potatoes

[Iowa Ron]

few days ago some one talked about covering them with straw .. instead of covering them with dirt how thick do u plant the taters ??/how much straw??

 

[bjb in NE]

Plant them at the bottom of the deepest lister trench you can make. As they grow, gradually knock dirt down around them. Then start hilling the dirt up around them. After you got them hilled as high as you can use the trench between the rows for irrigation and mulch with straw to keep the weeds down. We use an old Ford 2-row lister for the initial trench then our rear tine tiller with a homemade hilling attachment for the irrigation ditch. The nice thing about the lister is in the late summer or fall you can run back down the rows with the lister and dig most of them up (still some shovel work at the bottom)

 

[Don L C]

That is not what he ask.......I don't know how much straw he put on his......back 15 years ago I planted potatoes in a deep furrow(6 - 8").....Covered them (6 - 8") with old hay or straw,dense enough that the sun couldent shine through...pat it down pretty good.....I dont think I had as manny potatoes as the other fellows, buy mine was easer to dig.......

 

[Ken Crisman]

When I was growing up in a very large family , we only had to eat what we grew . So potatoes was a big crop for us . My Dad had built a 3 row , hilling plow out of oak which I pulled with our Ford tractor as he held it steady with the 2 handles he installed on it . Like someone else said , plant your seed potatoes deep, cover lightly with dirt . Then as they grow put more dirt on them . As our plants got bigger we would use the row shovels as a hiller . The trench between the rows then became a catch basin for rain water . We never covered with hay or straw due to so many rows & no money to buy the stuff . But let me tell you , I knew what pulling weeds was . Dad hated weeds in any our plots . We usually harvested enough potatoes to feed 13 people all winter with left overs for seed the following year . We planted corn about the same way . I miss gardening . But I only have less than an acre & no room . Njoy ! God bless, Ken

 

[ChrisB]

Green potatoes equal poison.

 

[amo]

go to search on this forum and put in potatoes and look at the ones dated 3/18/08. old wrote about thew hay,etc. Good luck Amo

 

[sammyd]

We start with 8-10 inches and add more as the growing season goes on just like hilling them if you plant in the dirt.
We've used old grassy hay, straw and even some stuff from around the hay feeder in the steer pen that was pretty manurey.
The manurey stuff made the spuds a little scabby but nothing too serious.

Makes getting those nice small earlies a breeze, and harvesting the main crop involves a pitch fork not a spading fork....

 

[old]

Probably me that posted about the straw. I lay them on the ground and then cover with straw. About 6-12 inches thick and then let them do there thing
Hobby farm

 

[Spook]

I grow some every year. I am going to try that too. I figure 6 inches ought to be plenty. I think I will leave a trench, then fill with straw, kind of a mix of both ideas. Usually I hill them up.

 

[john in la]

I cover my potato seed with just enough dirt to cover them up and then add hay as they grow. You need to keep adding hay so as all potatoes are covered well so they do not turn green.

If you look around the internet you can find several sites where people have thrown potatoes in the compost pile and they have sprouted; have used hay as a cover on row potatoes; and such. It is said to reduce if not totally eliminate scab and other diseases.

 

[SMinWi]

Do you use chopped or long straw??

 

[IH2444]

I always just made a big furrow placed the cut potatoes with eyes up in it and a tablespoon of 6-12-12 beside the potato and buried them level.

Grew great potatoes. Come harvest time I just set the big furrow blade real deep and ran down the middle of the furrow. Worked great with less damage to the potatoes than holes in them with the potato fork.

I once grew a 3.5 lb Kinnebeck potato.
that was an oddity, but I always had good crops.

This is the way I was taught and have done it this way all my life.

This was in Eastern KY btw.

 

[Dick L]

Back before tag was a pup and the farmers used split rail fence that was stacked rails in a zig zag pattern they would lay taters in the area away from the animals and cover them with used horse and cow bedding. better known as heavy straw manure for those city folk. That way they had early potato's to feed the thrashing crew around the first of July which if they waited until the ground was warm enough to sprout the seed, new potato's would never be ready to eat by then. That would be about a foot of used bedding which would be under six inches after a coupla rains.

 

[old]

I use it right out of the bale. So I guess you would call it long
Hobby farm

 

[Anonymous-0]

Slugs ,snakes and mice like straw covered potatoes.Straw costs 4.50 a bale here so unless you grow your own its too costly to use.The wind will blow your straw away.Try a row before you plant a lot this way.

 

[sammyd]

Never had a problem with any of the mentioned pests. Potato beetles yeah but those happen anyway.
Never lost any cover to the wind either.
Grew some awsome spuds with this method. Actually had a better crop than the old man last year which is a very rare occurence.

The straw can be expesnive if you have to buy it. We got lucky and were able to cut and bale a couple of 5 acre lots that the owner hadn't sold or built on yet. The stuff got rained on and was barely suitable for livestock before that so we have plenty to cover our garden with.
We have had luck with the stuff out of the goat pens as well.

I don't think I'd ever go back to digging in the dirt for my potatoes.

 

[jose bagge]

my neighbor was telling me to plant potatoes, and then plant onions right over top- two crops, one peice of dirt. Anyone ever done this?

 

[Spritzer]

Where I live, the city chips/grinds the discarded Christmas trees, and the mulch is available at no cost. I use this to till into the area where I'll plant potatoes. It helps the PH situation, and NEVER any potato bugs. Might be a coincidence, but seems to work.