The main farm job of this week (4/23-4/27) at the Willits Energy Farm was planting potatoes. Five beds were filled with 11 different varieties. Each bed was broken into three rows at about 18 inch spacing between rows and potatoes were planted within the rows at 9 inch spacing. This will be a good test to see how many potatoes can be expected at this planting density, (hopefully 1500 pounds or more). As explained in a previous blog, potatoes are an important crop because they are area efficient high calorie food source. Taking this into consideration I think it is safe to say that they are an energy crop for human power.

Potatoes are planted in furrows (mini-trenches) which have a mound of soil bordering the furrow. As the leaves of the potato break the surface of the soil, the soil that was removed from the furrow is placed around the green shoot. This process, called “hilling”, helps to encourage the growth of more tubers.

In more industrialized contexts, a farmer will use a tractor with a long “ripping-tooth” to create a furrow and hill. The farmer simply sinks the ripper down to the desired level and pulls it through the soil to prepare a potato bed. We are looking at accomplishing this task without complicated, petrol powered machinery, and are therefore using our developing toolset to accomplish the job. Our methodology is as follows.

1. The Glaser wheel-hoe to remove the top layer of sod from the bed, raked up the loose sod and carted it to the compost area.
2. The broadfork to help create furrows of about 9 inches. One person would put weight on the broadfork, pry, and break-free a chunk of soil. The other person would help roll the chunk out of the way to form the furrow and create a mound that will be later used to “hill” the potatoes.
3. After the row was “broadforked” one of us would use a typical garden fork to press deeper into the new furrow and loosen the soil. This gave us the opportunity to bury the potato about 9 inches from the top of the furrow and have a bit of loosened soil below the “seed”.
4. Finally, a hand trowel was used to make a hole in the loosened soil and bury the potato in the furrow. We covered the potato with a couple inches of soil.

The varieties of potatoes that were planted include:

• Desiree
• Huckleberry
• All Blue
• Caribe
• Yellow Fin
• Canela
• Norkotah
• Sangre
• Kennebuk
• French Fingerling
• Purple Peruvian
  

Line of Bed Ready to be Broadforked

Forking the Bed After Using the Broadfork

Sprouted Seed Potato

Placing the Potatoes in Row at 9 inch Spacing (Before Covering with Soil)

Three of Five Completed Rows of Potatoes