Pests/Ctrl Control of potato bugs.

[Milkweed Host]

Not seeing this info anyplace here.

I used to have huge problems with potato bugs.
I'd pick the bugs off the potatoes in the morning and late afternoon. If I didn't remove
the bugs, the leaves would be completely gone in a few days.

I picked up a gardening book from one of our local Amish stores. It suggested to plant
a row of beets between each row of potatoes. For me, it works extremely well and it's now
rare to find a potato bug.

 

[Samuel Adams]

All my life, the old timers have admonished me to “have your potatoes planted by Good Friday”.

So I did, and that with generally good results...but always accompanied by a crop of potato bugs.

One year, and I don’t remember exactly why, I planted some potatoes early July.

No potato bugs....and the plants did not seem to mind the August heat, at all (heavily mulched, as always), and.....the potatoes were maturing about the time I normally prefer to dig them for curing and cellaring.

Since then, I have wondered why the old timers never mentioned mid-summer tater farming...