Had a bunch of little potatoes that were not eaten and since I cure mine under a tree in the back yard they have taken root. I lay them out on feed sacks after digging so they rooted through the sack. I started putting dry manure and hay around them, and watered a little since rain has been scarce. I will continue the layering and let them grow through the hay/manure to see if they will produce potatoes this time of year. If so the potatoes should be just under the old feed sack. Weather was 80`s today and hopefully we will not get a long term freeze till much later. We have had down to 29 degrees earlier but has not hurt the potato tops. I just lightly covered them with hay. May be a way to have new potatoes in early winter. Guess we will just wait and see.
Mart if you can get some fresh manure, i reckon you could hot bed the spuds. At the very least surround your plants with it to hold off the frost.
Potatoes may appear some day, you never know. It will be an interesting experiment. Jerry P.S. Potato story: One day after moving some items in a cabinet, a bag of three shriveled potatoes came to light. Instead of throwing them away, I went outside, dug a hole, and buried a half dozen pieces of potatoes promptly forgetting about them. That summer the the potato plants spent their days in the sun. That fall as a dinner was being prepared my wife announced that we were having rice as we had run out of potatoes. I remembered the shriveled spuds. I dashed outside and with trowel in hand dug a hole not knowing what to expect. A dozen pathetically small potatoes saw the light of day, enough for the needed two servings. Now the inside joke is whenever we don't have enough potatoes for a recipe I am known to muse, "I wonder if I missed any of those potatoes?"
I would keep on with that practice. Just bury all the sprouted ones. Never know when you may need potatoes. So far so good on my experiment. Frost bit a couple of leaves when temp was 29 unexpectedly. But they will come back out I think. All the rest are fine. Will try to take a pic later. Have to add more manure and hay later today.
I just hope these Texas winters don`t get them. If it does they will not make till early spring. Was hoping to have a few during cold weather.
Mart, throw a cover over them if it is to get really cold. Mine just now got frozen out. They tolerated the cold very well. They didn't keel over until they froze. I think they will do fine for you.
