Garden Time, JINMAN ??????

[jinman]

Well, this will either be a success or a big waste of space and potatoes. A friend told me that he planted potatoes by putting them on the surface of the ground and then covering them with hay. He said a foot of hay was about right. Keep the hay wet until the potatoes emerge and then water about twice weekly until the hay compresses down to about 6" thick.

He said this had made great potatoes that were easy to harvest. We'll see. I'll either have a great success story or a funny anecdote.

The potatoes are spaced in a 10" to 12" matrix on a 10' x 20' plot (about 10# of potatoes). Oh yes...we did press the seed potatoes into the surface of the ground instead of just leaving them sitting on top.

 

[ronjhall]

Well, this will either be a success or a big waste of space and potatoes. A friend told me that he planted potatoes by putting them on the surface of the ground and then covering them with hay. He said a foot of hay was about right. Keep the hay wet until the potatoes emerge and then water about twice weekly until the hay compresses down to about 6" thick.

He said this had made great potatoes that were easy to harvest. We'll see. I'll either have a great success story or a funny anecdote.

The potatoes are spaced in a 10" to 12" matrix on a 10' x 20' plot (about 10# of potatoes). Oh yes...we did press the seed potatoes into the surface of the ground instead of just leaving them sitting on top.

Hay in my area spells weeds. Should you have used straw?

 

[Bird]

Jim, like Ron, I would expect a lot of weeds with hay. And my second question is, how will you keep our spring time winds from blowing the hay away?

 

[jinman]

Bird and Ron...
Yep! What you both said...but....

Where our hay lays around the round bale feeder, there are no weeds growing up through hay as little as 4" thick (rotted stuff). Also, it has never blown away, especially when it is wet. The round bales are not like cut and square baled hay. This hay I am using is old hay that already has started to rot. I'm actually more worried about mold and disease causing potato scab than I am about weeds or the hay blowing away. Frankly, I am considering buying another 5 lb of seed potatoes and planting them in traditional rows beside this "grand experiment" just for comparison.

 

[Bird]

Where our hay lays around the round bale feeder, there are no weeds growing up through hay as little as 4" thick (rotted stuff).

Maybe you won't have weeds then, and of course I haven't seen your feeders. However, I've never seen much of anything grow around a round bale feeder which I attributed to the animals keeping it tromped down. But when I first started my big garden down in the country, after I tilled it, we put a round bale of hay in it, let the cattle feed there, and fertilize the ground that winter. When that bale was gone, we put a second one a little ways from where the first one had been. And I'll never put hay in a garden again; thought I'd never get rid of the grass. But I did use oat straw for mulch around my pepper, tomato, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower plants. But sometimes the wind blew it away and I had to re-do it.

 

[jinman]

But when I first started my big garden down in the country, after I tilled it, we put a round bale of hay in it, let the cattle feed there, and fertilize the ground that winter. When that bale was gone, we put a second one a little ways from where the first one had been. And I'll never put hay in a garden again; thought I'd never get rid of the grass.

Hmm...reckon the seeds passing through your cows got a little help? I'm pretty sure I'll be cussin' myself for spreading a whole bunch of donkey manure in my garden this year.

Did I mention that I have no need to do this experiment at all. I have a tractor with a middle buster that's perfectly capable of digging potatoes. I was just fascinated by my friend's story of how he grew potatoes. You don't reckon he walked around a corner out of sight and busted up laughin' do you?

 

[RobJ]

Jim, like Ron, I would expect a lot of weeds with hay. And my second question is, how will you keep our spring time winds from blowing the hay away?

there there is the cost of the hay...nothng is free. I bury mine, cheap. They are about the only thing that grows in with the lack of rain the past couple years.

 

[Bird]

reckon the seeds passing through your cows got a little help?

I feel sure it did; just don't know how much was the cows and how much was the hay.

I expect your potato experiment will work; don't know whether it'll work as well or better than the old fashioned way or not.

Being a bit lazy, not liking to work with long handled tools, and not having a bedder, I planted my potatoes the lazy way. I tilled the ground, then laid out the seed potatoes on top of the ground, but then working at 90 degrees to the rows with the tractor I'd dump the FEL bucket forward, push dirt up onto the seed, then raise the bucket, move forward a bit, drop the bucket into the ground on the other side of the row and raise it as I backed up. In other words, my potatoes were planted in rows that were hilled up, but done with the tractor.

 

[rox]

Two-three years ago I planted 1200 pumpkins. I gathered about 150 one weekend for family and friends and was going to donate the rest to a youth group at church. That was when a hurricane came up through the Gulf and and flooded the NC mountains. The river washed about 3500 pumpkins down the river. When we went back to the field there was 1 pumpkin in the middle.

For weeks after that I would here people and emergency crews that were blocking off bridges where the water was over them talk about all these orange balls floating down the river . I would just say...yes they were my pumpkins and next year you should be able to find wild pumpkins growing all alone the Catawba river basin

Hunterridge, I knwo it is mean to laugh at people's misfortune, however I was belly laughing reading your post. I could jsut picture a river full of floating pumpkins. I hope because you posted it, you could see the humor in it as well. it is jsut such a visual story you told. Really made me laugh, hope that doesn't hurt your feelings...

 

[NOKONAJO]

Hi Jinman..I'm just a little north of you, in Montague county. I tried hay on my garden one year and killed the whole thing "dedder than a fried mule".
An expert told me it was from the weed killer that nearly every one uses on hay. He told me it was still present even after composting. I guess he was right because it was two or three years before I could raise anything on that spot. I tried your tater trick but I used wheat straw. I did ok with the taters . They were easy to harvest!!