Mulching Potatoes with Wood Chips

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CONZQ 26 May 2012 Potatoes. Mulching with wood chips.
The potatoes were mulched with wood chips, primarily to conserve moisture. All bare ground was covered. Each plant was then watered with a pail of water about two gallons. We have only had one reasonable rainfall in about two months.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?LHYIM 23 May 2012 Hilling Potatoes
Potatoes were hilled today. Hilling serves one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to supply sufficient cover for the emerging new tubers, which grow slightly above the seed potato usually within a foot diameter. Any potato exposed to light produces solanine, indicated by green color and should not be ingested. Procedure: I crawled along the rows on my knee pads and inspected each plants leaves underneath and removed any Colorado Potato Beetle eggs and squashed any adults found. I then sprayed each plant with diatomaceous earth/boric acid powder, my own concoction for protection against the Colorado Potato Beetle. The space between the rows was rototilled with my small Honda FG110G with the outer tines removed. The loosened soil was then raked up around the potato plants. The valley formed was then filled with quality compost and the area raked level. After the next heavy rainfall the area will be mulched to about four inches with wood chips.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?JPNSD 14 April 2012 Planting Potatoes.
Four rows were prepared for planting potatoes. The variety selected was Russian Blue (purple flesh), Alaskan Sweetheart (Red tinged flesh), and Russet Burbank (Red skin and white flesh). A total of 68 potatoes are to be planted, two rows were planted today, since the remainder are not ready for planting. The cut wounds are not sufficiently dry. Two more rows were planted on the 15 April, Russet Burbank and Russian Blue. The rows are two feet apart, about six inches deep and the potato spacing is such that each plant has a square foot of root area for growing. The seed potato is marked with a stake to facilitate location when digging, since the vegetation is not visible at harvest. I expect around four pounds of new tubers per plant for a total of over 200 pounds.