does anyone know how to grow potatoes in straw?

someone was talking about potatoes grown in straw but never really said exactly how. sounds real interesting. does anyone know how?

There's a thread started a few weeks ago about growing potatoes, but I don't know how to splice it here. It's under vegetables. Basically, all you have to do is work up the ground a little, make a shallow trench (2-3"), lay the seed potatoes in the trench and cover with just a little soil. When the shoots grow through, hill them up just a few more inches to create a low mound. When the sprouts come through that layer, pile on about 8"-12" of loose straw, The shoots will eventually come through that straw, and if it settles too much, just put another layer on top of that. You want to make the straw thick enough to block out sunlight. The potatoes will develop at the soil line into the straw (as they grow out from the stems, not actually the roots). When the potatoes are flowering, you can reach in and find small new potatoes. When the blooms fade completely, the potatoes will usually be ready to harvest. You don't have to harvest them all at once though. You can leave them under the straw and harvest them as needed, right into the winter, sometimes through the winter into spring. It's a natural root cellar! When you do harvest them, all you have to do is rake off the straw to uncover the "clutch" of potatoes! Some may be partially underground, but most will be right on the surface. Sure beats digging!

thank you very much, sounds alot easier than having to dig them all up. i guess you work the straw into the garden when you're done. i would imagine that would make good compost? thanks again.

Yep. The straw is partially decomposed by fall, and pretty well shot by spring when you can turn it under. Be sure to use straw, not hay, since the latter is full of seeds. Here's a pic of one trip to the garden in December, getting them out from under the insulating straw.

Nice haul!

... and those were from only three plants under straw!

Will definitely be doing it this way from now on!

any specific kind of potato you guys think works better, more specifically for my area?
Thanks can't wait to try this

I would think that any variety of potato that is available in your area as seed potatoes would be fine. I've grown the usual red, white, and fingerling potatoes this way...all successfully.

We tried the straw method one year and mice destroyed most of our crop. Do you have trouble with mice in your potatoes?

Look in the Strawbale Gardening forum. Kent has grown taters in straw with great results.

Doug

I've had problems with field mice even growing potatoes the regular way in the soil. Sometimes, I think it just can't be avoided.

I grew my potatoes in straw last year. The straw was decomposing bales from straw bale gardening the previous year, so the bale remains were about 5-6" thick. I just fluffed them up, dropped my potato chunks on them (Yukon Gold) and covered them with more fluffed old straw. As they grew, I kept adding more straw.

Here are some photos, it will take 4 posts to show them all...

After some growth, photo taken 6/4/08

Photo 7/1/08

and here's how they looked when harvesting. My yield was nearly 70 pounds from a 12' row. I don't remember how much weight the seed potatoes were, but under 5 pounds.

This message was edited Apr 8, 2009 9:23 AM

Darius, those pictures are awesome! How far apart did you plant your seed potatoes? I finally found Yukon Gold this year. I've not tried them before, so hope they're good! I planted 2# of those and 10# of Irish Cobbler.

Robin, I think they were about 24", but 30" would have been better I think. I had never grown potatoes so I didn't know how large the tops would get...

My tops never got that big. Might be because I planted mine 12"-18" apart.

Were they in straw?

I just noticed a typo above... my row was only about 12' long, maybe 15' at most.

It sure beats digging! Look how nice and clean the spuds are. I love growing in straw. Kids love to reach in to find new potatoes early in the summer, too.

I grow in mounded rows of good friable soil, but I do add several inches of dried grass/hay clippings on top of the row to help keep the weeds down 2-3 times over the summer. Then turn it under in the fall.

I would love to use lots of straw to mulch the garden or do the strawbale garden, but the gardens are too big and I can only haul 3 bales at a time from a feed store 8 miles away. Al mows and bags 2+ acreas, so I have plenty of clippings for the whole garden. Don't have much problem with weed seeds in the hay in the garden, as we don't use the clippings from the first 2 mowings each year. The clippings from those 2 mowings get used to mulch around ornamental bushes and trees around the outer edges of the property.

HoosierGreen, you are right about how clean the potatoes are when grown in straw! I merely brushed off a little loose dirt before I put them in the root cellar.

Robin, I don't know that you could grow in just clippings like I did in straw... my clippings mat down unless really dry, and at least the straw allows some ventilation. I also had some fingerlings in tires last year. I think the stack was too high and the plants didn't get enough sun; the yield was small.

This year I am going to do the fingerlings in loose soil like you do... It's not really friable yet, but better than the clay it was.

My potaoes grow in the soil, but close to the surface, so can easily be dug out by hand. I think the thickness of my grass/hay clippings just make the potatoes more prone to not have to grow too deep. The depth of the clippings also keeps all the light off of them. BTW, the mounds are close to a foot high.

Your soil ought to be in great shape, as far as friable, after you turn that straw in this fall. :) Took us 2-3 years to turn the clay into the wonderful garden soil we now have.

That would be wonderful IF I weren't so determined to go to "no-till"... The first year or two of a new bed will get amendments tilled in, then mounded into rows and hopefully never walked on again. I have a few weeds coming up in the 12" walkways between the beds, and I'm thinking to put down some old carpet strips on then, jute side up.

LOL, Darius! I agree about the tiller use. The first year on the farm I bought an old tiller for $25. Got our money's worth out of it that first summer. Good thing, since I haven't used it since. I just crawl along each row and do everything with hand tools. Good thing knees are in good shape. If they start acting up, I use a pair of those gel knee pads. Seems to me that working the mulch into the soil in the fall makes it decompose better over the winter, instead of doing it in the spring.

We are going to buy a new tiller when we go home, but we are going to start a couple of more big garden beds for when I start the CSA.

I usually spread my fresh grass clippings in the paths, then after they dry, rake it up on the rows. Cuts down on most of the weeds in the paths. I use my weedeater on the 2 wide paths in my garden. Getting to be a master with it....can clear a path clear down to the dirt. However, it then means I have to hose off to remove all the dust that has covered me!

Darius, I used strips of carpet between my bales of straw last year with the jute side down and it did great other than the crabgrass poking up around the sides. Made it a lot easier to walk on when it's muddy everywhere else too.

Doug

Thanks, Doug. I'd do jute side down except this carpet is SO ugly, LOL. It was in the house when we moved in...

Any concern about chemicals that could leech into the soil from the carpet?

I m thinking of getting a tool called a broad fork ? i saw it at a store . Looks great to use . but pricey !
i got one of them big monster tillers. But now that i don't do alot of tilling it just sits around . ?
I hate to use it , to noisy and hard to move. It does have a reverse which is nice !
so what do you use for amendments and fertilizer ?
Robin that is cool your going to start a CSA ! neat . I like it . :)

Patriotboy, I guess it might depend on the carpet, but in my experience carpet just outgases, and since most of it is plastic-based, it doesn't really breakdown although the jute will eventually rot. (And my old carpet would just leach urea from all the previous owner's dogs...)

Sue, I get all my amendments and fertilizers here. You should read some of the descriptions, and then look locally. I'm not going to be certified organic, but I live right on a creek I don't wish to pollute. Lots of chemicals leach out of fertilizers, if you read any of my series on soil nutrition they are noted...
http://www.7springsfarm.com/catalog.html

good to know
:)

This year I'm trying 30 straw bales. I also have about 15- 4'x8 'raised beds. I am so happy to read and see the posts from Darius. My husband always wants me to grow potatoes and I haven't had the best of luck. You would think I would be able to do this since I came from the Northern part of lower Michigan and that was the main produce. Can you grow onions in the bales? I am so excited to have more room for veggies. We have 3 acres here but lots of berries and fruit trees also, and then the sheep, turkeys and chickens. Thank you so much for info and anymore I may need.

Spinner, I haven't had much success in growing onions in straw bales, nor have most of the folks on out straw bale gardening forum, except for scallions.

Keep in mind, I used straw from the previous year that was broken down; I just fluffed it up under, and over the potatoes.

I have about 4 very large bales that are going on 2 yrs old that i was going to spread on one of my raised beds. will that work. I wasn't going to till the soil just use straw on top, I wasn't sure if I had to put in soil or not but it sounds like you put seed potatoes on top of old straw, which I do have some of. I would be so happy to end up with potatoes like the ones in the pics you shared, thanks. I'm tired of gardening the same way year after year and its great to find new ways to approach things. thanks

Yep, loose straw for the base (and covering) is fine. I don't know if it made any difference, but my bales originally had been treated with copious amounts of ammonium nitrate (?) for 10-12 days as per the instructions on the straw bale forum, and the tomatoes grew so well that I didn't add any additional fertilizer... to the tomatoes or last year to the potatoes in the old straw.

I tried to find ammonium nitrate and no one has it. Our grange co-op use to carry it but said they don't carry it now. I have been soaking real well and put kelp granuals on my bales soaked it in and fertilizing with manure tea, I still have over a month . I want to keep it as natural as I can but I may not be able to. Do you know a substitute for ammonium nitrate or will the manure tea be sufficient. This is all new, not gardening, just in bales. Thanks Darius

Have you checked the stickies on the Bale gardening forum? I seem to remember someone used blood meal? (I didn't like using the ammonium nitrate, but I was recovering from several hospital stays and just did what I could.) I enjoyed my 2 years of growing in bales but have learned enough so that I am trying no-till raised beds.

I will still use straw for potatoes. This year, there was a minimum of old straw remaining, plus the loose straw I had over my garlic all winter. I hope for good results but it could be a mixed bag. I guess I'll find out how important old, broken down straw is to the equation!

old thread with good info...laughed at darius' comment about her old carpet leaching urea from former owners' dogs...lol...lots of dogs here, NO carpet.

I used carpet on paths - and to make weeds easier to remove before I knew about lasagna gardening quite a few years ago in CO with seemingly no ill effect. In fact, after a couple of years, weeds grew right through them, so if I could yank the carpet, I could yank weeds, too. Very hard place to garden.

I have potatoes in straw - and also in pine straw, 'cause I ran out of straw, and I'm wondering if I should be fertilizing at all. I seem to have missed that part...unless all the nutrients are coming from the decaying straw. But doesn't that take away nitrogen and don't potatoes need nitrogen?