Planting Planting potatoes in the fall for spring harvest - advice needed

[LibertyMom]

I’d like to try planting potatoes in the fall for early spring harvest. There are several articles online from zones 5 to 9 so I know it’s a thing (I’m in 7a) But they don’t say when to plant. Can you just plant anytime, or is there a risk of premature growth or rot if you do it too early?

 

[Martinhouse]

I live in the western half of Arkansas just north of I-40 and by November it gets far too cold to be growing potatoes. Ask someone where you bought your seed potatoes, or maybe just someone in your area who gardens, and find out what is considered okay to grow as a winter crop. I spent a winter in Charlotte one year and it was far too cold there to grow a garden through a winter.

I may try growing a few potatoes in my greenhouse this winter, but I won't invest much space or time to the effort.

 

[Publius]

I’d like to try planting potatoes in the fall for early spring harvest. There are several articles online from zones 5 to 9 so I know it’s a thing (I’m in 7a) But they don’t say when to plant. Can you just plant anytime, or is there a risk of premature growth or rot if you do it too early?

I do not know of anyone that does this and if the area you live in is subject to serious freezing I would not try it.
Planting mid to late spring where it's posable still a quick freeze the potatoes will be protected in the ground.

 

[Raggedyman]

I'm in 6b . . . never done this but entertained the thought. when I did consider it I thought I'd plant them the same week I always plant my garlic - the LAST week of October during the "going away moon" just prior to the new.

your only concern would be too much rain and rotting in the ground. taters that have started greenery topside get tinged with frost here ALL the time and bounce right back

 

[LibertyMom]

Thanks for the replies. FYI, here is a link to one of several online articles. One of the examples of why this is a viable option is that often people find volunteer potatoes in the spring that do well. The idea is that the plants begin growing their roots before the freeze, then go dormant until they wake-up on their own as soon as conditions warrant. It's kind of a slow roll, but they wil have a slight head start on potatoes planted in the spring and will be able to establish themselves before some of the bugs and weeds are active.

 

[LibertyMom]

Yes, there was mention of planting potatoes, onions and garlic all in the fall in some of the articles.

 

[LibertyMom]

Bumping this just in case those who might have answered were otherwise busy over the weekend.

 

[Publius]

I grew up on eastern Long Island where the potato was the primary row crop and over the years I have seen many volunteers popping up from last years crop and these were from really small potatoes that just fall though the equipment during harvest.
There are so many of these marble and pingpong ball sized potatoes that get left in the field there will be some that make through the winter but most (95%) end up rotting in the ground. The frost line on Long Island in most winters is about two feet and I have see it freeze three feet down during a few winters and one foot will kill off most potatoes left in the ground.

 

[Babs]

I'm in zone 5, and I had volunteer potatoes one year. We happened to get a heavy snow that fall, that fell before the ground froze, thus insulating the ground somewhat and allowing the tubers to survive and grow in the spring.

 

[Wildwood]

Last year I planted half of one of my big raised beds in sweet potatoes and half in regular potatoes. The regulars made lots of greenery but only small marble sized potatoes. The sweet potatoes produced over a hundred pounds on their end so I decided this year to make that bed all sweet potatoes. When it warmed up, I had several potato plants come up volunteer and it killed me to pull them out but I wanted more sweet potatoes. We'll see pretty soon if it paid off.

I've got several #10 cans of dried potatoes and a fair amount of instant potatoes in my pantry...not my favorites but not bad either since I can't seem to grow or can a regular potato.