An early season tuber. Varigated purple skin with yellow around the eyes and marbled purple and yellow flesh. Produces small round tubers about the size of a quarter to a fifty cent piece. Jester potatoes have a buttery slightly nutty flavor that goes great in salads.
- Sensitive to common scab
- Medium yields
- Short storage life
- Open pollinated
- Early season 65+ days
Shipping is via USPS Priority Mail. (UPS 2nd Day delivery option is not available for this product). Sorry, we cannot ship potatoes to Alaska, Hawaii or Canada.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Cold weather/freeze-risk-in-transit may delay potato ship dates in early spring.
JESTER POTATO SEEDS ORGANIC 1 LB
Light Requirements:
Full sun is best. However, we have had success in part sun.
Water Requirements:
Potatoes enjoy moist soil. 1-2 inches of water per week is suggested.
Soil Requirements:
Potatoes like loose, deep, well drained slightly acidic soil (pH 4.8-5.5). Go light on nitrogen applications, as this can lead to abundant foliage, but lower quality tubers that mature later. We suggest 140-150 lbs of nitrogen/acre is average.
When & How to Plant:
Plant your potatoes 1-2 weeks before the last frost date in spring. If you cut and divide your larger seeds to maximize your purchase, each piece of the tuber should have at least one eye (dormant bud), and planted facing up. Cut the tubers a day or two early in order for the skin to dry before planting.
Tips:
Chitting:
We prefer "chitting" our potatoes prior to planting. Chances are your potatoes already arrived with sprouts coming out of them, which means you are ahead of the game. The goal with chitting is to encourage the potatoes to produce strong, short, green shoots, or "chits", before planting. This process has helped our crops mature faster after planting, and has resulted in an earlier harvest with greater yields.
Hilling:
Once plants reach 6 inches tall but before they begin to flower, gardeners should start the hilling process. This helps prevent potato sunburn, which creates a chemical called solanine that turns the potato green. Solanine is toxic, so do not eat green potatoes. This process needs to be done every few weeks throughout the potato’s growing season.
Owner's favorite way to grow potatoes:
I personally love using straw as a mulch. Not only does this pratice cut down on water use by preventing moisture loss through evaporation, it also keeps the soil an even cool temperature, it shields the sun, and feeds helpful micro organisms in the ground. The look or feel of straw isnt for everybody, but I find it charming. Just make sure there are no seeds in the straw.