potatoes :)

hey Jen....no problem

LOL i dont remember what i said.....i think i asked what others were using to hill up thier potatoes?....if anyone was growing them.....stuff like that....

its all cool though.....i love talking taters

as far as how many i used.....im trying to think back....the garbage can ones i found seed potatoes at Fred Myers i believe.....they were really small white ones.....i bought two bags of them and put one bag into each garbage can.....i think there may have been 5 maybe in each.......the wine barrels i used yukon and red seed potatoes.....yukon had 4 i think and the reds had 5.....i put the whole potato in....i didnt cut them....they all went in at or around the 15th of march.....the garbage can ones came up about a month before the wine barrel ones did....

hugs
rose

My first year for planting potatoes, and I dug up 6 last night! So excited! I planted red and yukon gold. Can't wait to eat them tonight!!

My potatoes are growing so fast I have had to hill them 2 times in 5 days now. Crazy!! Sure hope I get some good potatoes and not just green leaves!!

Ann

Footnote to potato raising: In talking with my 89-year-old mother, she shared her memories as a child on potato raising in a mile-high valley in Idaho: In the early spring, my grandfather brought "Old Mr. Stickney" in to prepare the potatoes, which had been stored in an underground root cellar throughout the winter. Mr. Stickey carefully selected the (leftover) tubers beginning to sprout, carried them out to the open air, and spent particular time cutting each potato into pieces, leaving the correct number of eyes in each to assure a good potato plant. These cuttings were cured (Mom does not remember how long), then were planted in long rows. BTW, Mr. Stickney (I never knew his full name, though he was noted for surviving gas attacks in WWI) was "paid" for his work in preparing seed potatoes (and helping plant them) with enough potatoes at harvest to see him through the year. Mom remembers the potatoes were Burbank "netted" potatoes--from this, I'm sure they were russets (though my grandparents also planted a variety of red potato as well). The ranch's root cellar was walled in stone, roofed with a deep grass-planted dirt layer over timbers, and a gravel floor. On the north wall was built a bin, which held the clean, cured potatoes. Mom remembers as a child hating to go down into the root cellar to bring up potatoes...there was always a spider or two which had spun a web near the entrance. (She still freaks out when finding spiders in the house.) In the mountain ranching community in Idaho, potatoes were important for winter menus, along with home butchered and cured meats and lots of canned produce. Explains a bit more why I, too, garden and can produce for the winter. Nonna

Here's hoping that your grandchildren have similar memories to pass along as adults!

Boffer, this past weekend, two of my grandchildren were here with us. Katie helped plant more carrots, and Alex (age 6) helped PapaVino move cured firewood into the woodshed. We were totally blown away with Alex's work ethic over two days, moving wood. He should keep his granddad's comments for inclusion in an eventual work resume! Katie is more like me...plant seeds, tend them, harvest and COOK! She was delighted with the "rainbow" radishes. So fun to share gardening with grandchildren, isn't it?

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:So fun to share gardening with grandchildren, isn't it?

LOL I have one son, age 28, single and shacking up...no grandkids in sight!

I enjoy reading the bumper stickers though... half of grands bragging about their grandkids, and half of grands enjoying the revenge on their own children!

Boffer, guess I need one of each bumper sticker. Snicker, snicker. Nonna

Way kewl Nonna, my grandfather was also a WW1 survivor and gardener on Whidbey Island (off of western Washington) His root cellar sounds a lot like your grandfather's but he also kept apples from his small orchard, onions and carrots in his cellar (besides potatoes). Somehow the onions and apples did not intermingle. Seems like that was also where the seed was kept. To this day one of my favorite scents is apples in a cellar. My grandmother was one of the first people I knew to buy a freezer instead of canning everything. Her thanksgiving sweet corn and peas were just that, sweet! From her I learned to freeze apple pie filling that was ready to dump into a crust (she never froze pie crust, even though she was a working lady-drove the school bus-she could make pastry in her sleep) At Thanksgiving she bought a turkey and lemons for lemon meringue pie on a gram cracker crust. Everything else came from the root cellar or freezer. I think that there was also a meat locker "in town" (back then Oak Harbor was a post office and a mom and pop store) but I do not remember them growing any animals to butcher or collect eggs from. Those came from other local farmers who sold what they had at the store. My aunt did have a horse for a 4H project and my grandmother's roses were beautiful because of him.

My grandmother made jams and jellies (does anyone still make jelly?) from her beautiful berries. I do not remember any blueberries but there was everything else. The jelly came out for biscuits; otherwise asparagus and berries were considered seasonal and did not show up at thanksgiving. However there was green "Yellow Transparent" apple pie for 4th of July right next to her strawberries for shortcake. (The guys, which included me and one other girl cousin) caught salmon not far from one of their homes (they had what was left of the homestead of one of my great grand parents in Greenbank where the corn was grown as well as more strawberries, potatoes, Logan and black berries and a lot of other veggies)

Russet and red potatoes were what grandpa grew too. The reds were summer potatoes and the russets were "keepers".

Deborah....who also thought that the cellar spiders made the cellar a scary adventure, but was more afraid of the trouble I'd face from grandma if I played in the cellar.

Now....back to all potatoes

LavenderDebs, That's why you and I never had to be taught which kind of potato was best for potato salad: potato salad is a summer dish, and red potatoes are summer potatoes. Ah, the wisdom of our ancestors. Thanks for another memory. Nonna

This thread brings back memories of my childhood in Idaho. Where I grew up school got out for a couple of weeks for "spud" harvest. There is actually a high school in southeastern Idaho with a spud as their mascot.

I have vivid memories of my mother cutting seed potatoes and working on the combines to harvest potatoes each fall. I remember the earthy smell of the potato cellars. I also remember walking behind my dad as he dug each hole and I placed the potatoes in the rows. I wasn't always happy to help back then, but I am enjoying taking care of my square foot garden. I can just imagine my parents chuckling about my excitement over my little boxes.

I planted Red Pontiac potatoes in compost in a big patio pot. There are about 6-7 sprouts poking through. I had to look back through these posts to remember the 6-3 rule about covering them. I figured I could move the pot into the garage over the winter and just keep the potatoes in the compost until I'm ready to use them.

Okay, I have a potato question. I planted my potatoes 6" deep in pots, and now they are sprouting about 6" high. But now I forget what I'm supposed to do next. Am I supposed to add another layer of dirt up until, like, the top leaves? Just leave a few leaves sticking out? I want to be sure to get as many potatoes as I can because I didn't plant that many.

Yep...you are spot on. Dirt, mix, grassclippings or straw all work.

In the April/May 2011 issue of Organic Gardening is an article by Doug Hall on testing seven ways to grow potatoes: four in containers, three in the ground. No. 1 was the age-old method of digging shallow trenches, setting out the seed potatoes covered with three inches of soil. When the shoots reached 10-12 inches, scooping soil from between the rows to mound it against the plants. The soil-mounding was repeated as needed throughout the season.
No. 2 was placing seed potatoes on the ground and covering them with 3-4 inches of loose, seed-free straw, then mounding more streaw around as they grew, eventually creating a layer a foot or more in depth.
No. 3 was in a raised bed with regular garden soil (no Mel's Mix) and seed potatoes treated very like method No. 1
No. 4 was in a grow bag; again similar to method No. 1.
No. 5 was planting in black garbage bag (it was noted the thin plastic allowed the soil to heat too much, and limited tuber formation).
No. 6 was planting in a wood box, the sides of which were added to as the potatoes grew and more soil was added.
No. 7 was building a hardware cloth circle, with several inches of soil in the bottom, then adding soil as they grew--similar to grow bag method.

Results were: the Grow Bag produced the most, with the method No. 1 hilled rows coming in second. Comment was that Grow Bags were expensive; straw cover seemed to deter Colorado potato beetle, but mice sometimes used the straw cover to sit safe while consuming the crop; wire mesh circle dried out too fast, so crop was spotty.

Interesting article that convinced me a combination of the above in a 12" raised bed, substituting Mel's Mix for regular soil, and utilizing straw or dry lawn trimmings would be best. That's what I'm doing....plus lots of hope for success. We'll see. Nonna

So sounds like letting rogue potato plants grow in my compost bin is perfect - they continually get covered higher up as I add more stuff.

Oh, boy, oh, boy! Take pictures when you break down that compost bin. We wanna see the harvest, yeah. Nonna

I went out to the garden today to find tiny black bugs eating my potato leaves. They are definitely not Colorado potato bugs, too small and all black, but doing a good job of eating just the same. Solutions anyone? I know what to do with my caterpillars on the the broccoli, but never grown potatoes before.

One of my potato plants died! It was just fine the day before and then dead the next day. I dug it up and the stem seemed fine but all of the foliage had died. No taters on it. I am growing all blue potatoes in a potato box. All of the other plants are just fine. Anyone have any ideas what may have happened?

Thanks!!

Margarita

petals1973 wrote:One of my potato plants died! It was just fine the day before and then dead the next day. I dug it up and the stem seemed fine but all of the foliage had died. No taters on it. I am growing all blue potatoes in a potato box. All of the other plants are just fine. Anyone have any ideas what may have happened?

Thanks!!

Margarita

Did it get sprayed with anything maybe?

Goosegirl wrote:

Did it get sprayed with anything maybe?

No, there are plants on both sides of the potato box and all of the other plants are fine. It is also too high for the dog to spray it. It has been up to 104 lately. Maybe the heat??

I went out to the garden today to find tiny black bugs eating my potato leaves. They are definitely not Colorado potato bugs, too small and all black, but doing a good job of eating just the same. Solutions anyone? I know what to do with my caterpillars on the the broccoli, but never grown potatoes before.

According to my non-expert research (in that I have those little black bugs as well) I believe they are flea beetles. I sprayed mine with an insecticidal soap I had on hand that claimed to control them and so far it has. I sprayed a few times in a couple of weeks and I haven't seen them since. I've also read that diatomaceous earth will work as well.

I have holes in most of my potato leaves but the plant is still thriving. Apparently if the plant is established enough they won't do enough damage to kill it. That's what I know!

Thanks Smartchick! I had a church friend tell me what they were but then said to wait a bit, they will go away... I'd feel better doing something, lol!

It surprises me that plants can sustain a lot of insect damage and still thrive. Something always eats holes in my bean leaves but it just outgrows the damage. I've even read that some insect damage is good for the plant! I don't know about that, but three years into gardening I'm finally not panicking about insect damage. That said, I despise cucumber beetles because they carry a virus that kills off my cucumbers every time.

HieronRemade wrote:

Barkie wrote: I'm going to do that this year for new potatoes at Christmas watching Dr Who.

High five for Dr. Who fans!

Oh yes.

for as long as I can remember. The first one I saw was the the actor with the curly grey locks and the cool purple velvet jacket. Gosh, I'm getting old. There were only 4 networks back then, CBS,ABC,NBC,and PBS thank the heavens.