Roots & tubers
Potatoes
Two rounds: Feb 1 to 15, again late Jul to Aug.
- Outside
- Plant seed Feb 1-15, again late Jul to Aug
- Where
- Raised bed of loose imported soil
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Even through flowering; ease off as vines yellow
- Harvest
- May to Jun, then Oct to Nov
Care
- Water
- Keep the bed evenly moist through flowering, when the tubers bulk; a wet-dry swing now leaves them knobby or hollow. As the vines yellow, ease off so the skins firm. The late-July round sprouts into the driest weeks of the year, so water steadily until the shoots break ground.
- Sow
- Plant certified seed pieces, cut-side down with an eye each, 3 to 5 inches deep and a foot apart. The spring round goes in Feb 1 to 15, the statewide 4 to 6 weeks before frost set against March 15; the fall round goes in late July to August, the county's own call. Hill soil up the stems as they climb.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost worked in at planting starts the bed; side-dress once as the vines run, since this is a hungrier root than most. Keep any liquid feed light, because lush tops past that point come at the tubers' expense.
- Ready
- Steal new potatoes once the plants flower. For storage, wait until the vines yellow and collapse, give them two weeks to set skins, then lift with a fork. The spring crop digs as early summer arrives; the fall round comes out ahead of the mid-November frost.
- Trouble
- Green skin: light building bitter solanine, so keep tubers buried and stored dark. Striped beetles: Colorado potato beetle, pick adults and crush the orange egg masses. The honest one: the sheet warns heavy soils grow small, rough tubers, and Killeen's alkaline clay is heavy and alkaline, so a raised bed of imported loam is the real fix.
In a bag?
- No
- Potatoes are not container crops in any Texas source surveyed, and the 15 gallon cap settles it. The honest answer to the clay is a raised bed filled with imported loam, not a patio bag; the state sheet's small, rough tubers start in the soil.
Potatoes run two rounds here, Feb 1 to 15 and again in late July, with a catch named in the state sheet: heavy alkaline clay fights tuber quality.
Growing
Irish potatoes are a cool-season crop in Texas, grown in early spring and late fall while the days are warm and the nights cool. The spring round plants 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost, Feb 1 to 15 here; the county puts seed potatoes in during July and August for the fall planting, which the statewide fall row of 14 to 16 weeks before frost confirms. Hill soil up the stems as they climb, since that buried stem is where the crop forms. The honest-hard part is the ground: the sheet wants loose, well-drained, slightly acid soil, and Bell County's alkaline clay is the opposite, so grow them in a raised bed of imported loam and treat in-ground clay as the compromise it is.
Varieties
The state sheet names Dark Red Norland, Norland, Red LaSoda and Viking for reds; Atlantic, Gemchip, Kennebec and Superior for whites; Yukon Gold for yellow; and Century Russet, Norgold M and Russet Norkatah for russets.
In the kitchen
New potatoes boiled the day they surface, with butter and a fistful of dill, justify the bed annually. The fall round digs ahead of the first frost and carries the winter pots.