Growing Potatoes

[dbjay417]

cant wait to see how things go with the model.

 

[born2late]

I had the best luck in raised beds for my potatoes.They were a snap to reach in and harvest a few new ones without disturbing the rest. You can also use bottomless wooden boxes to grow them in. Some use wire such as chicken wire to shape the structure. You can fill it with some moss or thick newspaper on the outside to hold the soil and plant your seed potato in the middle. You can start about half way and keep adding as the plant starts to grow. Once the time has come for harvest just open the sides and pull away the dirt.
I usually can my potatoes since I don't have a cool enough place to store long term I sure wish I had a root cellar. Diana

 

[valmom]

I also half-heartedly once planted a few potatoes that had started sprouting in the bag- I got a few oddly shaped small potatoes (I planted them in my manure pile- the plants happy, and were not bad looking).

I have heard somewhere that one can grow potatoes vertically by starting a plant in a 50 gallon plastic drum, then adding mulch as the plant grows taller. They say the plant will set new tubers each time you add more mulch around the plant and you get sort of layers of potatoes in the drum. Has anyone heard of this? It sounds like it may be worth trying. Who would have thought potatoes would be container plants.

 

[jdypat]

Idont see how that barrel deal would work with potatoes. but i have dug up a row in the garden.. a few inches deep. placed the potatoe seed in it and covered it with one layer of newspaper. placed pine needles over it. watered it good. as the plant grew Id add more pine needles and a layer of newspaper. on and on as the plants grew. very very soon, i could walk out to the garden run my hand in under the pine needles and pick my potatoes for supper. it was wonderful. mine did not have the opportunity to find out how big they would get. we ate em as fast as they got big enough.
sweet potatoes grow this way especially well on a raised bed.. lay the on a layear of dirt and cover them with any type of mulch.. pine needles are good. they produce very quickly and good and clean and easy to get to. they need plenty of water.. jdy

 

[Robb Simer]

Hey, let me know if your attempt at growing potatoes from store potatoes [as seed potatoes] works. I have been told that potatoes sold at grocery stores have been sprayed with an inhibitor. Don't know if that is true or not, but THEY say it is true. Also, could the stores potatoes be hybrids that don't breed [or reproduce] true, i.e. they may produce greenery but no spuds. That is my thought, THEY haven't said anything about that. Robb Simer

 

[silkiechicken]

I've done some potatoes from the store only if they have already sprouted. Some store potatoes just dry up and those are the ones I am guessing are sprayed. However.... store potatoes are far from disease free so I hear seeds are the way to go.

 

[KeyLimePie]

I've grown potatoes from cut-up grocery store potatoes before. Whatever "they" are spraying on the 'taters to prevent them from sprouting either doesn't work well or last very long because the ones I bring home like to start growing within a week.

But this time I started with a bag of organic potatoes bought at the grocery store, we ate half and planted the rest. I cut them in pieces, put each piece on the ground, placed around it a 5-gallon black plastic nursery pot with the bottom cut out, and covered the piece with some dirt & composted manure. As the pieces grew I would add more dirt & manure until the pots were full.

I've heard that some folks use old car tires to build up their 'tater mounds, and the black rubber works well in cold climates to keep them warm.

Some of the plants are flowering already. Does that mean the 'taters are ready? I don't want to disturb them unnecessarily.

I'm hoping that by growing them up in the pots that it'll be easier to harvest. Perhaps all I'll have to do is pull off the bottomless pot and have a nice pile of dirt & potatoes at my feet.

 

[digitS']

Doing a little reading helps . . . and often gives more incentive to be growing our own food.

Potatoes must be the most sprayed (read "poisoned") crop on Earth. They don't like competition - so the fields are sprayed with herbicides. Pests can sweep thru the crop and defoliate the plants - so they are sprayed with insecticides. Nematodes attack the tubers underground - so the soil is often treated with chemicals to kill those critters.

After they are out of the ground - they can be sprayed dipped and fumigated and often are. Notice how sometimes a few of the spuds coming out of the bag from the store have blackened and cracked skin. Blessed be the food industry . . .

Potatoes are a cool season crop so warming the soil with tires shouldn't be of much help. Search the TheEasyGarden for what might be ending up in your soil from using old tires in your vegetable gardens. Just gather the soil around the plants as they grow in the open garden. It's the above-ground part of the plant that is "growing" the tubers underground. The starch is coming from sunlight and photosynthesis.

KeyLimePie, flowering is often used by gardeners as an indication that new potatoes are beginning to form. Some varieties don't flower or don't flower much but if yours are blooming - it may be time for a pot of creamed peas and new potatoes .

Using organic potatoes from the store should work if you want them for seed potatoes. Presumably they haven't been treated to inhibit sprouting.

Regarding sprout suppression: ". . . to further minimize sprouting, chemical treatments can be applied. Maleic hydrazide is sprayed onto the foliage 2-3 weeks after full bloom . . . Chemicals to suppress sprouting can be applied as a dip or aerosol treatment to tubers after harvest and after injuries are healed. Inhibitors should not be applied to tubers intended for seed use. "

Steve

 

[warren]

We tried growing potatoes in tyres and it did not work well for us. There were a few tubers in the top tyre but none lower down. I carefully earthed them up as the shoots grew and kept them well watered, then put on another tyre and repeated the procedure until we had 3 tyres high. I would not recommend this method. Perhaps others have made it work?

 

[Tink]

Hey
We are going to try potatoes this year. The guy at the feed store said to plant them in old tires. As the plant grows up he said to add another tire and more dirt. When they have grown to the height you are comfortable with he said harvesting is very easy. Figured we would try it. Good way to reuse old tires! I will let ya'll know how it goes.
Tink