
This is an example of how not to grow potatoes. I grew three types of potatoes this year: Red Norlands that were made to fend for themselves in a hügelkultur bed along with Yukon Gems and Burbank Russets pampered with drip irrigation. The Red Norlands were a nice size, nearly blemish-free, and only required hilling up with some grass clippings. When I harvested the Yukon Gems and Burbank Russets, I immediately when “ruh roh….I bet there are extension documents about this.” Which, of course, exist:https://cropwatch.unl.edu/potato/deformations and https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/hollow_heart_in_potatoes
My russets suffered from “hollow heart” while my yukons were tremendously knobby and misshapen. Both conditions are the result of uneven moisture and temperature levels while the tubers are developing. Excessive nitrogen application prior to a heat wave can add to the problems. And what did I do this year? As the kids say, my growing conditions were totally sus.
First, I started with a new no-till bed using compost from a local stable that still had some shavings that had not entirely broken down. I was having nitrogen tie-up issues across the garden: nothing wanted to grow. I know it wasn’t herbicide issues because as soon as the temperatures warmed up, the herbicide-sensitive nitrogen-fixing peas took off. So, my potatoes sort of came up and just sat there. I whacked them with copious amounts of soybean meal to make some nitrogen available to the plants.
On top of nutrient issues, we started with our normal cold wet spring, had a May so dry the Department of Ecology declared an emergency drought, followed by a very cold, wet June, (which is actually normal). The weather became a bit more normal in July and August but we still got a few serious rains that resulted in a boom-bust cycle between drip irrigation and being inundated. At some point the microbes in the compost took off, providing the plants with a massive flush of nutrients. When the plants flowered at six inches tall and THEN the vegetation took off, I knew to keep my expectations low.

When my russets emerged looking like perfect bakers, I thought I had gotten away with it….until I cut one open and found the hollow heart. The potato is safe to eat; you just cut out the hollow center and any blemished tissue. The problem is that it is a game of roulette how bad the hollow heart is and how much potato you have to cut away. Many of the potatoes are perfect, particularly the smaller wones. A relatively small number have large hollows, ruining a good portion of the potato. Most have just a minor hollow. Because you cannot tell from the outside, I don’t want to waste a whole potato baking it only to find a middle third needed to be cut away. So, plenty of roast and mashed potatoes this year. They do taste excellent.

The Yukon Gems went a different direction and look more like giant pieces of ginger than potatoes. The results are different but the root causes are the same.
Mistakes summed up:
· Growing in a new no-till bed with too much compost and nitrogen tie-up issues
· Adding a large amount of a nitrogen source, particularly right before the weather got hot
· Even with regular drip irrigation, I probably did not irrigate sufficiently to even out the wet-dry-wet-dry swings.
As a home gardener, this is disappointing but not really an economic loss. Market gardeners trying to establish no-till systems might want to take note, though. If these were for sale, the entire harvest would need to be culled. Notably, the Red Norland potatoes grown in a hügelkultur bed with little more inputs than benign neglect had none of these problems. There is a probably a lesson in there.
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