Forty two years ago my dad told me to put my cut potato seeds in wood ashes from the wood stove before planting then out in the garden. I'm 65 and I still do it this way and I'm still not sure why. If my memory serves me correctly he said the ashes helps the cuts heal and it protects the cut potatoes from bacteria that can cause rot. I dunno.
Anybody else ever heard of this?
Oh, by the way, dad grew up on a truck farm.
Jerry
Another
Another...at least two eyes per seed.
In the ashes...
I've never heard of it but I believe it. Ashes are potash which is a major component of fertilizer and makes the leaves a beautiful dark green. I can see that they'd be sterile and absorbent too. I like a tried and true from the oldtimers.
As long as you are not bothered by scab, wood ashes are fine. They do add potash, but are very alkaline. Scab sometimes becomes a problem as soil gets neutral to alkaline. Ohterwise wood ashes are more beneficial than harmful.
I don't have access to wood ashes, but I use wettable sulfur.
Sulphur is preferable if your soil tends toward alkaline. Texas rock garden, that is an excellent tututorial on how to prepare Irish potatoes for planting. Either the ashes or sulphur gives some protection from rot if you have a cold wet spell after planting and before emergence.
I can always use a lower PH so I will use Sulfur next year.
Ok, they are in the ground, 12" apart on the diagonal or there abouts. If we don't get rain tonight I'll water them in tomorrow.
Jerry
Did you also dust the soil with ashes? Or fertilizer? Or...? I had heard of old timers doing this but never tried it myself.
One older friend circles his fruit and nut trees with ash. Seems to deter the various bugs that dine on those fruits and nuts.
Did not add ash to the soil other than what was on the taters. I blended about 1/2" of composted manure in soil under the taters. After taters are up, I will side dress with a balanced granular fert and foliar spray with MG or Medina Hasta Gro.
2/14/09 to 3/14/09 - Here they are.
One tater, two tater, three.....there may be a tater or two this year.
Jerry
I planted mine before you did and they dawdled so long I figured they had rotted out. Then I got some rain a couple weeks ago and that along with the warmer nights has really got them going. It's amazing how fast they can put on growth when they're happy.
3/25/09 and flower buds
I guess these were 100 day potatoes. They are from the ones I planted on Valentine's Day shown in the earlier pictures in this thread.
I just couldn't resists digging a few. These are under a plant that died recently. These little fellas floating in butter with a little ground black pepper will be supper tonight along with some mustard greens fresh out of the garden I cooked last night.
Jerry
Nothing better than fresh green beans and new potatoes.
Won't be long now! Another week or so.
Jerry
The fresh mustard greens I cooked last night.
Stop you're making me hungry!! LOL
Taters are all dug.
If only I could grow my dollar bills like this in 3 1/2 months.
'Till next year....
Jerry
Jerry, I love new potatoes and green beans! Your tater harvest is awesome! What kind did you grow?
I bought a couple seed potatoes from a local New Braunfels nursery out of a tub of red seed potatoes with no name card and I bought one big seed potato from a local feed store in Sattler out of a burlap sack, also without a name card.
The clerk at the nursery didn't know the name of theirs and the owner was away. The owner of the feed store said his were La Sota. This one looked like a different variety from the ones I got at the nursery.
That's all I know and I'm sticking to my story.
Next year I intend to plant more sets and grow only in straw without burying any of the potato in dirt. This year after burying the sets in 4" of dirt I hilled them with compost and straw. There were a couple very nice and clean potatoes growing in the straw.
Jerry
We're planning on planting potatoes next Feb. Hopefully, our local nursery will have some reds that will do well in our area.
My grandparents in Oklahoma grew a lot of potatoes and they always dusted their seed potato pieces in a big paper sack with sulfur which was cheap, available from a drug store in town and gave an acidic rather than neutral or alkaline environment to protect the eyes in the ground.
I found a sweet potato with a couple of little red vines growing out the top. Are those "slips?" I stuck it in a glass of water to root it. What so I do once it roots and the vine takes off? Is that when I can plant it under the leaves?
Sweet potatoes can be planted in the ground, I do believe. They do well during the warmer months here.
Hey Steph!
I have a black 10-15 gallon container that looks to be about 30" tall. Looks like a small tree planter or small garbage can. I'd like to start that potato in it and do the leaves thing. Will it grow with layering leaves on it, like for the white potatoes? I could start it off with a 3-5" layer of either Bocabob's coir, or MG potting mix or compost. LMK what you think. It's only one potato...
Gymgirl
The three slips on the left in this picture were taken from the potato on the right about a week ago and put in a cup of water to root. They will go out in the garden in a day or so when I get a bed ready. The taters will be dug in about 100 days or before the first freeze.
Jerry
In this picture I have planted slips among my okra, three okra plants and one sweet potato. The first tater in the largest yellow box was planted four, five, maybe six weeks ago. The others about two or three weeks ago.
Jerry
My info is not as old as yours, but when I started into gardening about 35 years ago an old farmer told me to dip mine in hydrated lime. He said it would keep the bugs out, keep the nutrients in and sweeten the soil all at the same time. He was an old farmer and I was a young whippersnapper so I listened to him. I've had great success for 35 years growing potatoes up and down the east coast. So I guess maybe it works. I can see ashes having a similar affect (except for a different PH outcome).
TRock, So I can just snap off the slips and put em in some water to grow roots and then plant them?
"TRock, So I can just snap off the slips and put em in some water to grow roots and then plant them?"
Yep, That's the way I do it.
However, some folks slip the sprouts off the potato and put them right in the ground to form roots by keeping the ground wet until they are rooted.
Jerry
How wide would you space sweet potato slips in the soil? And what about Okra?
I am determined to try both these new vegetables in the garden next spring. Okra is not very available here at all, most people dont even know what it is. I have never seen or eaten one, but hopefully that will change soon!
Lena
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/nr/rdonlyres/46f14cf6-ca36-44e4-95b9-6856552c94ec/56100/pub1980vegetableplantingguide2009highres.pdf
Here's some cultural info that matches your zone. It says 12-15" for both.
Thanks
TRock,
I reviewed your pic and your slips were much further along than mine are. Mine are just purple with tiny leaves coming out. I'm thinking I need to let them grow some big leaves like yours before I even snap them off to root...
I prefer to take slips that are about 10" long or tall. I plant deep up to the last set of leaves. This usually means burying at least two and sometimes three sets of leaf nodes.
Jerry
Jerry id say those poatoes are Pontaic reds a early one 90 to 120 days i grow those to paul
