Growing potatoes in straw?

[Wishin']

I am planning on trying to grow potatoes in straw for the third year in a row. Has any one done this successfully, and if so can you help me? The first year I tried it in a bag container, planted per numerous magazines, word of mouth and book instructions. Bury eye under ground just until covered add some straw and let the stalk grow. As the stock grows add more straw until desired height. I chose about a foot for some 6" for others and 3 feet for one, per instructions of a neighbor. I ended up with a few very very small potatoes. The second year I planted the same way, but directly in the ground. All the stalks rotted at the bottom before the growing season was over and I ended up with 5 small potatoes Which the turkeys promptly dug up at the end of the season and took one large chunk out of each potato any suggestions?

 

[baymule]

Wishin' I planted potatoes last year in leaves mixed with horse manure. They grew bigger and were prettier than the potatoes that I planted in dirt. I think the problem you might be having with the straw is that there are no nutrients in the straw. Your potatoes aren't making because they are HUNGRY! Mix some manure with the straw and let it compost for better results. Yesterday and today DH and I layered leaves with rotted hay and horse manure for planting potatoes. I'll keep it watered to help it compost. I also spread a little wood ashes and a little lime in the pile. The wood ashes help keep the potatoes from getting scab from the manure.

The stalks rotting at the ground and very very small potatoes indicate to me that your soil might not have been loose enough. If the soil is dense and hard, the potatoes cannot expand. If the plants rotted, the soil might have been too dense, hard and too much water. The answer? COMPOST COMPOST AND MORE COMPOST. Leaves, hay, grass clippings, pea hulls, corn stalks, shucks, mixed with animal manure. Garden black gold. Humus in the soil will loosen it up and attract earthworms.

I got a good harvest last year, but I sure had a lot of failure too!

http://www.theeasygarden.com/thread...toes-today-update-post-56-harvest-pg-7.12301/

 

[Wishin']

The container potatoes had were planted a few inches under the dirt, but the were on top of about 2 feet of a really nice mix of compost from chicken/goat/sheep poop leaf litter and grass clippings from the last few years of composting and nice dirt we brought in to fill various holes in the yard. This mixture was also used in our garden which ended up with a massive bumper crop of pea,s beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, and a little bit of warm weather lettuce. The potatoes that were planted directly in the dirt had the soil amended with the same mixture. The year the potato stalks rotted we were in a drought and were not exposed to very much rain and didn't get watered very often. The dirt in the container bag did die out and get harder relatively quickly. That may have been that ones problem, thanks.

 

[baymule]

OK, so the plants rotted because of a lack of water. Taters gotta have water. lol The soil/compost certainly sounds rich enough! Try again this year. There is no fail in gardening......only a learning curve.

 

[so lucky]

Don't feel lonely, wishin, I've had some bad luck planting potatoes in straw, too. I may just plant in dirt this year.

 

[journey11]

Well, I've had mixed luck with it, really. The method I used was to decide how big a plot I wanted and lay down a few layers of newspaper directly on the ground (untilled--just grass cut short), top that with about 2" of compost, sprinkle liberally with bloodmeal and bonemeal, set your taters, then cover thickly with straw and continue to add straw as they grew up through it. I ended up with lots of gigantic potatoes, nice, clean and smooth skinned. Would have been perfect had the voles not chewed a big ol' hole in practically every one of them. As DD and I were harvesting the potatoes, we watched baby voles shooting out of the piles of straw like little roman candles.

But I have 2 cats on duty now, so maybe I'd try it again.

ETA: And welcome, btw!

 

[Wishin']

Hi and thank you.
I have never heard of a wet rotted stalk due to lack of water
Thank you journey I may try a few your way, but I'm thinking I'll just give up on this whole straw growing conundrum and plant potatoes the way they have been grown throughout history

I've had some bad luck planting potatoes in straw

Talk about ironic Thank you lucky, makes me feel better I'm not the only one who cant do something as simple as growing potatoes in hay. Which I was told repeatedly was a very simple thing to do.

 

[digitS']

Wishin' - Welcome to TEG!

I was reluctant to open this thread. I don't want to discourage people who have enthusiasm for trying something that has to do with gardening.

My experience was almost exactly the same as Journey's, except it was nearly 40 years ago. I didn't grow any potatoes for years because of that debacle - about 2,500 sqft of garden taken up for nothing! There are different expectations for how things might turn out but having so much damage from the voles, pretty well put a cap on it.

Wishin', you can see some of our successes and failures with doing what you have been trying. Here is something I found very interesting and it shows how things might turn out. I had hoped that "the1honeycomb" would see your post and respond. She may yet but here is a result of a TEG search. You can see that 'Honeycomb has been doing this for several years and telling us about it. She may have started her indoor, bagged potatoes just about now! Click the little TEG gardening guy and you will see the search:



Steve

 

[journey11]

If you can get past the voles, the straw method can be good for preventing scab at least, if that is a problem in your soil. But yeah, you really can't go wrong just putting them in the dirt.

 

[Wishin']

Thanks DigitS. I will have to find some time to read those threads. Maybe if I'm lucky she'll post on here and save me the time. It seems to be missing a lot lately
Btw where do I introduce myself. It would be nice to have somewhere to say hi and ask a few Q about how ya'll do your gardening so that I can glean a bit and maybe end up with a decent garden plan.