White Kennebec Seed Potatoes

A late-maturing white potato with oblong tubers, shallow eyes and flesh suited to fries or chips.

White skin and shallow eyes

White Kennebec forms elliptical to oblong potatoes with white skin and white flesh. The shallow eyes make the tuber shape a useful choice for kitchen preparation. This is a late-maturing variety with a place in gardens where the crop can stay in the ground long enough to develop. Kennebec is suited to French fries and potato chips. Grow it for a full potato harvest rather than expecting a fast leaf crop or the same harvest schedule as an early variety.

Plant the eyes that produce shoots

Seed potatoes begin from tubers rather than the small dry seeds used for most garden vegetables. Each planted piece needs at least one healthy eye, since that bud produces the new growth. Small tubers may be planted whole. Larger ones can be divided with a clean blade, keeping useful flesh around each eye. Follow potato-growing guidance for allowing cut surfaces to heal before planting. The piece supplies the developing shoot while the new plant establishes roots and foliage.

Give developing tubers loose soil

Choose a sunny planting area with loose, well-drained soil. Florida potatoes are a cool-season crop, so use the regional planting window rather than waiting for hot summer conditions. Keep moisture reasonably consistent as plants grow, but avoid a bed that stays waterlogged. Potatoes need a fertility plan suited to the crop and the soil. Space the plants so you can work along the row to bring soil toward the stems as growth develops. Compacted ground makes that work harder and restricts the planting area.

Keep the crop covered through harvest

Hill soil around the growing stems to keep developing potatoes covered. Light exposure can turn tubers green, so coverage is part of growing a usable crop. Check the row after heavy rain has moved soil away. For a mature harvest, let the tops finish their growth and watch for the foliage to die back as the tubers mature. Lift carefully to reduce cuts or bruises. Keep harvested potatoes out of sunlight, and separate damaged tubers from sound ones before putting the crop into storage.