Girl, you need some cages for your taters! They're growing right outta the pot!
Potatoes Under Straw/Leaves #3
O.K here's the photo of my new potato bins. I had to wrap some plastic fencing type of stuff that I had laying in my yard from a previous project, it worked great and I think this might work better this way, I also topped the plants with leaves I got this morning as much as I could without burying the plants too deep into the leaves.
Wonderful!
carminator - How cool! Looks great! I like your idea!!! What exactly is that fencing, do you remember?
Linda - LOL! Definitely growing good! I need to add some more soil to mine too! Dang they grow fast once they get started! LOL!
Becky I don't remember the name but I do know I bought it at HomeDepot so you might be able to find it there.
Ya'll really got it going on. They're all looking so good. I'm still potato challenged.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I just hope there are spuds in that container!
Carminator1,
Yep! That's the potato cage exactly!
Great going.
QUESTION: Will the potatoes form spuds in the leaf layers? I'm hoping they will.
Linda
I was always told that a potato puts its growth up, till it flowers, (achieved it's goal to reproduce), then turns its efforts to storage, (taters). If you ever noticed, soon after flower you don't have to hill them. It's why we dead head flowers, to make them think they didn't get the job done yet, and continue blooming. Ric
Thanks, Ric!
Ric that is exactly what I was reading in a book I got at the library, it mentioned that you can trick the plant to producing more spuds when you pich off the flowers.
Linda this is my first year as well, but I have been watching a lot of youtube videos and there is a guy in there that hills his taters with leaves and he still got a bountiful harvest. If people can use straw to hill their taters I would imagine the same goes for leaves, but I guess only time will tell.
Linda, have you read your catalog? LOL According to Ronningers, in a container, hilling up will encourage growth upward into the leaf layers.
Here's the pic I forgot to post. These are the Purple Majesty. They are at least twice that size now - lol...
Pretty, pretty!
locokelly: Mine are almost as tall as the ones in your pics, not really tall yet; but I am getting 4- 5 - 6 per smart pot. Will have to find some cages I suppose, so snipping of the flower might shoot down more spuds hey? Hmmmmm.
Gymgirl: I can only hope mine will look as tall and pretty as yours there in your pic, great job.
joy
joy - I already need to add more soil to the tops of mine - lol... I think I will pinch the blooms as well and see what happens. The purples are growing way faster than the reds and the yukon golds...
From the Ronninger's growing guide:
"Cage Method Alternative
Grow potatoes in vertical boxes, cribs, barrels or wire cages.
Set your cage on prepared soil. Plant strong seed pieces 6" - 8"
apart and cover lightly with 4" of soil. When the plant emerges
and grows, begin adding mellow compost, mulch or soil always
leaving at lest 6 inches of plant exposed. Continue this process
until the plants stop their upward progress and/or blossom.
Then let them finish out their growing season providing them
with plenty of water. As the plant stems lengthen, so do the
length and number of underground stolons, which are what produce
the potato tubers. More potatoes form in less space and the
yield is increased 2 or 3 times. This is a great way to grow a lot
of potatoes with limited garden space."
I found another new sprout in one of my containers today! It was buried under a pile of leaves that I moved to test the moisture of the leaves and soil. So, I'm thinkin' that they'll grow through the leaves to get to the light if you hill on top of an unsprouted seed potato???
Thanks Joy! I have early, mid, and late season varieties and they're all growing at the same rate right now. Hope I don't get confused when it's time to harvest them.
Yeah Steph. The more up, the more out!
I could use some help. I have never grown potato's before. I have them planted in a raised bed filled with Hill Country soil I purchased from The Natural Gardener in Austin. I also amended w/ composted horse manure. I planted the tater seeds on Feb 10th, and all have come up w/ vigor. When the plants reached about 7" or 8" high I " dirted" them (I did this last week). I used grass clippings, compost, and leaves. Now some of the plants are over a foot high. Do I dirt again?? Please see photo..RE: I also posted this on the "other tater thread"...I hope that is O.K.
lol - I "dirted" mine first thing yesterday morning, and I swear they were almost a foot high again by the end of the day. Scary potato weather we're having...
You can keep hilling up as long as they keep growing. Note that you don't have to. You're trying to get a better yield by making the plant think it needs to keep growing, but whenever you get tired of it you can stop and accept the yield you have.
I'm feeling a little hesitant about grass clippings, just because it's been so damp. I would maybe emphasize leaves or straw that's going to leave more air space. Note that the official instructions above talk about "mellow" compost - you don't want to start hot composting around your plants.
The cuban half of my household actually starts picking the potatoes a little before the whole plant is ready to be dug. He hand-digs in at the bottom of the hill and snips them off. He says this also increases the yield, because the plant will grow back another one to fill that space.
Your taters look excellent hornstrider!
Hornstrider, according to the picture I would say you can still hill them up a little more. Very nice raise bed indeed.
Beautiful taters, hornstrider (I'm an Aggie myself. LOL). If you're using grass clippings, be sure it's dry and dead, almost like straw. I'd add more leaves to the plants and only leave about 3" or so of leaves exposed.
Have you downloaded the Ronninger's potato growing guide? If not here's the link: http://www.ronnigers.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2010rpfguidecover.pdf
It has info on growing taters in containers, raised beds, and in the ground, as well as tons of other useful information.
Great job Horn. This is an excellent thread!
hornstrider: From your pics don't look like you need much help nor are you a beginner, maybe you just have the knack at growing taters. LOL
I am able to keep my seperated because I planted in the back in smart pots the yukons and in the front the red skinned.
joy
hornstrider - Your raised bed and tators look awesome! I am curious to know what your yield is when you harvest the potatoes. I hope that you will post some photos of your bounty when you dig them up later.
I guess I'll be pinching bloom heads in the morning. I want all the taters I can get. :) Mine have all reached the tops of their 30 gal. garbage cans.
OMG! 30 gallon trash container! How tall is that????
Hey Melissa. How bout a pic?
PS. The star of todays Easter dinner was okra gumbo, made with homegrown okra, compliments of Melissa!
Gymgirl: I planted two types of okra seeds, soaked them 24 hrs in containers I left on a seedstarter heating mat, I planted 25 seeds of each kind, I managed to get about 25 altogether (groan). Will be looking for some okra plants tomorrow at the nursery as I want at least 2 totes full of okra.
joy
I'll get a pic tonight, Linda. I'm glad you are enjoying the okra! I'm going to dig mine out of the freezer tonight for dinner too. I breaded them and froze them last fall. We're having fish for dinner, so they should be excellent.
Becky, They are only about 3.5 feet tall. I am excited though. I"ve been hilling them with straw since they were 6" tall.
Once my garlic finishes up, I'm putting okra in. :D I didn't put it in until May last year and had okra coming out my ears until October.
Joy,
You wanna grow more than 25 okra plants? Are you starting a distribution company? Do you know how many "totes" you'll get from 25+ plants? I'd guess-timate about 15 totes full!
So, are you gonna flash freeze them for freshness before delivery? Where do I place my order?
Thanks for the tater tips everyone.......I re-dirted my tater patch yesterday. Once again I used (dry) grass clippings, leaves, and dirt. I noticed that a number of plants are getting ready to bloom. Should I snip the blooms, or let them flower?? stephanietx...Thanks for the link.......A few more questions. When do I harvest?? The leaves look healthy. Should I spray spray disease control to keep them healthy?? Thanks for all of the help.
Um, I realize there's no need for me to have potato envy at this point, but, shoot, Horn, those look REAL good!
QUESTION: I've notice when I approach my potato bins that there are these huge mosquito looking creatures that scatter. Same when I water 'em. Anyone else experiencing this, and could it be one 'a those dreaded moth-types laying some sort of synister egg pods all over my potato vines? I was planning on tenting the vines with tulle from the fabic store, but, I think I'm probably too late at this point. Please LMK what I should be spraying to thwart this possible invasion.
Hugs!
Hornstrider: Ronniger says to harvest about two weeks after the vines die back. Also, do you know what type of potatoes you're growing? If you do, you should be able to find information on the days to maturity on that type of potato and get an idea of how close you are (if you remember on what date you planted them).
If the leaves look healthy, don't spray chemicals on them. That won't do them (or you, or the environment) any good.
Gymgirl: Identify the bugs before you try to kill them or keep them out. From what you're saying, they could be some sort of beneficial fly. Crane fly or something like that? I'm not an insect expert, but you can always take a photo and have them IDed in the Insect and Spider Identification forum
Are those mosquito hawks? Sounds like it since you said they look like giant mosquitos. They eat mosquitos and are always therefore welcome in my yard.
Sapphirestar19,
I wondered if they might not be mosquito hawks. They are certainly welcome in my yard if that's what they are!
Sky,
I agree about spraying unnecessarily! To date, I've not used any pesticides in my veggie system -- I'm ok with keeping it that way as long as I can!
Linda, you're probably seeing Mosquito Easters (aka Mosquito Hawks). They're great to have in your yard, but can be quite intimidating.
Horn~If you do any spraying, you might just do a Murphy's Oil Soap, fish emmulsion spray for bug control. If you start seeing potato beetles (they fly real fast and look like greenish-yellowish with black spots like ladybugs), then you'll have to hand pick them or spray with BT or a Neem product.
Anyone know how to get rid of ANTS (not fireants) in a container? I found an ant nest in my big potato bin last night. Grrrrrrrr!! I dusted with DE, but I'm thinking I might need to treat again with something more powerful and organic in nature.
Why would you get rid of ants? They aren't hurting anything. In fact, they are beneficials most of the time, unless they happen to be herding aphids. And even then it makes it easier to isolate and get rid of the aphids.