Has anyone grown potatoes in a smart pot or

Left: Yukon golds with straw filling 3/4 of the pot and overflowed.
Middle: Idaho Baking potatoes still small
Right: Bottom empty - Top right 4 Sweet potato plants (partially visible)

Qinx:
Beautiful!'
joy

Hi Qinx

Your smart pots are fantastic. I've never tried them. We have lots of pine straw here for mulch. Do you ever notice the straw heating up as it decomposes? Or is this what you want? If you don't mind my asking what type of fertilizer did you use?

Joy I'm with you on the grocery costs.

Sherri

In the bottom of the smart-pot I started with Coco Coir and mixed in Espoma Garden Fertilizer and Perlite. I put about 4-5 inches of this in the bottom and buried my potatoes. I started with 5 potatoes in each pot. Due to uneven growth of each seed potato I ended up with 3 plants in each that are doing well. I had a 1 day bought with White Mold, but quickly took care of that with a fungicide spray.

The straw in each of the pots doesn't seem to be heating up. As I stuffed the pots I separated the straw before packing it in there, so there's lots of air circulation. The amount of straw isn't really a lot like a bale so I don't think it's dense enough to heat much. The fabric pots allow air to flow through so I would venture a guess that any heat rising would also suck fresh air from the outside so it's maintaining a good temperature balance. The potatoes and stem/vine need darkness and a very loose growing medium so they can grow and expand without resistance.

I've continued to use a mixture of miracle grow water soluble fertilizer and seaweed mixture every 1-2 weeks depending on the amount of rain. The more rain we've received the more fertilizer I've used because the coir washes out so easily.

Hopefully we'll get some good potatoes out of this. I must note that this is my first year growing potatoes.

Thanks so much!

It looks like you have a great system going. I think the smart pots would breathe better than a plastic garbage can. I was looking to try that system next year. It gets so hot here that I'm afraid the plastic can would cook them, so I'm rethinking my plans.

Sherri

If you decide to do the trash can method, be sure and do them plenty early so you can get them harvested before June. At least, that's my experience. :) I'll have to look into the Smart Pots. They sound really neat. I have really enjoyed my potatoes. One qquestion I have is, are they stable? Could you accidently turn it over if you ran into it?

I've kicked them and they do not tip. They are a cloth material and pliable all around, so being they are not a rigid container they do not tip.

Thanks. :-)

Hi 101

Thanks for the tip. Maybe the cans early early. Then switch to the smart pots for a later crop. Too hot for storage that's for sure. :) Nothing like new potatoes and green beans.

Sherri

Yep, they sure are great. The heat has just about done my beans in now but boy have they ever been good! :-)

101: My beans were utter failure, the heat just did them in and I planted them next to the cukes. Have seen these flying scorpion type brown bugs landing on my cukes lately, anyone have any idea what these bugs are called, I can't find them in any picture I've seen yet of bugs.
joy

I haven't noticed any bugs on my beans or the cukes. In fact ... the cukes are out doing themselves. I only planted 3 plants and am begging people to take them. I'm picking 5 or 6 a day.We love them plain, in salad, in vinegar and we love Tzatziki Sauce but still we can't use them all. LOL I was surprised to fine a small mess of beans tonight when I went out. I'm picking a lot of dead leaves off the vines, though so don't imagine they'll be hanging around too much longer. I'm going to start some sugar snaps in their place when it gets cooler. This tripple digit heat is just too hot for veggies right now. Even my tomatoes don't like it. :-( They're coming in sparatically. I hope fall cooperates for me to have a fall garden. :-) Sorry I'm not good at identifying bugs. :-)

Joy, your " flying scorpion type brown bugs" are not praying mantis by any chance? I wish I had the mantis...they are very beneficial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praying_mantis

This message was edited Jun 18, 2009 1:45 AM

"flying scorpion type brown bugs".....when I read that I immediately thought of a Scorpionfly (pic below). They do eat pollen, nectar and other insects. Also harmless to humans, they don't sting.

Nope, it's neither of those, I will see if my grandson left his bug catcher gun, it's a bug suck em up device he uses to catch and study bugs with, maybe then I can get a good pic of one? Henry Fields is having a 70% off sale and I just ordered a dwarf pomegrante and dwarf banana tree, now what am I gonna plant them in I suppose? I figure I can whip them into the house or the greenhouse over the winter.
joy