I wanted to address it. The reason it is hard to find out what type each potato variety is, is due to this not being the most reliably consistent classification. If I get a chance, I would like to do a more in-depth post on this all on its own. Until I get to that post, here is a basic differentiation between indeterminate and determinate:

• Indeterminate Potatoes are said to be more ideal for container growing, for when you want to keep adding soil to the pot as the potato grows up. Generally, Indeterminate types are long season types, and they take longer to mature before your potatoes are ready.

• Determinate Potatoes are more ideal for short growing season, and those without a ton of space to grow in. Generally, these are short season types and have more quick maturing tubers.

If you want a good basic deep dive on growing potatoes, especially in a colder climate, check out this article on the Alaska Master Gardener Blog.

I planted my potatoes on May 3, in 15 gallon tree pots. I got 2 pots of each variety. With 8 pots of potatoes, this should be enough potatoes to get us to around Christmas, unless the harvest ends up being terrible. Someday I will have a big row of potatoes in an even bigger garden, but for now, this is making use of a space that otherwise is just a weedy mess.