Shredded paper for potato mulch

milaneyjane 6/2/2011, 6:08 pm

Anyone ever use shredded paper for their potato mulch? I put it on the potato at school today and think I will try at home as well. We have bags of shredded office paper from work and figure it is worth a go.

FamilyGardening 6/3/2011, 1:38 am

i have not.....but will you please keep us posted on how it work Very Happy

i would love to know if it works or not.....im using straw to hill up mine.....
hugs
rose

Old Hippie 6/3/2011, 1:44 am

It is worth a try. That is what is so fun about gardening. Trying different things to see how they work.

Gwynn

westie42 6/3/2011, 2:05 am

Both paper and straw sound interesting for a potato crop covering. My concern justifiable or not is about green spots on the potato skin or eyes. According to another post not enough cover to preclude light can cause that problem. The green is from chlorophyll but that points to the presence of a concentration of the neurotoxin solanine which can cause problems in children and compromised adults but rarely in healthy adults. So my question is would or could you get more green spots using paper or straw covering since it probably would not provide darkness like soil will.

Barkie 6/3/2011, 4:04 am

I've not tried this yet. As far as I can work out I think the technique is several inches of straw over the spud, earth up with straw and use grass clippings over the straw layers to exclude light.

**walshevak** 6/3/2011, 7:43 am

I would be concerned about the shredded paper getting wet and turning into paper mache and creating a water repelling situation. But I'll bet a mix of shredded paper, grass clippings and maybe a little compost and some straw if available would be good and not glom together so much . The paper shreds will keep off sunlight as well or better than the straw or grass clipping alone.

Kay

jymarino 6/3/2011, 11:09 am

I am using brown shredded paper that I got as packing in some boxes for mulch over my worm box. The paper itself dries out pretty quickly, but the peat that I have for the worms underneath stays moist. I don't keep it as wet as you will the garden so it will likely work much better for you. The brown paper does not get soggy and break down like a bleached paper would do. The paper is very much like the paper bags you get at the grocery store. You could get some brown paper bags at the local grocery and shred those up. I used a standard paper shredder to shred mine, but of course you can use anything you'd like. When I plant potatos I do it in a deep rubbermaid bin with lots of holes, so mine don't usually come up to the surface like they would in the SFG.

Just my two cents!

sawing logs

from dd

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Shredded paper for potato mulch

Shredded paper for potato mulch

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