Zucchini, potatoes, and New Zealand Spinach

Zucchini: Just curious to know what others have experienced with getting this to grow on a trellis. Somewhere on the SFG web site I think Mel wrote 2 squares should suffice if you can train it on a trellis, or 9 squares if not.

Potatoes: The planting time in the book refers to soil temperature. I have no clue. Anyone have a suggestion for when to plant in zone 5?

NZ Spinach: shade or sun? From what I understand this is not a true spinach, however the instructions on the seed packet are for generic 'spinach' and don't reference sun/shade.

Thanks!

Can only help with spuds...

If you can get a trowel in, plant 'em, they grow like weeds.

boffer wrote:Can only help with spuds...

If you can get a trowel in, plant 'em, they grow like weeds.

Sorry for failing to research, boffer. But, does depth matter? I mean the depth at which you place the spud. Just cover it up, or drop her down a couple of inches?

I am not doing zukes this year, nor have I in the past. But, I will.

As for spinach, this is my first year. Someone.....my mom.....scared me off in the past by telling me how fast it bolts. But she ain't heard of no SFG, and she ain't got no green thumb like me. Well, it's really the MM, but I'm not tellin'. I'm just gonna feed her a salad and say, TOLD YA LOLZ!

I've grown potatoes.
Plant them 3 weeks before your last frost date when the days are around 45*F and the soil is not wet.
Dig a 10-12" deep trench and place the spuds in the trench, eyes facing upwards, and cover with a few inches of soil.
When they grow about 6" fill in the hole with more soil leaving just the top leaves visible.
Do this a couple of times until your trench is filled in so the spuds will grow deep under ground away from sunlight.

You've never tasted great potatoes til you eat those you've grown yourself. Soooo fresh and tasty.

My first Golden Russets.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:

boffer wrote:Can only help with spuds...

If you can get a trowel in, plant 'em, they grow like weeds.

Sorry for failing to research, boffer. But, does depth matter? I mean the depth at which you place the spud. Just cover it up, or drop her down a couple of inches?

Spuds get no respect.

Can you imagine Mr. Potato Head, sounding like Rodney Dangerfield, saying: I can't get no repect!? Most people don't realize that the difference in taste between a store bought potato and a home grown potato is as drastic as that of store bought and homegrown tomatoes and corn.

Blindfold yourself; one hand behind your back: Stick the gosh darn things in the ground and they grow. I've learned most about potatoes by the harvest orphans I've left behind each year in the fall. Regardless of how wet, or cold, shallow or deep, covered with plastic or not, the potatoes I left behind are the first things growing in the spring. There's no stopping them!

Plant them a few inches deep. The only important thing is to keep the potatoes covered so they are not exposed to sunlight. If they see much sun, they are like acara, they will turn green! If you eat enough green potatoes, you eventually will get sick. But, you can cut off the green part of the potato and eat the rest with no problems.

boffer wrote:Can only help with spuds...

If you can get a trowel in, plant 'em, they grow like weeds.

lol

Thanks boffer and quiltbea! I actually got a few potatoes last year, but we got such a late start over all with the garden I didn't know how early I could 'stick the gosh darn things in the ground'. *ha* Perhaps we will try a couple soon and then also 'stick' some in about 3 weeks before the last frost and see what happens.

The birds in my location must love this.....as it comes up wild everyyear.....the nursery tells me its edible....but havent tried it yet....My friend from New Zealand sez he never heard of it there.....but I have heard that Chefs prefer this flavor rather than regular spinach in their dishes....got to get courage it eat it yet.......it takes a heck of a long time to sprout from seed in my kitchen........4 weeks is my memory.....and gave up on the seed 2 times.... I even soaked the big seeds first.....

Re NZ spinach :

I haven't actually gown it but seeing as I am from NZ orignally I thought I just had to try it - and it is more heat tollerant thatn regular spinach (I had also never hear of it, and it doens't look like anything I ever grew when I did grow spinach in NZ). My nursery where I got the seeds said full sun is fine, but in the middle of summer if you have a harsh sun, some shade will help it out some.

To help germination, if you soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours it is supposed to help.

My zucchs never struck up a relationship with their trellis last year, and becuase I was anticipating a trellised zucch I planted 1 per 2sq - it was on the edge of the garden and leaned heavily over the side of the garden,and produced very heavily. This year I am planning on no trellis, but giving the plants a similar amount of space - the squash vine borers limit the length of season for me - perhaps I will regret my spacing if I can actually catch and kill the boogers before they kill my plant - I am getting better and figuring out who the good guys are in the garden

boffer wrote:Blindfold yourself; one hand behind your back: Stick the gosh darn things in the ground and they grow. I've learned most about potatoes by the harvest orphans I've left behind each year in the fall. Regardless of how wet, or cold, shallow or deep, covered with plastic or not, the potatoes I left behind are the first things growing in the spring. There's no stopping them

+1!!!

I have only grown potatoes twice, and the second time was by accident! Orphans came up the year after I intentionally planted potatoes and they were nicer and I got almost as many from the few orphans as I did with my intentionals. I completely ignored them until I was pulling up everything at the end of the season and there were a few spuds attached, so I started digging and found gold - Yukon Gold, that is !

TC

I happened to find this link in another post. Check out the video. Very interesting way to stake zucchini, and it seemed to work for this guy. It's worth a try!

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/pruning-zucchini/

Last year I grew red and russet potatoes in plastic milk crates. I planted in the last week of May in five inches of MM and continued to backfill as they grew. When the plants grew past the top of the crates I added a circle of hardware cloth lined on the inside with a few sheets of newspaper. I continued until the end of the growing season and disassembled the plants a foot at a time top down. I sifted the growing medium through 1/2" screen to separate the potatoes and returned the MM to the general garden area with added compost. This year I've planted reds and russets in one of the 2X8 raised beds. I've fabricated 16" diameter rings from welded wire fencing and attached weed barrier cloth to the side to hold the growing medium in. Each section is about 14 inches high and I can stack sections atop of each other as the plants stretch to the sky. I have also planned to use compost tea with all my root plants including the potatoes this growing season.

Well Boffer, here's my spuds . . .



We built a special 1'x4' box with 12" boards. My boyfriend asked me if we made the box taller and taller, would the potatoes keep growing too? Indefinitely? I had no idea . . . perhaps a fun project some day . . .

I also found a few orphans - couldn't believe it!

I grew Malibar spinach last year and started with little plants, one red and one green. Only the red one went to seed but both of them grew like gangbusters! I put them in a bed right beside our house on the south west side and it grew up the 6 foot stake then across a string to the backyard fence! The red one grew abundant small leaves on far-reaching vines and the green one grew much more densely and less vine-like, with huge leaves that were wonderful when dried in the oven after being spritzed with a bit of soy sauce. I've been lazy in the garden year so haven't planted any of the dozens of seeds I collected last year.

This plant takes over along my back fence....like a ground cover.....here in Chula Vista......nobody has mentioned eating it...on the forum......nervous about eating it...as it is so prolific......

Burpee sells the seeds for $3.95 a pkg.........birds must have gotten it started in my yard.......Ruth

[quote="boffer"][quote="BackyardBirdGardner"]

boffer wrote:
Blindfold yourself; one hand behind your back: Stick the gosh darn things in the ground and they grow.

Can I quote you?

tabletopper wrote:This plant takes over along my back fence....like a ground cover.....here in Chula Vista......nobody has mentioned eating it...on the forum......nervous about eating it...as it is so prolific......

Burpee sells the seeds for $3.95 a pkg.........birds must have gotten it started in my yard.......Ruth

This plant grow almost wild in the Philippines and is a very tasty green. Used a lot in stir frys and steamed. Also added to a local pork soup.

Kay

Dadoo wrote:Last year I grew red and russet potatoes in plastic milk crates. ...snip... This year I've planted reds and russets in one of the 2X8 raised beds. ...snip...

So you're NW of me, right!
Great write-up! I'm planning to grow spuds this season, and will likely use your method or similar.
How is it that you've planted spuds already this year?

The Vickster--Potatoes: The planting time in the book refers to soil temperature. I have no clue. Anyone have a suggestion for when to plant in zone 5?--

I live in 5b southeast of Columbus. You are right, Mel's potato "planting time" actually goes by soil temp. In addition, my answer is, When a good trusted nursery has seed potatoes available.
Have no idea what my soil temperature was last year when I bought one seed potato as an experiment. Followed Mel's directions and all four pieces from one tater produced. My trusted nursery is Dill's Greenhouse in Groveport. You may recognize Jerry Dill as the guy who does "10 In The Garden" tv segments with Chris Bradley, regularly featured on WBNS10tv. So far, Dill's has steered me well with any questions. If I needed some potato answers I would call Dill's. When I google Dills it takes me right to their website with phone number. There is also the OSU extension service.

I'm in zone 5a and here we plant taters a few weeks before last frost date but not when the ground is wet. Mine worked a treat when I tried them then. It was new ground and I had no insect problems.



Above: Potato plants on Aug 9th that first year.

Another thought lately is to plant them much later to miss all the creepy culprits that like to destroy them, and they will still be harvested before the first freeze of winter. The date given was around the Fourth of July. I'm going to try a few that way this year just to see what happens.

I garden in Northern Germany at the moment and we had cold summer. I have maybe four NZS plants and the one that grows in the shade of tomatoes and clover underseeding is doing perfect. Nice greed succulent leaves and growing fast. Others are in the open and are not growing well at all. They are small and starchy. We have been adding young top leaves into salads in the begining of the summer, I really like the flavor and the texture. Now I was able to harvest enough shoots to cook with.

lexa wrote:I garden in Northern Germany at the moment and we had cold summer. I have maybe four NZS plants and the one that grows in the shade of tomatoes and clover underseeding is doing perfect. Nice greed succulent leaves and growing fast. Others are in the open and are not growing well at all. They are small and starchy. We have been adding young top leaves into salads in the begining of the summer, I really like the flavor and the texture. Now I was able to harvest enough shoots to cook with.

So glad to have another person growing in a different part of the planet. Please start an introductory thread about yourself and about your garden. Also include pictures.
Are you a Squarefoot gardener and have you read ALL NEW SQUAREFOOT GARDENING, the book we use as our how to manual on the forum? Be sure to check out the European regional subforum for things that may be unique to your area.

Kay

After posting yeasteday, I collected a small batch of leaves and steams of NZS and e had it with pasta. Simply ilted them in olive oil and mixed with warm pasta. Yummy.

Thank you for warm welcome, I have started the thread but I do not have any pics of my garden, . I have read the book some time ago and roughtly base my plantings on the SFG system. My first garden was straight SFG but I have strayed since and do it in more organicly shaped manner.

I ACCIDENTALLY started NZS this year in my garden. I planted it 9 per square thinking it was regular spinach (long story!). It didn't come up, so I planted regular spinach. Well, by the time the regular spinach came up, the NZS was up, too. Good thing, because a couple of weeks later the regular spinach had bolted!

I've since learned that NZS should be planted something like two per square, lol, and I can see why! Mine are growing like weeds. They love the full sun they get. Two days after I picked literally all the leaves off the plants, they had grown more! Awesome plants, next year I'll grow them in the trellis as Mel suggests in his first book. Very yummy and tender.

Our zucchini is a big disappointment. Early damage from "borers", and loads of flowers but no fruit caused us to nearly give up on it. Only within the last few days are they fruiting, though small.
We started fingerling and russet potatoes in tubs and "hilled" with straw. On the 4th of July our eldest son went up to his elbows harvesting them. We got some of each, but no bumper crop!

New Zealand spinach is a totally different story. We also planted 9/sq.
Now it's growing gangbusters and taking over the garden! BUT... it's TRULY delicious I hope we can store enough to last 'til next Spring!

New Zealand spinach. I planted one seed summer of 2015, and it is still growing like a weed (4 squares and over the sides. I need to prune and add more compost for winter.