[Homestead] Potato Question
Gene GeRue
genegerue at ruralize.com
Sun Apr 5 09:35:48 EDT 2009
Hilling potatoes works. That's how we did it on the Wisconsin farm.
Good exercise.
Hilling not only encourages production, it provides tuber protection
from the sun, avoids that green surface we non-peelers worry about.
Another way to do it, which I favor, is to simply pile on more mulch
material.
How high or low potato pieces should be planted depends on local
conditions, especially rainfall during the growing season, but also
drainage. In a desert garden, dig a trench, toss in the spud pieces,
cover with a bit of dirt, keep adding dirt or mulch as they grow. In a
wet garden, especially in heavy, poor-drainage soil, just lay the
pieces on the normal ground surface and cover with straw or other
mulch. Keep adding. If you use mulch, the harvest is easier; you just
pull the mulch aside and there is your reward. Forking dirt too often
cuts the harvest. Of course, once you achieve perfect soil, you can
dig dirt with your hands.
And every experienced gardener knows that continued mulch application
is one of the best ways--perhaps the best way--to improve garden soil.
Gene
On Apr 5, 2009, at 5:09 AM, Clansgian at wmconnect.com wrote:
>
>>> 10" high??? Around what, each potato plant?
>
> Patience, Iago.
>
>
> Hill them up a couple of inches at a time four of five times during
> the
> growing season, not all at once. When the dirt comes around the
> stem, it provokes
> it to set on more stolons which make more potatoes. Once the potato
> blooms
> (flowers) it loses interest in setting on new stolons and so there
> is o point in
> hilling any further.
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