How to Plant Potatoes 4 Ways
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- In this video I will show you how to plant your potatoes 4 ways. There are 4 different ways to plant potatoes in an organic vegetable garden. Planting potatoes at home in the garden is easy. You can plant potatoes in fall and you can plant potatoes in spring. I'll show both ways plus show you a potato harvest from my fall planted potatoes. You can plant potatoes in the ground, you can plant potatoes in a raised bed, you can plant potatoes in a bag or container, and I'll show you the ruth stout method of potato growing.
MENTIONED VIDEOS
- Fall Planting Potatoes: • Planting Potatoes in F...
- How to Dig & Store Potatoes: • How to Dig, CURE and S...
- Growing Potatoes in Containers: • How to Grow a LOT of P...
- Order my book, “Companion Planting for Beginners” : amzn.to/3utNHBH
NEPTUNES HARVEST & OTHER PRODUCTS I LOVE & USE: www.nextlevelgardening.tv/pro...
_________________________________________________________
Hey Guys, I’m Brian from Next Level Gardening
Welcome to our online community! A place to be educated, inspired and hopefully entertained at the same time! A place where you can learn to grow your own food and become a better organic gardener. At the same time, a place to grow the beauty around you and stretch that imagination (that sometimes lies dormant, deep inside) through gardening.
I’m so glad you’re here!
WHERE TO FIND ME (Some of the links here are affiliate links. If you purchase through our links we'll receive a small commission that helps support our channel, but the price remains the same, or better for you!)
- Our Website: www.nextlevelgardening.tv
- Our Second Channel, NEXT LEVEL HOMESTEAD: / nextlevelhomestead
- The School of Traditional Skills: bit.ly/3zoFWy1
- Instagram: nextlevelgardening
- Our Facebook Garden Group: / nextlevelgardeners
PRODUCTS I LOVE - www.nextlevelgardening.tv/pro... - Навчання та стиль
Thank you for information. Can you use dried leaf or grass clippings instead of straw for the Ruth Strout method?
Literally, I have same question.
Yes you can!
Yes, and wood chips too
Just don’t use Bermuda grass clipping! What a mess that makes. Bermuda grass is nearly impossible to kill.
Love it! My potato plants got a little frost damaged. Still growing.
I grew potatoes for the first time last year ( a disgrace for someone in N.Ireland!). It was so exciting digging them up. Indeed it is better than gold. I have some chitting now to go out on St.Patrick’s day. Love your videos.
As a young man at his uncle's farm, my father took the used straw from the barn one fall, spread it across the extremely rocky ground about a foot deep, in the spring he placed the potatoes under it on the rocky ground and added more used straw from the barn.... Great crop that year...
Wow, not even in soil at all?
Brian, where do you get straw from? I can always find hay, but not straw
@@pennyjohnsrud2985I don't know where you live but I live in the US, I get it at the feed store. I use it for animal bedding.
@@pennyjohnsrud2985 Look for nearby grain farmers. Straw is the stems of wheat, oats or barley (most often).
@@pennyjohnsrud2985You can also go the "pet store"; ie Pet Smart, Petco, etc, and buy miniature bales of Guinea Pig straw.... depending on how much straw you need, of course🤦♀️
I'd bought a reg bale of straw few years back from the Grange/feed store for my potatoes and had leftover straw for YEARS, requiring someplace to store it against rats making nests. Last year I just went back to covering with dirt.
I DID however, use a single Guinea Pig bale last fall to cover and protect my carrots against snow, freeze and the heavy winter WA rains. I then put a hard plastic row cover tunnel over the whole thing and have been getting great carrots all winter, where as previously if I left them in the ground to over winter, they'd be diseased, buggy, and rotten.
I bought an old paperback book by RuthStout in 1986. Been gardening with it ever since ❤
I save all my own baby potatoes for planting the next year. I live in zone 5, Spokane WA. I have plenty of space so I like planting in the ground, shallow because that makes the digging less at harvest. I plant a whole baby potato with a "Power Plsnter Auger" once the ground stops freezing. (My ground is still frozen as of March 5th, and probably for another 3-4 weeks. I don't try to maximize the yield on individual plants, since I have room I just plant a lot more. I like planting nightshades on the edge of the property as the deer don't seem to like eating them.
Uncle Marvin's potatoes (comment above) grow in the Long Beach peninsula grow zone all year round. Having an above ground grass mound, or a raised bed of grass clippings stops all of the frozen ground incidents. Having such raised beds, bins, or mounds also up against a south facing wall or building also keeps the growing area unfrozen and healthy for growing spuds and other tuber vegs.
I grow in containers and grow bags. Mild success last year (my 1st effort) ... hoping for more success this year
I could seriously watch potato harvests all day, every day. It is SO satisfying!
I've been planting mine in the fall for 30 years, it's easier than working in the mud on cold spring days and they almost always produce better.
I have planted potatoes in the ground and in containers, in Sacramento, in the spring and in the fall. I can honestly say that they are "naturalized" that is I get volunteers, which is fine with me. Spring crop is healthier but the fall crop makes me feel like I am doing something over the winter with the ground that would otherwise just sit there.
I too planted a bag of the Costco organic potatoes a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. I just harvested them on March 19th and got 23 lbs. of potatoes. I literally did almost nothing to them while they were growing except giving them a little water before our rains started. This is the first time I've ever grown potatoes in the winter time and based on what happened this year they will be on my planting list along with my other winter crops from now on.
What zone are you in? I’m going to try fall potatoes but we get a killing freeze by mid November at the latest in 8b so I don’t think winter ones will work for me.
@@thecatniplife I’m in 9b in a interior coastal California valley. We rarely get freezing weather here and if we do it’s of short duration. You might try protecting your crop with a row cover and see how that goes.
@@scottolson6201 thanks. I thought you were probably in a warmer zone. I'll be trying to extend the season with some row cover but will still need to harvest by the end of November based on last three years' weather. Our zone is different now. Colder colds, hotter hots. I'm having to relearn gardening as if I moved.
I grew potatoes last year for the first time in 2 different ways. grow bags and in a raised bed. Both gave me great yields. The potatoes in the bed were store bought!!! I didnt even hill them or cover them with mulch. Just let them grow! Thou this year I'll be using the grow bags exclusively because I have plans to fill all my beds with other things. All these potatoes were not chitted either (I'm impatient!)!!!
What size grow bags do you use (15gal? )and how many potatoes did you generally get in your grow bag?
@@lsherylc2524 They grow bags were 7 gal bags. I had put 6-7 potatoes in each bag harvesting about 25 potatoes from each.
I have 5 gallon buckets that worked well and also my garden for growing potatoes. The bucket method definitely needs more water. In the garden I dig a couple inches deep, then cover with lots of straw. I always have an amazing harvest!
My dad would dig a trough... put some 10-10-10 in the hole and put cut potatoes (eyes up). Once the potatoes started pushing vine, he would "hill up" the potatoes until the hill was 4 to 5 inches above the original plant line. We always had so many potatoes and large ones. He would joke that he wouldn't mind giving a bushel of potatoes away but he'd really hate to cut the potato to just get a single bushel. 😅
I'm in SFBay area, 10A. Last spring/summer and this fall/winter I grew potatoes in large grow bags. I made my own soil mix from my own compost, raised bed "soil", and perlite, and covered the grow bags with several inches of straw. I used the Neptune Harvest fertilizers. I watered by hand. I had a better yield from the summer grown potatoes after planting a variety of potatoes, some of which were anon.--meaning from the grocery store and farmers' market and purple potatoes from my CSA box. My best yields in both cases were the purple potatoes. I also got some yummy pink potatoes. The purple potatoes are now my family's favorite potatoes!
I've used the "piling" method in containers. Pile more dirt as the grow up to get spuds at each level. Works great for small buckets.
I LOVE digging for potatoes! ❄️💚🙃
It's like an Easter Egg hunt, isn't it?
@@honeydew4576 it sure is, so much fun.❄️💚🙃
I think this might be the year I try out growing potatoes. Digging them up looks like such a joy.
A friend of mine brought his 5 year old grandson over to see my garden and when I showed him how he could dig for potatoes he was just amazed. It was like magic to him. Hopefully I've inspired a future gardener.
This was interesting. I have only planted potatoes with a big tractor and a big planter in 100 acre fields. It is way more fun than in the garden!
Same here, northern maine farm girl potato, cattle, grain. Much bigger yield if the potatoes would be hilled.
Ok I tried potatoes last year. Total fail maybe. You just gave me hope. I had planted potatoes in bags but I didn’t realize when I was suppose to dig them up, so I did nothing. Now I need to go check and see if there are potatoes in the bags. Lol. Well maybe get husband to dump the bags because I’m recovery from knee replacement surgery. Thanks for the video. Being a newbie you learn so much. Blessings to you and your family
I grow my potatoes in a container. I use a halved (width wise), 55 gallon plastic barrel.
I, too, drilled a ton of drainage holes. Before I put my mixture of finished compost and potting soil in, I place a full-size burlap bag in the bottom. Bag is saturated to make it easier to mold to the bottom.
The soil mixture is 6 - 8 inches deep, and space the starters 8 - 10 inches and cover with the soil mixture at least 4 inches.
I wet the bottom soil before putting in the starters.
An average yield per container 10lbs.
As usual, great information Brian. I noticed that you use the whole potato for the seed. I have always been taught to cut the potato with at least one eye in each piece and then plant which extends the amount bof certified seed that I buy. Both ways have worked for me, however just thought I would mention it so readers may have a way to use more seeds with less potatoes.
Again, great work!!! Keep it up.
I took your advice and planted two rows last fall, next to my garlic. I have high hopes for them, but will also be planting another row or two in the garden this spring, and also in a dozen or so 5 gallon grow bags. Yeah, I love potatoes! Also tomatoes and bush beans, but that's another story. LOL Thanks for the video and Happy Gardening!
Best of luck!
@@NextLevelGardening And to you as well!
I found it very helpful and easy to plant my potatoes by using a flower bulb planter. Exact placement of the potatoes and no digging needed at all.
I am trying grow bags for the first time this year. As soon as the storms let me. Lol Central California foothills.
This was great learning different ways to plant potatoes. I did it about 2 years ago, did ok, but did not understand the ways to do. It is definitely easy. thank you
I almost gave up on potatoes! Tried the Ruth Stout method last spring & bam! Had a great harvest. Getting ready to plant my potatoes this week in zone 7a in NE Oklahoma. Nothing better than homegrown potatoes!!
I have tried planting in containers the last two years. I got some potatoes but not enough for the effort. However, this year I thought I would try to plant directly in the ground. How timely to have this video!! And now seeing the Ruth Stout method I think I will do the same experiment. Half trench half Ruth Stout. Still 20 in snow on the ground but I’m mentally preparing at least! Thank you again for another great video. Blessings x 3 ❤❤❤
I planted potatoes in Autumn to overwinter. I covered the bed with straw and black plastic for insulation. The beds are covered with about 6 feet of snow right now, so I won't know if they survived for a couple months.
As always, your videos are perfectly timed!
Perfect!
This is my first year to be a serious gardener. I have in a raised bed and 5 gallon buckets. Right now all my raised beds have sprouted and a couple of my 5 gallon buckets. We shall see what happens. I an excited to get serious about growing veggies 😊
For years, I put string to define a row. Then I’d push my shovel down about 8”, drop in a chunk of potato, pull the shovel out and seal the hole. That was it. I always got nice potatoes. Then came UA-cam and I’ve tried several ways over the last few years. Because I’m in a cold area, frost line can run deep, I’ve never planted in the fall. That said, the fall of 2021, I must not have gotten all my potatoes out of the ground because I had at least 4 volunteer plants last summer. I let them grow. They did great. I also tossed the potatoes I didn’t plant in the compost. They did great as well. I intentionally planted potatoes, in with my strawberries. They didn’t do as well. This summer, I’m going to try a raised bed like Brian, some in ground and some Ruth Stout. I’m also going to try using a couple grass roots cloth containers and a couple bags that I get 30#’s of dog food. I start my potatoes as soon as the frost is out of the ground. So far, the potatoes are ready in late Aug through October, Yukon Golds being the later crop. Thanks for another great show.
I'm so impressed with the fall planted potatoes and I'm going to do some like that this year!
I have done no dig, containers, and traditional. No dig did best but I covered with compost instead of straw because I always get straw growth when I use it., The containers did worst. They were just too small for me; I like big bakers but would be ok planting fingerlings or earlies.
This year I am going to planting two ways. Some will be planted Ruth Stout method, and some will be planted in cardboard boxes with lots of leaf mold below.
Wonderful!
Thank you for all of this great information.
Last yr I tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket. I got 24 potatoes but they were small. Now have some sweet potatoes growing in the ground. We shall see. I'm in Florida Zone 10a.
Being in Australia, I'm happy to hear I can plant more potatoes now! I just harvested my previous batch, and only got a few potatoes from three huge pots, which was pretty disappointing. The previous time using the same method (like your container method, hilling up as they grew) it worked fine. Not sure why the last batch didn't go as well, but keen to have another go.
$ different potato planting ways Brian: Baked; Boiled; Scalloped; Fried. Baked requires a quality sour cream nutrient. Boiled is best dressed by being well buttered with bacon pieces. Scalloped deserves a rich cheese sauce with smoked ham chunks. Fried thrives best with salt and ketchup! You are a fine grower and chef! -Bob...
Ruth Stout all the way! I also have mucked out chicken coops, rabbit hutches, added leaves, straw, whatever I can get my hands on :O) Great fun watching your experiments - will be interesting seeing how each turns out. Since they're all good methods guessing it will be a matter of degrees - potato size and quantities, or not. Thanks as always!
The only time I've planted potatoes has been in containers when I've had some in my kitchen go green or sprout. The pots already had soil in them, so I buried them about wrist deep, then mulched. I was amazed how well they did, and how many I got from a 20" container. It really is like a treasure hunt!
Btw, I totally dig the no-dig method. I've been trying it in all my containers this season and it's been working really well. Thanks for the tip!
Brian - I just recently learned that potatoes can be either determinate or indeterminate, with determinate growing just one layer of potatoes over the seed potato (so you don't hill them as much, and indeterminate being able to grow multiple layers (so you can hill them up more and get more potatoes). Have you experimented with that?
This is the first year in many that I have planted potatoes. I planted in the fall into 40 gallon grow bags. I did one grow bag of store bought potatoes and the rest from organic seed potatoes. They all look pretty good. I did let most sprout but didn’t cut them.
Love all your videos and wow the view of your new homestead. Glad your health is well also. Although I live in ohio, I still enjoy and use many of your suggestions and experiences in different situations.
This was my first time growing potatoes and I planted them in the fall in raised beds and in fabric containers. I don’t know how they are doing under ground; however, above ground I have a lot of greenery!
I did chit them and I bought them from Publix grocery store.
I'm in a 6a/b, mid-southern Illinois. I planted garlic and potatoes as suggested in November, and tomorrow is our first (and very teasingly) really warm 70° day. I'll check on them and see what's going on. Super excited!
QUESTION: can chicken coop straw from the current season be used to grow potatoes this year or should I age it and use for next year?
I would love an answer to this too! I have so much used straw (not hay) from my chickens that I need to do something with!! Suggestions welcome!
How did it go with the winter potatoes?
Great ideas
I have always planted in containers.. I have a very small garden area. I really like the No Dig.
I planted last year in the fall in raised bed. Using store bought. First time to plant potatoes. They rotted. Never came up so I thought I would dig down a little to check them. Mush, all of them. 🤷🏻♀️ so this year I’m trying spring with fall backup. I live SE Texas. Bought seed potatoes this time as well.
I’ve used groc store and seed potato. Buried potatoes in ground wilt farm compost and also in grow bags. No difference here in my garden in central California zone 9. I wonder if your potatoes were damaged by frost or some kind of insects. Better luck this spring!
Check with your local county extension office for potato varieties that do good in your area. Really wet soil tends to rot the seed. Try sprouting your potatoes first if store bought to see if they cover good first
Just curious, why don’t you slice the seed potato in half, assuming you have more than one eye?
If they are small, I think most people plant them whole, but yes, if they are big with many eyes, do as you suggest.
Always great advice
Thank you!! 🌿 💪🥔
This may be a dumb question, but while I knew about watching for the plants to die back, I didn’t know about flowering. Is this a scenario where you could remove the flowers to extend the time until harvest a bit?
Great video Brian!🤗🤗🤗
We grew up with fresh from the farm potatoes. My uncle was a foreman of a potato farm. Every year for harvest he would come to town and bring us 100 lb bags of fresh picked potatoes.
I ALWAYS learn something from your videos!
Loved that variety of ways shown. Thank you!
Love potatoes your looked fab, hoping to try new techniques this year great vlog Brian
Always learn stuff…
awesome thank you!!!
You're welcome!
I’m planting my first potatoes this spring. 😄
You give me hope for my Costco potatoes! Trying to chit them out but I'm late planting here so I'm anxious to get the in the ground. I might just put them in the way they are!
OMG THANK YOU~ Brian, I followed your advice in the fall, and guess what??? In spring, they came up all on their own and when I pulled the mulch back in late March at the last frost date just to take a peek, the stems were happily waving at me, "We are here, ready to go!" They took off like gang busters and are now healthy and strong. It's like a big head start on the season. Update: But as I watch through your video I am thinking, oh wow, could there be potatoes in there? Well I ran out to the garden and poked around and guess what, In one of the containers there were potatoes! OMG! Only looked at one bucket but OMG.
It was fun watching you find your potato treasures underground. 😁
😁
I just use the traditional method & it's worked great for me. except last year. we had "killed" the bed to try & get rid of bindweed, but must not have done enough to repair the soil. nothing grew, not even weeds. Hoping we removed & replaced & amended enough to grow this year
I have a potato in water half way up on the potato. It already had one sprout on it, and after a week, little change. I will be trying laying one on the ground and putting a sturdy cardboard box around it, and adding 4" of dirt, and more as it grows, an idea from another channel, one in a five gallon bucket, one or two in a 10 gallon cloth container with a flap, and maybe one in my raised garden. I have never had great success with potatoes, however in the past I always planted in our clay soil, this year I bought a lot of bags of garden soil.
(I finally got a notification of a recent video, this one...)
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Grat info! I's trying both ways this year and instead of raised beds I will be doing cardboard boxes. We;ll see how it goes! Love experimenting! I also love you planted in the Fall. Not sure I could do that here in SW VA zone 7b, we get some cold Winters but I do remember some coming up in my compost pile two years ago so may give it a try too! Nothing to lose!
Thank you!:) I didn't know about the spacing and the size of the potatoes. It sounds opposite of what I thought:)
QUESTION - I may have missed it, but I didn't hear you mention which growing zones you recommend the "growing through the winter" method. I live in 6b and the traditional method of growing in trenches works for me.
Good vlog 👍
When you showed the Ruth Stout way of no dig but using straw there is an even better way to do it. If you create a higher box like around 24 " tall you would do what you did but fill the box with straw. What this does is it allows the plants to come up through the straw and you can plant pretty close. Then you can see how the potatoes are doing by just moving the straw to the side and since the potatoes are on the ground you can pick what ever potatoes you want as they grow. Like say you want 4 potatoes for dinner tonight you just pick the 4 you want and let the rest grow. It is fun to watch and when you pick as you need the rest grow faster etc
I’ll be planting more potatoes for our autumn/winter here in Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
Trying potato towers this year...looked pretty interesting. I hope it works, but I'll also be doing some in containers, and some in-ground.
I love Ruth
Have you ever tried growing potatoes in straw bales. I get 3 plants per bale with good yield. Bales last two years then I turn them into mulch.
I actually start plants from the eyes...So I can eat my potatoes and grow more! They're not "perfect" potatoes, but in a casserole or in with pot roast, you don't notice. Just don't eat green ones! I let them chit then when the eyes get an inch or two long, they typically start getting roots or bumps where roots can grow. I twist them off and put in shallow pan of water. Or you can cut out the eyes when preparing your potatoes if you like to peel them. Then do the same thing. shallow water, allow roots to form. Then pot up if you're in the north like me. I grow them for a month or a little over in pot. Then transfer into garden or larger pot. (I say transfer but you can just plant them in a large container or in the garden if it is time. Space is at a premium under grow lights here inside. So I use 4-6" pots to start plants in.) I get a head start on the season. It is the same as taking suckers off tomatoes and growing them on. These plants root readily just as tomato suckers do. Just another way for somebody to start some if they don't want to or can't afford to buy "seed potatoes" and possibly have potatoes sitting around at home that are starting to grow...
Wow! I like the idea of starting from the just the eyes!
I planted last Fall (zone 6b) and they are starting to come up already.
I was out of containers to plant potatoes in so I used. Very large Amazon boxes! They worker great! The box rots out on the bottom so you just left the boxes up and pick up your potatoes! Really fun! I am going to try the No plant method in containers!
how ingenious! Love it! But aren't these difficult to keep moist?
They weren’t hard to keep moist! I used lots of oak leaves on top of soil
I thought I knew everything about growing potatoes, but on another channel it had advice about seed potatoes. Cut them in half if they are more than 2 oz. Allow only 2 eyes and remove anything more than 2 eyes. We grow Ruth Stout for our main crop of potatoes. We grow early potatoes - Red Norland in grow bags for an early harvest. We can start these earlier as we can move them inside if the weather looks like there will be a late season frost.
Please speak to thoughts on used potatoes soil for other garden veggies.
Good or bad? Please explain.
Thank you Brian❄️💚🙃 Seriously was that 4 way? ❄️💚🙃
I have planted under straw several times works great! Just have to keep adding more straw as they grow to keep potatoes covered
I want to do this near my orchard area, how often did you water? Mine won't be on a drip system
@@lsherylc2524 They stay wet enough for me with just the rain fall, most years
I tried potatoes in planting pots last fall. About the size of the pot you had to hold your potting soil. 3 organic potatoes from the store each in three pots. I really did not give them the attention they needed. Yield was much better than it should have been, about 5-6 potatoes per plant. I loved harvesting them! I dumped the pots out on a tarp, and had no trouble finding the potatoes!
I can't wait to see how the harvest comes out, if there is any difference between the two methods.
I plant sweet potatoes & only do them in containers, otherwise the dogs run over them. Perhaps I'll try an additional type this year.
Your video is quite educational as usual Brian, thanks. My seed potatoes are not chitted, if I plant them like that should I water them ,or will they rot if I do?
I would recommend chatting them. I have found it guarantees a better crop!🌴
Chitting
We grow our potatoes in 10 gallon growing bags. Dump them onto a mesh screen to harvest for easy separation.
5 gallon buckets work as well
I use the container method in a slightly different way. I use old 10 gal plant buckets with a gravel layer for drainage. Put in a layer of soil, add potatoes and cover with a bit of soil. In about a week the plants will peek its head through the soil. I then cover the plant with a couple inches more of soil. I repeat this process until my 10 gal bucket is full.
When I’m ready to harvest I simply dump the container into my wheelbarrow….you get potatoes the entire depth of the container.
So I noticed that you were using compost and soil, which is what I did this last year and although I got tall plants from the seed potatoes, all of the seed potatoes rotted, and I never got additional potatoes and I don’t know what I did wrong. I did do them in grow bags and I read that they prefer a sandy soil which I did not do so I still don’t know what I did wrong. Lol
What is the discount code for the neptune’s harvest?
Last year I tried to do them in the ground and hill them but I think it was too late in the season and too hot here in Texas. This year I’ve already got 3-5gal buckets planted of russets. We’ll see how it goes this year!
I’m in Texas too (west Tx, zone 8a), and lost my potatoes planted in the spring last yr bc Tx got too hot too early. I, too, have already planted my potatoes this yr. I planted them a week ago, and they haven’t sprouted yet, but they should soon. Hope u get a harvest this year! 🥰
A little confused here on your contaner method I have used the 5 gal buckets for years when i planted I just would add enough soil in the bucket just to cover the potatoes and after they start growing add more soil as the plant grows.
But you planted in severl inches of soil then planted them with severl more inches of soil on top did you do this because of the size of that cantaner or was this just something different?
By the way I have much better results with new potatoes and reds there great for the bucket method.
Thanks
I'm up in the Pacific Northwest and we get a couple of big freezes that may last a week and a couple of snowfalls each year. Will fall planted potatoes survive this?
I am in zone 6b. I planted in containers and thought I would overwinter where they were. After a thaw went to see what I had and they were mushy didn't get a single edible potato. Yet last year 2021 I missed a few and got about 10 lbs. out of my raised bed. Do you have any suggestions?
👍
When I see buds starting, I will pluck them... I 'll do this at least twice.
I found by doing this, I get more spuds.
When I harvest spring potatoes late July, I amend the bed and replant seed potatoes I saved right away. I get another harvest around November 1st. I either do the Ruth stout method with hay. Or I just dig a small hole for each potato, not a trench. That’s too much work
Question. You said harvest would be when the top green dies back or they bloom? Why would you pull when they bloom? Most plants that grow and then bloom, think iris/daffodils etc the worst time to pull would be bloom or right after as the dying bloom/foliage is putting energy back into the plant so you wouldn't pull until after bloom and foliage die back. Please clarify. Thank you so much.
I ask because in my first experiment with potatoes last year I didn't pull until after flower and then flower/foliage die back. My store bought potato experiment seemed fine. So would my harvest been bigger had I pulled when they bloomed? Thanks again🌷
Nice guide (y). however, the bathtub hardly needs drainage holes. well, for potatoes it probably does but things like carrots would probably benefit from not having them.
I haven’t had much success growing potatoes but I definitely am not going to stop trying. So this year I’ll incorporate your suggestions. One question: how do you find straw that isn’t loaded with seeds. They tell me there are no seeds but every time they are wrong 😡
What are your thoughts on pine needles as much? And will it add some acidity to the soil?
A great mulch but not necessarily to add acidity to the soil
If you plant potatoes in a deep very loose compost/broken down wood chip mix, you don't have to mound them. The potatoes will grow down into the loose fluffy "soil" below it instead of growing up out of it.
In a bed or large bucket?
Where do I find the link to the fertilizer? thanks