Favorite Spring Root Crops in the Southeast and Beyond

Reader Contribution by Ira Wallace
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St Patrick’s Day is the Traditional time for planting “Irish” potatoes here in Central Virginia. Coincidentally it is also when we start sprouting sweet potatoes for slips. For both it is best to wait until the soil temperature at 3 inches deep is at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We are impatiently waiting for just a few more warm spring days before planting.

While we are waiting we have been green chitting (aka pre-sprouting) our Irish potatoes to get them off to a good start. Chitting is easy to do: first thing is to spread the whole seed potatoes in a single layer in clean seedling flat. Make sure the seed end (with a cluster of little potential sprouts) is facing up. Place the flats in a warm (70 degree) dark area for about a week to start the tubers sprouting. Then move the flats to a cool (50 to 60 degrees) spot with indirect light for 1 to 3 weeks. This stimulates the growth of short sturdy sprouts. We cut the seed potatoes into egg size pieces with at least two good sprouts each before planting.

A Southeastern tradition that we follow here on the farm is planting two crops of potatoes. We plant one crop in March for harvest in early summer and another in June for fall harvest and winter eating. Planting a crop of fall potatoes is not just for us southerners. In a recent Mother Earth News interview, potato expert Jim Gerritsen of Wood Prairie Farm shares his “Best Tips for Growing Organic Potatoes,” including a grower in southern Michigan who makes a fall potato planting. For us here in the hot humid Southeast having a second fall harvest after the weather cools off makes for better quality in storage and eating during winter.

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