Growing Potatoes

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Country Families : One Thread

Anyone have any experience growing potatoes in a raised bed? I read once that a guy says he could get 3/4 of a bushel from 1 plant!!! Tell me how you plant yours and your yields.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 12, 2002

Answers

If your potatos are planted in open ground, then encircled with a 2 foot diameter vertical wire cylinder, mulch and soil added as the plant grows. Keep adding until only the top leaves remain showing, below the top will keep producing potatos, 3/4 or even 1 bushel per plant can be achieved, close monitering of soil level and moisture is needed. Large weave wire can be used with a couple of layers of plain newsprint as a liner.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), April 13, 2002.

Thanks Mitch... I will try something like that. It would be great to get those kinds of yields. We use about 10 bushels a year, and I could grow only 20 plants and maybe get close to that amount!!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 13, 2002.

Hi Melissa. I lurk here a lot but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents, as I have pretty good luck growing potatoes organically. I plant about 30 pounds of organic potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm (excellent stuff) in rows and instead of hilling, I just add wheat straw to the plants, leaving just the top greenery showing. You can dig at any time, but will get the smaller "new" potatoes early in the season.

When the green leaves start to wilt and die back, it's time to dig the potatoes. This is the most fun of the whole process. :> From 30 pounds of four different varieties amounts to five, 25' rows and I can get about five pounds from each plant. I try to pick varieties that have different mature dates so I can have potatoes all season and some keepers into the winter.

The biggest pest we have here is the darn potato beetle but Wood Prairie sells a variety called Prince Hairy that repels the little buggers and it actually works. Year before last and before this potato, my whole crop was wiped out. Last year, I had about two beetles. Just plant the Prince Hairies among the other varieties. And, they're tasty, too.

Honestly, I don't work for this company or get paid to promote their products but I always like to give the good guys a plug when I can.

-- Kit in Georgia (kit@seatosea.com), April 13, 2002.


Thank you! I grow everything organically as well. We have been using the old fashioned hilling the dirt method, and it is too much work!! Last year we planted 100 pounds of seed potatoes and had about 12 bushels, which I did not think was enough for the work we did!!! They had to be hilled several times, and all of that hoeing gets old especially when it is hot. There have been times in the past when we had 20 bushels, so our yield had decreased a good bit as well. This year we are switching to raised beds and I would like to get enough potatoes so we don't have to buy any without all of that back-breaking labor... Thanks to all for any tips or experiences you have.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 13, 2002.

In South Africa many people plant potatoes inside an old auto tyre & adding extra tyres & heaping up the soil as the plant grows. At harvesting, the tyres are removed to reveal the crop!

-- James Hunt (james.hunt@freemail.absa.co.za), October 04, 2002.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ