Potato Crop

[HeatherAtHome]

I planted potatoes for the first time and I'm wondering about my numbers. I planted 5lbs of "white" and ended up getting 20lbs. And I planted 5lbs of "red" and dug up 60lbs. I was disappointed on the white but wondering if the yield from the red potatoes is normal or still on the low side?

When I planted them, each potato was cut so that it had 2-3 eyes per piece. I believe I planted them 8" apart (I followed the instructions in my gardening book) and it ended up with 4 rows of potatoes, each being about 18 feet long.

[HeatherAtHome]

Am I the only one who planted potatoes?

[FarmerCathy]

I think those are a great harvest, but I don't know the averages you should be getting. I'm sure each variety is different. In my book, "The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food" you need to 10-30 plants per person. I found on wiki that its 6-8 potatoes per plant.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_p..._plant_produce

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

Am I the only one who planted potatoes?

I'm not, but I can't have potatoes anymore. I hope that I helped a little. I've been trying to post this and look at my book all morning so it would have been posted earlier, but kept getting distracted.

[lucyem]

I think it sounds like you did well. We planted potatoes and did OK with the ones in the raised bed in the garden. Guessing we probably did a similar yield to yours. But we did not so good with the ones in the garbage can bins. I got more then I planted which is better then last year so at least we had an improvement I think it was partly a matter of my not keeping up with those like I should have and then pulling them up too soon.