In Tennessee this guy covered his lawn in hay once a week for a month, before he put the layer of new hay he did one of compost. He followed that at the end of the month by doing a layer of leaves and a layer of woodchips. At the end of 2 months it was a foot high and he let it sit for a season and started planting. I never seen plants so healthy and never need extra watering
Love this! I just took Soil Science class and what you did actually is one of the best practice to preserve the soil (not exposing it to erosion) while increasing its productivity. Thank you for your amazing video and for spreading this method!
Thanks for the information Derek & Paula.. I have 5 bales of hay and have spread it around my garden.. looking forward to some excellent gardening results in a year or so. I live in South America and I´m hoping this system will help combat the terrible heat in excess of 45 degrees Celsius we experience every Summer.
I've been doing it this way for years, works great! The more hay you add,the more the plant reaches for the sun. More (depending on how much hay, much more!) yield!
To get higher yield, you need indeterminate potato varieties. The Pontiac is very indeterminate. The other red one is indeterminate as well. The white ones seem to only produce 4-5 potatoes per plant.
When I homesteaded, we had a large family and always planted 100lbs of our fav. varieties, and always got around 500lbs harvest, We did cut them up , to have more plants. I did 'steal' baby potatoes right along as well. In all things grown, I multiplied out by 52, what my family would need to survive all year long. Then you add a little extra. That's how you figure out how much to plant. A 2 acre garden kept our family of 7, fed quite well. Plus we bartered for what we didn't grow or raise. I love the Ruth Stout method, but with my large garden, only had enough old hay to use in two plots....onions and carrots...woohoo!
A family of 7, all fed from 2 acres! Very impressive. Gives us hope :) So far, we've been busy just trying to figure out how best to grow our food. But we'll soon have to start doing calculations on HOW MUCH to grow. Thanks for your tips!
While I tried chickens, rabbits, goats, ducks, geese, and a pony for the kids......chickens are really plenty. My hubby was a mechanic, so we soon found his skills bartered well, and our freezer filled fast. We really didn't suffer from not raising other meat sources. He did a lot of emergency jobs for farmer friends ....lol. It was a blast to have all those staples on hand. The old root cellar was awesome to keep potatoes and all kinds of squash in all winter.
@@lunah5668 Yes, 52 weeks in a year! We probably eat a quart of green beans a week. There's only two of us now. So I would need at least 52 quarts of green beans for the year. But I usually canned more. Some in beef broth, some in chicken broth and some plain. Saves time too! Same principle with whatever you like. That's the real key! Unless you plan on selling your produce, don't grow what you DON'T eat!! I don't care for eggplant, I don't grow it! The flea beetles love it! I can USE it as a TRAP crop or not grow it at all! We really like pickled beets, so lots of beets! Can some of those in pints, they make great gifts for friends and family! So many people like them! Carrots, lots! And so on. You know what you like! We grow loads of tomatoes for so many different recipes! Salsa, diced, juice, whole! You'll get the picture! I don't freeze much, I can almost everything, including meats!
Hi. I'm a lazy gardener in Victoria BC Canada. I harvested my first potatoes yesterday. Yum! I use leaves and straw. I'd suggest more mulch! I have my permaculture design certificate. I love just following nature's example. I plant any sprouted potatoes I have in my kitchen. Have fun but get 'er done! Judy.
We loved it out in Victoria during our cross-Canada road trip. Such a gorgeous part of the country - but then, what part isn't. :) We have a good collection of fall leaves, so perhaps we'll add some of them in as well. Thanks for the tips!
You answered all of my questions. You guys are awesome! This is my first year planting potatoes and giving good ol' Ruth Stout a try. I feel like I'm getting a really late start, but farmers in the area are just now starting to prepare the land for planting. It's been a cold spring, so maybe I'm doing okay. No idea. We shall see.
hey guys! good luck! did the splinting method this year and have to admit it... it was a significantly better crop... since that part is done the day before i didn't feel it was much labor... maybe u try id next year! cheers!
Congrats on the great crop! We look forward to the end of the season to see how well this method works for us. We'll likely experiment with other options next year, either way. Good point about doing it the day before. It helps to spread the work out a bit. :)
i am sure it will work fine for u guys! just to clarify, doing it the day before is not to spread the work, it is necessary so the part that is cut can heal (dry) for a day, or two, before u put it in the ground! if u don´t wait the plants are more easy to catch fungus! Good luck!
Ruth also used all of their kitchen scraps, and put all of her garden waist, after harvest, back into her beds too. She would even put them in her flower beds and hide them with mulch or leaves. Remember she had been gardening for years and years before using hay, and many don't realize that it will take at least the second year of covering before you will see really good dirt, but you can still plant in the first year too, you just need to know which plants you can lay on top, and which ones should be in the dirt. I bet you are going to get a lot of really great potatoes this year!!! Wooo Hooo!
We're hoping that the potatoes help to break up the soil during this first year. I guess we'll see... lol Good point about the kitchen scraps. We've got quite the collection in our compost bin, and plan to incorporate them into our gardens this year.
Def interesting way to grow spuds, cant wait to see how it works and how BIG the harvest is. Have always used potatoes in new planting beds, since as you hill them I add new soil from composted horse and sheep manure that is almost PURE loam. Then after digging the spuds have a GREAT bed for other things. This on other had looks so much easier, hahah GOOD luck with it.
This was definitely easier, but time will tell if it's as effective :) We're hoping that the potatoes still do a good job at breaking up the soil underneath the hay... but we'll see!
I planted potatoes on really hard rocky soil once, just covered with straw. The potatoes sent a few roots into the soil, but all the tubers were produced on top of the soil, in the moist straw. In that experiment I got really small potatoes too (about 1"-2"), because I didn't add any fertilizer or compost or anything to the soil. I didn't mind, though. It was just an experiment, and I learned a lot. I hear if you really want to break up soil, though, the right vegetable to try is a daikon radish! Masanobu Fukuoka raved about their usefulness in creating channels deep into the soil for air and water to move.
That is a REALLY good point. It hadn't even occurred to us, but there was certainly a lot of dust (potentially mold) when we peeled the bale apart, so a mask is definitely something to consider. Thanks for the tip!
Wife was standing in the bed which compacts the soil which you don't want to do. The bed is narrow enough to work from outside the bed. That's why you make them so you can reach the middle from the side.
Yep, that's a good point. It's funny the things that you don't even notice yourself doing, until you see it on video. lol We'll do our best to be a bit more careful about that. ;)
Back To Reality Don’t feel bad!!!! Accidents happen, old habits are very to break. You both have the best intentions, but then life happens ... to all of us. You deserve an award for putting yourselves out there .... you have a wealth of knowledge .... but now social media (and their judges are watching). I applaud you both for allowing yourselves to be vulnerable while sharing gardening techniques! Thank you!
Michael Todd Correct. Permaculture beds are never to: e stepped or walked in. It defeats the purpose, the experts say. So, it is key, not to build beds so wide that it cannot all be reached unto using both sides, of course.
Great Videos! Thank You Both!! Questions: Is this method recommended even on land riddled with hoards of gophers? Do you subscribe to the idea that making a big enough garden helps to offset the losses from gophers? -or??? Thanks
I may have asked this before, but you really don't need to water....at all? I'm in zone 7 Philadelphia, and we routinely get 90-95+ heatwaves in the summer....your thoughts? Love your channel ;)
That is a really good question... Ruth Stout didn't seem to have any issues with that, so I'm hoping that we'll be fine. But it's an interesting point. We'll have to look into it further. Thanks!
The depth of hay on this type of sheet-mulched garden isn't really enough to raise temperatures much, not to mention this mulch is pretty much all carbon, so it will compost slowly. You'd need a pile a couple of feet deep, full of a really good nitrogen/carbon mix to create the type of hot compost that could potentially kill a plant.
My hay man told me, it is true that hay can get hot enough to actually cause a fire, but those that grow it know that, and seldom put it in high stacks in their barns or in large piles right away, and it takes only a little time for it to heat and then be safe again. I had a pile over 5 feet tall delivered in the front of my garage/home on my property, and it did great. It's been in that pile for 2 years now, and it's going on my new garden beds in a couple of weeks. I wanted to start with some half composted hay first, and put fresh hay on top of that. However as Marialla said it takes more to kill a plant than what we use in our gardens. Unless of course, you do use 2 feet of hay all over. Just be careful when you order hay that is fresh, it can cause a fire. Honest. I was shocked when I learned that, and not many know it. Bless, Sheila
i dont really get it, you cover everything with hay and the potatoes or whatever you plant will come up but the weeds wont. whats your experience, does it really work like that?
At 4:00 when you show "tossing the potatoes on the ground", you did it wrong. Ruth never considered the top of the hay to be "the ground" when it came to planting, and though years of composting gave her rich soil, the hay on top was always relatively fresh and uncomposted. Otherwise it would have sprouted weeds. That's the whole point of mulch. She ALWAYS would pull the hay back to expose the topsoil/compost layer underneath to do any planting. That was really key to her method, that you don't plant on the hay, you plant in the soil as usual, and only snuggle the hay up afterwards. Most plants she'd wait until they were well-sprouted before mulching them closely with hay. Potatoes are special, though, and can come through several inches of hay just fine. (Same with asparagus.) At 4:17-4:27 you explain perfectly the method by which she would plant potatoes all the time, except for one thing. She didn't love bending over, so she would tend to use a rake to move the hay away from a row rather than using hands to make holes in the hay. Then she'd rake the hay back over. But I'm sure your way is fine too.
Imo the reason people say to not use hay is because of all the seed heads on the hay allowing weeds to form. But when adding so much hay to drown out the seeds you should be fine. I thought myself when I get my ruth stout garden set up about using straw, but alot of it is sprayed with round up or other weed killers to kill it and make it dry faster than it normally would. Adding these chemicals into your garden when trying to be organic as possible can cause havoc on your plants.
Big Country OHHHHH that’s a REALLY VALID POINT! You are 100% correct with the sprayed round-up concerns. I should have connected those dots .... sigh, still learning I guess. Thank you for taking the time to comment .... lord knows I know better about round-up ..... sigh.
My local feed bin said they asked the farmer where we get the straw that they don’t use round up or weed killer. But I’m still concerned about it on my organic garden 😢
Please make more gardening videos! Love the Ruth Stout method. How do you plant tomatoes and cucs, etc. In deep mulch? I think you just plant them into the dirt under the hay, then put hay around plant. I've used these methods for 46 years but needed deeper mulch. Love your videos. Are you going to build a hoop house, etc? Share more. Like your gardening methods best! And your well documented processes. Thanks.
Thanks Praire Adventures! I'm really glad you've enjoyed our content. :) That is exactly the method we use for planting tomatoes, cucs, etc. Translplant as normal into the soil, and then push the mulch up around the stem. Some say to keep the mulch from touching the stems and leaves (by leaving a bit of a gap) because it can attract slugs and other pests, but we've never noticed a difference either way. That said... when our mulch is REALLY deep and our transplants are REALLY short, we sometimes have to make a bit of a "mulch crater" around them, just until they get taller. Oh, and we DO plan to build a hoop house. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. :)
I followed Ruth Stout’s idea of throwing potatoes on cut lawn and covering with a big load of hay and we had a spectacular crop of potatoes. Now we have permanent potatoes... they grow like weeds. And that seems to me what happens originally in nature.
Still think that, as you're claiming that this is a "Ruth Stout Garden" trial, you should have covered the WHOLE area thickly in hay mulch, just as she did, otherwise you're missing out on many of the advantages her garden gave. As it is, you're just putting hay mulch over a row of potatoes. The topsoil you found was there already, and worms will always be there after a wet winter. I see your grass is still sprouting underneath the mulch, which suggests your initial layer was too thin so the light got through and the damp hay provided a wonderful shelter for weed seeds to germinate.
Hi Ruby! Everything I've read about Ruth's method said that we should start with approximately 8 inches of hay, and then add more in the spring / fall, or as needed. That's how much we started with, and it seems to be working quite well (sprouting grass and weeds during the first spring seems to be normal, based on our research - Ruth simply said to add more hay on top of them when they appear). How much extra would you have suggested in the initial application?
No, what you have done is lovely, just saying that the paths ought to be covered as well, as Ruth Stout didn't have any uncovered pathways in her beds. This prevents an edge effect occurring where the paths are either hot / cold or baked dry or exposed to wind or flooded and muddy, which will affect the growing areas under cover in some way. She didn't have large spaces between her rows, and her garden was so productive that she soon reduced its size to about one eighth I believe, because she didn't have paths. She could harvest everything for a household with a basket and bare feet (and used to garden in the nude too, though this is optional and probably not UA-cam-friendly), so no need for wheeled vehicle access. Of course, any such vehicle also compacts the ground which limits the spread of roots laterally. However I am toying with the idea of building a goat cart! I think that would be a wonderful, sustainable low-impact self-manuring garden use for many otherwise unwanted wether goats produced every year by homesteaders. They are quite capable of pulling a little wagon with hay bales or compost, the harvested vegetables, cultivators, etc I've never actually tried her method as stated, as I know from my own experience that grass seeds do germinate in and under layers of hay lying about when the weather is consistently damp, the thousands of large round hay bales in everyone's paddocks grow a great sward of thick green grass on top, there is a fantastic crop of thick tall grass growing in the guttering on my barn about 15 feet off the ground, and grass seeds germinate thickly in my vegetable garden from at least 4 inches below the surface of the soil. There is an inexhaustible seed bank in old farm land. However I am keenly interested in seeing how Ruth Stout's method works for others with similar conditions to mine! I read her book frequently and do try to implement some of her ideas. You are the people doing the most pro-active testing on this and other methods on YT as far as I can tell. So I am hoping for great results for you!
I think Ruth's method was the precursor to the cardboard mulch method so many of us use today. In her day old hay would have been much easier to get than cardboard ( when was cardboard like we know it invented anyway). You use what you have. The woman was a genius intuitive gardener.
Thanks for this video. It inspired me to give it a try. Being slightly out of work because of COVID-19 and hearing in the news about food shortages, I wasn't taken a chance. I used the unused stone screened horse arena and made (3) 25ft. rows in March. The rows were layered in this order: Aged horse manure, top soil and screened compost, then topped with old hay. Today is June 12th and I have had to cover the potato greens twice after planting in early April. I also planted onion sets and butternut squash/zucchini by seed. It seems to be working just fine. I'll be adding more rows next year for sure.
I think it varies a lot depending on the type of potatoes and the specific conditions, but we can typically expect 5-10 potatoes per plant - or so we're told :)
Just want to say that I love the production of your videos! I am starting to create a garden in my tiny 900 sqft backyard. Your videos have been giving me a lot of ideas and I am implementing them on the go as I continue to plant. Hoping to utilize every square inch of it.
That's awesome Danny! Please let us know how it goes. We're really lucky to have been able to find a place with so much land, but we've often said that if we had a home closer to town, we'd want to turn our entire yard into a garden also! Thanks for your comment!
I followed Ruth Stout’s idea of throwing potatoes on cut lawn and covering with a big load of hay and we had a spectacular crop of potatoes. Now we have permanent potatoes... they grow like weeds. And that seems to me what happens originally in nature.
I grow russet burbank & pontiac red, too! I have fantastic results and high yields in my area with these varieties. Also, Kennebec & french fingerlings....
It will be interesting to see how your bigger whole seed potatoes produce. I always cut my potatoes, but one year I did an experiment and planted a couple of big whole potatoes thinking they would produce lots of big potatoes. Imagine my surprise when it came to harvest them - all my potatoes were good as usual, but the big potatoes had produced nothing but marble size. :-( Instead of making a compost pile, I've sometimes buried my kitchen veggie scraps in the garden. The potato peelings started to grow and produced well, so it seems they don't need a big potato chunk to make a healthy plant.
Nice. Can I do this with any seed, just toss the seed under the hay and cover it? Or better put the seed in the soil underneath the hay? Will it really be able to just grow and go through the hay?
Great video! I did my "Ruth Stout" style potatoes back in March. The plants are HUGE now, and i've covered them 2 more times since I the original "planting". I'm so curious to know what is going on in my potato bed, but I'm trying to relax and let things be. Looking forward to seeing how your Ruth Stout potatoes turn out :)
Back in march!? My goodness, you're WAY ahead of us! lol Really glad to hear it's working well for you! We can't wait to start seeing the foliage poke through the hay. Keep us posted on how your harvest turns out!
We've found that just wetting it with the hose after laying it out is all that it takes to hold it down. The hay seems to very quickly tangle itself into a thick mat, so blowing has never been a problem.
Yahshua - you know Him as Jesus - was born to a virgin, turned water to wine, taught, healed the sick, raised the dead, casted out demons, walked on water, and calmed the storm, among many other things. He was killed, and three days later He rose from the dead. Forty days later He ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father. He is returning very soon, but before He does, Satan, the devil, is coming to pretend to be Jesus. Satan is an angel, and he will have certain supernatural powers with which to try to fool everyone. He will, for example, be able to make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men. He will only be on earth a short time before the real King of Kings, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, returns. When the real Jesus comes we will all be transformed into our spiritual bodies at the same moment. Jesus came to offer forgiveness of sins and eternal life to anyone who believes and calls on His precious name! ...the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God - Romans 3:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 6:23 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. - John 3:16-18 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. - Matthew 26:6-13 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. - Zephaniah 1:14 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. - Luke 9:56 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5:22-23 Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself..
Your god and everyone else's gods are created by humans to try to explain the reason why humans exist .... because we just don't know and we never will .... 💋😘
Just wondering how Ruth Stout's method would work for planting Sun Chokes? By the way, Sun Chokes are much healthier than Potato's and you can eat them in every way you eat Potato's & Rice too.
I don't know about that... I've eaten a whole pound at one sitting and the only side effect I found was, well let's just say everyone in the room could smell that side effect...lol
In Tennessee this guy covered his lawn in hay once a week for a month, before he put the layer of new hay he did one of compost. He followed that at the end of the month by doing a layer of leaves and a layer of woodchips. At the end of 2 months it was a foot high and he let it sit for a season and started planting. I never seen plants so healthy and never need extra watering
Every time he put new hay he put compost...first?
Thank you. I wondered about how compost would fit in the equation. You've answered that question. Thanks for sharing!
Every time I watch this video, it makes me smile they way she says “potatoes”. Love it!
Love this! I just took Soil Science class and what you did actually is one of the best practice to preserve the soil (not exposing it to erosion) while increasing its productivity. Thank you for your amazing video and for spreading this method!
Monika Ruwaimana I agree. And live the simplicity of it.
Love
Thanks for the information Derek & Paula.. I have 5 bales of hay and have spread it around my garden.. looking forward to some excellent gardening results in a year or so. I live in South America and I´m hoping this system will help combat the terrible heat in excess of 45 degrees Celsius we experience every Summer.
I've been doing it this way for years, works great! The more hay you add,the more the plant reaches for the sun. More (depending on how much hay, much more!) yield!
Glad to hear this method has been working for you! We can't wait to see the foliage sprouting through enough to start covering it up again! :)
To get higher yield, you need indeterminate potato varieties. The Pontiac is very indeterminate. The other red one is indeterminate as well. The white ones seem to only produce 4-5 potatoes per plant.
When I homesteaded, we had a large family and always planted 100lbs of our fav. varieties, and always got around 500lbs harvest, We did cut them up , to have more plants. I did 'steal' baby potatoes right along as well. In all things grown, I multiplied out by 52, what my family would need to survive all year long. Then you add a little extra. That's how you figure out how much to plant. A 2 acre garden kept our family of 7, fed quite well. Plus we bartered for what we didn't grow or raise. I love the Ruth Stout method, but with my large garden, only had enough old hay to use in two plots....onions and carrots...woohoo!
A family of 7, all fed from 2 acres! Very impressive. Gives us hope :)
So far, we've been busy just trying to figure out how best to grow our food. But we'll soon have to start doing calculations on HOW MUCH to grow. Thanks for your tips!
While I tried chickens, rabbits, goats, ducks, geese, and a pony for the kids......chickens are really plenty. My hubby was a mechanic, so we soon found his skills bartered well, and our freezer filled fast. We really didn't suffer from not raising other meat sources. He did a lot of emergency jobs for farmer friends ....lol. It was a blast to have all those staples on hand. The old root cellar was awesome to keep potatoes and all kinds of squash in all winter.
why multiply by 52? trying to understand
Luna H i think its for "52 weeks in a year."
@@lunah5668 Yes, 52 weeks in a year! We probably eat a quart of green beans a week. There's only two of us now. So I would need at least 52 quarts of green beans for the year. But I usually canned more. Some in beef broth, some in chicken broth and some plain. Saves time too! Same principle with whatever you like. That's the real key! Unless you plan on selling your produce, don't grow what you DON'T eat!! I don't care for eggplant, I don't grow it! The flea beetles love it! I can USE it as a TRAP crop or not grow it at all! We really like pickled beets, so lots of beets! Can some of those in pints, they make great gifts for friends and family! So many people like them! Carrots, lots! And so on. You know what you like! We grow loads of tomatoes for so many different recipes! Salsa, diced, juice, whole! You'll get the picture! I don't freeze much, I can almost everything, including meats!
Hi. I'm a lazy gardener in Victoria BC Canada. I harvested my first potatoes yesterday. Yum! I use leaves and straw. I'd suggest more mulch! I have my permaculture design certificate. I love just following nature's example. I plant any sprouted potatoes I have in my kitchen. Have fun but get 'er done! Judy.
We loved it out in Victoria during our cross-Canada road trip. Such a gorgeous part of the country - but then, what part isn't. :)
We have a good collection of fall leaves, so perhaps we'll add some of them in as well. Thanks for the tips!
I just found your videos Yesterday and I am in thralled. Thank you for making these videos I appreciate it tremendously.
You answered all of my questions. You guys are awesome! This is my first year planting potatoes and giving good ol' Ruth Stout a try. I feel like I'm getting a really late start, but farmers in the area are just now starting to prepare the land for planting. It's been a cold spring, so maybe I'm doing okay. No idea. We shall see.
Wishing you a bountiful potato harvest 👍
Thanks Susan!
Great video! So helpful and encouraging. Thank you!
Good job guys! I'm really looking forward to see how your garden evolves.
I've been doing this for years. Didnt realize it had a special name. My beds are all worm castings from the straw being ate by the worms.
Really glad to hear that this method has worked well for you! It gives us something to look forward to :)
Thumbs up. Thanks for sharing. ENJOY... THE SIMPLE LIFE
Ha ha, you need a old time farmer show you how open those sewn shut bags, it is all in the string!
to open those bags. The string is installed by a sewing machine. Start on the right end and it will easily unravel without damaging the bag.
I could never remember how to open a bag right! I remember my mom would always cut it and the strings just pulled right out.
This's wonderfull, thank you..
hey guys! good luck! did the splinting method this year and have to admit it... it was a significantly better crop... since that part is done the day before i didn't feel it was much labor... maybe u try id next year! cheers!
Congrats on the great crop! We look forward to the end of the season to see how well this method works for us. We'll likely experiment with other options next year, either way. Good point about doing it the day before. It helps to spread the work out a bit. :)
i am sure it will work fine for u guys! just to clarify, doing it the day before is not to spread the work, it is necessary so the part that is cut can heal (dry) for a day, or two, before u put it in the ground! if u don´t wait the plants are more easy to catch fungus! Good luck!
Ruth also used all of their kitchen scraps, and put all of her garden waist, after harvest, back into her beds too. She would even put them in her flower beds and hide them with mulch or leaves. Remember she had been gardening for years and years before using hay, and many don't realize that it will take at least the second year of covering before you will see really good dirt, but you can still plant in the first year too, you just need to know which plants you can lay on top, and which ones should be in the dirt. I bet you are going to get a lot of really great potatoes this year!!! Wooo Hooo!
We're hoping that the potatoes help to break up the soil during this first year. I guess we'll see... lol
Good point about the kitchen scraps. We've got quite the collection in our compost bin, and plan to incorporate them into our gardens this year.
Thanks for this information Sheila, very helpful.. Happy gardening.
fantastic video
Thanks bobvise7!
Great video!
Thanks Pat :)
Def interesting way to grow spuds, cant wait to see how it works and how BIG the harvest is. Have always used potatoes in new planting beds, since as you hill them I add new soil from composted horse and sheep manure that is almost PURE loam. Then after digging the spuds have a GREAT bed for other things. This on other had looks so much easier, hahah GOOD luck with it.
This was definitely easier, but time will tell if it's as effective :)
We're hoping that the potatoes still do a good job at breaking up the soil underneath the hay... but we'll see!
I planted potatoes on really hard rocky soil once, just covered with straw. The potatoes sent a few roots into the soil, but all the tubers were produced on top of the soil, in the moist straw. In that experiment I got really small potatoes too (about 1"-2"), because I didn't add any fertilizer or compost or anything to the soil. I didn't mind, though. It was just an experiment, and I learned a lot.
I hear if you really want to break up soil, though, the right vegetable to try is a daikon radish! Masanobu Fukuoka raved about their usefulness in creating channels deep into the soil for air and water to move.
hi looks great, but if the strew or hay is mouldy might be a good idea to wear a mask
That is a REALLY good point. It hadn't even occurred to us, but there was certainly a lot of dust (potentially mold) when we peeled the bale apart, so a mask is definitely something to consider. Thanks for the tip!
Wife was standing in the bed which compacts the soil which you don't want to do. The bed is narrow enough to work from outside the bed. That's why you make them so you can reach the middle from the side.
Yep, that's a good point. It's funny the things that you don't even notice yourself doing, until you see it on video. lol
We'll do our best to be a bit more careful about that. ;)
Back To Reality Don’t feel bad!!!! Accidents happen, old habits are very to break. You both have the best intentions, but then life happens ... to all of us. You deserve an award for putting yourselves out there .... you have a wealth of knowledge .... but now social media (and their judges are watching). I applaud you both for allowing yourselves to be vulnerable while sharing gardening techniques! Thank you!
Michael Todd Correct. Permaculture beds are never to: e stepped or walked in. It defeats the purpose, the experts say. So, it is key, not to build beds so wide that it cannot all be reached unto using both sides, of course.
Great Videos! Thank You Both!! Questions: Is this method recommended even on land riddled with hoards of gophers? Do you subscribe to the idea that making a big enough garden helps to offset the losses from gophers? -or??? Thanks
I may have asked this before, but you really don't need to water....at all? I'm in zone 7 Philadelphia, and we routinely get 90-95+ heatwaves in the summer....your thoughts? Love your channel ;)
Could they show how to get the seed potatoes?
Thanks for the videos. Where is your farm?
Where to get these seed potatoes? Can you send the link please. Thanks.
Does this method work for tropical countries with only 2 seasons (summer and monsoon season)? I live in Southeast Asia.
Hi guys, when do you plant your potatoes? Is it advisable to wait until after the last frost or can you plant them sooner? What was your experience?
Don't you think it will get too hot with the hay composting?
That is a really good question... Ruth Stout didn't seem to have any issues with that, so I'm hoping that we'll be fine. But it's an interesting point. We'll have to look into it further. Thanks!
The depth of hay on this type of sheet-mulched garden isn't really enough to raise temperatures much, not to mention this mulch is pretty much all carbon, so it will compost slowly. You'd need a pile a couple of feet deep, full of a really good nitrogen/carbon mix to create the type of hot compost that could potentially kill a plant.
My hay man told me, it is true that hay can get hot enough to actually cause a fire, but those that grow it know that, and seldom put it in high stacks in their barns or in large piles right away, and it takes only a little time for it to heat and then be safe again. I had a pile over 5 feet tall delivered in the front of my garage/home on my property, and it did great. It's been in that pile for 2 years now, and it's going on my new garden beds in a couple of weeks. I wanted to start with some half composted hay first, and put fresh hay on top of that. However as Marialla said it takes more to kill a plant than what we use in our gardens. Unless of course, you do use 2 feet of hay all over. Just be careful when you order hay that is fresh, it can cause a fire. Honest. I was shocked when I learned that, and not many know it. Bless, Sheila
i dont really get it, you cover everything with hay and the potatoes or whatever you plant will come up but the weeds wont. whats your experience, does it really work like that?
where did you get the potatoes?
I'm completely jealous. I'm so allergic to hay I'm breaking out in hives just watching y'all build that garden bed. *sob*
You can use wood chips. Call any Tree trimming service, they drop it off for free
1:10 "...don't dream it's over..."
Hay, or straw? Looks like straw to me.
Hi i just did this and am getting an ammonia smell do you know why
Interesting, why the potatoes can still grow but the weeds can't?
At 4:00 when you show "tossing the potatoes on the ground", you did it wrong. Ruth never considered the top of the hay to be "the ground" when it came to planting, and though years of composting gave her rich soil, the hay on top was always relatively fresh and uncomposted. Otherwise it would have sprouted weeds. That's the whole point of mulch. She ALWAYS would pull the hay back to expose the topsoil/compost layer underneath to do any planting. That was really key to her method, that you don't plant on the hay, you plant in the soil as usual, and only snuggle the hay up afterwards. Most plants she'd wait until they were well-sprouted before mulching them closely with hay. Potatoes are special, though, and can come through several inches of hay just fine. (Same with asparagus.)
At 4:17-4:27 you explain perfectly the method by which she would plant potatoes all the time, except for one thing. She didn't love bending over, so she would tend to use a rake to move the hay away from a row rather than using hands to make holes in the hay. Then she'd rake the hay back over. But I'm sure your way is fine too.
2gether
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Man I wish we could fast forward seasons and time, I love watching y'all do these and follow along, I'm learning with you and it's a blast!
We couldn't agree more about wishing we could fast-forward time. If only we could pause it every once in a while too! lol
I would have just wiggled the potato through the hay where I wanted it to set. Wouldn't bother to make the open drill.
Do you have a dog? You need someone watching your back as you work. There is some hungry predators up there. :)
when you say hay, do you really mean hay and not straw?? I've always been told that using hay for garden stuff adds weeds. Straw is more weed-free
melanie spencer I was thinking the same thing. Also, in my area (Salem, Oregon), straw is much more affordable than hay. Cheers and happy gardening!
Imo the reason people say to not use hay is because of all the seed heads on the hay allowing weeds to form. But when adding so much hay to drown out the seeds you should be fine. I thought myself when I get my ruth stout garden set up about using straw, but alot of it is sprayed with round up or other weed killers to kill it and make it dry faster than it normally would. Adding these chemicals into your garden when trying to be organic as possible can cause havoc on your plants.
Big Country OHHHHH that’s a REALLY VALID POINT! You are 100% correct with the sprayed round-up concerns. I should have connected those dots .... sigh, still learning I guess. Thank you for taking the time to comment .... lord knows I know better about round-up ..... sigh.
My local feed bin said they asked the farmer where we get the straw that they don’t use round up or weed killer. But I’m still concerned about it on my organic garden 😢
Please make more gardening videos! Love the Ruth Stout method. How do you plant tomatoes and cucs, etc. In deep mulch? I think you just plant them into the dirt under the hay, then put hay around plant. I've used these methods for 46 years but needed deeper mulch. Love your videos. Are you going to build a hoop house, etc? Share more. Like your gardening methods best! And your well documented processes. Thanks.
Thanks Praire Adventures! I'm really glad you've enjoyed our content. :)
That is exactly the method we use for planting tomatoes, cucs, etc. Translplant as normal into the soil, and then push the mulch up around the stem. Some say to keep the mulch from touching the stems and leaves (by leaving a bit of a gap) because it can attract slugs and other pests, but we've never noticed a difference either way. That said... when our mulch is REALLY deep and our transplants are REALLY short, we sometimes have to make a bit of a "mulch crater" around them, just until they get taller.
Oh, and we DO plan to build a hoop house. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. :)
I followed Ruth Stout’s idea of throwing potatoes on cut lawn and covering with a big load of hay and we had a spectacular crop of potatoes. Now we have permanent potatoes... they grow like weeds. And that seems to me what happens originally in nature.
Still think that, as you're claiming that this is a "Ruth Stout Garden" trial, you should have covered the WHOLE area thickly in hay mulch, just as she did, otherwise you're missing out on many of the advantages her garden gave.
As it is, you're just putting hay mulch over a row of potatoes. The topsoil you found was there already, and worms will always be there after a wet winter. I see your grass is still sprouting underneath the mulch, which suggests your initial layer was too thin so the light got through and the damp hay provided a wonderful shelter for weed seeds to germinate.
Hi Ruby! Everything I've read about Ruth's method said that we should start with approximately 8 inches of hay, and then add more in the spring / fall, or as needed. That's how much we started with, and it seems to be working quite well (sprouting grass and weeds during the first spring seems to be normal, based on our research - Ruth simply said to add more hay on top of them when they appear). How much extra would you have suggested in the initial application?
No, what you have done is lovely, just saying that the paths ought to be covered as well, as Ruth Stout didn't have any uncovered pathways in her beds. This prevents an edge effect occurring where the paths are either hot / cold or baked dry or exposed to wind or flooded and muddy, which will affect the growing areas under cover in some way. She didn't have large spaces between her rows, and her garden was so productive that she soon reduced its size to about one eighth I believe, because she didn't have paths. She could harvest everything for a household with a basket and bare feet (and used to garden in the nude too, though this is optional and probably not UA-cam-friendly), so no need for wheeled vehicle access. Of course, any such vehicle also compacts the ground which limits the spread of roots laterally.
However I am toying with the idea of building a goat cart! I think that would be a wonderful, sustainable low-impact self-manuring garden use for many otherwise unwanted wether goats produced every year by homesteaders. They are quite capable of pulling a little wagon with hay bales or compost, the harvested vegetables, cultivators, etc
I've never actually tried her method as stated, as I know from my own experience that grass seeds do germinate in and under layers of hay lying about when the weather is consistently damp, the thousands of large round hay bales in everyone's paddocks grow a great sward of thick green grass on top, there is a fantastic crop of thick tall grass growing in the guttering on my barn about 15 feet off the ground, and grass seeds germinate thickly in my vegetable garden from at least 4 inches below the surface of the soil. There is an inexhaustible seed bank in old farm land.
However I am keenly interested in seeing how Ruth Stout's method works for others with similar conditions to mine! I read her book frequently and do try to implement some of her ideas. You are the people doing the most pro-active testing on this and other methods on YT as far as I can tell. So I am hoping for great results for you!
I think Ruth's method was the precursor to the cardboard mulch method so many of us use today. In her day old hay would have been much easier to get than cardboard ( when was cardboard like we know it invented anyway). You use what you have. The woman was a genius intuitive gardener.
what I did was first till the ground and then put the hay on. I put a very very thick layer on the outside perimeter. so far almost no weeds.
Thanks for this video. It inspired me to give it a try. Being slightly out of work because of COVID-19 and hearing in the news about food shortages, I wasn't taken a chance. I used the unused stone screened horse arena and made (3) 25ft. rows in March. The rows were layered in this order: Aged horse manure, top soil and screened compost, then topped with old hay. Today is June 12th and I have had to cover the potato greens twice after planting in early April. I also planted onion sets and butternut squash/zucchini by seed. It seems to be working just fine. I'll be adding more rows next year for sure.
That is awesome Geoff! Thanks for letting us know, and I'm so glad it has worked out for you so far!
How many potatoes grow off of each one your plant? I can't wait to see the end result.
I think it varies a lot depending on the type of potatoes and the specific conditions, but we can typically expect 5-10 potatoes per plant - or so we're told :)
That hay stayed in place the whole season? Is there no wind where you are?
How does the hay not blow away in the wind?
Just want to say that I love the production of your videos! I am starting to create a garden in my tiny 900 sqft backyard. Your videos have been giving me a lot of ideas and I am implementing them on the go as I continue to plant. Hoping to utilize every square inch of it.
That's awesome Danny! Please let us know how it goes. We're really lucky to have been able to find a place with so much land, but we've often said that if we had a home closer to town, we'd want to turn our entire yard into a garden also! Thanks for your comment!
Why hay and not straw. ...just wondering
Nice video 👍
Can I use straw instead of hay?
Can I use straw instead of hay?
I followed Ruth Stout’s idea of throwing potatoes on cut lawn and covering with a big load of hay and we had a spectacular crop of potatoes. Now we have permanent potatoes... they grow like weeds. And that seems to me what happens originally in nature.
Where do you get your seed potatoes?
Does it have to be rotten hay?
Can I use Timothy hay
I grow russet burbank & pontiac red, too! I have fantastic results and high yields in my area with these varieties. Also, Kennebec & french fingerlings....
OMGosh...you two are just ADORABLE together!! :) Love your videos! Thanks so much for sharing!! :) Your friend in Pennsylvania, Gina Louise xo
When did you plant the potatoes
We planted them last weekend. May 21st.
Can't wait!
Us either! :)
It will be interesting to see how your bigger whole seed potatoes produce. I always cut my potatoes, but one year I did an experiment and planted a couple of big whole potatoes thinking they would produce lots of big potatoes. Imagine my surprise when it came to harvest them - all my potatoes were good as usual, but the big potatoes had produced nothing but marble size. :-(
Instead of making a compost pile, I've sometimes buried my kitchen veggie scraps in the garden. The potato peelings started to grow and produced well, so it seems they don't need a big potato chunk to make a healthy plant.
You guys inspired us to use this method this spring. you're videos are
entertaining and informative. hard to pull off. great job
Nice. Can I do this with any seed, just toss the seed under the hay and cover it? Or better put the seed in the soil underneath the hay? Will it really be able to just grow and go through the hay?
Seen comparisons showing whole potatoes produce more plants and crowding potatoes is perfectly fine
Woooh!
have you tried carrots or beets in hay??
Working on it. Stay tuned! :)
Seeding a cover crop would’ve been a better idea. You could’ve put the hay over it.
Thanks for your great videos! Any chance you have an update on the potatoes?
Do you have to use spoiled hay? I can get hay here but spoiled hay is another story.
Great video and very informative. I’m so glad I found your video. Thank you for sharing.
Im in ohio - is it too late to start this method now (January) to start potatoes in the spring?
Can't wait for an update - planting year 2, year 3, etc.. :)
Will this work in hotter temperature areas like Oklahoma
Where do you get your potatoes and seeds from?
Great video! I did my "Ruth Stout" style potatoes back in March. The plants are HUGE now, and i've covered them 2 more times since I the original "planting". I'm so curious to know what is going on in my potato bed, but I'm trying to relax and let things be. Looking forward to seeing how your Ruth Stout potatoes turn out :)
Back in march!? My goodness, you're WAY ahead of us! lol
Really glad to hear it's working well for you! We can't wait to start seeing the foliage poke through the hay. Keep us posted on how your harvest turns out!
So, no need for watering?
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How do you stop the hay from blowing away in the wind?
We've found that just wetting it with the hose after laying it out is all that it takes to hold it down. The hay seems to very quickly tangle itself into a thick mat, so blowing has never been a problem.
Yahshua - you know Him as Jesus - was born to a virgin, turned water to wine, taught, healed the sick, raised the dead, casted out demons, walked on water, and calmed the storm, among many other things. He was killed, and three days later He rose from the dead. Forty days later He ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father. He is returning very soon, but before He does, Satan, the devil, is coming to pretend to be Jesus. Satan is an angel, and he will have certain supernatural powers with which to try to fool everyone. He will, for example, be able to make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men. He will only be on earth a short time before the real King of Kings, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, returns. When the real Jesus comes we will all be transformed into our spiritual bodies at the same moment. Jesus came to offer forgiveness of sins and eternal life to anyone who believes and calls on His precious name!
...the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God - Romans 3:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 6:23
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. - John 3:16-18
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. - Matthew 26:6-13
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. - Zephaniah 1:14
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. - Luke 9:56
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5:22-23
Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself..
Your god and everyone else's gods are created by humans to try to explain the reason why humans exist .... because we just don't know and we never will .... 💋😘
Just wondering how Ruth Stout's method would work for planting Sun Chokes? By the way, Sun Chokes are much healthier than Potato's and you can eat them in every way you eat Potato's & Rice too.
Richard Frazee Works just fine for me, although I use fall leaves in place of the hay.
So you just lay the tubers on the ground without burring them at all?
Richard Frazee Yes sir. Pull back the mulch, drop the tubers, cover with mulch and walk away. Sunchokes are very resilient and will take off
you certainly cant eat sunchokes as much as potato. unless you plan to spend the night on the toilet.
I don't know about that... I've eaten a whole pound at one sitting and the only side effect I found was, well let's just say everyone in the room could smell that side effect...lol
how do you guarantee the hay was never sprayed by ROUNDUP GMO???
Know the grower