Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I got the impression it was a product<G>, and this time I got both your
joke and Warren's about Ivy's 'smokable herbs' LOL....
But I digress....
I was afraid Sue's experience might inhibit anyone's desire to grow
potatoes in other alternate ways, like in tires.   She mentioned that
the potatoes were in the compost, not in the straw.  I just couldn't
imagine how large the bag would be, but based on the amount of potatoes
she got, the bags must be pretty small, paper grocery bag sized or
comparable??
Sue, when I grow potatoes in tires, I add a little dirt to eat layer.  I
first scruff up the underlying soil and add some additional soil to fill
about half the first tire.  I top that with hay/straw.  When the potato
vine clears that and I add a new tire, I throw a few more shovel fulls
of dirt in the tire.  The weight of the soil keeps the hay compressed,
and provides nutrition for the plant.  I kick the tires over to harvest,
but probably most of the potatoes grow in the dirt layers, especially
this time of year.  Now, in the summer, a potato will grow anywhere, I'm
convinced, but if it were below freezing and snow covered, I'd say the
potatoes were in the warm safe zone of the dirt/compost this time.  I'm
just imagining the way the plant grows, sending out little  exploratory
rootlets that will eventually plump up into potatoes.  If those tender
rootlets freeze, no potatoes...If they are insulated from the cold,
potatoes.  That might explain why Sue only saw potatoes in the compost.

Bev

bobf wrote:
  I think 'grow bag' is modern slang for what
>  the kids in the 'smoking section' in school, in our time,  called a 
> nickel bag ?.....


--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge