I dug up 47.5 lbs of potatoes, 18.5 lbs of Kennecbec, 19 lbs of Russets.

[gary350]

That's the thing about gardening...local conditions are very often determinative of success/failure. Learning what works and does not work in your local conditions is so important. However, I've found that often one can "push the envelope" on local conditions with certain practices. It's those practices that really distinguish some gardeners.

Metrics based on your local conditions are a key management tool for gardeners who wish to raise a large part of their annual food supply.

For example, by using a metric of the ratio of new potatoes to seed potatoes, I have an accurate way to produce the amount of new potatoes needed each year. I like to target a production amount of 200 pounds of new potatoes and I know for certain, as certain as anything in gardening gets, that 20 pounds of seed potatoes, regardless of number of eyes will yield over 200 pounds of new potatoes in my local environment.

Similarly on onions, I use a metric which is determinative of amount of onions desired. For that, I know it takes on average one onion set per pound of bulbs produced. Like potatoes, I target over 200 pounds of onions each year and know again for almost certainty that 200 sets will yield at least 200 pounds of useable onions while providing ample green onions during the growing season while I await the big bulbs.

For corn it gets a little more complex. I use number of seeds as the key metric to determine plantings and use production amount needed to determine the number of plantings. For example, I know from experience that about 300 ears of corn (some eaten fresh, some given away, and some frozen) is my annual target production amount. I can reasonably expect to be able to process about 100 ears of corn maturing at the same time...more than that and much is wasted.

Hence, three plantings are required to achieve the production target of 300 ears. I know that I get about one ear of usable corn for every two seeds planted in my local environment....recognizing that plants must be thinned and some losses will always happen along the way. Hence to get my annual target of 300 ears of corn, I need three plantings spaced a couple of weeks apart, each of 200 seeds. That will generally yield 100 ears of usable corn per each planting. Yes, I actually divide my corn seed out into three 200 seed plantings counting them out .

Similarly for beans, tomatoes, and other veggies we grow. Metrics tailored to local conditions are integral part of it.

I do the same thing. I have learned super sweet corn has a very poor germination rate 50% to 60% and super sweet is a 72 day crop, plants are small, ears are small, kernels are small. If I plant 500 seeds and 250 germinates small ears are equal to 125 ears of a large 92 day corn. NOW I grow G90 bicolor 92 day corn I am getting 98% germination rate, I only need to plant 250 seeds but I plant 300 just incase its a bad year. This year was a bad flash flood rain over & over 50°F cold mud, corn seeds don't like cold mud. Finally rain stopped garden was dry as desert no rain for 3 weeks. I planted seeds and watered seeds every day very slowly 270 seeds finally germinated over a period of 1 week. G90 is better than Peaches & Cream or any other bicolor corn plants are 8 ft tall, wife puts about 50 pints in freezer bags every summer.

 

[Meadowlark]

... G90 is better than Peaches & Cream or any other bicolor corn plants are 8 ft tall, wife puts about 50 pints in freezer bags every summer.

To each his own...G90 is far inferior to Honey Select or any other triple sweet corn in the one thing that counts the most to me: TASTE

I'd rather have the Honey select taste. The main reason I garden is for taste and even Colorado Olathe corn does not match the superior taste of Honey select sweet corn.

 

[Durgan]

11 September 2010 Yukon Gold Test Box Potatoes

Testing Yukon Gold production
23.5 pounds from four plants.
Tender care particularly watering.

 

[gary350]

I dig up the last 25 foot row of Kennebec new potatoes now we have a total of 61 lbs. including the Russet new potatoes. I had 5 rows of potatoes the very best row was planted under a shade tree so plants only got sun early morning then full shade after 11 am to dark. My laser thermometer show potato plant leaves are 130° in full sun 3 pm the hottest part of the day. We have been having 99° weather. Soil gets hot too. This row stayed cool all day it was never hot before 11 am.

I am going to plant another row of potatoes July 1st.

 

[YumYum]

I am going to plant another row of potatoes July 1st.

I've never planted late potatoes. Where are you going to get seed to plant them? Never seen any for sale that late.

 

[gary350]

I've never planted late potatoes. Where are you going to get seed to plant them? Never seen any for sale that late.

I replant the ping pong ball size potatoes. Soak new potatoes in water to remove enzymes that keeps eyes from sprouting. Leave them under a shade tree when eyes start to grow then plant them.

 

[YumYum]

I replant the ping pong ball size potatoes. Soak new potatoes in water to remove enzymes that keeps eyes from sprouting. Leave them under a shade tree when eyes start to grow then plant them.

I can go that route. I've got plenty ping pong sized potatoes and want to give it a try. I know they will eventually sprout naturally but never kept a date of such.

So when should I remove them from the potato bin and place in water? Fully submerged I assume? And how long do they stay submerged in water? Clear directions. About Halloween is the first frost here.

 

[gary350]

I can go that route. I've got plenty ping pong sized potatoes and want to give it a try. I know they will eventually sprout naturally but never kept a date of such.

So when should I remove them from the potato bin and place in water? Fully submerged I assume? And how long do they stay submerged in water? Clear directions. About Halloween is the first frost here.

I put about 100 small potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket of water then leave them until the next day. Pour out the water then let potatoes dry. Keep potatoes outside where it is warmer than inside the house. I keep my potatoes under a shade tree. If it rains on the potatoes its never a problem just don't let potatoes lay around in a wet place to rot. Once I see eyes sprouting then I know those potatoes will grow so I plant them. If I do this to 100 potatoes I often get 50 that will grow.

 

[YumYum]

So you leave the potatoes in the bucket after you pour the water out or put them on something else?
About how long before you see the potatoes sprout?

 

[gary350]

So you leave the potatoes in the bucket after you pour the water out or put them on something else?
About how long before you see the potatoes sprout?

After I wash & soak potatoes I put them in the grass under a big tree for shade. It usually takes 2 to 4 weeks for eyes to sprout once they start sprouting I start planting them 1 by 1. I end up with a row of 50 plants. I start planting potatoes on the south end of the row it might take a few weeks to finally get the whole 50 plants planted.

I use to plant a whole row of potatoes before potato eyes sprout but then I end up with random places where several potatoes don't grow plants. If you have room to make several rows of potatoes go on and plant 150 potatoes 50% will grow. You end up with wasted garden space with 75 plants that did not grow.

I try to save garden space by making potato eye sprout before I plant them in the garden. If you have lots of rain you will have better luck than me TN is desert in summer 1 rain per month.

 

[YumYum]

Replanting my own potatoes is a first for me. Where I'm going to grow fall potatoes I wont have a lot of room, so I do want to make sure the eyes will sprout before planting.

It is pretty dry right now here. Without looking at a weather report, I'd say we are in the negatives as far as avg rainfall this time of year and I'd say it will continue. Are you in west, middle, or east TN?

 

[gary350]

Replanting my own potatoes is a first for me. Where I'm going to grow fall potatoes I wont have a lot of room, so I do want to make sure the eyes will sprout before planting.

It is pretty dry right now here. Without looking at a weather report, I'd say we are in the negatives as far as avg rainfall this time of year and I'd say it will continue. Are you in west, middle, or east TN?

I am 30 miles south of Nashville TN about 1/2 mile from I-24 in Murfreesboro. It is very dry here, we have a burn band. TV weather said, a few more days of no rain there will be a drought warning. Yard grass is dry it crunches when I walk on it. I have been watering tomatoes & people but nothing else. I should have fertilized corn a week ago it has so hot & humid 15 minutes outside was all I could do. It was cold this morning 53° humidity is gone and 90° today feels nice.

 

[gary350]

Replanting my own potatoes is a first for me. Where I'm going to grow fall potatoes I wont have a lot of room, so I do want to make sure the eyes will sprout before planting.

It is pretty dry right now here. Without looking at a weather report, I'd say we are in the negatives as far as avg rainfall this time of year and I'd say it will continue. Are you in west, middle, or east TN?

I have 4 potatoes with eyes growing. I wish I could make 100 potato eyes all sprout the same day. It is so hot & dry these need to be places on the soil surface then covered with about 6" of soil to hold enough moisture for potatoes to grow. Once there are plants above the soil a few inched I will remove 4" of soil then let them grow.

 

[headfullofbees]

It may be an idea to plant them deeper, to keep them cooler & moist as they don't like temperatures above 30C (86f).
They may grow, but very slowly.

 

[gary350]

It may be an idea to plant them deeper, to keep them cooler & moist as they don't like temperatures above 30C (86f).
They may grow, but very slowly.

Yes that is a good idea. My soil is hard, I tilled in a lot of dead dry organic material Saturday now it is much softer several inches below the surface. Maybe I plant seed potatoes about 1" below the surface then cover with 5" of soil. New potatoes grow up & out plants really only need 1" of soil covering new potatoes. News potatoes start growing when plants are 2 months old that will be Sept 1st if I plant seed potatoes July 1st it will still me 90° here. Oct we start having cooler weather. Forecast today is 102°F it has not rained in several weeks garden soil is dust and grass is brown and crunches like potato chips when walked on. Last year I planted potatoes in Sept they did good, potato plants don't frost easy, it needs to be below 29°F for cold to kill surface plants, but that does not kill plants below the soil they keep growing new potatoes day temperatures are in the 70s. I dug up 30 lbs of potatoes Dec 28.