Potatoes

[Frankenkubota]

Not sure if it's true but years ago i heard about people piling tires on top of each other, each layer its own potatoe garden.

If memory serves, you harvest the top layer, take off the tire, then wait a bit, harvest the next layer.....

Being an Irishman you'd think i'd know but....Not sure why they did it? Prolong harvest?

 

[mwemaxxowner]

I do have a pitch fork.

All in all we have tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, cantaloupe, squash/zucchini, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, bell peppers, potatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce, and basil. My daughter grew some basil last year at her playhouse and will pick it straight off the plant as a snack . So the basil is hers.

It sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, but for the most part I only have a couple plants of each (except tomatoes). We see what does well and we'll narrow it down next year. Or not if all goes well!

 

[Egon]

Depending on the type of potato they should store into the next summer. Takes a cool dry place with air movement.

 

[ruffdog]

Cute girl! I was also gardening at that age! It is very important knowing what fresh food tastes like and how it grows. Good job.

 

[5030]

I grow them in straw bales. Much easier to harvest, no digging.

 

[mwemaxxowner]

Depending on the type of potato they should store into the next summer. Takes a cool dry place with air movement.

She is very excited! I took her with me to the hardware store this past weekend and she *HAD* to get some lima beans to plant while we were in there. Last night I set up a big pot with potting soil and let her plant about 6 lima seeds and set them up under a grow light. That's also how we got cantaloupe, basil, and strawberries. The strawberries I started from bare root plants, but her other things we did from seed. She has 3 beautiful cantaloupe plants that are almost ready to put in the ground. She checks on most of it almost every day and usually walks out with me in the evenings when I do a walk through to inspect everything.

I grow them in straw bales. Much easier to harvest, no digging.

I'll try to remember this for next year! Just hollow out a spot in a square bale and deposit the seed potato? As it grows you hill it with dirt? I could set that up off to the side somewhere like a raised bed.

Actually I was about to do several raised beds this year, but last minute I decided what the heck I'll just put it in the ground. Which led to me borrowing a tractor, a trailer, and a tiller. Then *that* led to me buying a trailer and tractor . Tiller is still on the list.


One of my aunts has quite a few chickens. We get eggs from her, and I asked her about starting to get some of the manure. So, long story short, I was driving the Civic yesterday instead of the truck, and brought a bucket full of aged chicken poop home riding shotgun . The windows don't work...

 

[5030]

No dirt, just damp straw. You need to fertilize the straw bales ahead of time and get them 'ripe' before planting. Goggle up planting potatoes in straw bales. Too lengthy to go into here.

 

[mwemaxxowner]

Oh, I also have a BUNCH of pumpkins growing from my compost heap where I threw two pumpkins in there whole last October .

 

[denchen]

This side of the pond, we use a purpose made and sold potato fork. Its a four tine fork but the tines are flattened out and look similar say to a beveled edge wood chisel with a bit of a bow in them. With the flatter tines, there is less damage to the potato when digging. As well as bugs, potatoes do not like `standing` in water. If you have water standing in between the rows for more than say two days or so, then you may have problems. but you can use irrigation. Keep plenty of soil over them as they grow or they will go green, and then the green ones are not fit to eat. Do not freeze, if you do they go black and then a load of mush. Avoid putting potatoes on the same ground year after year. This will help stop `potato blight` setting in. When picking, try and make sure you get them all or at least most of them or again this will encourage potato blight. Also try different varieties. some types prefer different soils and different varieties are used for `earlies` `main crop` or `lates` and some varieties are only good for making `crisps` or do you call them chips. Some varieties are good for boiling, some better for roasting and some better for chips, or as you say fries, and some are a good `all rounder`. So keep a list of what variety grows best on your soil and what the chief cook says is a good all round variety in you soil.

 

[von-mil]

Don't wash the potatoes after you harvest them as this can cause them to rot. Before storing them, 'wash' them with bare, dry hands. Final cleaning should be right before you cook them.