Last year, I had a problem with ants in the container where I was growing my taters. Those buggers ate through several stems before I got them under control. I don't remember any potato beetles, thank goodness! This year, I've had to contend with hail and high winds. So far, so good!!
POTATOES UNDER STRAW/LEAVES #5
Steph,
That wind is giving me a fit. We're having upwards of 20mph today, too. Best thing I can say about it is it might actually be blowing the pollen around. I sure haven't seen a lot of bee activity...
Okay, so I got three pounds each of La Ratte and Rose Finn fingerlings and put them in five half barrels. I couldn't fit them all in so we may just eat the rest, since they're organic. They are in about six inches of topsoil and compost. When the tops start showing, I'm not sure what to add to them. Last year I used leaves but didn't get anything except at the lowest level. These are both mid to long maturity, so do you think I can use leaves again with better luck? We can shred the leaves and we do have plenty of them....I'd rather not do soil because we don't have a good source except to dig holes in our garden, and then you're left with dirty potatoes again!
Well, my row cropped taters have sprouted. Have not checked the ones in the sacks yet..
Gal,
I'd go ahead and shred and use the the leaves, especially since we now know it wasn't the covering that affected the yield, so much as it was the type of potato being grown.
But, before you go shredding, check in with Farmerdill or Horseshoe regarding using oak leaves. I vaguely recall a caution against using oak leaves on something or other!
Linda
Linda, thanks for the tip. I'll check into that!
Leslie
here are the potato sacks! We just took feed sacks and cut both ends open and folded them down. As the taters get goign we will rol the sleeves up and add more manure or dirt. We put the yukons inthe sacks and did kennebecs and pontiacs row cropped next to them.. we shall see how this goes. Right now the row croppers are sprouting adn we have temps in the 30's and rain. Hope it does not get much colder.
I am growing Rio Grande Russets, which is a longer DTM potato. I think it's something like 100 days, so we'll definitely hill those and see what we get!
Not to be a downer, but my potatoes have grown terribly. Everything looked great -- or at least good and green -- until about a week ago. Foliage turned yellow, then brown, then chewed and non-existent. I dug up what had grown so far, and pretty much just got back the same amount of potatoes that I planted. Or less. Some plants seem to have disappeared completely and never produced anything. Of those that were left, each stalk seemed to produce one or maybe two small potatoes, although I did see a half dozen or some tiny (half a pea) sized potatoes sprouting from the base of one, so presumably I would have had several potatoes coming out if the stalk had not pretty much disintegrated.
So what happened? Like Stephanie's experience, I'm thinking ants. I know that one of the hills of potatoes was pretty much overrun by an ant hill, and I believe ants crawled up the drainage holes in the bottoms of my dog food bags, which was where the other potatoes were that died. Of course it could be something else, but I wouldn't know what. Haven't seen anything else, although some of the stalk did look squishy like I over-watered, although I tried to be pretty careful about that.
I do still have a couple plants left. One batch is in another hill but it's looking less good with each passing day -- more ants, I think. The only potatoes that seem to be surviving are those that I planted in a large pot -- the self-watering kind that doesn't have a drainage hole in the bottom. I guess creepy crawlies can't get in there.
Oh well! Lesson learned!
I had ants invade my potato patch last spring and they damaged some of the stalks and some of the seed potatoes as well. I hilled with grass clippings, leaves and shredded newspapers and the ants *loved* it, especially when it rained.
I will make it a point to drive them out this time around. I will move my pot around to make sure they are not tunneling into my smart pot from underneath, plus disturb the top layers of soil to see if they are present. I bought an organic fire ant killer which contains spinosad and I will use it if I see them.
I used this fire ant killer once last weekend when the ants invaded my raised beds and it worked. Seems to be an effective bait.
This message was edited Apr 19, 2011 12:07 PM
But I can see how spreading fire ant bait on top of straw can pose a challenge...
I'm still laughing over the news report a week ago. Seems like a woman got zealous with the fertilizer in her garden, and it spontaneously BURST INTO FLAMES! Good thing she was home when her garden set itself on fire!
Ya'll be careful out there, yah hear?
ROTFLMBOLOL! ^^_^^
LiseP...bummer
Flames.. did you say flames? Oh my, do tell the URL to that story that ought to be a hit!
I'll try to find it and post it here!
http://www.khou.com/home/Houston-woman-says-flower-bed-spontaneously-combusted.html ^^_^^
This message was edited Apr 19, 2011 4:31 PM
Here how my potatoes growing in my compost bin are looking.
Do I need to bury them more?
Do you know what kind they are?
Some from the grocery store, some Yokon Gold and others I forgot (I bought them at NHG)
LOL Gymgirl! I may have had only one tater bug but the squash bugs made up for it
Well, I was humming right along and now the wheels are starting to fall off. My potatoes had some yellow leaves appear on the bottom of the stems one day last week. They just appeared out of nowhere, and when I went to feel the yellow leaves the whole stem just came out of the soil. I had this happen to about 6 or 7 stems. Not sure if this was a pest or a disease but I would be inclined to say disease. I saw no ants, and the stem did not appear eaten to me.
Can you show us pix of your yellow leaves
Have the plants reached their maturity days yet?
I feel your pain. Potatoes have not survived under my hand this year - at least not many. A couple plants are still hanging in there - we'll see -- but the rest pretty much disintegrated. Still not sure what the problem is/was.
It's too late to be of much immediate use, but I ran across this article on growing potatoes in Texas, so will share it here. Maybe we can glean some lessons from it for next year?
http://www.texasgardener.com/Newsletters/071226/
Ok, I'm pushing the potato envelope.
TODAY, yes, to-day, I planted out my 1st wave of potatoes: Kennebecs, Yukon Golds, Purple Vikings, and an organic Sweet Potato purchased @ the local Whole Foods Store.
The cut potato pieces have been sitting on paper plates under paper towels for 2 months (ok, it's a VERY big envelope...). The sweeties are relatively fresh.
Anyway, I had a 25-gallon tub filled with decomp leaves, some dumped potting mix, and veggie garden blend soil, so I figured, "oh well," and did my thing. Oh, and since the leaves were kinda clumpy and damp, I added a bucketful of the too-large-for-my-eBucket-mix pine bark pieces that I had sifted out. This helped to aerate and lighten up the mixture.
I planted the pieces in 10-gallon containers and will work to keep the plants cool as possible in the next 90 days.
I'll post progress notes as the season moves along!
Linda
Good luck Linda, especially with that part "cool" in Texas!
We are wvery wet right now. Been raining almost all week..7 inches my guess, maybe more, i forgot to keep track, but no matter. My row croppers are doing ok.. but have not checked the sacks. maybe tomorrow I will take a peak.
Been busy with dahlias, marigolds and zinnias ant the rest of the things going here onthe ranch.
"to-day, I planted out my 1st wave of potatoes: Kennebecs, Yukon Golds, Purple Vikings, and an organic Sweet Potato purchased @ the local Whole Foods Store. "
Linda, is there an "Irish" potato by the name "Sweet Potato" or are you referring to a sweetpotato? If so those aren't grown from pieces but are grown from slips grown then taken from the potato. Just to let you know what to expect.
Shoe, happily rolling along with taters that declared in only ten days. Yay!
Uh, yes, that would be Sweet Potato plants amongst the mix of the Irish.
And, yes, there were slips planted, as well as two whole sweeties that had started to sprout "slips," which I didn't separate from the plant.
I figured I need to up the odds to get these plants thru Dante's Inferno without so much as the smell of smoke on them.
As it is, the weather is already considering cooperating with this plan. We'll wake up in the mid-50s for the next 3 mornings, and highs will only be in the 80s. Plus, we have a 40% chance of rain Sun-Mon. So, I only have 86 days to go!
Those of you who pray, remember me, please...
My Rio Grande Russets have started flowering.
Could not get sweet potatoes here local..
we are so wet.. I need to "wade" ouit to the tater patch to check the sacks!
Wow...getting pounded by rains, thunder/lightning, and tornado watches here. I guess we're getting the storms that have been hitting all those states south and west of us, again.
My spuds are up and fortunately planted in an area of good drainage this year. Blossom Buddy, I hear ya on the flooding; hope your taters won't drown. I wonder if you can close the tops of the bags a little to keep excessive rain out...
Linda, your sweetpotato will love Dante's inferno. Guess you have a "this or that" situation, trying to keep the Irish spuds cool but yet wishing for heat for the other, eh? I bet you'll have success though. Last year was the highest recorded/longest period of time in years here and when I finally got around to digging spuds they were just fine. What a treasure.
Off to stare into the sky...
Shoe
Stephanie TX if the potatoes are flowering, does it mean they are ready?
Do I need to pull them out?
I got out and waded in and took some pox.. will post them ASAP.. I am behnid now and have to get out and get my hands dirty.. but yuppers the little spuds are 2 inches tall on the row croppers .. the sacks on the other hand are o signs of sprouts yeet, but they were put in later!@
Ok taters, later!
Catch ya when I have more time.. I have to hit my dahlias, sins, maters, marigolds and got tons of gardenng to do inspite of the flooding!
And YEAH the sun is up.
So meanwhile back at the ranch.. we are off and finally getting into gear and gardening!
Folks, if you can, and if you have room, get out and plant those extra rows for those that need! Texas, Arkansas, TN, NC... we got work to do.
Steph,
It won't be long now!
Drthor,
When the potatoes start flowering, it means the spuds below ground have started to produce. The vine essentially has stopped growing and is concentrating its energy to the potatoes. Once the vines start turning brown, or wilting, or generally looking like they're dying back, the potato production has been completed, and you can start to harvest.
Actually, you can feel around carefully now for smaller, new potatoes. Otherwise, wait til the vines start to keel over, and the potatoes have reach full size.
Also, you can leave the potatoes underground, long as you're diligent to watch out for excess moisture that will cause rotting, and/or any underground varmints that decide they wanna start messing with your veggies -- and ants that will eat them, too. Our summer was so hot and dry last year, I left my spuds in the ground for 150 days. I figured I had enough air circulation to keep them cool enough, since I grew them in old washing maching tubs, hilled up with leaves. I had great drainage!
When I finally dumped the tubs, I had only one potato lost to the beginning of some rotting. The rest were beautiful and CLEAN!
Linda
What's funny about these potatoes is that they are my longest DTM potatoes. They're supposed to be 100 days or something like that. My others that I planted are shorter DTM varieties and while they have flower buds, none have opened up. The flowers remind me a lot of tomato flowers.
Oh, and remember that not always will you even get flowers. My plants made about 3 fuzzy buds, but I never got flowers on a single vine...
I relied more on counting the (projected) days to maturity.
This message was edited Apr 28, 2011 10:55 AM
IT'S TIME FOR MY REPORT!!!!
Ya'll remember that I cut up my sprouted seed potatoes 2 months before I finally was able to plant them out? The pieces sat on paper plates inside, wrapped in paper towels to keep buggies from laying eggs on em or doing just ugly stuff.
Well, I planted those pieces out on April 28th in my molasses tubs. There was only ONE piece that had totally rotted through, and the rest had sprouts thick as a straw!
Didn't know if they'd grow or not. Well.....
Here are the Kennebecs...
And the Yukon Golds...
The Purple Vikings (a very pretty little vine...)...
and, the organic Sweet Potato slips.
Please tell me how to grow sweeties. Do I hill them up the same as the Irish Potatoes?
Finally, as ya'll may know, I intend to push the envelope by growing some late-season Carelas and Nicolas. They are still in the delivery box and, hopefully, have started sprouting already. The targeted plantout date will be the end of May. Since they have a long dormancy period before they take off, I'm praying they won't do so until around the beginning of August.
By then, I'll have a better chance of keeping them cool enough so they can start making the fruits into the cooler weather.
I'll keep posting progress pictures, so stay tuned!
Linda
Very nice! I agree that the purple potatoes produce attractive plants.
RE: sweets, I do not think it is necessary to hill. The vines will grow like crazy depending on bush vs. non-bush. However, you need to make sure the dirt is well tilled and loose so the sweet potatoes can grow easily. Watering is key. I did not water as often as I should have last spring and my sweets were long and thin. Mix in plenty of compost. They will grow in bunches at the root of the slip, down and out at 45 deg angles.
Also, have you harvested any potatoes from your February/ March crop?