potatoes

i'm absolutely jumping for joy about being able to talk about growing stuff..any stuff

feardia..nice to meet ya.. i am in western Pa, and in what has been labeled zone 5..which only tells the relative time for a growing season

i luv to grow potatoes..well i luv to dig them really...it's like treasure..
and
i have found some lazy man ways to get a good return on your labor...

first off potatoes do not like hard packed soil...so whatever you can do to lighten it up pays you back in yield
i always hated digging them up with a fork cause i speared way too many
sooooooo
lazy people's way is to get your potaotes..this year i am only growing two types.. yukon gold and red pontiacs..
the yukon gold stay close to the main plant but those red pontiac put out runners and they can really travel
so when you go to pull them out it is a search mission

you can use seed potatoes and plant the whole thing or you can get larger ones and cut them up so that each piece you plant has at least one "eye" on it..and yes the eye should be towards the top..it will be your stem
if you are cutting potatoes to use pieces some sulfur powder to dip them in keeps them from rotting before they sprout
i'm cheap and get the sulfur flakes and mash what i need
one tiny bag lasts for years

then after tilling or spading and raking the soil you stick em in ...i only put them into the groung the length of my index finger..
then i do use fertilizer ..very lightly..chicken manure is the absolute best if you can get it..or rabbit..broad cast it over your plot
and this is the lazy man's part
cover your plot with straw...and keep adding to it thur the summer....when the time comes you can almost pull back the straw and just pick those babies up..

oh some basic stuff if you have never grown anything before...
square your plot and get two sticks and some string...use it to make your planting lines straight..makes diggin much easier later
and i use a board to walk/crawl on while i plant so i don't pack the soil..one board will be plenty for potatoes cause you just move it as you go and then cover the whole plot with straw..
oh yeah.. put a stick or something in the ground where your row is so you will know if that is where you planted

some things to consider...that i have mostly learnt the hard way
if you use hay there are seeds that will also grow ..so straw for the first layer
but then if you have a lot of grass to cut..let it dry ..rake it and toss it on top...wet grass will rot and make a mess so let it dry in the sun at least till it looks like hay

..also if you grow onion or garlic beside them..the potatoe bugs will never find them..hahahahah..luv it
but if you can't do that..do a small platform bird feeder early in the crop to train the birds to check out your plot...
birds luv eatin those bugs..
i absolutely hated pickin them off the first few years..uck..they are ugly and squishy and stink..much better to call in the birds

google is a wonderful tool for finding info on what would be the best type for where you are...

and don't be afraid to experiment....one year i grew white ones - kennecbec and red ones..red pontiacs..and the blue parurvian ones
they are more purple thatn blue..made the best potatoe salad ever...

i have stepped down how much i plant cause being old ( ) i can't do as much and for only two of us 5 pounds of each to start gives me a yield of 4 or 5 bushels...plenty to share and lots to eat thru the winter and into spring..
but i have worked my ground for years and now we call it tv dirt..hahah cause you can stick you hand really deep into beautiful black dirt..
so your first year may not yield as well

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..that feels good..
anything i can help with i am thrilled to share whatever i have learnt...


oh yeah.. keep a gardeners journal...very important..with how much rain you get and how hot or cold your growing season is..
what you planted , when and how they grew and your crops condition and yield....belive me it is the best learning tool out there..

oh i'm so happy..hahahahahahha

I will be hitting you up soon sky for some advice once I move in the next month or so

i hate to be a stick in the mud, but potatos arent the best thing to grow. any member of the nightshade family (potatos, eggplant, peppers, tomatos) has some degree of toxicity. green tomatos have glycoalkaloids and are high in glutamic acid, the capascin in some peppers is questionable, and potatos are actually mildly toxic. all this in spite of the fact that several civilizations have had these plants as their primary food sources. <shrugs>

edible? definitely. the warnings are just something to keep in mind. however, if youre going for edible roots thatll store over the winter, cattail roots (rhizomes?) are probably the best bet. you dont have any worries about insects attacking them, and all parts of the cattail are edible during different seasons. the rhizome tastes (supposedly) just like a potato.

the best vegetables in terms of nutritional power are members of the brassica family: brussels sprouts (90 days to grow; cool, frost weather), cabbage, kale, broccoli, turnips, and cauliflower.

ill be growing some of these this year (not turnips), so ill let you know how i fare over here in zone 6, sky otter.

Reunite..anytime...i don't know it all..you learn every year but i've been at it awhile and am just thrilled to help out beginners
the one thing i can tell you is that gardeners are some of the most generous with info


Bw/C
you bring such a dry sense of humor...stick in the mud and you have to dig in the mud for the roots..lol
yep they are nightshades..and yep that blew me away when i found it out..but
they taste good and hey medicine from plants is some of the best

have you ever eaten cat tail roots??? what about the flowers..i have read they can be roasted like corn or made into flour..
..and have told myself i would try it..and even got a bunch to grow in the swampy area in the hollow along the creek..but ..never went any further..i'ld really like to know what they taste like..

can't wait to see how your garden does..is this your first garden?


another point if you are growing more than just a taste of anything ..is storage..a very big concern..
you can't store apples with any of the nightshades

so along with starting a garden some info on root cellaring or cold storage would be good info

dear sky otter, how does your garden grow? send me a few of those pretty maids. ; )

no, its not my first garden, but i have far more expertise and a stronger connection with fruit trees and blueberries. vegetables can be temperamental pains in the ass. i also have a seasonal business (in this paradigm, at least) in which i have to work long hours in the late spring through the fall, so i have little time to devote to the plants (the upshot is i dont have to work in the winter. i dont 'do' winter :) ). when the time is appropriate, ill spill my guts and maybe hope to get some of you growing blueberries, raspberries, and other berry bushes.

and yes-- someone with some experience needs to cover basic canning and jarring of vegetables and fruits.


-cat tails-

edible parts on a cattail:
young shoots and stalks, immature flower spikes, pollen, sprouts, roots

use: salad (raw), cooked vegetable, flour, pickled.

early spring: young shoots are peeled and can be eaten raw or cooked liike asapargu (boil 15 min). the young stalks can be prepped the same way.

late spring: green immature flower spikes can be gathered and boiled for a few minutes.

summer: collect the pollen in a bag. high in protein, and can be mixed with regular flour. store it by drying thoroughly.

late summer: collect horn shaped sprouts at the root stocks. boil or eat raw.

fall-winter: rootstock can be boiled and eaten, or crushed and washed to reveal a white flour.

source: peterson field guides, edible wild plants, eastern/central NA

Bw/C
oh boy am i glad you said what you grow..
i do have straight cane thornless blackberries and elderberries and i make freezer jam with some of them
but
i haven't had much luck with the red raspberries and i was just drooling over the seed catalogs blueberries
so i hope you'll let me pic your brain later...
i know what busy seasons are

i just got two more dwarf plum trees and 4 more grapes yesterday and since it is raining today they may go in this afternoon
i like to plant in the rain

Zuni i will give you such a big hug for this section you'll see stars..thanks

thanx everybody for your advice.
skyotter your tips on growing spuds are invaluable, since i am in ireland it will be spuds I am growing. We'll probably also grow onions, carrots, leeks and parsnips. Garlic does not grow well here, nor do tomatoes, or peppers. I will get my seed potatoes, carrot and parsnip from the local friday market, Good Friday would be a good day to buy them. Other people have promised me onion, sweet pea and runner bean seeds, however the area near the fence has been sprayed regularly with weedkiller for the past 20 years, so i would be wary about eating anything produced along there, I have a packet of wild flower seeds which i might put there to let the soil recover.

The bbc are doing a series on the eye of hell on growing your own food http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/bbc-food-growing-campaign.html they are offering seed packs to people who register at the website. I don't know whether i should as a) I don't trust the bbc not to poison us with gm seeds and b) that is how they get your name for the tv licence which is required to watch their propaganda, anyway you don't want to be on the database.

The soil in my plot is not very good as the site is an old wwII bomb site, so it is full of rubble about 8 inches below the surface. I know that the soil has to be quite loose for growing spuds and root veg in general, so i might need to get some peat to mix into the beds. The beds were only turned last week so they are drying out before I break it up more with a fork and hoe, didn't bother today because there was no sunshine, they are lazy beds after all, and i am a feckless irish peasant, it should be nice tomorrow, so i'll maybe do a bit then. :)

While the aim of my garden is to produce food, it would not be possible to feed all the residents as there are at least 40 people in the block, and they are all asleep in front of their tv's. The main aim is to gain the experience, to show the neighbours what they can do and to teach the children that food grows in the ground. Hopefully as people wake up they will join in and realise the value of what we are trying to do.

I have promised to write a letter to the local school so that some of the children can get a day off (they are learning nothing anyway) to help with the planting, I also told them that if they continued throwing stuff around that a fence would be built and they would have nowhere to hang out or play, i think they got the message, the next group i will face will be the teenage drinkers who hide there to drink beer in the summer evenings. This is a social experiment, most people think i am mad, i aim to prove them right

bilder
Blackberries and raspberries grow well here, but i am not sure how they work, do you take a cutting off a bush? I could probably get blackberry bushes from the local park, they grow wild there. What are cats tails?
love to all...

well, that sucks... i just lost that entire post.

take 2... action!

blackberries and raspberries can be propagated easily by two ways: layering and root hormones.

layering is done by bending the vine/stem down into the ground and back out again. eventually, the submerged stem grows roots in about a few weeks and can be clipped off the mother plant. theres another method called aerial layering. this is done by taking a stem (or branch) and making a small incision in the bark. cover the plant wound with slightly damp spaghum moss or peat moss and wrap the plant boo-boo with an impermeable membrane to prevent water loss. the plant will spring roots from the site. then you can clip it off and replant.

layering works great for gooseberries because they have long, cascading stems... elderberry bushes should work also provided you can find a branch thats low enough. gooseberries: a great "plant it and forget it" plant that grows great in part shade (gotta plant it away from white pines though... theres some kind of plant virus that can be transmitted to white pines by the gooseberry). the berries are small and crunchy.

root hormones: simply dip the end of a cutting in the root hormone and plant in the ground. sometimes it works, sometimes not.

if youve got hard pan, mix the earth with peat moss. the soil should be well drained, sandy soil. the raspberries will go bananas (add that one to my painful humor list, sky) and the root system will be very strong. expect a ton of runners.


figs can be grown in USDA zone 6 when protected in the winter by wrapping them (from winds-- wind does the damage), but best in zones 7 and below. one could simply take a leafless fig branch, plant it sideways in alkaline soil, and it should take. usually it takes...


re: blueberries... the more varieties you get, the bigger the berries youll have, which is the case with most fruits. go to a nursery and get the larger plants. pick out ones that have a nice, deep greenish blue leaf. the catalogs will send you a tiny plant, and youll be waiting forever, pulling your hair out waiting to see fruit appear. the right way to do it is to gently pull off all of the flowers before they fruit (let the bees do their thing, then remove the berries) so that all of the plants energy goes into leaf and branch production in its early life, but its hard to have that kind of willpower. i managed only a year, but i wouldve had monster plants had i done it longer.

the 'jersey blueberry' variety has big berries, but the taste is a bit weak (for me). i like a strong, slightly tangy, yet sweet blueberry. the jersey is rather bland. i like the patriot, blue ray, and herbert varieties the best. full sun, well drained sandy soil, and definitely mix in the peat moss. theyll "go bonkers for god". (skip ahead to 5:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W81S8koRBoo ).


sky, your dwarf plums: euro or japanese varieties? both are highly susceptible to japanese beetles (as are apricots, apriums, and pluots). the grapes even more so. starlings are the only birds that i know that will eat them. my grapes are doing very well, but i lose all my fruit with a fungus in late august every year. i havent found a solution-- do you have any suggestions? the hornworm caterpillars dont help, either.

ill cover what i know about raspberry varieties later...

Cattails are out, zuni, they could cause an ecological disaster here, like the grey squirrel, and it seems to be a wild thing from the northern forests.

I must learn what zone I am in, and i think i will stick to native plants, mind you the potato was originally brought here from the americas, and we lived remarkably well on them for several centuries.

Anyway I'm busy forking over the soil today, I came in for some food and fell asleep, got to get out and defend my patch before the kids come home from school,
now is the hour...

feardia..........good luck out there on your gaurd duty...........

it´s wonderful you started this project to educate the childeren.........

just a suggestion:

you can have plants guard your plants, feardia. plant some poison ivy or poison sumac (or some other plant irritant in your locale) around your property where the kids tread.

Good idea bilder, anybody got any triffid seeds?

The kids are grand, i threatened to lock the gate and put a fence up so they have promised to behave. The garden is one of the few places they can play in, so they are inventing new games among the beds. I'm off to the park to see if i can get some blackberry bushes... report back later.

Feardia

some of my folks came here when the famine hit there and i was thinking about it..
and was looking up some things about it

late blight was the problem and being a soil pathogen it is probably still around
so the one thing they found that worked was copper sulphate
and wow it also works on grape fungus...
another name for it that i know it by is bluestone
and it was used a lot for water management before folks got clorine happy

here are some links i found for more info or you can just do a search about potatoes
lots of info online

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/blight.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_sulphate

happy gardening

triffids! loved the show.

copper has been used as an algaecide and a disinfectant since at least the romans. silver works too.

my big question is whether the copper sulfate is eco-friendly.
(i guess it is in small doses... )

Ok what did I do wrong.

We have been enjoying potatoes out of our garden. However we have found some that are spoiled in the center. Off colour (not black) and kind of a watery substance in the middle.

It has not been excessively wet and I did not over fertilize.

Any suggestions?

no idea .. off the top of my head..but here is a link to maybe some help
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/ipm/insects/pcerti13.pdf

i haven't ever had that one happen..i used to get the black heart stuff...but since i dip the cut ones in sulfur when i plant i haven't had any problems
i just dug my potatoes tonight.. .ahhhhhh it is so like getting treasure to crawl along and plop them outta the soil..
i mulch heavy so i don't dig any more..just use my hands after i pull what's left of the stem out....

our july was wet and cool so late blight and verticilum are running rampant here..the tomatoes and cucibits are trashed
so i was pretty worried about the potatoes..and i just haven't been able to get into the patch to get them..
but they look ok... and some of the largest ones i have ever grown..

i did sneak in a grab a few for parslyed potatoes a week or so ago and they were fine...soooooooo
let see.. tomorrow will probably be parslyed potatoes again..yum..then maybe potato pancakes
then

Thanks Sky. that is a good link.

Why didn't you talk about potatoes?????


Project Camelot interviews Irish whistleblower Feardia

She didn't ask about potatoes!!!! Hehe LMAO

Great interview Feardia.