Potato Patch

[karstopography]

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Started and finished the frame today. 5’x10’, 50 square feet just for potatoes.

[Gardadore]

Looks beautiful!

[GoDawgs]

Good job! Now, what kind of potatoes are you thinking about putting in there? And when do you plant potatoes in your area?

[karstopography]

I’ve[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] bought kennebec white, yukon gold, red Pontiac and red lasoda, that’s all of what the nearby feedstore sells. The county extension agent recommends mid January through February and again in August for the fall crop. My seed potatoes are in paper bags hopefully waking up and beginning to sprout(some appear to be) because I want to plant them this week. Plan is to about 1/3-1/2 fill the bed with loose fluffy fertile soil and then keeping adding more soil as the plants grow. I understand potatoes form above the seed potato so one has to partially cover the plants up as they grow. Probably should have a crop by early May or so. I think Yukon Gold is a bit earlier than the others.

[bower]

What is the soil like underneath the bed? We used to grow potatoes just laying them right on the sod then barely cover with soil, and it wasn't a problem. They came on fine and then we hilled them from the trench next to the bed. Weeds were completely suppressed by being hilled, and served as green manure too - that's the way my father taught me.
Just saying you might regret if you start at half full, but you don't need to. I grew potatoes in a raised bed last year and it was sad when they fell over because I had no more soil to pile around em. But they probably wouldn't mind if you just pop them in and start covering from there.

[karstopography]

[mention]Bower[/mention] spent uranium or tungsten hard and dense, think heavy clay and then add a factor of ten to it. Expansive soil. Expands greatly when wet and saturated, shrinks drastically when dry. Enough difference to frequently bust up rebar reinforced concrete foundations of buildings and homes. Locals here call it gumbo. The native Soil is One very good reason I want to put potatoes in a raised bed, but I might just lay a thin layer of the better soil, then plant. My frames are 35 cm high so there’s room for more soil.

https://atexaspatriot.wordpress.com/gar ... umbo-soil/

[bower]

Oh my! We have clay soil as a basis here too but not much of it. The red clay is our best but starts with a pH of 4. It takes a massive amount of organic input as well as regular liming to build to an arable condition. There is another type of clay which is white, my dad called it "pug" and you cannot plant anything in that, it is usually very thin but also pointless to amend either. So I am in the same basic boat of having to build up with organic soil material.
I do think a couple inches of soil below them would be enough for potatoes to get rooted. And whatever weeds or sods are underneath, they will die and leave channels of organic matter into the nasty stuff below. Being covered with soil should moderate the extremes of wet/dry in the underlying gumbo? IDK for sure.
The place we made potato beds by laying them on the sod was a fairly high percentage of clay but also a good depth, and deep rooted grasses and weeds like dandelions which also have deep roots. So the weeds already present amounted to a good dose of organic matter.

[Growing Coastal]

What is the soil like underneath the bed? We used to grow potatoes just laying them right on the sod then barely cover with soil, and it wasn't a problem. They came on fine and then we hilled them from the trench next to the bed. Weeds were completely suppressed by being hilled, and served as green manure too - that's the way my father taught me.
Just saying you might regret if you start at half full, but you don't need to. I grew potatoes in a raised bed last year and it was sad when they fell over because I had no more soil to pile around em. But they probably wouldn't mind if you just pop them in and start covering from there.

Interesting method. It wouldn't work well here though. One neighbour put a whole lot of sod into her compost one year and ended up with wire worms in her soil from that. The wireworms loved her potatoes. To get rid of them she buried potatoes with skewers through them so they could be found later and trapped them for removal that way.

[karstopography]

[mention]Bower[/mention] I just planted them pretty much just like you said. Maybe 6 cm of loose soil over the existing grass and then just a dusting of soil over the potatoes themselves. Laid a little row of 3-2-3 poultry derived organic fertilizer out to the sides and a little below the seed potatoes, but not touching them or anything. Soil is a virgin mix of MG raised bed soil and Baccto premium potting soil. Plan is to bring in more soil as the potatoes grow. Essentially, they are whole egg sized seed potatoes, I left them whole, the potatoes are in grid, and there are 37 in the bed with about a foot between each. Yes, I know in rows there should be more space between rows (the exact spacing number varies depending on the source), but that’s because of pulling soil up from in between each row plus any need to walk in there to cultivate. I will simply add soil from the top and not pull it from in between rows and I won’t have to step foot in the bed at all, didn’t have to to plant the seed potatoes, just a little stretch to reach the middle of the bed. Garden yoga.

I’ll see if it works, if it doesn’t I’ll find somebody to blame. Jk.

[bower]

Yeah, I saw the raised bed method on youtube and it gave a high yield for them, no rows required. My problem last year was, the bed was shallow and the supply of soil or compost to build it up ran out, although I did plant them as deeply as I could. That beautiful home compost I piled on with a handful of chicken pellet and comfrey leaves as well, got them growing very tall and looking fantastic... until they had nowhere to go but crash over.
In the end it was a much bigger hassle for me than planting in ground, so I won't do it again.
But you have a better model starting out, with 35 cm high bed and presumably plenty of soil to fill it all up. Wish you a good harvest!

[wykvlvr]

Wry grin my "potato patch" will be all grow bags this year. My current plan is very similar to yours. I have six 20 gallon and five 10 gallon plus a few 7 gallon IF I really need them. My 20 gallon bags are 35.5 cm/14 inches tall and the 10 gallon are 30.5 cm/12 inches tall.
Each bag will get 10 cm /4 inches of potting soil in the bottom. Place potatoes, add up to 12 cm/6 inches of dirt on top. Add more dirt as needed to "hill" the potatoes. This should work well for some of my potatoes (the indeterminate ones) and give me a decent harvest. On the other hand I have a few varieties that are what they call determinate potatoes and those don't need extra soil added on top as they only produce one layer of tubers. They need more space around them but not much above them. So fewer seed potatoes in those bags and only one layer of dirt up to 6 inches above them... those are my early and early midseason potatoes...

[karstopography]

[mention]wykvlvr[/mention] interesting, never heard of determinant or indeterminates used with potatoes. I just went with the varieties my feed store sells. Basically, anything they sell there at the feedstore is geared to at least have a reasonable shot at being grown successfully here. From what I can tell, potatoes grow well enough in this region until the late spring heat encourages flowering and the plant withers and dies, then the potatoes are harvested or some can be dug up for new potatoes long the way. Kennebec white is supposed to be an outstanding french fry potato, but also is multi purpose. Yukon gold is yukon gold and the red ones, Pontiac and lasoda, are what they are.

[wykvlvr]

For the grow bags it makes a difference but for most other folks it is not a big deal. Buying local is always nice but sadly our feed stores have turned into boutique pet food places...

[karstopography]

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These seem to be growing well. Every few days I pile up more loose soil around them. Had to put in an upward extension to contain the extra soil.

[GoDawgs]

They're looking great! Last month I posted somewhere about determinate and indeterminate potatoes after running across that information and had no idea about that with potatoes. Turns out it was posted on a general gardening forum I belong to so I'll repost it in the Dawg Patch.

You mentioned a fall crop planted in August. Wow. I think I need to try that here just for fun but it'll have to be planted from the spring potatoes as they don't sell seed potatoes here in the fall. Maybe the reason is that it's not a good idea here. Still, inquiring minds want to know!

[karstopography]

https://txmg-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/br ... s_2017.pdf
https://fbmg.org/files/2019/08/2019-Veg ... es-FBC.pdf


Both my county ag. Extension and nearby Harris county (not linked, not secure) have August planting dates for potatoes. Fort bend county here has it at Marginal in the fall.

https://extension.uga.edu/publications/ ... dar#August
Found this planting calendar for Georgia. Says potatoes can be done in the fall, but I didn’t read the fine print.

[GoDawgs]

[mention]karstopography[/mention] , thanks for that link. Searching for that was going to be my step. I need to try that again this fall. I tried two Yukons and one Red Pontiac in Fall '19. Looking at my garden notes I see they were planted Oct 20, waaaay later than UGA's recommended August planting time! They rotted in the ground. For sure the little leaves froze in the first frost.

[karstopography]

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I “closed” my potato patch, meaning I’m not planning on any more hilling. I did add an abundant layer of oak leaves as a mulch. I’d say the potato vines are covered with loose soil anywhere from 6”-8” on up to maybe 15”, with 1”-6” of leaf mulch over that. The mulch is naturally thicker around the less tall, less hilled vines.

A couple of the plants have flower buds forming. These potatoes should all be done by early-mid May. The big freeze set me back 2-3 weeks. Hopefully, the inevitable heat won’t be early this year and I can get a decent crop of spuds. I understand heat causes problems for potatoes. The nearby Gulf of Mexico moderates how hot it gets in the Spring, maybe that will work in my favor. Western Gulf of Mexico water temperature is below normal this year.

[GoDawgs]

They're looking so healthy. The potatoes here are up maybe 6-8" and after a lot of warm weather the temps are fixin' to drop to freezing tonight for three nights. This year's Keeper Of The Potatoes, my sister Pickles, had hilling on her agenda for today anyway and will dump leaves over what's left that's showing. That should work.

[karstopography]

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I stopped adding any more hilling soil and instead have filled in the bed with piles of mostly bamboo leaves. The big freeze defoliated our bamboo stands, but when life gives you lemons...

Many of the potatoes are now sporting buds and or blooms. Read where cool nights cause tuber sets, mainly in days 1-40. Sort of getting beyond that window with most of the plants, but some cooler weather is on the way next week so maybe I’ll get one more flush of tubers to form, if indeed any have formed. Hopefully, all that nice fluffy bamboo mulch will help keep the bed cool enough to get a decent crop come May or at the latest early June.