Growing Potatoes in Straw vs. Soil | Which Is Better?
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- Опубліковано 21 чер 2022
- It's finally time to look at the results of our straw versus soil experiment in our potato plot. We grew one half a row traditionally with soil and used straw on the other half. Which is more productive? Join us to see the results from our backyard garden!
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Thank you Travis for being our guinea pig and experimenting for us! You are so helpful!!
My pleasure!
Funny thing about garden experience is that it really sticks. Once burnt and you'll NEVER make the same mistake again.
"...I shant be growing anymore taters in straw." LOL Made my morning! Thanks for your efforts and for sharing with us, so we may learn from your experience. :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
I click like as soon as the video starts, cause I know it’s gonna be good!
Thanks for the support!
You can plant squash and run it through the corn companion planting style to help stabilise it during high wind activity
Travis, it must something with the weather, we bought our Kennebec seed potatoes and only got 27 lbs on a 60' row, the two grandsons were a little disappointed when they harvested them because the Red Lasoda seed potatoes which they dug first produced 59 lbs and they were planted the same day and fertilized the same. We'll try again next year, hopefully!! ✌🏻
“I shan’t be growin no more taters in straw” hahahaha. I love it. You know how long it’s been since I heard somebody say shan’t? I forgot the word it’s been so long. That’s awesome. Thank you Travis
It's a great word that should be used more often!
New drinking game; take a sip of your favorite beverage every time Travis says "taters".
I'm so drunk
Glad you did the soil vs. straw experiment, so I won't next year. This year's tater crop was planted late, due to wet weather. My "experiment" was saved Yukon Gold seed potatoes from last year and bought Kennebec Whites, all planted same day, in adjacent rows. Dug them all last weekend, and got few, and small potatoes from both varieties. My conclusion from the experiment was that I should have eaten all the seed potatoes, and planted Okree, instead!!!
Thanks for sharing 🙏 😎 🏖 🏝
I really enjoy your trials and experiments in the garden. I don't have room to try these things. I learn a lot and see if I want to do something different after your results. I tried something new this year and so far, it's working great. Keep up the awesome videos.
Thank you, Travis... cuz that was about how Bad my 1st attempt to grow potatoes in 30 years was last year... mine was very pitiful.. LOL..
Trying the straw method this year & going to attempt them in Large 25L planters again (so like a mid size half barrel)... fingers crossed..
But.. I think I'm going to use a combination of really well finished compost (about 3 inches), then another couple of inches of small woodchips & a good 3" of straw on top..
After the sprouts poke out & are up a good 3-4 inches, I think I will add another good layer of woodchips & straw. .. and let them grow..
I know I didn't fertilizer enough last year.. could have been part of the lack of potatoes..
But.. I was waiting for the plants to die back (in the early ones) &/or get crunchy (in the Kennebec).. except my plants didn't do that because of rain.. between the rot & the mice that got into the cardboard box trials ~ I got possibly 10lbs of mostly very small potatoes from 3 large buckets, 3 large boxes & 8 5gal pails ~ apx 44 potatoes, several varieties...
Was sure glad it wasn't my only way to have potatoes for winter, lol.
Thanks for sharing..
Hopefully I trip across your straw Planting method ...
❤ a Canadian fan
I SHANT!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
We have really dense, heavy soil here, so we do the hybrid method you mentioned - plant about 5" deep in the soil and then top up with chop-and-drop mulch the rest of the growing period. It works pretty well that way for our soil type, but, yes, you are right.. it is a lot of work that way. I don't really mind, though, because homegrown potatoes are something else 😊 So good.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for another great video!
My pleasure!
Send some of that rain to south Alabama
We are southeast alabama!
Thanks for telling us the month of the year and your location when planting and harvesting. So many of the gardening videos forget that vital info for us watching. It’s Feb 24 here in Charleston and many of the comments are from a year ago stating the heat wave of last summer as you did. As of early Feb I’m trying experiments with both bought seed potatoes (russets) and grocery organic Yukon golds along with some sprouted russets from the pantry. Using boxes and tall containers with a leaf base, then soil, then straw this year. After watching this, I took off half of the straw and added more top soil then put the straw back as more of a mulch. we shall see…
Make sure you know if your straw/hay was not contaminated with grazon herbicide.
Finished my sweet corn harvest today. Eight 30 foot rows of Yellowstone. Pulled 277 ears. Worm damage maybe 15 ears. Not in the tomato contest but I picked a Cherokee Purple weight 1.6 pounds. Glad you got some rain. We are in a dry hole here. Temp today 101 in the shade. It’s 9:30 pm temp outside 98 degrees. This is good weather for growing cotton. Great video today. Potato harvest not so good but you didn’t get skunked.
Them Cherokee purples mmm! For the first time this year I did a generic red tomato instead. I miss the purple already!
Enjoy that Yellowstone corn!
Great video! If there is any possibility that there may have been a few rats hanging around your garden: Have found that rats will occasionally eat potatoes. Perhaps a few were partial to your Kennebecs and ate most of your crop when they were smaller than a golf ball. Also, rats can be very opportunistic and may have found such ease in snagging potatoes from under the straw,
We've got several cats that keep the rats under control. Used to have bad problems with rats until we rescued a few barn cats.
Glad you guys got some rain sad to see your corn was blown down it was beautiful hope it all stands back up for you , thanks for sharing
Good video! Jealous of your soil type instead of our rocky clay but prefer the SW Va. summer weather LOL.
Good to see ya. From Ontario Canada
I feel better about our harvest now. Last year, we had so many. This year, very little.
Nice tomato!
Thanks 😋
I have seen taters grown in straw that did very well, that said, it was done very differently than what you did here. What I saw was a deep furrow with preplant fertilizer, which was covered with pine straw. The seed taters were placed next and covered with more straw. Then it was all covered with a moderate layer of soil. The taters were side dressed and hilled as usual.
When you use straw. You gotta make sure it's not sprayed with anything.
They have fancy chemicals now a days that stays in the stems and kills plants.
That center of the glass gem looks like you got a real authentic downburst-just a tiny one. But down bursts are what crash planes on landing in storms.
I put a few posts around my corn patch this year and ran a few rows of Twine around the outside. Haven't had any big storms yet, but my hope is if we do, they can only fall so far
Our corn got blown over a few weeks back. We stood it up and mounded more dirt around it. Three hours later and completely wet clothes, it was upright. And we didn’t get any more winds thank goodness.
I like how you tried to make it sound all hoity-toity by saying: "I SHANT be growing NO more TATERS in straw".
That's clever word smithing right there brother!
we too did some white potatoes like 6 plants an it had flowers an was 90 plus days only got like 3 potatoes the reds did better tho
Potatoes haven’t even died back yet and weather was a a few weeks off this year
Finally .. lets talk about the potatoes
It's stifling heat . Uhg! We always used straw but we put our straw down then put some good compost dirt on top of the straw then placed our taters on it and covered with straw. Always had good luck.
Now, normally I would have aggravated ya for not doing tader time with them sweet little boys! However, since you were ‘bout to have a daggum heat stroke yourself it was smart to leave them indoors! 😃 I sure hope you got ya a big glass of ice water when ya went in.
Thank you for sharing the experiments. I truly appreciate all of the trials you do. They help this old timer learn some new tricks. I've had a heck of a time with germination this year. One company, in particular, has been the worst but honestly several of the companies I got from this season have had less than stellar seeds it seems. I won't mention names because I don't wanna be hateful but it's been sort of disappointing overall. With prices for groceries this year it's just downright sad! Anywho, thanks for all you do. Much appreciated. Hugs for the family. Blessings always ~Lisa
In addition to the heat, there were tons of fire ants in those tater rows. No need in letting those boys get bit as many times as I did. lol
I made a square out of straw bills and field full of leaves and plant potatoes got a good crop just from them being in the leaves
Our straw did great even with the ducks eating a good portion of them. But, We are those that can’t plant them in the ground. Lot’s of gumbo.
When you talked about how fluffy your dirt was, all I could think was; you be bragg’n! LOL. Sorry about your corn. When I mentioned you on my channel I was bragging on your chicken method and how great your corn looked. Love your channel !!
Fluffy also means fire ants. lol It's not all unicorns and rainbows.
I still have some taters out there too. Had a good harvest of Reds. Kenebecs are still going good. I need to get them out and start my pumpkins
I love how you say potatoes I like southern accent
I’m wondering if the late cold wet spring impacted your Kennebecs. Great experiments and nice you got some rain.
That's a possibility, but it didn't affect the other varieties we planted.
Sometimes Mother Nature throws you a curve ball to keep you humble 😉. If you had a bumper crop year after year, it would get boring, right?? Sounds like something must have happened to your saved seed stock, but there’s no telling. Thanks for sharing and showing that even seasoned gardeners have their challenges. Glad to see you got some rain, although it would have been better without the winds. We need rain badly here and I’m hearing thunder as I type! See ya Friday!!
Thanks Tim!
Being georgia I wonder if the temps were above normal for the root system of the potatoes. But thanks for putting forth an effort Travis😊
Our Kennebec nor Yukon gold did as well as our reds this year.
Thanks for the interesting tater experiments! I hope your glass gems recover well. Congrats on the BIG mater!! 🍅
Most of it has stood back up, so very fortunate there.
“Shant” …. Lolololol …. My taters were a flop this year too lots of them, just no size to them.
I been growing kennebec potatoes all my life up here in East Tennessee mountains... Theirs some things to be a fact just because it is fact and I have no idea why those some things are a fact... But every year I get my kennebec out of the cool cellar under the house, I lay em out in the barn in partial light, got to turn those healthiest eyes on the potatoes green not long.... But here is the facts that I'm not sure why they are facts... I get those eyes nice and green and ready to go for a week or two before I plant, I cut the potatoes about three days before I plant, then comes potato planting day.. I plant the seed a full foot apart with healthy green sprout eyes on every piece, my opinion is that bringing the potatoes out of white dormancy is important, let eyes turn green and ready to grow... But finally here is the fact, I will start seeing a few here and there in about ten days peeking through the ground, by day 17 normally the majority has peeked through the ground... So here is the fact of 40 year growing kennebec, the majority and sometimes all is in the majority if you have a great stand of potatoes... But if your stand is not that great, say 70% is in that majority and 30% hasn't came up yet and you waiting another week or two on that 30% to come up... By the way that is a bad stand of potatoes at 70 to 30... Here is the fact of watching Kennebec for the last 40 year... That 70% stand will be 95% of your potatoes, the 30% will be just like you said barely covering the bottom of a few buckets... That is a fact here on my property, I never have knew why, it just is what it is... I think possibly that all of a kennebec strength goes in growing the plant instead of the potato when it senses that their is taller plants on either side of the plants, that is a theory only but the 70% will be 90 to 95% of your potatoes, that is the fact... You do want all your potatoes to come up together if you are to have a big good year in potatoes... I hope you try Desiree potatoes sometime, they would do great in your dry heat plots... Desiree out does, I believe almost all potatoes in a dry year... Kennebecs will out do Desiree in a wet year... Desiree is a European potato but you can buy it here in the US... But anyway great show, those experiments are super interesting to everyday gardeners. ...
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Kennebecs. Very interesting for sure!
Tried the straw experiment last year with similar results. The soil grown spuds produced double the straw grown spuds. The one positive, the straw grown had a cleaner skin. We get a bit of scab on our soil grown potatoes here. Never ever noticed any difference in store bought verses home saved seed.
I had a lot of bugs underneath the straw on mine, which caused the straw potatoes to not be as pretty as the soil ones.
Taters precious! The potatoe harvest was good for red and kennebec but it was disturbing how many went bad while curing :- 0
I thought for sure that the straw would have won. I have always had excellent results with either straw or leaves as mulch on potatoes. The only difference is that I use a hiller on my troybilt to create a trench or furrow before planting in the trench and covering with mulch.
I plan to learn to grow potatoes indoors with hydroponics. I was thinking of using large totes with a 3 inch layer of clay beads with hydroponic nutrients pumped through them. Pine straw might be a great way to cover the developing potatoes. I`m on disability in a very rural area with no transportation so if I want fresh food regularly I have to grow it. I`ll figure out how to successfully grow potatoes all year inside.
Both sweet corn and my field corn was subject to wind damage like you had. A good bit up righted but it was super difficult to spray as the corn started silking. Even so, the harvest wasn't a total loss and we were able to can / freeze sweet corn. The field corn is still developing and subject to more wind damage. Wind here can come from any direction NW/SE/ W/E/ .... it's just a gamble. But it's gardening! :- )
Yeah even if the glass gem corn straightens some, it's still gonna be almost impossible to spray it without an airplane. lol
Its the seed
I quite the kenibecks
That sucks about the gem corn. The in ground German butterball harvest was pretty good tho'. I had temps in the mid 90s on Mon and Tue. I didn't get out to the garden until later in the evening when it started to cool down.
My tators didn’t do well either not sure what’s going on and I planted in wood chip compost great video
Sorry about the corn, we could use some rain here I think we've gotten about a inch in the past month. My best taters were with straw this year. I bury the tater and when I see sprouts I water then put about six inches of straw. It's hard to water through the straw. I grew some of the tallest tater plants this year, they were over three feet tall. It's hard to hill taters in raised beds without the soil falling out. I had the same trouble hilling corn in raised beds and getting blown over. Now I dig about a eight inch deep trench and plant the seeds. Then once the corn gets ready to hill I fill the trench back in.
That's a good idea with the trench method. Hilling is tight spaces is tough.
Seems like common sense that you get much more nutrients to plants in soil than in straw.
It does.
I purchased kennebec seed taters this year and was also disappointed in the harvest. But the organic potatoes I bought from the store were 3 times as productive as the kennebecs. I can’t explain it.🤷🏻♀️
Hi Travis.
We really enjoy all of the experiments and information you have been providing, especially the good and the bad as part of the whole picture. Real life!
We support the channel and are interested in getting a couple of the shirts you're wearing in this episode. Can't seem to find it on the merch channel.
Can you let us know where we can pick a couple of them up.
Thanks!
These are all the styles and colors we have available at the moment: lazydogfarm.com/collections/merch
I need to get more colors printed soon.
Dose of reality - Kennebec are best grown here (eastern Ontario ) as a late season crop to harvest by the the first frost - i.e. check the temperature growing range in deciding what to grow
I've heard that it does much better up north than down here. I can't get reliable production from it.
My German Butterballs had internal heat necrosis. I was really bummed. They still taste alright, just really ugly.
On those Kennebecs, grandpa would say your seed has "run out", time to buy fresh seed.
Correct!
But seed is seed. Does the seed grower ever “run out?”
Just thought when I saw that corn blown down, that if you gotta wood chipper you could chop up all the destroyed stalks and put in a compost bin, it probably would make nitrogen rich soil
Probably would. Although I don't think any of them are technically destroyed. They're all still connected to the soil, albeit leaning.
Y’all have such nice sandy soil down there in south GA, where up in NE GA, we’ve got that lovely Georgia clay…must be nice to be able to hand dig them taters! LoL
Nice tests, thanks for doing those.
Hang digging is nice, but the fire ants were rough this year. Had to move fast.
I went to kindergarten in Georgia. It’s been 40 years and I can still remember that red Georgia clay, the wonderful smell of pine trees in the air, and picking wild blackberries. Now I live in Ohio where the clay is a sad shade of tan and hard as a rock.
@@amyschmelzer6445 ok that’s too funny! I was raised in Ohio and have lived in Georgia for over 25 years. I wouldn’t move back for all the sweet tea in the south. I love it here, the soil is better, the weather is better and the people are kinder, not that Ohio doesn’t have kind people, many of them…but there just seems to be more here.
@@LazyDogFarm YES THEY HAVE BEEN! I’ve never seen so many ant hills, and the sugar ants ain’t much better!
Yay, I was cheering for taters grown in soil! Interesting that purchased seed potatoes did better than saved, perhaps it is because seed potatoes are certified virus 🦠 free and viruses are known to build up in saved potatoes over time. I have watched and read some interesting stuff about how they can tissue culture taters to get rid of viruses. This is a comment on a previous video, I really need TSWV in my disease package for tomatoes up here in the Toronto area too, it’s not just a southern thing!
Klaus
Wood Prairie starts all their potatoes from tissue cultures, so good point!
hey where is our " tator time" boys?
Too hot and too many fire ants for them to join the tater digging action on this one. Truthfully, I didn't really want to be out there either but it had to be done. lol
dang.. thought it was just me..I had a bad year for taters. but reds always do well.
I have an experiment if you want to do it. What is the difference between potatoes grown normally and those that you put in the ground all winter a foot down?
Travis did your glass gem corn stand back up? I had a nasty storm come through yesterday and layed my corn down.
Most of it did. Some are a still a little crooked and will probably stay that way.
I have hard clay soil. Last year I tried growing potatoes in wood chips. The bugs did a number on them but the harvest was still ok. This year I planted the potatoes in the same spot but just under the soil surface and covered them with wood chips. The plants look healthy so I am curious to what the results will be.
It doesn't really look like classic stalk lodging in that Glass Gem corn where you'd expect to see the stalks kinked over below the ears. Looks like just real wet soil and a little micro-burst just pushed a section over. I'm betting it stands back up, at least most of the way. Good Big Zac there.
Most of it has stood back up a week later. But some of those in the middle are going to be a booger to harvest.
If you shan't, then I sure shan't either. Got a situation that puzzles. My 4' x 16' carrot raised bed didn't germinate worth a hoot through all that Spring heat, even with an Agribon germination cover. But last year's carrot bed, now in leeks, has carrots coming up with the little leeks like the hair on a dog. No carrots went to seed. Guess I'll just let them companion grow and pretend that's what I was aiming for all along.
That is odd -- almost like you planted them in a spot other than where you thought you planted them.
I always grow my potatoes in old hay laid down thick….older the better
Well my experiment in cut potatoes and whole potato seeding is done. I saw no remarkable difference between the two. I did see about 15% more potatoes by weight in the whole potatoes. Not a big haul this year too. I got only 40 pounds of spuds in a bed I usually get about 90 pounds. Not sure what the problem was, but they are very good spuds, no bugs or blemishes. Good eating.
Sounds similar to our cut vs whole experiment.
Could it have been too hot for the potatoes? I planted mine in mid- February!
I was thinking the same thing.
He is in the same zone as we are and everyone around here also plants mid February. But my father in law said he got better results planting in March so I planted both February and March potatoes. My March potatoes out performed my February by almost double. So most my potatoes will be planted mid March from now on.
@@TMesser74: Thanks for the info
💪🏽
When do I Plant my onion seeds in Mississippi
We'll start ours in late September and aim to get transplants in the ground in early to mid November.
Geez,that's a shame about the kenebecs,Travis.😔
It wasnt your seed stock.It was just a bad year.On the straw vs hilled method I have done both over the years and the hilled potatoes will get more constant moisture.On top of the ground it will get drier.I found the bigger the hills the deep potatoes just grow bigger and better.
If you think about, there are much more nutrients for them to obtain from soil than from straw.
@@LazyDogFarm You are right.My best crop ever was hilled really deep!!!
10 pm or so: a question ( I’m in a mell of a Hess; later) to you mentioned a particular potato name with a country’s name followed by Banana Fingerling, and my question went “missing.” As they say: it is what it is! Even if it’s silly.
Here’s my big problem! I ordered from WoodPrairie farm because they said it was time for fall potatoes. Ordered them Banana fingerlings, Caribe’ & Huckleberry Gold. Got notice they SHIPPED already! Like you, I’m in 8b. When to sprout? When to plant? Please HELP!! Think I’ve Snafu’d myself again! ☹️. TYIA.
I don't think you'll want to plant any sooner than mid-September. Put those seed taters in a cool dark place and hopefully the sprouts won't get too long before planting time.
Sorry about the potatoes, it’s a bugger 🧐
Expected the straw/hay to be better, always wanted to try in a full bail
I was thinking about your experiment recently and wondered if I had missed it. I planted 6 red norlands in straw this year and had the same result. The yield was smaller but I did get a few of my largest spuds from that patch. You didn't mention it but my straw potatoes were beat up. They were gnarly looking and had some spots that looked like scab. Most were really unpleasant. I would love to see you experiment with containers next. My container potatoes were the most productive and the potatoes were in really nice condition. My fingerlings also far outperformed my full size spuds. I'm going to plant a fall crop with my own seed. What month should I start a fall crop in SC zone 8b? Thank you for the informative videos! Love your channel.
Container potatoes? What kinda container? I did mine in big truck tires this year with hay.
I think we planted our fall taters last year around the end of September. But we cut it close with the first frost date. I think middle September is probably a safer bet.
@@RunninUpThatHillh If I had the ability to cut the sidewall out I might try a tire. I used 10 gallon black pail type containers. I only put one potato in each. I think I could have put 2 or even 3. I also used a few grow bags. They dried out very quickly. My property was heavily wooded and after I had it cleared, roots and saplings have sprung up everywhere. Inground space is a premium right now!
Wonder why the kennebecs didn’t do good for you? I have kennebecs planted right now from last years crop so I hope this doesn’t happen here. You think it was a water? I’ve read where the foliage will compete with the tuber for water and if the foliage is taking all or most of the water because of heat, stress etc the tubers will be small or nonexistent.
Could have been water, although the plants never really looked stress. But your explanation would fit that.
@@LazyDogFarm that’s the only thing that came to mind, you usually have great harvest of taters and I wouldn’t think it was you saved potatoes
Pretty sure that 2 in of rain dissolved your remaining potatoes
Straw just don't work here in the south.
My red potatoes always outproduced my other potatoes. It could still be a fluke.
Red potatoes are usually solid producers, but they're not necessarily the best-tasting potatoes IMO.
@@LazyDogFarm But, they hold up better on a hot plate.
I think the problem with your straw vs dirt tater is the kind of potato you used. The German Butterball is an "Indeterminate" potato. It grows more vertical...It grows best by mounding dirt on top of the plant as it grows out of the ground...and produces more potatoes the higher you mound the dirt. By growing in a layer of straw, I don't think, gave the potato much room to grow vertically.
I can't remember if you placed the seed potato on the ground and then stacked a layer of straw on top..if so, the seed potato needed to be 4" below the surface of the ground and then mound straw as it grew.
The test might have done better if you had used a "determinate" potato which will produce potatoes in a layer.... My opinion.
Makes sense.
Skip to 4:08 if you want potato info and not jibber jabber.
Some of those look like they have broke dormancy already. I think ya just got to hot before they got going. late to sprout and got caught by the bear.
Could be. I was surprised that the plants were still somewhat hanging in there with all this heat.
It might be a cosmic mystery as NONE of my potatoes did very well this year...red or white.
All ours did pretty well with the exception of the Kennebecs. Probably not going to grow those again.
When was this actually recorded. We haven’t had anything like that in Tifton in a while
Our videos are usually shot a week in advance of airing. It was early last week when we got the 2" of rain.
Your potato experiment has me puzzled as to why you got the results you did. Why the kennebec didn’t perform…and then the straw potatoes really had me puzzled. I have so much better results than you did and not sure how straw is more work, no hilling, no weeds, no tilling, no rooting around in dirt to harvest
I can hill a row of taters with a hoe at least 5x faster than I can add straw. The hilling does the weeding for us. That's why soil is much faster IMO.
@@LazyDogFarm
But I add straw and use it over and over until it rots away. Mine last more than one season so I just lift a lid and plant
I hate Kennebec taters. It's all my parents and folks around here plant. I always do a lot better with red potatoes. It's hot and humid here and we have heavy clay soil.
I think I may remove them from my rotation. Seems to me they're one of the poorer producing varieties.
worst year for me and taters myself
it's pronounced po-taters
Genetics or nutrients or too hot
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