What do you plant your 'taters with?

milaneyjane 4/27/2011, 11:01 am

Who uses MM and who uses something else? Last year used a hodgepodge mix of what ever I had left over from making MM and deciding what to use this year that gets good results without the expense of MM. It will be two full 4x4 potato boxes.

Also, those that grow them separately, what do you do with your dirt mix at the end of the season since you shouldn't reuse it again for potato?

This is a thread from last year and just wanted to see what luck others had by the end of the season https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t1904p45-potato-towe rs

boffer 4/27/2011, 11:44 am

I find that potatoes are easy to grow in my climate regardless of what they are planted in. Last year I grew half of my potatoes in the ground, and half in MM. The harvests were similar. I'm trying it again this year; maybe with different weather I'll get different results.

Actually, my wife asked me not to grow potatoes in MM again because the skins seemed to grab on to tiny flecks of vermiculite. She felt she had to scrub the skins 10x harder to get them clean, as compared to the same potatoes grown in the ground. I know that sounds pretty weird, but that's why I'm trying MM again, to see if I can duplicate it.

I am negligent about rotating.

dizzygardener 4/27/2011, 12:17 pm

I am not growing them according to SFG although you certainly could and with great success.

I'm growing my potatoes in separate bins. This is my first year growing them this way, so I can't tell you how they will come out.

I didn't have enough MM left over, so they are growing in straight compost (I had lots of that left). They seem to love it. There are growing like crazy. I'm hoping I have lots of good 'taters by July. We shall see.

So long as you don't have any disease problems, you can reuse the stuff in the bins for a couple years or even longer. You don't have to rotate every year. Since it is straight compost I'll probably just toss it once I'm done with it.

milaneyjane 4/27/2011, 12:25 pm

Boffer----I completely agree with your wife---the silver flakes were a nightmare to get off the tender skin of the potatoes last year.

boffer 4/27/2011, 12:43 pm

milaneyjane wrote:Boffer----I completely agree with your wife---the silver flakes were a nightmare to get off the tender skin of the potatoes last year.

Somebody believed me! cheers

You may have read on other threads that I'm adamant about doing SFG by the book?! Wink

Well, I also think that SFG isn't the best answer, all the time, for every person, and every need. For me, because of the volume of corn and potatoes that I grow, I don't think using MM is the best method. It's too expensive and provides no extra return on the investment.

But, I do put some of the same 5 way compost on my corn patch every year, that I use in my MM. Potatoes aren't heavy feeders so I'll add compost every other year, or maybe just a 3 way compost mix.

Miss M 4/27/2011, 2:01 pm

I've got my potatoes in MM, since they're in my SFG. I may be peeling the potatoes, we'll see.

I dug down a good 8" into my MM before I planted them (I have a thick garden), and filled and filled. They are now 16" above the ground, in a built-up 1' x 3' box. Do I keep building up and filling? How tall do they get?

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