Potatoes and a Bulb Planter

Strange Bedfellows

Instead of the typical method of digging a hole with a shovel or trowel in which to plant potatoes, consider using a bulb planter.

Here's how we do this using square foot gardening.

Lay the grid on the four foot wide bed. Position the sixteen potatoes; one per square foot. Flip the grid for the next sixteen potatoes to be positioned. Keep going like this until all the potatoes for the bed have been positioned. Meanwhile, the two planters, one on each side of the bed plant the eight potatoes in front of them, then move to the next eight potatoes. And of course move, then replace, the mulch as you plant. Because of our mulch, today's soil was slightly damp and full off earthworms despite the hot weather and only one inch (25 millimeters) of rain since the beginning of April. 

The person positioning the potatoes will have just enough time to finish the bed, halve and position the potatoes for the next bed before the planters are ready to move to that bed. We planted seven 4 x 22 foot beds in just over an hour. Only three more beds to go.

With this method, we planted a fifty pound sack of Russet Burbank potatoes for every five 4 x 22 foot beds. And, as an FYI, each 4 x 22 foot bed takes 44 potatoes split into two; 88 halves in 88 square feet.