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  • From: <clearviewfarm AT bluefrog.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Hilling Early Potatoes Late
  • Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 20:04:00 -0700

In my humble opinion, Allan, I think that you can still hill the spuds until
you can't drive down the rows anymore or you can lay down mulch of some sort.
Someone else may disagree, but I believe you can still derive some good from
adding medium in which the plants can add spuds.

Awhile ago, you asked me about the gutter system I am researching through a
SARE grant, Allan. I believe you asked about the soil medium, among other
things. I used Eliot Coleman's recipe, 4 parts potting mix (I used Sungro
Special Blend (organic)), 3 parts compost and a little bit of Fertrell 4-2-4
(not intended to be an endorsement, as I am sure others will work fine, too).
I am sure other brands work, too!) This is according to Eliot's recipe on
page 99 in Four-Season Harvest. That mix has worked much better than solely
Special Blend and a little bit of fertilizer, which we tried last year. We
are using plastic and aluminum manufactured gutters and 6" PVC pipe cut in
half the long way. The "lumberyard" gutters have manufactured ends screwed
in place, while we used duct tape on the PVC. We also screwed 2x4's onto the
bottom of the gutters to make them more rigid. In addition, I ran a 3/4"
black poly pipe down one side of the high tunnel (at the top of the lower
section that rolls up) and inserted barbed fittings into the black poly.
Onto the barbed fittings, I clamped clear reinforced poly tubing and ran that
over to drip tape, which is secured to the gutters. I could provide photos
directly to you, Allan, or to the listserv, if there is a way. I haven't
been very religious about reading all the emails in the listserv, due to time
constraints, so that I am aware of all of the workings of the listserv.

As far as I am concerned, the system is management intensive and not
especially forgiving, as far as moisture constraints go. If you are in your
high tunnel at least daily and can control water flow from there, it can work
fairly well. Once I have tomatoes and eggplant, etc. in the tunnel, it will
be a bit easier for me to be checking things more often. The jury is still
out with respect to cost vs. returns. So far, it appears that gherkin
cucumbers and arugula do best in the gutters. I tried ground cherries with
netting to catch the fruit (thinking that the gutters being 4' or so up in
the air would facilitate harvest), but the plants didn't get very big nor did
we get much fruit. Perhaps the improved soil mix will help that. Lots of
room for experimentation remains! I hope that my explanations are a bit more
translucentk than mud. Feel free to fire more questions at me, although I
might not reply right away, due to the craziness that prevails here!

Kurt Forman
Clearview Farm
Palmyra, NY 14522

--- aballiett AT frontiernet.net wrote:

From: Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net>
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Market-farming] Hilling Early Potatoes Late
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 18:05:25 -0400

It's been a crazy season here in the mid-Atlantic so far with more
days lost to rain this season that I remember having ever happened
before.

I'm WAY behind on most everything. For about a month now it's been
too wet to hill the potatoes abd at $5 a bale, straw isn't an option.

I have the following varieties planted, probably 600 pounds of each:

Yukon
Kennebec
Red Pontiac
Red Norland
Russet
irish Cobbler
katcdin ("phonetic" spelling)

I'm going to try to find some mulch hay to cover the spuds this week.

The plants are tall and beautiful

All the seeds were planted shallowly.

IT's quite likely that if I don't get some hilling or covering done,
I won't get many potatoes this year.

Most of these potates were in the ground by April 1

The Cobblers and Katcdin have nice big blooms on them right now.

Do you think I'll be wasting my time to try to mulch or hill the potatoes now?

Thanks

-Allan in WV
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