The weather is still cold, but the frost is no longer so severe that seeding potatoes cannot be shipped. Thus, they were shipped and arrived today.

Funny thing about potatoes – I have grown potatoes for over thirty years, and only this year I learned that they are divided not only by vegetation length from early to late, but also into determinate and indeterminate types. Determinate types start growing, set the tubers in one layer once, and then bloom and die irrespective of whether they are hilled up or not. They are mostly the very early and early varieties. Indeterminate potatoes keep growing and setting bulbs along the stem in multiple layers if they are being hilled up. They are mostly the late varieties.

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This year, I bought four varieties:

• Dali – an early to intermediate potato variety, with yellow-skinned tubers. You might remember that I grew it before, and I bought 10 kg of seed potatoes this year because it is tried and tested for my region, and they can be dehydrated without discoloring. The other three varieties are new (for my garden). I will probably plant these in soil and hill them up. I would like to maximize my harvest, and I could not find out if they are determinate or not.
• Camel – early variety, red-skinned tubers. Again, I could not find whether they are determinate or not, probably yes. They will be planted on top of the grass. I bought 5 kg to test it out.
• Agria – medium to late, yellow-skinned variety. From what I could find, it should be indeterminate, so it will definitely go into the soil, and I will hill it up as much as possible. It is also allegedly more starchy than the varieties I grew so far, and it should therefore be more suitable for French fries and chips (I tried to make chips last year, it was a disaster). I bought 10 kg because I got hyped up by the description on the webshop – allegedly, it has high yields and big tubers. We shall see if it beats Dali, who holds in my garden a record of growing 100 kg from 10 kg of seed, with tubers up to 900 g.
• Bellarosa – very early, determinate variety, red-skinned. It should also be drought-resistant, and thus supremely suited to planting on top of the soil with the Ruth-Stout method. I bought 5 kg to test it out.

So those are my potato planting plans for 2026. I hope to grow at least 300 kg of potatoes, if the weather is favorable.