I planted 192 potato cuttings today.

[gary350]

About 120 Red Norland cuttings. 9 yellow potato cuttings. The rest are Kennebec cuttings. I did mostly 1 eye cuttings we want large potatoes. Tomorrow I will finish the levee around the potatoes so 30 gallons of water does not escape into the walk areas. Temperature has been in the 80s for a week but now forecast is 50s & 60s for a week. Murfreesboro TN garden is desert June to Sept almost no rain and 100°f. The only way to get a good potato crop is lots of water that soaks into the soil every time soil dries out. I hope to have 800 lbs of new potatoes in 4 months. Fertilizer today was 6-12-12 but next fertilizer will be 0-20-20. Need to be greedy with nitrogen or we get very large plants and very small potatoes. This row is 32" wide and 32 ft long. I tilled 1/2 a small pickup truck of ground up dry dead tree leave into the soil to make is soft. Potato cuttings are covered with only 1" of soil. When plants are about 4" tall I will mulch with dry dead pine needles 3" deep then more later when plants are taller. I don't want plants falling over into the walk areas.

 

[YumYum]

I always double my rows with onion plants but I've never thought of doubling my rows with taters, or triple like you have.

 

[gary350]

I always double my rows with onion plants but I've never thought of doubling my rows with taters, or triple like you have.

Look at my onion row left side of the picture. 7 rows of onions side by side, 400 candy onions, 150 winter onions, 100 garlic in the same 32" row. Onion spacing, 4" apart, 4" between rows.

I never do raised beds. These beds are just a box that holds in water like a levee. It sure does save lots of garden space. I do all rows 32" spacing because my tiller is 28" wide but you can save even more space by only having about 20" between the beds. But a tiller will not fit in a 20" space. 20" row spacing never needs to be tilled its the walk path between beds..

This is called, square foot gardening.

 

[DirtMechanic]

About 120 Red Norland cuttings. 9 yellow potato cuttings. The rest are Kennebec cuttings. I did mostly 1 eye cuttings we want large potatoes. Tomorrow I will finish the levee around the potatoes so 30 gallons of water does not escape into the walk areas. Temperature has been in the 80s for a week but now forecast is 50s & 60s for a week. Murfreesboro TN garden is desert June to Sept almost no rain and 100°f. The only way to get a good potato crop is lots of water that soaks into the soil every time soil dries out. I hope to have 800 lbs of new potatoes in 4 months. Fertilizer today was 6-12-12 but next fertilizer will be 0-20-20. Need to be greedy with nitrogen or we get very large plants and very small potatoes. This row is 32" wide and 32 ft long. I tilled 1/2 a small pickup truck of ground up dry dead tree leave into the soil to make is soft. Potato cuttings are covered with only 1" of soil. When plants are about 4" tall I will mulch with dry dead pine needles 3" deep then more later when plants are taller. I don't want plants falling over into the walk areas.

View attachment 95251

You work so hard!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So much space! That would be farming in England, not gardening
When I plant rows of something I always offset them for maximum space for the plants, so I would make that middle row with the potatoes opposite the spaces between in the outside rows. They always tell you to with peas and beans, and I thought 'If them why not everything?'.

 

[Ruderunner]

Interesting that potatoes like a high nitrogen level. I always thought that would develop bigger greens rather than larger tubers.

Might explain why my potato crops are never large.

Question, I was under the impression that potatoes should get buried as they grow. Wouldn't one then want to start the cuttings deeper and keep the extra soil on the side for filling in as they go?

Used tires are a common planter in my area, they're also stackable if plants get too tall.

Re pathways. I put excess grass clippings, weeds and leaves in them vs a compost pile. They get broken down by foot traffic and being between rows, rain can wash some of the nutrients into the soil for the plants. The resulting matter is then right next to the rows for easy dispersal on top in the fall.

 

[YumYum]

Interesting that potatoes like a high nitrogen level. I always thought that would develop bigger greens rather than larger tubers.

I think you misunderstood. He said to be greedy with the N as to not put down too much.

Fertilizer today was 6-12-12 but next fertilizer will be 0-20-20. Need to be greedy with nitrogen or we get very large plants and very small potatoes.

 

[Meadowlark]

Nice layout Mr. Gary350.

However, it would not work on my place in East Texas. Potatoes would drown/rot in those beds. Just last night we received 4.5 inches of rain with at least that much expected again in the next two days. Hence, potatoes must be planted in raised rows here and water allowed/encouraged to run off. Holding water around them would be a disaster. Also, the spacing would not work, because most of my plants produce at least 10 pounds of potatoes per and that spacing would be way overcrowded.

Same on onions. 1015s here average 4.5 inches with many going 5 and 6 inches in diameter. 4 inch spacing would-be way overcrowded here.

It will be interesting to see your harvest.

Here's my garden this morning just after the rain stopped for now. Notice no standing water. Garlic on the left is another that will not tolerate standing water.

 

[Don Perry]

Meadowlark, That is a very nice garden. Big, lucius plants!

 

[gary350]

Interesting that potatoes like a high nitrogen level. I always thought that would develop bigger greens rather than larger tubers.

Might explain why my potato crops are never large.

Question, I was under the impression that potatoes should get buried as they grow. Wouldn't one then want to start the cuttings deeper and keep the extra soil on the side for filling in as they go?

Used tires are a common planter in my area, they're also stackable if plants get too tall.

Re pathways. I put excess grass clippings, weeds and leaves in them vs a compost pile. They get broken down by foot traffic and being between rows, rain can wash some of the nutrients into the soil for the plants. The resulting matter is then right next to the rows for easy dispersal on top in the fall.

Potatoes you NOT like high nitrogen. Nitrogen makes big plants and small potatoes.

Potatoes only need to be covered to block sun so there are no green potatoes. I use to cover potatoes at they grow but our soil is heave. I have lots of free pine needles from 20 pine tree, pine needles are very light weight and block the sun.

Years ago I use to plant potatoes in a stack of old tires that works great. Till mulch into soil make soft soil. Put 10 tires in a row. Put 2 cuttings on soil surface with 1 eye, in each tire. Cover cutting with enough soil to barely cover them up then put 2 more cuttings in each of the 10 tires. Put enough soil in those 2 cutting to barely covered them up. After plants are 1 foot tall put another tire on each of the 10 tires so you have 2 tires in each stack. The potato plants grow straight up and block all the sun from turning new potatoes green. You don't need, pine needles or straw or anything to block sun to prevent green potatoes, potato plants will block the sun. 4 cuttings in each tire stake produces 15 lbs of new potatoes. After a few years my old tires turned me black like a coal miner. Wife would not let me in the house. I use to pure 5 gallons of water in each stack of tires once a week. 10 stacks of tires = 150 lbs of new potatoes. I have been experimenting with potatoes for 47 years. The way I grow potatoes now saves me a lot of work and saves lots of garden space. If I was 50 years younger my 32" wide rows could be 5 feet wide and spaces between beds could be smaller.

Someone said something about beans. I plant bean rows 12" apart 2" between seeds. 3 rows of beans 32 ft long rows produces about 100 lbs of green beans. This year we want mostly dry beans, not many green beans. I can't plant beans for another month I need for rain every day to stop and soil needs to warm up to 65°f.

 

[gary350]

Nice layout Mr. Gary350.

However, it would not work on my place in East Texas. Potatoes would drown/rot in those beds. Just last night we received 4.5 inches of rain with at least that much expected again in the next two days. Hence, potatoes must be planted in raised rows here and water allowed/encouraged to run off. Holding water around them would be a disaster. Also, the spacing would not work, because most of my plants produce at least 10 pounds of potatoes per and that spacing would be way overcrowded.

Same on onions. 1015s here average 4.5 inches with many going 5 and 6 inches in diameter. 4 inch spacing would-be way overcrowded here.

It will be interesting to see your harvest.

Here's my garden this morning just after the rain stopped for now. Notice no standing water. Garlic on the left is another that will not tolerate standing water.

View attachment 95255

Wow that looks like nice garden. What type potatoes do you grow? How many lbs of potatoes do you get from each plant? How many plants to you have?

We get lots of rain in TN. We had 47" of rain last year Jan to April. Not sure how much rain we have gotten this year. I should have looked at TV weather before planting potatoes yesterday we have 3 days of rain in the forecast about 3" every day. I should have waited and planted potatoes next week. OH well.

I would like to plant potatoes like you do but a bale of straw cost $40 each here. If I drive 250 mile north a bale of straw in southern ILL is $3 each. If I was 50 years younger I would drive to ILL bring enough straw home in truck & trailer to sell to pay for my trip and have free straw for my garden. LOL

My garden rows are 32' long, 32" between rows, 21 rows. We like yellow onions best 4" spacing in ok for them. If I plant sweet onions they are larger but shelf life is short. We like Red onions best but I did not grow any this year shelf life is very short.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

We get lots of rain in TN. We had 47" of rain last year Jan to April

That's a heck of a lot. People talk about rain in England' green and pleasant land, and it's true it rains quite often, but drizzle, not heavy downpours. Our average in the SE England is around 25" a year

 

[YumYum]

We get lots of rain in TN. We had 47" of rain last year Jan to April.

You got 47" of rain from Jan 2022 to April 2022?

 

[gary350]

You got 47" of rain from Jan 2022 to April 2022?

We have rain almost every day Jan thru April, I wish I could collect all that rain in a pond to use on the garden.

Then June to Sept garden is desert almost no rain for 4 months, if I don't water plants garden does not produce very much.

 

[Meadowlark]

Wow that looks like nice garden. What type potatoes do you grow? How many lbs of potatoes do you get from each plant? How many plants to you have?

I grow Red Pontiac as my main spring potato crop, but also grow some Kennebec, Yukon, etc. for variety in the fall. You may have seen my thread on my search for the "best" variety for East Texas. I've got 12 different varieties currently under trial...and all have healthy plants.

I normally harvest over 220 pounds of new potatoes from 20 pounds of seed...we just can't use much more than that annually. My first year I harvested well over 1000 pounds of new potatoes from 100 pounds of seed...never again. Way too much work.

I'm also growing Jicama and sunchokes as possible potato supplements/alternates this year. The Jicama is very popular in Mexico and widely grown there. In addition. I'm also growing the Murasaki sweet potato. We just don't care much for the orange sweet potatoes but these Japanese types sound very tasty. The Jicama, sunchokes, and Murasaki will all be harvested in Oct/Nov which corresponds to the time my fresh new potatoes from spring are about used up.

Regarding onions, the 1015 is a yellow sweet onion, short day...and I have not found any onion which can begin to match its sweetness and flavor as well as size. They along with the 1015 red onions store well lasting us from May through about February the following year. I use walking onions as a gap filler.

I make my garden raised rows (about 80 ft long and 2 ft wide) once a year and normally don't till much if any other than that. I make extensive use of summer and winter cover crops and regular crop rotation. Something is growing 365 days a year in my garden. No fallow time. No synthetic fertilizers. Pure organic.