Monday, April 07, 2014

Potato planting Erin Style!!

I have created a whole new way to grow potatoes. I guess I should wait and see if anything grows before I lay claim to a whole new way of growing potatoes. First of all the potatoes were bagged and put in the cool dark crawl space. Allan pulled them out one day and they looked like this.


He tried on several occasions to throw them out. I kept rescuing them and saying "they are from compassion farm...I can't throw them out". So I took the bag and hid it in the shed. 

After turning the clods of clay and rye and disposing of them in the compost bin...then NOT cutting up the potatoes, instead opting to plant the whole potato multiple eyes and all down a few inches with two foot long.....(what are the long pink branchy things called?) pink branch things lying along the top. Then topping it with about four inches of manure. I left some of the pink branches sticking out. I'm planning to top up as they grow. They looked like this:


And now you have to look hard to see the little shoots coming up through the manure.



3 comments:

  1. You should get lots of potatoes. I experimented with potatoes a couple years ago and blogged about it ( http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.ca/2012/08/potato-test.html )
    and to my surprise found that sprouts with no potato attached even produced! Have fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I save an potatoes we don't eat over the winter for my new seed potatoes. I like the Yukon Gold variety, they save well and grow easily. I use half 55-gallon barrels and plant small whole potatoes or cut larger ones at the bottoms of the barrels and then keep adding soil over the tops as they grown. I get more than the two of us can eat each year this way. - Margy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Margy, thank you for the tips. I really am a new potato gardener and advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete