Potatoes Brumbaugh

As a child of the 80’s, I definitely watched my share of television miniseries on TV or on VHS tape. My all time favorite of those miniseries is Centennial. I dreamt of being Elly Zendt and running away to the West with Levi Zendt. I didn’t want it to end in a snakebite like her journey had, but I loved the idea of the new frontier and making my way to a homestead. One of my favorite characters in the miniseries was Potatoes Brumbaugh, a hard working potato farmer played by Alex Karras, of Webster fame. When I mentioned to my parents that we were going to be planting potatoes in the garden this year, my dad asked if I remembered Potatoes Brumbaugh. Of course I did and I hoped to channel his enthusiasm for the crop as we planted our Katahdins this year.

In order to conserve space in the garden, my brother in law and I built potato boxes according to this plan that I found on the Denver Post website.

Our first step was to hit Home Depot to buy untreated lumber to make the boxes. I always choose untreated wood so that I’m not adding any unnecessary chemicals to the garden. Once we had our supplies, my BIL cut the wood and built the first layer of two boxes for me.

An established bed, a new bed and the potato boxes in their places

The theory with the boxes is that we add a layer of wood planks as the potatoes grow and we add dirt on top of plant as it emerges throughout the season. So, I will be adding planks until each box gets to be six layers of wood in all. The possible yield with these boxes is 100 pounds of potatoes. Yes, I said 100 pounds and yes, I said that we have set up two of these boxes. So, if we get a good yield we could stand to see more than 200 pounds because these boxes didn’t fit all of the seed potatoes that I ordered and so 8 other seed potatoes were planted in troughs in the big veggie patch. I foresee a great deal of latkes, mashed potatoes, potato bread and potato soup in our future this winter.

Once we laid the boxes near the raised beds, I turned over the soil, said goodbye to more grass in the yard in honor of Operation Less Mowing, laid newspaper to deter weeds and added Organic Mechanic Planting soil and Frey’s Mushroom Compost. I added enough extra soil to get to the top of the first layer of wood planks.

Newspaper layer

First layer of Organic Mechanic soil

After doing so, I realized that I needed to add the second layer of planks. This required a drill. Prior to last week, I had never wielded a drill in my life. So, in the ever dynamic learning curve that is my gardening knowledge and skills, my husband taught me how to use the drill so that I could keep building the boxes during the week. I am proud to say that I did a fairly good job. Not union work quality, but good. Once the next layer was on, I added more dirt and was able to plant the potatoes.

In order to prep the potatoes, they need to be sliced so that there are at least two eyes on each piece to be planted. Then, let the slices dry so that you reduce the risk of bacteria once you plant the potatoes. I planted four pieces in each box. I planted them about six inches from the center and four inches deep. The trough potatoes were planted about six inches deep and six inches apart in two rows.

I am eagerly anticipating this vegetable this season. We chose Katahdins because they are a good basic, heirloom variety. Also, they are not a variety carried by our “potato guy” at the farmer’s market. Barry, from Savoie Farms, does grow Yukon Golds, Onaways, All Blues and Red Clouds, among other varieties. So, I can get those flavors from him. In addition to purchasing from him this year, I am sure that I will be asking questions about how to grow potatoes successfully and organically in our garden. Have any of you grown potatoes? If so, what tips and suggestions do you have?