• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Need Advice

I need to grow a potato plant that will be 48" tall by the first of August. That's about two inches per day, once it sprouts. How do I do this?

Better growing through chemistry is fine.

Mike
 
I've never grown potatoes before, but I can look it up in some of my books if you don't have any that include potatoes.
 
Pam,

Normally, it's a snap. Dig a furrow about four inches deep, place part of a seed potato (as long as it has 2-3 'eyes' on it), add a sprinkle of 20-20-20 fertilizer and cover. Maybe apply a bit of nitrate when the plants are about six-eight inches tall. Pull dirt around the stalks and wait for four-five months to dig them. They will grow about a foot tall before dying. Supposedly, if one keeps adding dirt, they will keep growing, probably until the first killing frost.

I don't have that luxury - I've got to grow it by August 1. Normally, I would not use much fertilizer because it makes the potatoes less solid (increases water content) but in this case, the plant is for show - I will explain that normally the plant would not be this high.

Perhaps Superthrive or similar would work. In re-reading your plant hormone thread, you mentioned that perhaps auxins were responsible for AJ's larger plants and I also read where Naphthenates have greatly increased bean production.

Next year, I'll be better prepared. I'll save a few potatoes from this year's crop for seed, plant them in January and avoid trying to use a lot of chemicals.

Mike
 
I know you're growing something for display, but I'm a little hazy on the need to have it reach a certain size. If it's productive and healthy, does it really matter how long the above ground growth is?
 
Pam,

It's sort of like "Whose Line Is It" where contestants get points but points don't matter. In just three months, under normal conditions, the potato is going to look almost like others grown in the ground or at most, six inches taller. If I can get it three feet tall and document it, even if it is by using fertilizers, it will show what is possible if the plant had another 2-3 months to grow. Plus, it's the Fair, where size counts!

Mike
 
Back
Top