After posting several days ago about starting my sweet potato slips it amazed me at the comments with different ways to plant potatoes. So I decided to investigate some of them. As for myself you can see in the picture above that I grow my Irish potatoes the traditional way by preparing my garden soil and then planting seed potatoes. These seed potatoes are cut into pieces and planted directly in the soil. As the plant emerges and grows soil is pulled up around the plant or hilled to provide dirt around the stem for the growing potatoes. You see what most people don't realize is that potatoes grow UP and not down. The plant blooms and then put on potatoes under the soil that has been pulled up around the stem. When the tops die down the potatoes are dug and consumed over the winter months. Usually reserving enough for seed the following year or purchasing new seed potatoes.
See in the picture above the large potato at the bottom? That is your seed potato. See the small potatoes growing along the stem? They are above the seed potato growing UP the stem. So as your potato plants get taller you pull soil around the stem for it to have plenty of loose soil to make potatoes in. I stop when the mound gets about 18 inches high.
I do not lay down any mulch between the rows until after then so that I am able to pull the soil up. After my mounds reach the height I want I then can put down a mulch sometimes of hay or grass. This is the traditional way of planting potatoes.
I am seeing people now that are growing potatoes in gro-bags and buckets. I think for someone with limited space and especially patio gardeners this is a really interesting idea.
Another growing method that i had heard of before was growing them in old car tires. Although a great recycling idea I was always concerned about chemical leaking from the tire onto my food.
Another method is growing them in straw. I have mulched mine with with straw or grass late in the growing season but have never grown my potatoes directly in straw. My problem with this method is that my garden is surrounded by hay pastures. So at times I fight a healthy population of voles. I also have a healthy population of hawks, owls and garter snakes which all eat the voles. Because of this I do not poison them but rather put netting over my chicken pens and let the hawks and owls feast on the voles. I do try to discourage the voles in my garden by limiting the deep straw mulch which they love to nest in. I think that if I grew my potatoes in deep straw that the voles would eat up my potatoes.
Another interesting way to grow potatoes is in towers which are made of wood or wire. Really this is the same concept as the grow bags just putting the soil in the bottom and the potato and then as the plant grows upward continuing to either fill with soil, compost or straw.
As for me right now I have plenty of land so I see no reason to conserve space by using buckets. Besides with the amount of potatoes that I grow the cost of buckets would not be feasible. I have to admit I find the hay method interesting and may experiment with it in the future.
I am interested to know how you grow your potatoes and the problems you may have encountered with any of these methods.
Blessings from The Holler
The Canned Quilter
I was just thinking yesterday how to make my potato planter. I like the Idea with the boards in the bottom picture. I think I will try that one. Thank you for posting!
ReplyDeleteI seem to be following Clint from blog to blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're going to be building potato bins from wood as well - in fact, we're building them this weekend. I originally decided on the tire idea but, like you, was a little concerned about chemicals or or water getting into the inside of the tire and harboring mosquitoes or other insects. This will be our first try at growing potatoes, so I hope you'll stop by my blog and follow our progress.
crankypuppy.blogspot.com
Sorry to post twice, but I just noticed that you're in Missouri and I'm wondering if you're close to us. We're in the Kansas City area. I'm always happy to meet a fellow Missourian!
ReplyDeleteAbout 2 hours North of Kansas City.. Hello neighbor!
DeleteLast year when I tried my first hand at gardening, I planted some potatoes in buckets and some in a raised bed. I got about 10 potatoes from a 5 gallon bucket. Not much, but I was ecstatic. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe ones in the raised bed didn't do much at all. I think I got 3 or 4 potatoes from 6 plants.
I blame the bag of manure that I bought from Lowe's. Well that and the topsoil that I mistakenly thought would be good for growing stuff in.
I thought potatoes were heavy feeders, so I put that on the bottom of the raised bed. Then the dirt, and then I planted the seed potatoes. They didn't grow much at all, but I still want to try again. :-)
is that your garden in the photos ? Beautiful !!!
ReplyDeleteThat was my 2011 garden. It was a really good year here. Plenty of rain and good weather. Hope this year is as good!
DeleteI have planted in both dirt and straw. For me the straw was the best!
ReplyDeleteI think your post answered about all my potato questions. :-) I have heard of growing them in straw, but I believe that plants need to grow in soil in order to be the most nutritious for us to consume.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful to have stumbled across your blog!
I usually use the bags and plant them in compost. As long as I keep them well watered and add fertile compost I have plenty of potatoes to eat on all season. My problem is getting good seed potatoes. I usually buy kennebec and some years they are better than others.
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm going to plant the back yard in potatoes. I get a fair amount of sun early but after May I get filtered sunlight. I'm hoping potatoes and cucumbers will grow there since not much else does well.
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