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market-farming - [Market-farming] Re: Market-farming Digest, Vol 2, Issue 1 - Planting Potatoes andWet Springs

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  • From: Erling Rosholdt <rosholdt AT erols.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Market-farming Digest, Vol 2, Issue 1 - Planting Potatoes andWet Springs
  • Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 12:26:02 -0500


>
> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 17:11:53 -0600
> From: Janet Bachmann <janetb AT ncat.org>
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Re: Tips for wet spring gardening?
> To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <3E5FECB9.6B15EB16 AT ncat.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> My favorite method for potatoes is to "plant" them on top of the soil
> and cover them with mulch. I used hay made from our own fields, and
> piled it about 6 inches deep. The potatoes came through just fine. The
> best part was harvest time: none of the hard digging. Just pull the
> mulch off and pick up the potatoes. Actually, it was a little more than
> that. Some of the potatoes were in the soil because the roots had gone
> down, but the soil was nice and loose and so they were easy to dig with
> a garden fork. The hard part is getting enough mulch! It has to be
> thick enough that the spuds don't push up through and get sun-greened.
>
> Does anyone
> > have a method for potatoes? We need to plant
> > about 1200', and it'll be ages before we can get
> > a tractor out there. Has anyone tried laying out
> > the potatoes on the surface of the soil, covering
> > with compost and hilling up later, when the
> > plants start to grow and the soil is drier??
> > Pam Dawling, Twin Oaks, Louisa, VA
>
>
> Pam -- if you don't already do it, how about sprouting the potatoes? It'd
> take a lot of trays and space, but sprouting the potatoes might help make up
> for having to plant later...
>
> Ken
> East Wind
> s. Missouri
>
>Pam et al,

It seems as if Virginia has a corner on wet Springs. One year I got so
desperate, I laid plastic sheeting over a 20'X 20' area in the garden.
The rain continued and the rest of the garden was a bog, but it was only
somewhat "wet" under the plastic (after a few weeks), and we could walk
there and dibble onion plants in. This small area method won't work if
you need to bring in heavy equipment, though.
Also, be careful about planting potatoes above ground. If you have
voles, this could be a bad thing. However, if your predator population
is up and the vole/mouse problem isn't massive, potatoes on top of the
ground (or planted very shallowly) with heavy mulch is a winner. I
prefer pre-sprouting (or at least placing them in the light and humidity
for a week or two) and then growing potatoes in mulch as I never have to
worry about the CO potato beetle. When I mulch and plant properly, no
beetles (or very few). When I don't -- bad beetles.

Note: When I read about Marlin and the weed flamer, I thought he might
be tempted to go melt some Snow! Tell Minnesota I know where their snow
went.

I have a question about sweet potatoes. I have tried to use purchased
starts with very poor luck - the starts always show up later than I want
and look as if they've been ridden hard and put away wet, and many die
immediately. I have read that better results are obtained by just
planting a sweet potato. Is that right? If so, how deep would you
place them? Also I have been reading conflicting yield statements
about sweet potatoes. What can one expect on, say, 100 S.F beds for
yields?

Barbara Rosholdt
The Dome Farm
Zone 7a, Virginia




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