Potato Growing Claims

[Martin Mikulcik]

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

Fingerlings

 

[Meadowlark]

I love everything about potatoes...growing them, storing them, and eating them...46 consecutive years of 95% avoidance of store-bought potatoes while consuming in excess of about 400 pounds per year from the garden.

Heck, I even love talking about them. So, I'll try to address the topics you mentioned in your above post @Martin Mikulcik FWIW from some things I learned over those 46 years.

1) Scab: I find it disgusting mainly because I love eating potatoes skin and all. Scab is problematic to that. PH is very important toward managing it. Ph 5-5.2 is needed for most varieties I grow. High PH = scab and the higher the PH the more the scab. I just shake my head when folks talk about adding wood ash to their potato rows without any idea of PH.

Rotation is critical to scab avoidance.

Potatoes thrive growing with composted animal manure. However, it must be applied to the row months (preferably a year) before planting the eyes.

I use my own home-grown eyes as much as possible (2.5 ounces). Some vendors are very bad at providing potatoes that will scab.

Dry conditions in the first 2 -6 weeks of growing exacerbates scab.

2) Growing: I use only organically prepared soil so I can't help on synthetic fertilizer use. I never add any fertilizers during the growing season. My potato row enters the season having had layers of composted cow, chop and drop legumes, and green manure added. My total nitrogen level generally is at or about 40 ppm beginning and 10 ppm ending.

The only time I have ever added nitrogen was as described in this thread about "Potato Claims". The result was fatal to the plants.

The only thing I do after planting the eyes is hill up the rows a couple of times. I use raised rows to start with which really helps potato growing IMO but to avoid chlorophyll and high levels of solanine hill 'em up when needed.

3) Storing: One of the most critical aspects to storage is the amount of water in the soil at harvest. I do not water, none, in the last two weeks preceding harvest. Of course, Nature has its own agenda, but I want dry soil when I harvest if possible...potatoes store much longer.

I strive for continuous supply of potatoes year around plus seed potato availability at the right times in late winter and late summer. Pretty much succeed each year with some exceptions. I store the eating potatoes in my well house which is highly insulated, dark, and moderate temps. Table potatoes are moved to the fridge when needed, Seed potatoes are stored in the well house also. The gap when it happens is usually right before harvest of the fall potatoes and right before the harvest of the spring potatoes. We use the home-grown potatoes canned to fill those two usually short gaps...but on very rare occasions take a store bought for baking. The gaps are short duration, very short on good years, like zero. All the varieties I grow, and store are known for storing well...and tasting great.

What else? I have grown about 20 different varieties and have settled on Red LaSoda and Yukon gold as the two mainstays with some exotics for variety like the Sarpo Mira. I could bore everyone with evaluation spread sheets but will just keep that to myself.


And by the way to reference this thread subject again, cutting the tops at 60 days is stupid IMO as well as adding nitrogen at 60 days. One of the absolute beauties of organically prepared soil without synthetics is that the organics break down all through the 90 day or so growing cycle providing the right nutrients to the plants continuously.

It works for me!!

​

 

[someone_random]

Do you think these potatoes are ready yet?

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Do you think these potatoes are ready yet?

I will let others answer but i wait till they have gone completely dormant, no above ground green

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I love everything about potatoes...growing them, storing them, and eating them...46 consecutive years of 95% avoidance of store-bought potatoes while consuming in excess of about 400 pounds per year from the garden.

Heck, I even love talking about them. So, I'll try to address the topics you mentioned in your above post @Martin Mikulcik FWIW from some things I learned over those 46 years.

1) Scab: I find it disgusting mainly because I love eating potatoes skin and all. Scab is problematic to that. PH is very important toward managing it. Ph 5-5.2 is needed for most varieties I grow. High PH = scab and the higher the PH the more the scab. I just shake my head when folks talk about adding wood ash to their potato rows without any idea of PH.

Rotation is critical to scab avoidance.

Potatoes thrive growing with composted animal manure. However, it must be applied to the row months (preferably a year) before planting the eyes.

I use my own home-grown eyes as much as possible (2.5 ounces). Some vendors are very bad at providing potatoes that will scab.

Dry conditions in the first 2 -6 weeks of growing exacerbates scab.

2) Growing: I use only organically prepared soil so I can't help on synthetic fertilizer use. I never add any fertilizers during the growing season. My potato row enters the season having had layers of composted cow, chop and drop legumes, and green manure added. My total nitrogen level generally is at or about 40 ppm beginning and 10 ppm ending.

The only time I have ever added nitrogen was as described in this thread about "Potato Claims". The result was fatal to the plants.

The only thing I do after planting the eyes is hill up the rows a couple of times. I use raised rows to start with which really helps potato growing IMO but to avoid chlorophyll and high levels of solanine hill 'em up when needed.

3) Storing: One of the most critical aspects to storage is the amount of water in the soil at harvest. I do not water, none, in the last two weeks preceding harvest. Of course, Nature has its own agenda, but I want dry soil when I harvest if possible...potatoes store much longer.

I strive for continuous supply of potatoes year around plus seed potato availability at the right times in late winter and late summer. Pretty much succeed each year with some exceptions. I store the eating potatoes in my well house which is highly insulated, dark, and moderate temps. Table potatoes are moved to the fridge when needed, Seed potatoes are stored in the well house also. The gap when it happens is usually right before harvest of the fall potatoes and right before the harvest of the spring potatoes. We use the home-grown potatoes canned to fill those two usually short gaps...but on very rare occasions take a store bought for baking. The gaps are short duration, very short on good years, like zero. All the varieties I grow, and store are known for storing well...and tasting great.

What else? I have grown about 20 different varieties and have settled on Red LaSoda and Yukon gold as the two mainstays with some exotics for variety like the Sarpo Mira. I could bore everyone with evaluation spread sheets but will just keep that to myself.


And by the way to reference this thread subject again, cutting the tops at 60 days is stupid IMO as well as adding nitrogen at 60 days. One of the absolute beauties of organically prepared soil without synthetics is that the organics break down all through the 90 day or so growing cycle providing the right nutrients to the plants continuously.

It works for me!!

​

I did not know that about ph and scab, i guess I'm screwed then because I'm at 6.5 and I'm not going to try to sulfur my way out. I did have less scab with 12in spacing than 6in and i always rotate.

I will have to try the la soda, i wish the stores around here would at least get some new varieties occasionally

Thank you

 

[Meadowlark]

Do you think these potatoes are ready yet?

I refer you to the answer I provided to you on the same question just a few days ago ...

You will know as the tops fall over at maturity. Good job.

It's natural to get anxious about when to harvest...no problem.

You can harvest now or wait until the tops fall over dead and no green. By waiting, the new potatoes will grow a bit more and toughen their outer skin some which aids in storage.

So, it's your choice. Or you can do both...harvest some now and the rest later when all the tops have fallen over dead.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I usually grow a few in bags. They like sun on their tops, but cool and damp roots, so I make a screen with old plastic sacks impaled on bamboos in front of them to shade the bag. If you are somewhere sunnier and warmer than England I wonder if it might pay to put something between the mounds to do the same thing?
The other thig I do is a good layer of grass cuttings over those in the ground to keep it damp and cool.

 

[nao57]

Some of us have seen this kind of influencer propaganda before. You have to think about the process of growing like a math formula. And analyze the parts.

Years ago you used to hear people say to cut off extra leaves on tomato plants. Its the same kind of bull sh--. People say stuff to influence people. And this country and others have many elites that want to own everything. They would and could tell people to only buy from their patron money machines and ignore the little people. When you look at economic history there's a very clear pattern of trying to program people to ONLY buy from BIG BUSINESS and ignore friend to friend and family business connections. This is how the west including the US got so screwed up. It caused the middle class to shrink and then spilled over into other countries as people were programmed by influencers to only buy from who they are programmed to think are the pros.

Its the mighty man mentality in Isaiah also.

This idea to cut off the tops is not smart. You need the tops because that's how you could get photosynthesis going. Plants require their version of 'solar panels' to produce energy.

I've noticed in many industries and types of business there's always people that say only do it my way. And never buy from little people. And you can easily tell who they are because they want everyone else's voice to be taken out.

That's part of why I suppose I don't particularly like influencers.

But... for sake of the experiment. I totally get that you guys would want to see what happens and do your own experiments. In fact, that's the best thing to do. You are doing what you should by testing it for yourself.

There are other ideas in the past I'd heard of also, not just the tomato thing but there used to be a think of milk fed pumpkins and milk feeding other vegetable plants also. Sometimes it can work with some of these ideas. But you can tell when they are influencing you when they say only buy from....

...

PS; another problem with saying do x at day 60 or whatever is... if your climate is different from theirs and if your soil is different you will need more days required to get to whatever that person's day 60 is. Where I'm at day 60 for others is probably day 70+ for us. Not everyone grows the same. This also a reason why its likely a scheme.

 

[nao57]

Numbers to be proud of.

Do you think boron amendment would do anything?

Not sure about Boron per se.

BUT, people who do natural fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers think about it in terms of about 17 different nutrients instead of ONLY NPK. So if you think this way I think your produced garden items will be healthier and more stable.

 

[Meadowlark]

I didn't spend enough time on @Martin Mikulcik question on boron. Sidetracked on corn, I guess.

At any rate, it is a very good question. My boron levels are low...lower than the recommended .5 ppm for potatoes. I haven't worried about it in the past but it is interesting.

For this fall's potato crop, I'm going to amend for boron in the potato row and see what happens.

I always amend for boron on brassicas because it is critical in their growth but never have in the potato row unless it happened to follow a brassica.

Interesting question @Martin Mikulcik and thanks for asking.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

---

I didn't spend enough time on @Martin Mikulcik question on boron. Sidetracked on corn, I guess.

At any rate, it is a very good question. My boron levels are low...lower than the recommended .5 ppm for potatoes. I haven't worried about it in the past but it is interesting.

For this fall's potato crop, I'm going to amend for boron in the potato row and see what happens.

I always amend for boron on brassicas because it is critical in their growth but never have in the potato row unless it happened to follow a brassica.

Interesting question @Martin Mikulcik and thanks for asking.

I've heard that in fields that have been farmed a long time with just the standard npk and sulfur/lime that boron is the next thing to run out especially for corn

I was just asking because about that time i acquired some spilt fertilizer for our field and i could recognize the potash, super phosphate, and sulfur but there was also a clear crystal that i believe is boron but idk. I will say that fertilizer helped my potato yield more than urea did by about 15%.

Before my grandfather died he had some unpublished numbers on copper amendments for row crops and my brother did the math and decided it was statistically significant and benefited the crops in Calloway co Kentucky by like 2% compared to standard practices. But copper amendments are expensive and we don't know how long it'll last so it's not a thing yet

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Years ago you used to hear people say to cut off extra leaves on tomato plants. Its the same kind of bull sh--.

Yes and no. I have recently been through the greenhouse taking off bottom leaves. Some were yellow and useless, no problem them going, some just starting to turn. I find the extra air flow and light help ripening on low fruit and stop mildew infection. On the whole though I agree, healthy leaves are what gives the plant its energy.

 

[Meadowlark]

I did not know that about ph and scab, i guess I'm screwed then because I'm at 6.5 and I'm not going to try to sulfur my way out. I did have less scab with 12in spacing than 6in and i always rotate.

I will have to try the la soda, i wish the stores around here would at least get some new varieties occasionally

Thank you

My ph runs about 6 and I find dusting the seed.tubers in sulphur and adding some to the hole gets it down to the optimum levels as well as protecting them from rot. I was taught to use wood ash for that...but that is the opposite effect.

Yes to 12 inch spacing, larger spuds, more volume, and healthier spuds than 6 inch.

 

[Peaches]

That was interesting Reading @Meadowlark about growing potatoes even tho I’ll never plant more than a single pot of spuds

We don’t eat many potatoes so a 2 kg bag would last us about 6 weeks ,last week I bought a 2 kg bag from a veggie shop for $2 It wasn’t long ago prices for fresh foods , was still up there at covid lockdown prices , so maybe the shoppers with family’s to feed were turning to canned foods as well, as using a cheaper food like rice and pasta in preference to paying high prices for fresh produce , like I mentioned I don’t buy spuds often , thinking about it was only about 3 months ago we we’re still paying $8 ~ $10 for a 2 kg bag of what i classed as second grade produce

 

[Oliver Buckle]

about 3 months ago we we’re still paying $8 ~ $10 for a 2 kg bag of what i classed as second grade produce

Not the only consideration, a little while ago I read that the average commercial potato plant gets sprayed eight times before harvest.