Potato?

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Caribou

Time traveler
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I'm getting ready to plant some potato's in a couple of weeks. It is still freezing at night here and I guess I should wait till that threat is over.

I've never planted potatoes. Cut them? Don't cut them? Doesn't matter? How close can I plant them? What am I going to do wrong?
 
My grandma also dipped the cuts in root on or one, I can't remember. She planted them about six inches apart. The key is as they grow pull dirt up the stems. This allows them to produce more per plant.

We would pull dirt from between the rows and mound it around the stems
 
I remember that potatoes were cut into pieces, with an eye in each piece. Then the pieces were left out to dry for a couple days. I have also planted small potatoes without cutting them up.

I think trying to grow potatoes is a great idea. I believe it was you (but I could be wrong) who suggested that people should try to grow potatoes instead of wheat, because they are much easier to grow and harvest.
 
I always cut my taters and try to have 2 eyes in each piece. But one works just fine to. Try and let the taters cure at least overnight if not for a couple days. I always lay off a row as deep as I can get it, but thats rarely more than 6-8". Drop the pieces in with spacing at least 6" apart, 12" seems better around here. Then I'll pull just enough dirt in from the downhill side of the row to cover the pieces and inch or so. When they come up and start growing I'll pull more dirt around the plants every 2-3 weeks, just leaving the top leaves sticking out. The biggest thing is not to knock the blooms off once they start.
 
Doesn't anyone here ever grow taters in a big bin or can, etc?
I have never grown potatoes.
There was a good thread started here back in the beginning about potato growing.

I tried that but its to hot and dry here for that. The pots had to be watered 3 times a day and the plants just baked.
 
I gave up on potatoes. I planted them every year and get very few to harvest. I've tried all different ways and it just doesn't work out.
We just buy them.
I hear you but I've got to try.
 
I have read about adding lots of hay or straw to the soil where potatoes are planted.

We discussed growing wheat and someone (Caribou?) said it seems easier to grow potatoes than wheat. I just read that it was 1770 when Europe first got potatoes from America. I think about how many people had potatoes as a staple food 200 years ago--the Irish, Germans, Czechs and probably more. What did they eat in Ireland before they ate potatoes? If the great potato famine was so debilitating, how did they get by before potatoes?
 
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One year I decided to try planting taters in the fall and let the slips overwinter. I dug a fairly deep trench, close to 1' deep and layed in a 3" or so layer of leaves from that fall. dropped the slips into the leaves, and then covered them with 6-8" of more leaves, then just enough dirt to keep the leaves in place. I think I planted in late Oct/early Nov. Sometime in March the plants started poking thru. I just worked them as if I had just planted them. We dug in September as normal for us and we got a good crop. The one thing that stands out to me was how clean the taters were. With our clay we always have a lot of dirt stuck on them, but that year almost none at all. Some of the leaves had broken down, down with the taters they looked like they had just went in.
 
We tried for three years to grow potatoes in 5 gallon buckets but it is just too hot here to do that. The roots died from the heat (they simmered one year, baked one year and rotted the third time. You can't keep the plants cool by adding water because the whole bucket gets too hot in the summer - even if you put it in the shade.
 
I put out straw bales last fall for my potato's this year.

Car we put these in hay in raised bed. First time to try the hay. Hard to find straw here in Florida.
We planted these in early January.
rdAnbGx.jpg
 
Car we put these in hay in raised bed. First time to try the hay. Hard to find straw here in Florida.
We planted these in early January.
rdAnbGx.jpg
I'm an Alaska boy, straw and hay, same same to me. I found some mouldy fodder for cheap. That really looks good. I tried to turn my compost a few days ago and it was still frozen and it is still freezing at night, though it gets into the 50's most days. I'll probably get to plant the potatoes in a couple of weeks. I also saved a couple of kinds of squash seeds to try also.
 
I'm an Alaska boy, straw and hay, same same to me. I found some mouldy fodder for cheap. That really looks good. I tried to turn my compost a few days ago and it was still frozen and it is still freezing at night, though it gets into the 50's most days. I'll probably get to plant the potatoes in a couple of weeks. I also saved a couple of kinds of squash seeds to try also.

Car this is a Canada couple planting potatoes in hay.
Skip to 3:00 to save time.

 
Car this is a Canada couple planting potatoes in hay.
Skip to 3:00 to save time.


The method of growing potatoes in this video is called the Ruth Stout method. I had never heard of it before. I watched the video today. In tough times, growing potatoes with this method would be one of the easier ways to grow them.

Caribou, I am wondering what kind of luck you have had with your potatoes?
 
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The method of growing potatoes in this video is called the Ruth Stout method. I had never heard of it before. I watched the video today. In tough times, growing potatoes with this method would be one of the easier ways to grow them.

Caribou, I am wondering what kind of luck you have had with your potatoes?
The hay created a thatch which kept all but the very top dry. It didn't look suitable to plant.
 
The hay created a thatch which kept all but the very top dry. It didn't look suitable to plant.
One thing about Ruth Stout method is no watering. I really think I would play it by the conditions in my area at the time. Watering could help with a better production. Another thing is how packed or loose the soil is under the hay. If it were me, I would work in the hay after a season and add a new layer on top. In all of my gardens, potatoes were always the best producing of all the things I have planted. I can so see them as a basic food in a SHTF situation. Peasants in Europe ate lots of them.
 
One thing about Ruth Stout method is no watering. I really think I would play it by the conditions in my area at the time. Watering could help with a better production. Another thing is how packed or loose the soil is under the hay. If it were me, I would work in the hay after a season and add a new layer on top. In all of my gardens, potatoes were always the best producing of all the things I have planted. I can so see them as a basic food in a SHTF situation. Peasants in Europe ate lots of them.

We started trying the Ruth Stout method last year. Did the hugelkulture pile with it.

n4QjQUc.jpg
 
I planted potatoes for the first time seriously this season and while I got a lot of potatoes over half the crop was lost to ants, wood lice and soil cockroaches.
I did everything right and yet.....
This patch is prime garden space.
It has the best soil, sun and position on the entire property.
The amount of effort and space devoted to potatoes wasn't worth the harvest I got to keep.
After a bit of soul searching I have decided that it's better to stick to Sweet potatoes which give me a better yeild for my efforts.
They grow all year around here and we're lucky or unlucky, if we have a single frost event.
I love potatoes but loving them and being able to grow them are two separate things.
Once again I am reminded to grow according to the climate I have and not the climate I wished I had.
 
I planted potatoes for the first time seriously this season and while I got a lot of potatoes over half the crop was lost to ants, wood lice and soil cockroaches.
I did everything right and yet.....
This patch is prime garden space.
It has the best soil, sun and position on the entire property.
The amount of effort and space devoted to potatoes wasn't worth the harvest I got to keep.
After a bit of soul searching I have decided that it's better to stick to Sweet potatoes which give me a better yield for my efforts.
They grow all year around here and we're lucky or unlucky, if we have a single frost event.
I love potatoes but loving them and being able to grow them are two separate things.
Once again I am reminded to grow according to the climate I have and not the climate I wished I had.
Isn't this the life of gardening? Some years you have a bumper crop of something, the next year little or nothing. Some crops do well in some conditions, other crops never do well in some gardens.
 
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