We use a 3" auger to drill a 8 to 9 inch hole to plant or taters. We don't hill but once the plants are 6" high We lay a layer of straw to keep exposed tater covered.
I had a great tater year so far in Southeast TN. I planted an entire 10lb bag of white taters I had purchased from Aldi cause every last one sprouted in bag before i even opened them! So i just buried them in front yard raised bed fertilized with rabbit and quail stuff and i pulled them a little early cause i got tired of watering . Ended up with around 80 pounds ! Im so blessed🙂 I also used grass clippings to mulch after plants were 8in high and hilled second time it worked great.🎉
I'll bet the house that the very ones claiming that hilling isn't needed, probably haven't every gardened, or grown much of anything, much less potatoes. Is hilling absolutely a must....no, but it's better for several different reasons. First off, it gives the plants more room to grow it's potatoes in the first place. It also, like he said, protects the potatoes from getting direct sunlight and turning green. It also insulates the potatoes and roots to keep everything cooler, and keeps the soil from drying out,and helps prevent rotting.
Grow my Yukon Gold in 10 gallon containers. Add soil twice during the growing season. In ground is not an option due to voles. Numbers are good but I need a formula for fertilizer, like how much to add per container.
Great experiment! I don’t hill only because planting my potatoes deep and not hilling yields more testers than we eat. I donate a lot to the local food bank
Half a pound difference per plant is definitely significant.. I plant 6 - 50' rows every year.. So that 1/2lb adds up to roughly 175 lbs of potatoes for me.. I'm glad to see the extra work really does pay off.. Great test man..
Work verses reward: for me I don’t hill . I plant seed potatoes about two inches into the soil. I then cover with straw. As plants emerge I add more straw. I rarely even water. I have drip tape but rarely use it. I water my other parts of the garden and not my potatoes and never pull or hoe weeds. In harvest I just peel back straw. My numbers are very similar and depending on which variety exceeds these ratios. Then I don’t fertilize because my straw stays there all year and deteriorates back into the soil and keeps worm life thriving And that extra production you state is worth it for you. That’s a personal or we could say subjective decision. You didn’t tell us how much extra time and effort you spend for that extra weight that extra time could be used to increase production and another part of your garden or time with your family. It really doesn’t matter if it’s one minute or one month of extra time, you’ve decided that for you it’s worth it . It may not be for others.
Ha. I was literally thinking through the best way to eliminate the outliers and determine statistical significance when you started talking about it. P.S. Roll Tide! Haha. Good vid, dude.
Interesting experiment! .. You're really talking about the extra effort in the hilling work. I placed my taters on top of fertile soil .. added about 5 gal bucket of compost .. and a liberal amount of potash .. then topped it off with a very liberal helping of shredded leaves. I had no sun exposure. Off of 4 - 3 ft diameter raised beds .. I harvested 2 - 5 gal. buckets of taters. These were white taters .. my red taters didn't do very well at all .. not sure why.
I hill my potatoes 2 or 3 times each season. If I don't some of the potatoes break through the surface and get exposed to the sun (getting scalded or turning green). I get a better & larger yeild too.
Good video. Good experiment. I am one of the guys that don't hill. I plant mine 8" deep using a post hole digger. I normally get 10-12 pounds per pound of seed potatoes. Last year I hilled half and got the same numbers. I believe hilling does have its benefits but for now I'll stick with my method.
I would think the low-producing hills (3 and 6) in the non-hilled data should be considered outliers as well and if you remove them the non-hilled average is 1.73 lb so a difference of only .19 lb (3 oz) per hill. My limited experience with hilling is that 90% of the water you put on 'em ends up running off into the walkways between the hills. I've grown spuds two years now, in 2022 I didn't hill them and I averaged 3.3 lb per hill, in 2023 I thought "boy I'm really gonna do this right" so I hilled them and I ended up with only 1.1 lb per hill. I'm pretty sure that was due to the watering difficulties as I'm hauling water until I can get a well going. I also did 66 hills vs 10 hills the year prior and I just couldn't keep enough water on 'em. This year I planted my spuds 8" deep in the trenches between last year's hills! It took forever for them to come up but that worked out to my advantage because my last frost was over a month later than usual this year (June 17th!). We'll see how it all plays out in Sept but I'm finding them a lot easier to keep wet so far.
Good job with the test! In regards to determinant vs indeterminate... I'm an old dinosaur that has been garden for decades. I've heard many stories about potatoes and have watched many videos. One guy did a test with many varieties of potatoes and concluded that potatoes are NOT like tomatoes. Essentially, what he found was that indeterminate are simply varieties that don't die back as fast. None grew potatoes from buried stems. Therefore, he labeled indeterminate potatoes, "fall potatoes" because they grew into the fall and the potatoes were larger because of more growing time. All plants eventually died back So... I took another route. I gathered potato seed pods from Reba potatoes and planted hundreds of potato plants from seeds. I wanted to see some diversity. I got diversity alright. Some plants died back normally. These were well inside the bell curve. That was expected. But it was the outliers that interested me. One group of plants behaved like this guy's "fall" (indeterminate) potatoes and grew into the fall. They eventually died back, but it was nearly frost time. One plant would not die back. It took a few frosts to stop it. When I dug it up, lo and behold, it had potatoes growing from the stem!😮 I kept all of those potatoes to replant this spring. They were planted about 10 inches deep in 2 inches of soil and have been back-filled twice so now the ground is level. They are strong growers and leaf color is darker. I only cut one potato to plant two pieces from it because I wanted to see the flesh color. It is light yellow. (The parent Reba potato is white) I have no idea of taste. Potato size isn't being considered because last year we got constant floods of rain with little sunlight. This year we are having droughts with intense sun and heat. I also kept the normal potatoes from this project separated from the "fall" potatoes to see what would happen. Presently, I see no difference between them, but I don't expect to yet. This year I planted Reba x Kennebec potato seeds I made myself. Huge difference in vigor from pure Reba seedlings. They are seriously outgrowing the Rebas. Only three seedlings in this group look average. It appears it is a soil position issue with those three because they are next to each other. That is generally a clue. And that leads me to another conversation. Outliers may have had unique soil conditions unknown to you. Seriously. I run into that all the time. I have seen soil issues two feet away from another plant. Sometimes the tiller misses a spot. Sometimes green manure piles in one spot and is absent in another. Sometimes we simply fertilize unevenly. Hence, why outliers, in both data sets, need to be excluded. I wish I could get close to 10x. That will never happen in my soil. I've tried everything. It is what it is in my environment. I don't have irrigation for dry years and I have heavy clay soil for wet years. Thus, I need to plant a lot of potatoes to get my numbers up. I tried dense planting and wide spaced planting. No difference. I've tried all sorts of fertilizer. No difference. One area of my property doesn't work at all for potatoes. Not enough sun, soil even more dense, and too wet. Thanks for doing the tests! It is an interesting video.
I think it would depend on soil types as well. In Kentucky, we have much less sand in our soil. I would wager that hilled potatoes for us would WAY outperform the non-hilled plants. I don’t think our potatoes would do very well in non-hilled, compacted soil. Great video and experiment. I really enjoyed it.
Great video!! Glad to see the results and they were much closer than I expected. I never got mine hilled this year with the wet weather in the spring and was busy with other things and was worried I might not have as big of a yield as last year(9x's) but my plants look great and i feel a little better after seeing your data.
Roll Tide from Bama! That said, though the one plant is a statistical outlier, it really should be kept in the data. On a typical six foot spacing I always have one plant that significantly out performs the other plants in that six foot space. So the non-hilled row, given same variables, should produce at least one super producer as well. That it didn’t is an indication that hill will grow more Taters. Don’t worry Trav, a Bama fan can say a Dawg is right when you are backed up by statistical analysis. RollTide!
Work verses reward: for me I don’t hill . I plant seed potatoes about two inches into the soil. I then cover with straw. As plants emerge I add more straw. I rarely even water. I have drip tape but rarely use it. I water my other parts of the garden and not my potatoes and never pull or hoe weeds. In harvest I just peel back straw. My numbers are very similar and depending on which variety exceeds these ratios. Then I don’t fertilize because my straw stays there all year and deteriorates back into the soil and keeps worm life thriving
Very good experiment! I applaud your scientific approach, even employing statistical analysis. Where I think you made a mistake is by equating determinate potatoes to Sarpo mira just because Sarpo's growth is cut short by the heat. From what I've learned, determinate, early potatoes grow on one level and so do not benefit from hilling, unlike indeterminates. It would be good to see this experiment done on Yukon Gold or Red Norland to see if they would have higher yields. The other shortcoming of this experiment is that you didn't consider mulching with sun-blockers like grass clippings or straw. These would accomplish many of the benefits of hilling with soil with the added benefit of adding organic matter to the soil over the long run. I do agree that soil hilling offers better support. I also agree that hilling would improve my Sarpo yield. I am not convinced that hilling with soil would be better than mulching with several inches of grass clippings and leaves for my Yukon Golds.
We actually did an experiment a couple years ago comparing hilling with soil vs hilling with straw. Hilling with soil won by a landslide. Think about it ... what's the nutrient content of soil versus straw. Soil has a lot more to give the plants than straw does.
@@LazyDogFarm I decided to try a hilling experiment on my 2nd planting of Superiors. They are already 46 days since planting, 37 days since emergence. Half hilled (mulch cleared away) and half left with mulch. Do you think this is too late?
I never got around to hilling mine but its been a perfect year for them, mostly 62-65 degrees and 1” of rain per week. My first time doing potatoes. Think I nailed plant nutrition, 1” of manure on beds, good calcium, tiny bit boron and lots of potassium.
Interesting experiment! Good information and a good study. Great content! I am glad you are wearing long sleeves and a big hat for sun protection - these will help with the number of times you visit the dermatologist in the future!! Take care and be safe...
First, that was a pretty low blow to the people from Alabama, but i know you guys fight because of football. Second, thanks for video. I will continue to hill mine also.
i always plant mine little deeper bout 6". then sometimes i hill if i have extra compost to hill sometimes i dont hill lol. sometimes i get better results with hill and sometimes w/o hilled. conclusion= its all good. i would love to see same exact experiment with same variety next year and see if results still the same.
We kind of don't hill. Dig the hole bed about10-12"s deep, mix in some fresh compost and fertilizer, then rake it out flat. Whole bed nice and fluffy. Each bed is 3x5'. I then hoe out 2 trenches 5' long, about 6"s deep, and 4 holes in the bottom of the trenches another 2-3"s deeper. Set the potatoes in the holes and cover with 2-3"s. Let them grow about 3"s, cover them again, grow again, finish covering to level surface. Kind of a reverse hilling. When all the plants are up about 4"s I bury the whole bed with 4-6"s of chopped straw. Next comes the caging. 3 t-posts down each side to support a 3x5' piece of field fencing, 2x4" grid down over the t-posts in the corners supported 18"s above ground level for the plants to grow up through. So now all that's left to do is trim all the bottom leaves off, for air flow between the straw and the plants. So, now the plants are completely shading the ground out, straw acts a layer of hilling, and retains moisture in the soil, no contact of leaves with the soil. Air flow and room to water the soil not down through the plants. This was last year. 1lb of seed = 45+lb harvest from 1 3x5 bed and 2, 10gal bucket. Sarpo Mira's. This year we have 3 beds on the go. Next year we're going to give Purple Vikings also. To get an idea what the support fencing looks like do a you tube search for simplify gardening potato supports. Sorry to be so wordy.
There are distinct determinate varieties, example Red Nordland, Yukon Gold, etc. There are also distinct indeterminate varieties, examples Alba, German Butterball. The different between determinate and indeterminate is the same for potatoes as tomatoes. Determinate varieties grow stolon (lateral grow with tuber on terminal end) to a fixed length along the main stem. So hilling does little toward stolon growth. Indeterminate varieties however will produce stolon along the stem consistent with the level of hilling and will produce more stolon resulting in more tubers. If you harvest indeterminate potatoes all at once you will find larger tubers closer to the seed potato and varying diameters of tuber as you ascend upwards. If you harvest in phases, you will benefit with a larger crop. The rotten potatoes are the seed potatoes... To my eye you had more plants on the hilled portion than the non-hilled. Accounting for addl 2lbs for the extra plant, the non-hilled performed equally as well and didn't require the extra hilling effort. It also makes a difference in the variety you planted - determinant or non-determinate. I plant two Yukon Gold in a 15 gal grow bag - 8inch ProMixworm castings in bottom, covering plant growth 3X with extra grow medium (I use ProMix with worm castings and fertilize Jack's 10-30--20 water soluble fertilizer (weak solution with each watering-fertigation) through out entire plant life. I just harvested 12 bags Yukon Gold - 25 potatoes (one extra in a bag). 100 days - here in we had a very cold March with 2X hard freeze and most of the plants died back to soil level. Then our May was awful rain 15.7" for the month. So you could say my potatoes were challenged. Total weight harvested 49# (I didn't weigh per bag) averaging 4.1# per bag or 2.05# per seed potato. I quit soil planting potatoes because of the insect and mouse/vole damage.
Can't wait to see how my Sarpo Mira do in large pots. I only could afford one pound of seed taters and so I wanted to protect them from bugs, slugs and rodents by growing in lg pots. Really hope I get allot of med to small potatoes so I can over winter them in the cellar and re-plant in ground next spring.
Thought that was a very good scientific study Travis. I can tell you went to school. Makes no difference to us up here in the pine mountain area because our soil gets so hard baked. We don’t get many potatoes in the inground garden. But thanks for the video like it very much, feel free to comment back.
OMG you're right, we grow in containers in Milledgeville, too many deer.. I've always planted the indeterminate differently than the determinate and always got the same results from both? I Wondered why I was planting some on the bottom, and some layered if it never matters in the end.. so they are climate specific? that makes total sense.. kinda like Breba's in the north, our same varieties have breba's but in Georgia, the breba's just don't hold.. that was fascinating..
Well at 75 I am not an enthusiastic hiller when it starts getting hot. I do a lot of container taters and start with taking the top 6 inches of soil off and then digging a 2 inch trench and planting and when they get about 6 inches tall, I put the soil back and that is it. I beat the heat. I am pretty happy with yields and I use your coop grow.😁
TRAV!!!!❤ Thank you. 😊 As usual another great video. Useful information I will be applying next potato planting season. (couple months). Appreciate the info. 🥕🧅🫑🌶🥔🥔🥒🥔🥬🫛🫘🥔🥕🧅🥔
To make the test conclusive, next year you would need to do it again, except having the non-hilled taters at the beginning of the row closest to your drip mainline as those plants are first to access water and last to not access water. If the results are similar than it should be conclusive, otherwise I would assume that more access to water over 4 months would explain the 1/2 pound difference.
Didn't use drip on these. And we positioned the overhead sprinkler in the center of the row, facing the row -- so water should have been the same for both sides of the row.
I'd like to see the data without the green potatoes added on both sides. I think it would be more statistically significant when you only add edible potatoes on both sides of the equation. With that being said, you've just proven to me that hilling is actually quite essential for ease of harvesting, yields and keeping potatoes from becoming toxic. Thanks!
At 8000 feet above sea level in the Colorado Rockies, my tater plants just broke above ground a couple of weeks ago. I have deep nutrient rich soil here but I will still be hilling them this year, first time. Hopefully the pocket gophers will not steal most of them again this year like they did last year. Thanks for the great tater show, LDF!
What you got against folks in Alabama? I've always hilled my taters and will continue, except for my winter experiment and I just covered them with a couple inches of soil and piled pine straw over the bed. We had three potato harvest in a three month period.
That football team over there in Alabama has caused me a lot of heartache over the years. So I have to poke fun when I can. Love all our Alabama viewers though!
We actually did that a couple years ago. The video is somewhere on our channel. The straw hilling significantly underperformed the soil hilling. That makes sense though. Think about it ... What has more nutrients in it? Soil or straw? Soil feeds plants much better than straw.
What about growing potatoes in a 55 gallon drum? Have you ever done that? Do you have a video about it? This is my first time to see you because you popped up on my phone so I watched you😊
When I hill sometimes mice seem to like to make nests in them. one time as I was digging out the potatoes I evicted about 12 mice which ran away,but was kinda creepy.The mice didn't eat the potatoes but isn't clean. Hilling the potatoes does work,you'll get more potatoes and usually no green ones.
Great video, I live in mid Michigan and dig a trench about 8 to 9 inchees deep add a little peat moss to the bottom and scratch it in with the dirt in the bottom, put in my whole or cut potatoes then a few handfulls of alfalpha pellets for nitrogen a little dirt then water them in real good then fill the trench with the dirt and water again, no scabs and a good amount of potatoes and never need to hill. That's me but I know there's many ways of doing it.
Trenches had much lower production than hilled. I digvthem with a mini excavator. Couldn't imagine hand digging only to find such poor results. Red sandy loam soil here.
For the last 3 years, I haven't hilled, just covered with a 12" thick mulch, normally grass hay. And I've had decent results, this year I didn't mulch, but I hilled, so that I could side dress them with fertilizer.... literally the day after hilling, the gophers invaded, ate most all... I think I have 2 plants of sarpo mira that have survived.
First Rate Travis! I think you did a good job on this compare test. To me, I think the small amount of time it takes to hill a 15 foot row with a hoe, twice, must be pretty small. Don't know exactly how long that took each time. You were obviously hand pulling weeds in the later life of each test sample. I vote with you Travis. I think I would hill mine. Good job. Chuck in Jensen Beach FL. Zone 10b.
Zone 6a. I plant 20 50-foot rows of potatoes for market each year, 10 red, 10 white. I hill, for 2 reasons. You might as well hill as you weed. And the second is for sun protection when the plants die back. Any rot or green on a potato is lost profit. Here's some notes. If a frost is coming, hill completely over, no green showing. Don't worry about brushing the dirt away, the plant will pop right through on the next warm day. Second note, it you have any grub damage on your potatoes, especially if you leave them in the ground and need to dig them for each market Saturday, leave the moles (grub eaters) alone. Trap them in your other garden spots, but they are your friend in your potato patch. Third note is if you want potatoes all summer, they need shade or the sun will cook them. When the potatoes bloom, i quit weeding. The weeds look like a corn patch in a month, but your potatoes stay nice and cool down in the dirt. I zero turn 10ft or so on a row, dig and go as needed. Then before a hard freeze i dig 4, 5 gallon buckets of potatoes for seed next spring.
I have been subscribed to your channel for a long time but when this video came up on my feed... I clicked on it and it showed me as 'unsubscribed'. Just thought you should know. Love your channel!
As an Alabamian, I'd argue that it is easier to take the dividend of the sum minus the quadrant of six plants in the surplus volume to get the magnetic control you're looking for. Simple stuff really.
Probably not enough difference. I'm in southwest Missouri so to be most efficient need to conduct my own experiment next year!!! But I will most likely forget!
In SW Missouri maybe consider growing in mulch. I've hilled potatoes in Mountain Grove and it was a symphony of tink, tink, tink hilling the taters up with rocks. Lol.
What if you calculate/Factor in labor as well? Which would be valid in your final assessment. How much effort and time does it take to HILL versus the work you have to do for Non-Hilled? The NON-hilled would be your obvious winner - ROLL TIDE!
I use less labor hilling since digging unhilled potatoes is awful. And hilling is stand up work. I quite literally just pull my plants up with 4-5 taters attached then squirrel around with a shovel but no actual digging needed.
So you're gonna hill 'em to get 6-8" or dig a trench for deep 6-8". All depends on your climate, soil & what's easier. (Less Water imo so they don't rot on ya.) *They've grown in super-droughts & no watering whatsoever: 🎬Faith Like Potatoes (2006) true story. -- 💌 🍒 PS: just saw this-> now I feel stupid ua-cam.com/users/shortsTtwwmmEfOmA?si=M_EwQxirWEV-lRFo
Now wait a minute Travis, I think you might have tried to slant the odds by putting the "hilled" tater's in the legendary Dawg's bucket. (Just kidding!!!!) And remember what that great American Philosopher Mark Twain said..... There are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics!
We use a 3" auger to drill a 8 to 9 inch hole to plant or taters. We don't hill but once the plants are 6" high We lay a layer of straw to keep exposed tater covered.
After 150 years of family
data of growing taters, that said to hill taters . That's what I DO .
GOOD LUCK
I had a great tater year so far in Southeast TN. I planted an entire 10lb bag of white taters I had purchased from Aldi cause every last one sprouted in bag before i even opened them! So i just buried them in front yard raised bed fertilized with rabbit and quail stuff and i pulled them a little early cause i got tired of watering . Ended up with around 80 pounds ! Im so blessed🙂 I also used grass clippings to mulch after plants were 8in high and hilled second time it worked great.🎉
I'll bet the house that the very ones claiming that hilling isn't needed, probably haven't every gardened, or grown much of anything, much less potatoes. Is hilling absolutely a must....no, but it's better for several different reasons. First off, it gives the plants more room to grow it's potatoes in the first place. It also, like he said, protects the potatoes from getting direct sunlight and turning green. It also insulates the potatoes and roots to keep everything cooler, and keeps the soil from drying out,and helps prevent rotting.
We understand here in Alabama.
Grow my Yukon Gold in 10 gallon containers. Add soil twice during the growing season. In ground is not an option due to voles. Numbers are good but I need a formula for fertilizer, like how much to add per container.
@@richardroadcap7957 Me too
Great experiment! I don’t hill only because planting my potatoes deep and not hilling yields more testers than we eat. I donate a lot to the local food bank
Half a pound difference per plant is definitely significant.. I plant 6 - 50' rows every year.. So that 1/2lb adds up to roughly 175 lbs of potatoes for me.. I'm glad to see the extra work really does pay off.. Great test man..
Work verses reward: for me
I don’t hill . I plant seed potatoes about two inches into the soil. I then cover with straw. As plants emerge I add more straw. I rarely even water. I have drip tape but rarely use it. I water my other parts of the garden and not my potatoes and never pull or hoe weeds. In harvest I just peel back straw. My numbers are very similar and depending on which variety exceeds these ratios. Then I don’t fertilize because my straw stays there all year and deteriorates back into the soil and keeps worm life thriving
And that extra production you state is worth it for you. That’s a personal or we could say subjective decision. You didn’t tell us how much extra time and effort you spend for that extra weight that extra time could be used to increase production and another part of your garden or time with your family.
It really doesn’t matter if it’s one minute or one month of extra time, you’ve decided that for you it’s worth it . It may not be for others.
Ha. I was literally thinking through the best way to eliminate the outliers and determine statistical significance when you started talking about it. P.S. Roll Tide! Haha. Good vid, dude.
i pretty much hill everything i plant except maybe squash i just think the more support that stalk gets the healthier the plant.
Interesting experiment! .. You're really talking about the extra effort in the hilling work. I placed my taters on top of fertile soil .. added about 5 gal bucket of compost .. and a liberal amount of potash .. then topped it off with a very liberal helping of shredded leaves. I had no sun exposure. Off of 4 - 3 ft diameter raised beds .. I harvested 2 - 5 gal. buckets of taters. These were white taters .. my red taters didn't do very well at all .. not sure why.
I hill my potatoes 2 or 3 times each season. If I don't some of the potatoes break through the surface and get exposed to the sun (getting scalded or turning green). I get a better & larger yeild too.
Trying to figure out when to harvest mine. Forgot when I planted mine. Leaves are still alive. Container grown.
🌺👍good job! Thank you.
Great experiment! I am glad you shared this info. I have tried it both ways, but never weighed & compared the numbers.
Awesome test Travis. Enjoyed the journey.
This was awesome!
I appreciate you putting this together, thank you
Good video. Good experiment. I am one of the guys that don't hill. I plant mine 8" deep using a post hole digger. I normally get 10-12 pounds per pound of seed potatoes. Last year I hilled half and got the same numbers. I believe hilling does have its benefits but for now I'll stick with my method.
I would think the low-producing hills (3 and 6) in the non-hilled data should be considered outliers as well and if you remove them the non-hilled average is 1.73 lb so a difference of only .19 lb (3 oz) per hill. My limited experience with hilling is that 90% of the water you put on 'em ends up running off into the walkways between the hills. I've grown spuds two years now, in 2022 I didn't hill them and I averaged 3.3 lb per hill, in 2023 I thought "boy I'm really gonna do this right" so I hilled them and I ended up with only 1.1 lb per hill. I'm pretty sure that was due to the watering difficulties as I'm hauling water until I can get a well going. I also did 66 hills vs 10 hills the year prior and I just couldn't keep enough water on 'em. This year I planted my spuds 8" deep in the trenches between last year's hills! It took forever for them to come up but that worked out to my advantage because my last frost was over a month later than usual this year (June 17th!). We'll see how it all plays out in Sept but I'm finding them a lot easier to keep wet so far.
Thanks - awesome as always. Love the geeky math!
I think it’s a good ideal Travis if nothing else keeps you from having green potatoes
Thank you for taking the time & effort to do this experimental project!
Good job with the test!
In regards to determinant vs indeterminate...
I'm an old dinosaur that has been garden for decades. I've heard many stories about potatoes and have watched many videos. One guy did a test with many varieties of potatoes and concluded that potatoes are NOT like tomatoes.
Essentially, what he found was that indeterminate are simply varieties that don't die back as fast. None grew potatoes from buried stems. Therefore, he labeled indeterminate potatoes, "fall potatoes" because they grew into the fall and the potatoes were larger because of more growing time. All plants eventually died back
So... I took another route. I gathered potato seed pods from Reba potatoes and planted hundreds of potato plants from seeds. I wanted to see some diversity. I got diversity alright.
Some plants died back normally. These were well inside the bell curve. That was expected. But it was the outliers that interested me. One group of plants behaved like this guy's "fall" (indeterminate) potatoes and grew into the fall. They eventually died back, but it was nearly frost time.
One plant would not die back. It took a few frosts to stop it. When I dug it up, lo and behold, it had potatoes growing from the stem!😮 I kept all of those potatoes to replant this spring. They were planted about 10 inches deep in 2 inches of soil and have been back-filled twice so now the ground is level. They are strong growers and leaf color is darker. I only cut one potato to plant two pieces from it because I wanted to see the flesh color. It is light yellow. (The parent Reba potato is white) I have no idea of taste. Potato size isn't being considered because last year we got constant floods of rain with little sunlight. This year we are having droughts with intense sun and heat.
I also kept the normal potatoes from this project separated from the "fall" potatoes to see what would happen. Presently, I see no difference between them, but I don't expect to yet.
This year I planted Reba x Kennebec potato seeds I made myself. Huge difference in vigor from pure Reba seedlings. They are seriously outgrowing the Rebas. Only three seedlings in this group look average. It appears it is a soil position issue with those three because they are next to each other. That is generally a clue.
And that leads me to another conversation. Outliers may have had unique soil conditions unknown to you. Seriously. I run into that all the time. I have seen soil issues two feet away from another plant. Sometimes the tiller misses a spot. Sometimes green manure piles in one spot and is absent in another. Sometimes we simply fertilize unevenly. Hence, why outliers, in both data sets, need to be excluded.
I wish I could get close to 10x. That will never happen in my soil. I've tried everything. It is what it is in my environment. I don't have irrigation for dry years and I have heavy clay soil for wet years. Thus, I need to plant a lot of potatoes to get my numbers up. I tried dense planting and wide spaced planting. No difference. I've tried all sorts of fertilizer. No difference. One area of my property doesn't work at all for potatoes. Not enough sun, soil even more dense, and too wet.
Thanks for doing the tests! It is an interesting video.
I think it would depend on soil types as well. In Kentucky, we have much less sand in our soil. I would wager that hilled potatoes for us would WAY outperform the non-hilled plants. I don’t think our potatoes would do very well in non-hilled, compacted soil.
Great video and experiment. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you!! New potato grower here. 2nd year. Learning
Great video!! Glad to see the results and they were much closer than I expected. I never got mine hilled this year with the wet weather in the spring and was busy with other things and was worried I might not have as big of a yield as last year(9x's) but my plants look great and i feel a little better after seeing your data.
Always my favorite gardening channel! 'bout to harvest mine from my grow bags!
Good job. I still have a few bags with Sarpo Mira that won't die.
Enjoyed the experiment but I mostly loved hearing th Bob White call in the background!
Roll Tide from Bama!
That said, though the one plant is a statistical outlier, it really should be kept in the data. On a typical six foot spacing I always have one plant that significantly out performs the other plants in that six foot space. So the non-hilled row, given same variables, should produce at least one super producer as well. That it didn’t is an indication that hill will grow more Taters.
Don’t worry Trav, a Bama fan can say a Dawg is right when you are backed up by statistical analysis.
RollTide!
Interesting, thanks
I say it was a great harvest either way.
Was significant IMO.
Work verses reward: for me
I don’t hill . I plant seed potatoes about two inches into the soil. I then cover with straw. As plants emerge I add more straw. I rarely even water. I have drip tape but rarely use it. I water my other parts of the garden and not my potatoes and never pull or hoe weeds. In harvest I just peel back straw. My numbers are very similar and depending on which variety exceeds these ratios. Then I don’t fertilize because my straw stays there all year and deteriorates back into the soil and keeps worm life thriving
Very good experiment! I applaud your scientific approach, even employing statistical analysis. Where I think you made a mistake is by equating determinate potatoes to Sarpo mira just because Sarpo's growth is cut short by the heat. From what I've learned, determinate, early potatoes grow on one level and so do not benefit from hilling, unlike indeterminates. It would be good to see this experiment done on Yukon Gold or Red Norland to see if they would have higher yields. The other shortcoming of this experiment is that you didn't consider mulching with sun-blockers like grass clippings or straw. These would accomplish many of the benefits of hilling with soil with the added benefit of adding organic matter to the soil over the long run. I do agree that soil hilling offers better support. I also agree that hilling would improve my Sarpo yield. I am not convinced that hilling with soil would be better than mulching with several inches of grass clippings and leaves for my Yukon Golds.
We actually did an experiment a couple years ago comparing hilling with soil vs hilling with straw. Hilling with soil won by a landslide. Think about it ... what's the nutrient content of soil versus straw. Soil has a lot more to give the plants than straw does.
@@LazyDogFarm Thank you for the response. I will look for the video.
@@LazyDogFarm I decided to try a hilling experiment on my 2nd planting of Superiors. They are already 46 days since planting, 37 days since emergence. Half hilled (mulch cleared away) and half left with mulch. Do you think this is too late?
@@brusharp Probably not. Still worth seeing it to the end.
Great information on this video. I'm subscribed but this is the firs video of youts that has popped up in a few months.
I never got around to hilling mine but its been a perfect year for them, mostly 62-65 degrees and 1” of rain per week.
My first time doing potatoes.
Think I nailed plant nutrition, 1” of manure on beds, good calcium, tiny bit boron and lots of potassium.
Interesting experiment! Good information and a good study. Great content! I am glad you are wearing long sleeves and a big hat for sun protection - these will help with the number of times you visit the dermatologist in the future!! Take care and be safe...
I mulch mine with wheat straw, its a foot of straw but I call it pre compost,it hits the compost after season,straw gets super hot in the bin..
to determine or not too...
Bout to weigh my Adirondack blue harvest. It's looking like a good yield
Well done Travis. It was a good experiment. I grow in root pouches so no hilling but very easy harvesting.
First, that was a pretty low blow to the people from Alabama, but i know you guys fight because of football. Second, thanks for video. I will continue to hill mine also.
i always plant mine little deeper bout 6". then sometimes i hill if i have extra compost to hill sometimes i dont hill lol. sometimes i get better results with hill and sometimes w/o hilled. conclusion= its all good. i would love to see same exact experiment with same variety next year and see if results still the same.
Always been a hiller, reckon I’ll keep a hillin my taders. Thanks Trav. Hugs to the babies. God bless ~Lisa
Oh shots fired at Bamma! #deviationsarehard
How green is too green? Just a small area or ...?
I don't eat them with any green. Better safe than sorry.
Great statistics! I'm impressed by calculating standard deviations!
We kind of don't hill. Dig the hole bed about10-12"s deep, mix in some fresh compost
and fertilizer, then rake it out flat. Whole bed nice and fluffy. Each bed is 3x5'. I then hoe
out 2 trenches 5' long, about 6"s deep, and 4 holes in the bottom of the trenches another
2-3"s deeper. Set the potatoes in the holes and cover with 2-3"s. Let them grow about 3"s,
cover them again, grow again, finish covering to level surface. Kind of a reverse hilling.
When all the plants are up about 4"s I bury the whole bed with 4-6"s of chopped straw.
Next comes the caging. 3 t-posts down each side to support a 3x5' piece of field fencing,
2x4" grid down over the t-posts in the corners supported 18"s above ground level for
the plants to grow up through. So now all that's left to do is trim all the bottom leaves
off, for air flow between the straw and the plants.
So, now the plants are completely shading the ground out, straw acts a layer of hilling,
and retains moisture in the soil, no contact of leaves with the soil. Air flow and room to
water the soil not down through the plants. This was last year. 1lb of seed = 45+lb harvest
from 1 3x5 bed and 2, 10gal bucket. Sarpo Mira's.
This year we have 3 beds on the go. Next year we're going to give Purple Vikings also.
To get an idea what the support fencing looks like do a you tube search for
simplify gardening potato supports. Sorry to be so wordy.
I love the standard deviation calc
There are distinct determinate varieties, example Red Nordland, Yukon Gold, etc. There are also distinct indeterminate varieties, examples Alba, German Butterball. The different between determinate and indeterminate is the same for potatoes as tomatoes. Determinate varieties grow stolon (lateral grow with tuber on terminal end) to a fixed length along the main stem. So hilling does little toward stolon growth. Indeterminate varieties however will produce stolon along the stem consistent with the level of hilling and will produce more stolon resulting in more tubers. If you harvest indeterminate potatoes all at once you will find larger tubers closer to the seed potato and varying diameters of tuber as you ascend upwards. If you harvest in phases, you will benefit with a larger crop. The rotten potatoes are the seed potatoes... To my eye you had more plants on the hilled portion than the non-hilled. Accounting for addl 2lbs for the extra plant, the non-hilled performed equally as well and didn't require the extra hilling effort. It also makes a difference in the variety you planted - determinant or non-determinate. I plant two Yukon Gold in a 15 gal grow bag - 8inch ProMixworm castings in bottom, covering plant growth 3X with extra grow medium (I use ProMix with worm castings and fertilize Jack's 10-30--20 water soluble fertilizer (weak solution with each watering-fertigation) through out entire plant life. I just harvested 12 bags Yukon Gold - 25 potatoes (one extra in a bag). 100 days - here in we had a very cold March with 2X hard freeze and most of the plants died back to soil level. Then our May was awful rain 15.7" for the month. So you could say my potatoes were challenged. Total weight harvested 49# (I didn't weigh per bag) averaging 4.1# per bag or 2.05# per seed potato. I quit soil planting potatoes because of the insect and mouse/vole damage.
Hi Trav, I wonder how many of the non-hilled turned green from exposure since those would not be edible. Thanks for the video!
Can't wait to see how my Sarpo Mira do in large pots.
I only could afford one pound of seed taters and so I wanted to protect them from bugs, slugs and rodents by growing in lg pots.
Really hope I get allot of med to small potatoes so I can over winter them in the cellar and re-plant in ground next spring.
Thought that was a very good scientific study Travis. I can tell you went to school. Makes no difference to us up here in the pine mountain area because our soil gets so hard baked. We don’t get many potatoes in the inground garden. But thanks for the video like it very much, feel free to comment back.
OMG you're right, we grow in containers in Milledgeville, too many deer.. I've always planted the indeterminate differently than the determinate and always got the same results from both? I Wondered why I was planting some on the bottom, and some layered if it never matters in the end.. so they are climate specific? that makes total sense.. kinda like Breba's in the north, our same varieties have breba's but in Georgia, the breba's just don't hold.. that was fascinating..
Well done!
Thanks for doing the experiment and the content. It was very helpful. I'll take .5 lbs of sweat equity all day
Yes it is worth it!
Well at 75 I am not an enthusiastic hiller when it starts getting hot. I do a lot of container taters and start with taking the top 6 inches of soil off and then digging a 2 inch trench and planting and when they get about 6 inches tall, I put the soil back and that is it. I beat the heat. I am pretty happy with yields and I use your coop grow.😁
TRAV!!!!❤ Thank you. 😊
As usual another great video.
Useful information I will be applying next potato planting season. (couple months).
Appreciate the info. 🥕🧅🫑🌶🥔🥔🥒🥔🥬🫛🫘🥔🥕🧅🥔
In this new bed, I'm having to buy and add garden soil anyway, so will continue hilling this year. Good to know for future, tho, for sure!
Confused so do you harvest by days or or plant go from green to brown?
Both. The plants usually die back around the listed maturity date, but it's good to remember when you planted.
@@LazyDogFarmthank you
Sounds like it's worth it!
Travis I can hear that bobwhite. That is music to my ears. You are very lucky there are none close to me here there are too many people.
How many pounds of green taters hilled vs unhilled?
Beautiful potato harvest! Happy hilling!
Shots fired! Crimson Tide faithful gonna come at you now Trav!
I hope you saved #12 potatoes for seeds for next season.
To make the test conclusive, next year you would need to do it again, except having the non-hilled taters at the beginning of the row closest to your drip mainline as those plants are first to access water and last to not access water. If the results are similar than it should be conclusive, otherwise I would assume that more access to water over 4 months would explain the 1/2 pound difference.
Didn't use drip on these. And we positioned the overhead sprinkler in the center of the row, facing the row -- so water should have been the same for both sides of the row.
I'd like to see the data without the green potatoes added on both sides. I think it would be more statistically significant when you only add edible potatoes on both sides of the equation. With that being said, you've just proven to me that hilling is actually quite essential for ease of harvesting, yields and keeping potatoes from becoming toxic. Thanks!
At 8000 feet above sea level in the Colorado Rockies, my tater plants just broke above ground a couple of weeks ago. I have deep nutrient rich soil here but I will still be hilling them this year, first time. Hopefully the pocket gophers will not steal most of them again this year like they did last year. Thanks for the great tater show, LDF!
Containers can stop them
What you got against folks in Alabama?
I've always hilled my taters and will continue, except for my winter experiment and I just covered them with a couple inches of soil and piled pine straw over the bed. We had three potato harvest in a three month period.
That football team over there in Alabama has caused me a lot of heartache over the years. So I have to poke fun when I can. Love all our Alabama viewers though!
You need to do another experiment and use a heavy straw or hay mulch instead of hilling.
We actually did that a couple years ago. The video is somewhere on our channel. The straw hilling significantly underperformed the soil hilling. That makes sense though. Think about it ... What has more nutrients in it? Soil or straw? Soil feeds plants much better than straw.
What about growing potatoes in a 55 gallon drum? Have you ever done that? Do you have a video about it? This is my first time to see you because you popped up on my phone so I watched you😊
He definitely has videos of his raised bed potatoes which would be similar to a half drum.
Yep my kids talked me into top mulching instead of dirt.
The potatoes sitting on top after i mentioned that they might consider mulching again 😢
When I hill sometimes mice seem to like to make nests in them. one time as I was digging out the potatoes I evicted about 12 mice which ran away,but was kinda creepy.The mice didn't eat the potatoes but isn't clean. Hilling the potatoes does work,you'll get more potatoes and usually no green ones.
I think it’s best to hill taters. That’s what I’ll be doing. Great experiment.
I always hill my potatoes... Yes its worth it! Good experiment!
Great video, I live in mid Michigan and dig a trench about 8 to 9 inchees deep add a little peat moss to the bottom and scratch it in with the dirt in the bottom, put in my whole or cut potatoes then a few handfulls of alfalpha pellets for nitrogen a little dirt then water them in real good then fill the trench with the dirt and water again, no scabs and a good amount of potatoes and never need to hill. That's me but I know there's many ways of doing it.
Trenches had much lower production than hilled. I digvthem with a mini excavator. Couldn't imagine hand digging only to find such poor results. Red sandy loam soil here.
@@texasfrontiersman8245 I have real good soil here , can dig an 8 inch trench by 40 feet long in about 12 minutes.
For the last 3 years, I haven't hilled, just covered with a 12" thick mulch, normally grass hay. And I've had decent results, this year I didn't mulch, but I hilled, so that I could side dress them with fertilizer.... literally the day after hilling, the gophers invaded, ate most all... I think I have 2 plants of sarpo mira that have survived.
Finally!!!!!
First Rate Travis! I think you did a good job on this compare test. To me, I think the small amount of time it takes to hill a 15 foot row with a hoe, twice, must be pretty small. Don't know exactly how long that took each time.
You were obviously hand pulling weeds in the later life of each test sample.
I vote with you Travis. I think I would hill mine. Good job.
Chuck in Jensen Beach FL. Zone 10b.
Zone 6a. I plant 20 50-foot rows of potatoes for market each year, 10 red, 10 white. I hill, for 2 reasons. You might as well hill as you weed. And the second is for sun protection when the plants die back. Any rot or green on a potato is lost profit. Here's some notes. If a frost is coming, hill completely over, no green showing. Don't worry about brushing the dirt away, the plant will pop right through on the next warm day. Second note, it you have any grub damage on your potatoes, especially if you leave them in the ground and need to dig them for each market Saturday, leave the moles (grub eaters) alone. Trap them in your other garden spots, but they are your friend in your potato patch. Third note is if you want potatoes all summer, they need shade or the sun will cook them. When the potatoes bloom, i quit weeding. The weeds look like a corn patch in a month, but your potatoes stay nice and cool down in the dirt. I zero turn 10ft or so on a row, dig and go as needed. Then before a hard freeze i dig 4, 5 gallon buckets of potatoes for seed next spring.
I always hill my taters but I never get that ten times the amount. I don’t even get as much as I planted. I’m going to try again later this year.
Have you tried fertilizer?
@@miltkarr5109 of course!
I have been subscribed to your channel for a long time but when this video came up on my feed... I clicked on it and it showed me as 'unsubscribed'. Just thought you should know. Love your channel!
Welcome back!
As an Alabamian, I'd argue that it is easier to take the dividend of the sum minus the quadrant of six plants in the surplus volume to get the magnetic control you're looking for. Simple stuff really.
touche
@@LazyDogFarm 😆
Probably not enough difference. I'm in southwest Missouri so to be most efficient need to conduct my own experiment next year!!! But I will most likely forget!
In SW Missouri maybe consider growing in mulch. I've hilled potatoes in Mountain Grove and it was a symphony of tink, tink, tink hilling the taters up with rocks. Lol.
Whew. Not a fig commercial
Our fig tree business is what keeps this train running. I don't criticize what you do for a living, do I?
I’m going to be hilling ‘taters when I plant them! You had me at ‘Easier to dig up’ :)
What if you calculate/Factor in labor as well? Which would be valid in your final assessment. How much effort and time does it take to HILL versus the work you have to do for Non-Hilled? The NON-hilled would be your obvious winner - ROLL TIDE!
I use less labor hilling since digging unhilled potatoes is awful. And hilling is stand up work. I quite literally just pull my plants up with 4-5 taters attached then squirrel around with a shovel but no actual digging needed.
Only takes about 5 mins to hill a 30' row. Pretty insignificant IMO.
How many pounds of eatible taters, not green?
That Alabama comment. 😂 Go Dawgs!
Love that you did the standard deviation calculations. REALLY love that Alabama comment! 😂😂
You're funny. Roll Tide.
GO DAWGS!
Have you tried planting potatoes in garden fabric cloth? If not what are your thoughts on it?
Well Travis I'm gona keep heelin mine.
So you're gonna hill 'em to get 6-8" or dig a trench for deep 6-8". All depends on your climate, soil & what's easier. (Less Water imo so they don't rot on ya.) *They've grown in super-droughts & no watering whatsoever: 🎬Faith Like Potatoes (2006) true story. -- 💌 🍒
PS: just saw this-> now I feel stupid ua-cam.com/users/shortsTtwwmmEfOmA?si=M_EwQxirWEV-lRFo
Hilled taters takes the win the date shows it
agghhhh, MATH!!!! i hate math. lol
Math is like eyeglasses - you can't truly see the world without it. 😃
Now wait a minute Travis, I think you might have tried to slant the odds by putting the "hilled" tater's in the legendary Dawg's bucket. (Just kidding!!!!) And remember what that great American Philosopher Mark Twain said..... There are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics!