Potato planting distance

Grow Azul Toro sometime and you will see something different about the way potatoes develop. I like Red Pontiac, but it is so susceptible to nematodes that I rarely plant it these days.

Can you be more specific about what I would see? With my 6000sq foot yard that includes my house, two sheds, 3 car parking, orchard and vegetable garden, there is no so much room for experimenting. :grin: I mostly try to plant what produces for me well, and usually stick with something that works, just because I have no space for experimenting…

Azul toro grows with an expanding ring of potatoes on stolons around the central plant with relatively few potatoes immediately under the plant. Some of the stolons grow up to a foot before budding into a potato. It produces about twice as many stolons as most commercial potatoes so there are a bunch more potatoes though smaller in size. It is unusual because of the color and flavor combined with relatively high production. What you would see different vs current varieties is the number of potatoes and nematode and disease resistance.

Thanks, I like the grow habit, but the fact it is purple is show stopper for me. My DH is very picky about color of his food. Purple for potatoes not exactly what he will be happy about :grin:.

I helped my mother garden when I was younger as in about 50 years ago. One year, I ordered seed and we grew lots of things we had never grown before. We had purple cabbage, purple onions, purple lettuce, purple potatoes, purple beans, etc. As you may guess, the next year we did not grow anything purple. :smiley: :open_mouth: :slight_smile:

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Darrel, I’d love to try it. I’ve been growing a bunch of blue/purple potatoes (most from The Maine Potato Lady), but have never seen Azul Toro. Where can I find it?

I like the striking color of Magic Molly and Bora Valley’s production. Both are pretty tasty, but I am more impressed with some Purple Peruvian’s I recently got from the grocery store and will be planting this year. I also had some medium size, oblong purple ones from Whole Foods one time that were extremely good. A hint of sugar, like sweet potatoes was in it’s ancestry (I don’t even know if that is possible) and a bit moister texture. They weren’t able to tell me what the cultivar was though.