Whoops! Howdy, Linda! Guess you posted as I was being long-winded!
I'm not familiar with Smart Pots but your mix should work, soil for the roots, mulch for the top growth. If Smart Pots are self-watering I'm aware that you know the soil should be porous and well draining.
Are the pots deep? Sometimes people grow spuds in trash cans and they are so tall that sun won't get to the young plants when planted way down in them and they never seem to really take off fast, being long, leggy and spindly. (Grow Bags or even potting soil bags would work well though cus you can roll the sides down for planting, then roll them back up as the plants grow.)
Okay, back to work for real this time!
Happy Gardening All!
Shoe
potatoes under straw PART II
Hey, Shoe,
Smart Pots are very porous grow bags that allow for great drainage! Bingo!!!
More like a wool/burlap bag. They're about 20-22" deep. Once the roots are established in the soil, the leaves will serve as mulch. They should hold enough moisture and be lightweight enough for me to move the bags around if I need to.
I'll start em' off on the concrete launching pad that'll keep the soil cool for now. Once the weather changes, I'll pull the bags onto the grass to keep em cool.
I'm sooooooooooooooooooo excited!
Oh, and thanks for the tip about wanting GREEN sprouts, not white! These little pointers truly matter to us newbs.
Hugs to all!
Linda
More great tips!
I have now moved my taters back inside and most are on the kitchen counter by my sink. I have a nice window over my sink, but they won't get any direct sunlight. Now, if Mr. Sun would just show his face again, I'd be a happy camper.
Thanks, Shoe, for providing such useful pointers. While I have grown potatoes for years I did not realize they should be sprouted in light! I have always put them in pie tins on the kitchen floor and covered them with newspaper to keep out the light. Somewhere I was given the idea to do it that way and it seemed to work! But this year I will put them uncovered in a kitchen window with indirect light and see it it makes a difference. Maybe they just sprouted more slowly the other way and I didn't notice the difference. Mine will be planted under a mixture of straw and light soil so I can harvest them more easily. I have to put them all in different beds because of the Late Blight last summer so want to keep the digging to a minimum and not leave pieces behind even though the pieces always give the best potatoes the next season!
Speaking of BLIGHT: Since I will be growing potatoes in containers with leaves, once my HARVEST (and there WILL be a harvest) is over, where should I rotate those leaves to so that I don't introduce bad, evil stuff into my other containers?
Most of what I grow is in 5-gallon, self-watering, eBuckets. I'm up to 20 now, with an additional 15 or so to go to completely fill in the available space I have. Right now the eBuckets have cole crop cabbages, broccolis, and kohlrabi in them. They're growing in a veggie growers garden mix I purchased from a local supplier, mixed with my homemade compost. Since it was brand new, I'll be using it again next season, amending it with more homemade compost and Black Kow Composted Manure.
I'm trying to understand how I should be rotating the planting mediums in my container garden so as to not set up a bad environment or introduce things like Blight.
Am I making sense? Should I start a completely new thread somewhere else to ask this question? If so, where?
Don't wanna hijack this thread! It's FABULOUS!
Linda
For several years I have grown potatoes and tomatoes in the same spot just amending with compost and straw and had no problems. The only reason I am forced to do something about it this year is that I got Blight on the Tomatoes and a few potato plants were affected. It would normally die out with the cold but not on any pieces of infected potatoes left in the soil. So to be safe I must pull all volunteers and plant in new sites hoping the Late Blight does not come back this summer. It was a problem all over the NE last summer. I'd never seen it before but we had so much more rain than usual in the spring and much cooler temps! So generally I don't see a problem planting potatoes in the same spot for a couple of years as long as one amends the soil and adds new compost and straw, etc. More experienced gardeners may disagree with this and I am happy to learn other techniques!
There are some good crop rotation sites to check out. Just google in crop rotation.
I have downloaded info and hope I got this right! Plant potatoes where you grew: Legumes (peas, beans), brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts), cover or green manure crops.
Where the potatoes had been you can plant: Sweet corn, cucurbits (cucumber, melons, pumpkin). So I guess you could rotate the used leaves to the bed where you plant the Sweet corn and cucurbits.
But if there is no disease on your potatoes I would probably use the leaves again and add new ones as well next year! See what others think!
The one thing I do know is not to plant tomatoes where you had potatoes! Since I have to change my potato beds I have limited spots for my tomatoes! A dilemma this year!
Hope this helps!
Aging them in the compost pile should also eliminate any of the bad stuff if you turn your pile regularly.
Thank, you, Gardadore and Stephanie!
This helps tremendously!
This message was edited Jan 20, 2010 1:45 PM
I do have a question about growing potatoes, is it necesary to cut the potatoes if they are bigger than a pingpong ball? and also if they are not cut am I supposed to remove the eyes or sprouts except to leave 2 or 3 of the sprouts on top of the potato? My taters are a little big but since I also bought some fingerlings to plant I really need to cut one potato instead of all of them.
You don't need to remove any of the eyes or sprouts. If you are leaving the potato larger than a ping pong ball you will get more potatoes from all those wonderful sprouts! If it's bigger than a large egg I would probably cut it in two pieces but it will still produce wonderful potatoes without. Remember the sprouts use the body of the potato as a food base when they start out so if it's a larger potato the body will support all those eyes!
Thank you gardadore, I'll just leave the sprouts as you suggested, I might cut them if I see that my fingerlings are not sprouting, I am planning to plant them the second week of feb, so they still have time to sprout.
A good rule of thumb to go by is to have potatoes about the size of a golf ball. If the spud is bigger then you can cut it into smaller golf ball-sized pieces making sure to leave at least two (preferably 3) eyes on each piece. Big potatoes I've been able to cut into 4 pieces, each piece with a couple eyes on them by cutting at the weirdest angles!
The only time I'd remove eyes would be when there are too many on a piece, which sometimes happens at the rose end. If you have more than 4 eyes, especially if they are bunched together, touching, you'll do them justice to rub off the extras.
Hope this helps!
Shoe (back to watching a great music concert doing a benefit for Haiti. Ya'll should check it out if you get a chance.)
This is from the newsletter I rec'd from one of the local nurseries yesterday.
"Prepare your plot with compost, organic fertilizer and molasses. Plant onions 1 to 2 inches deep, 2 to 3 inches apart. If a hard freeze is forecast, cover with floating row cover. Potatoes can be planted whole or cut into pieces. Make sure there are at least one or two "eyes" per piece. Plant 4 inches deep, 10 to 14 inches apart."
I'm wondering about incorporating some straw INTO my soil for potatoes...I have a couple of aged bales (that I originally prepared for straw-bale planting) that have been decomposing for a couple of years. They are not composted completely, but have broken down a lot. I'm thinking that tilling some hay into the area where I'd like to plant potatoes would lighten and loosen the soil. My worry, though, is that instead of loosening the soil I'll be binding it together. They put straw in mud to make adobe, after all. Any comments or suggestions?
David
Actually I really think it would loosen up the soil, I placed some alfalpha hay in my raise beds along with the soil and it did help loosen the soil a lot plus the worms really love it and it also decomposes very fast. I am planing on placing some of this alfalfa hay along with compost when I gow my taters as well.
Adding organic matter to your soil is one of the best things you can do for it. Here's an article that explains why: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1936/
When people say, "Feed the soil, not the plants," that's what they mean.
I see what you're thinking about the adobe. But I guess the difference is that with adobe, the material is compacted (no oxygen) and dried (no water to support any living things).
Thanks for the comments. It sounds like it should be safe to till some of the straw into the potato rows. My soil is pretty good, but if it gets wet it can be compacted. It's not quite "gumbo", but it will pack pretty hard. Hopefully the extra will loosen the texture rather than make bricks.
David
Since I raise potatoes under straw every year, I always rough fork the decomposing straw into the soil after harvest in the fall. Then the following spring, I usually till in in completely. I don't plant potatoes in the same place two years in a row, but the vegetables that are planted in the hay-amended soil sure love it.
How are the taters doing all? Got sprouts yet?
Mine are doing well. The smaller ones (Red Norlands, Purple Vikings, and fingerlings) seem to be sprouting faster than the larger ones (Kennebecs).
I'm afraid to look. After our last conversations, I moved my spuds from the drafty window ledge to a cool, hallway closet in the dark. That was about 6 days ago, today. I'll look when I get home.
I'll probably have to use a machete to hack my way into that closet...
You could always put them out wherever you normally keep your potatoes for cooking! This is obviously the best place to get potatoes to sprout in my house!
These are my store-bought potatoes. Granted they've probably been there for 6 weeks, but hey! They're growing like gangbusters! LOL
Girl,
I threw away about 6 huge spuds this weekend that looked just like that! They were Russets, and I don't really have a place to grow them. Plus, I'm more interested in the varieties we've got seeds for.
NEWS FLASH!!!! I was walking through the garden, once again strategizing how to make the most of the space I have, when I spied an old washing machine tub I used 3 seasons ago for something I don't remember cause it didn't live. Anyway, I found I have THREE such tubs, with dead asparagus ferns in em (DH loves em' -- DW HATES em'...)
Uh, hum.....Since these tubs are MINE, guess where my excess potato plants are gonna grow?
Wooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo!
"Thar' be spuds bakin' in the sun, matey!"
One of the SW peeps used one of those old tubs to grow spuds in.
It should work just fine.
Sprouts?! I don't know what you Texans are talking about. Mine don't even ship until the first week of March. I had the hardest time limiting myself to two varieties, but I narrowed it to Caribe and Blossom - pink fingerlings, inside and out!
I was at our winter farm market on Saturday buying up some of the last of the potatoes. They were small and the woman was knocking the sprouts off. I said, hey! Maybe I could grow those if they would keep until March. She thought it would be worth a try, so I've got some Carolas in my back closet. Course, they'd sprout faster in my kitchen - funny how that works, but I want them to make it to March.
Good luck with your tators!
Boy my potatoes look like monsters, little tubers growing everywhere, they are getting prettty long expecially in my yucon gold taters but I am afraid to plant them out just yetwe are sill prety cold and this morning when I woke up there was a little frost on my veggies, I am probably going to wait til feb if I can and then plant them, the farmers almanac tells me to plant my taters in the 2nd week of feb, we will see if I can wait that long. Here is a picture of my yucon golds. ( I have to mention that these are not seed potatoes, I bought them at an organic store here in mobile)
Here is another picture of my fingerling taters. I bought them also at the organic market about a couple of weeks ago.
WOW Car! Those Yukons look beautiful! I like the egg carton idea. We just threw out a whole bunch of egg cartons that DH was saving for some reason. :(
DH has more of the blue pallet panels in the van he's cleaning out, so he's going to make me another couple of planters for the taters. I might need more potatoes to plant!
Thank you stephanie, I try to recycle as many things as I can, and reuse them. As far as planters go I think I need an extra one as well as many taters I have, I am wondering whether or not to purchase another smart pot or not.
Your spuds look great, Carminator!! Nice and healthy!!
I like the egg carton idea because the air can circulate around the spuds. Off to salvage a few that DH tossed.
Car,
You're spuds are ahead of mine by about 1/2"! They're looking great!
I peeked this morning, and mine are coming along nicely. Looks like maybe another week or so, and good thing, too, 'cause the temps are dropping again this weekend (down into the mid-30s).
Steph,
If my potato crop this year is successful, I'm gonna have'ta make a road trip up to Fort Worth to pick up some'a those blue panels!
Linda I bought my taters about almost 2 months ago, next time I'll buy them about a month prior to planting out, just like farmerdill mentioned you don't want them to get too leggy or it will be more difficult to plant or to cut, I have unfortunately alredy broken a couple of the sprouts just because I was handling them too much so now I just tend to leave them in place and don't touch them at all until I am ready to plant. And you are right about the weather we are teh same it is supposed to get to the low 30's by Fri or Saturday, boy this is crazy I just don't know what to wear anymore.
Stephanie I got the idea from somebody that grows potatoes I thought it was a good idea and yes they have more air circulation this way plus I think they stay put better this way as well.
Hello! Another wannabe potato planter here! I just found the thread and will be watching and learning more!
After much consideration, I decided to buy the red and white seed potatoes at the local hardware store since the investment was only 49 cents a pound, and found a 3# bag of Yukon Gold seed at Walmart for $5 (a rare visit to that store). I've only found one "health" food market in my area (after living in northern CA where organic is everywhere, I'm a little lost), so it didn't even occur to me to look there for different varieties since it's not on my way anywhere. Next time!
Anyway, I cut them yesterday as well as a half dozen reds from my kitchen that are all sprouting...99 seeds. I have a 4x8 bed ready, and I'm thinking about planting up a couple of 5-gallon buckets, a metal trash can, and a large garbage bag in a fence ring for containers, imitating a grow bag. After reading this thread, I'm considering saving the raised bed for other veggies and make a place above ground and more out of the way for potatoes, covering the grass with cardboard and newspapers and a bit of soil (it's sand, another new thing for me!) before adding potatoes and straw. I have lots of dried leaves and aged grass and a bale of straw for covering as they grow.
I've read potatoes don't do well here in north central FL, zone 9, and have to be short season types. Also, I should be able to have another crop in the fall... (I didn't move here until October, when my focus was on getting blueberries in and making the home habitable). Anyone with potato growing experience in a hot, humid climate? I believe they need to be harvested before the heat sets in for summer (and rain).
Such are my plans and hopes for good potatoes (haven't had a good potato in soooo long!)....
My question is (for this moment), what is the closest possible I can plant each seed if planting them in the 4x8 raised bed? How many seeds could I plant in such a bed? I like little pototoes best. How many should I put in a 5 gallon pail, do you suppose?
THANKS!
If you plant them too close together (under 10" or so), they will not have a great a yield, in my experience. If the soil is really good, you might get away with it though. Since you like little potatoes best, you might just experiment anyway. You could probably put two seed potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket, out to the edge of the bucket. In the bed, you could probably get close to three dozen plants easy, maybe more if you space them closer. I usually put mine a foot apart.
A thought is that you can put them close together (say 10") but start harvesting plants when they have produced "new potatoes", the immature little ones that are so tender. Harvest every other plant to give the remaining plants time and room to grow mature full-sized potatoes.
Good luck!
Thank you, Hoosier! You basically verified what I'd finally distilled all the information down to! Very excited about the prospect. I wanted to plant last fall, as I said, but other work had to be done first. Now I realize that I could have planted since it's so easy to just put them on the ground and I was just itchin' to tear up the grass....
:-)
Hey Ya'll,
Remember those Yukon Golds I had sprouting in the dark cabinet in my office?
Well, lookie what they're doing now. The pic on the left is the original I took around December 18th. The two right ones, top and bottom are what's happening today.
Is it what I think it is, or should I be calling the building exterminator??? And, what should I do with this now??
Linda
This message was edited Jan 28, 2010 3:24 PM
Congratulations! You're a new momma of some baby Yukon Golds. Amazing how plants want to reproduce!
In your zone, you could still plant them, I would think.
TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks HoosierGreen! I didn't wanna believe that's what was happening!
I'm a momma!
Wow, that would be great to take into an elementary school class to show kids how potatoes reproduce! It really shows it so clearly! I don't think most of us really knew how they would look under ground. We just harvest at the end of the summer and usually all those roots have broken off for me and all I find are just the potatoes. Wonderful that you photographed that!
Yes, it makes it clearer that the new spuds actually grow on what are technically underground stems, not roots. If you pull or dig up a half-grown potato plant, you will clearly see that there are true roots that go down, and there will be underground stems that grow more horizontally. On those underground stems, the new potatoes will be forming. On gymgirls photo, you can see that the true roots are just trying to sprout from the stems, while the new potatoes are developing further along up the stem. Pretty cool, huh?