Potato Growing Claims

[Martin Mikulcik]

I've never taken a scale to it. I think i average around 15000lbs/acre so like half what you're getting. And lately I've been following it with winter cereals so i get 1.5 crops per season. after the grain, I'll give it a cool weather fall garden. There's probably a better system but the potatoes finish in July and then what. July is a heck of time to be digging in the sun.

I didn't know you could do two potato crops. Do you have to irrigate? Is that part of the equation when saving seed? Like will your la soda keep til the following year. I can't get a red to survive storage

The ai says 110 ears per bushel, but I'm not sure it compares to sweet corn. I'm just in the corn belt so that's my go to.

 

[Meadowlark]

... But you gotta admit it's more effort.

I've been thinking about that...assuming you meant it is more effort to source my own soil nutrients that to just use synthetics.

You are probably right but not as much as one might think.

It takes less effort without the spraying...pests, fungicides, etc,

It takes less effort without multiple side dressings through the growing season.

It takes much less water my way.

I cannot even begin to imagine that in 46 consecutive years of growing the same veggies in a rotational same garden location with ever increasing yields would be remotely possible with synthetics.

It probably is more effort...but the nutrients are more than worth it to me and my family.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Here's a picture of my potatoes from today. I need to figure out what i did right on the top right one. It's bordering a poor stand of alfalfa so maybe it got some of that green manure. Last year i think i grew oats that i didn't harvest, or maybe better seed quality or uneven fertilizing or deeper soil. Idk but i wish they all looked that way

 

[Meadowlark]

...I didn't know you could do two potato crops.

Oh yes spring plant mid-Feb and harvest mid-May. Fall, plant late August, harvest late November (first frost is usually first week of Dec. here. It does require saving seed potatoes from the spring crop for the fall crop because most all commercially provided seed potatoes are dormant in August.

Do you have to irrigate?

Not normally. Spring rains take good care of the spring crop and in the fall cool fronts start coming in bringing rains in Sept. on through harvest.

... Like will your la soda keep til the following year. I can't get a red to survive storage

That's my system... year around supply of garden potatoes. The LaSodas are excellent in storage...the non-reds not so much. One crop provides the seed for the next.

We usually can several quart jars of potatoes to help carry through until the next crop...much preferred over buying store potatoes ( Yuck )

Also, I have a superbly insulated well house which keeps the potatoes at a favorable temperature. Year around is the goal and we usually accomplish it.

 

[Meadowlark]

Here's a picture of my potatoes from today. I need to figure out what i did right on the top right one. It's bordering a poor stand of alfalfa

That, my friend. is a perfect example of nitrogen sourcing at its finest. Only two things better...one is Sunn Hemp and the other is composted cow and in combination it is absolute dynamite!!

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

My neighbor's got cows, I'll have to hop the fence

 

[Meadowlark]

...The ai says 110 ears per bushel, but I'm not sure it compares to sweet corn. I'm just in the corn belt so that's my go to.

Ok...so I need to figure my sq. footage of 5 rows of 2 ft by 10 ft each = 100 sq. ft.

And typically get 200 ears per that 100 sq ft.

Now to convert that to bushels per acre at 43560 sq. ft. per acre and...well that is tomorrow's problem. I'm done for today. Thanks.

 

[Meadowlark]

Using an online corn yield calculator my yield runs about 308 bushels per acre. AI says 150-200 bu/ac is average for sweet corn across USA.

I've compared my average potato yields to commercial growers through AI...and it compares favorably.

The average yield is 10 pounds of new potatoes per pound of seed potato, and my yield runs 12 -15 pounds per pound of seed potato...that's for red potatoes.

 

[Peaches]

I’ve watched a few YouTube where it’s claimed they get lots of potatoes …..by planting in pots …..it never happened for me

some even said , they didn’t even water the pots for x amount of time …..nah …

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I’ve watched a few YouTube where it’s claimed they get lots of potatoes …..by planting in pots …..it never happened for me

some even said , they didn’t even water the pots for x amount of time …..nah …

YouTube videos are often staged

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I’ve watched a few YouTube where it’s claimed they get lots of potatoes …..by planting in pots …..it never happened for me

some even said , they didn’t even water the pots for x amount of time …..nah …

The most common reason potatoes in pots and containers fail is that the pots get too warm, the tops like sun and warmth, but the bottoms like it cool and damp and need something in front of them to shade them, and it's better if the pots aren't black.

 

[Meadowlark]

YouTube videos are often staged

YouTube videos are often fake.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Alright here's a bucket of potatoes from this year

They honestly look more impressive in the picture than in person and I'd like suggestions for what i can do to improve

Part of its my climate but i work with what i got. Soil stayed moist until June if i remember correctly, so they finished on the dry side but no crazy drought. The insects were worse than normal but not terrible either. And i kept up with weeds the first 60 days

I think i planted at the ideal time this year, basically as early as i could without frosting the leaves, 12in oc. Summer hit fast, crops like peas struggled.

Fertility could use improvement, i think i applied a little nitrogen 30lbs/acre at the start and then halfway through i added phosphorus potassium sulfur and i think boron. I might've been too late on that but it was an afterthought. Weeds grew like crazy anyway

Next year i think I'll try to increase organic matter, one with manure and two with hay or straw. That one plant i had singled out earlier this year, did do really good and i think there was definitely some benefit being in old alfalfa, but that particular plant had incredibly deep topsoil and i don't know why or how but I'd like to do more of that, it was very close to a fence row, maybe that added organic matter

I think the organic matter will maybe help with the drought some as well. The soil up here naturally has a decent bit of organic matter but i want to see what pushing it will do, and the fertility value of course

I think maybe I'm planting too deep and the roots are below a lot of the good dirt and into compacted soil. But I'm trying to not have to mound later, but maybe the straw in the trench idea will aerate it

And i still have storage problems, hence why you don't see red potatoes. The seed is physiologically too old so it's trying to make a bunch of small potatoes rather than a few big ones. Seed size might be small too, i shoot for 2oz but maybe 2oz has a hard time surviving the winter. I might try 3 if i can find enough at the right size, or 6s that i cut.

I leave the potatoes inside not climate controlled till it starts to get cold and then i put in the cellar till spring. Not perfect, maybe i should put in the cellar now?

And i have scab and I've always had scab and I'm not scared of scabies anymore but if you got advice on that one, or varieties, I'm doing Kennebec and maybe a few yukon gold and some store potatoes, it's just whoever survives till the next year and none of the reds did

Thank you

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Here's a follow-up picture culling the runts, i used to eat all the big potatoes, maybe that was a mistake

 

[Peaches]

The potatoes I was given that I tried growing in a pot where like a thumb shape and not much longer than a thumb , when I go home ,I’ll dig one out of the pot and post a photo , I’ve got no idea what they are called as they were given to me after I’d advertised free turmeric plants