Potatoes....all those varieties...

[Beekissed]

You may notice I mentioned "commercial" twice in my post. There are a lot of things in growing crops, raising chickens, and things like that where we can learn something and take advantage of the commercial boys and girls research. But I take those with two dashes of salt and a dash or pepper. I'm not commercial, I'm not in those climates, I don't always grow the varieties they use, and I use them myself instead of depending on them for a living. I try to take what I think might apply to me and try it, sometimes, but I don't take much of anything as I have to do it that way. I can be kind of hardheaded that way. There is the right way, the wrong way, and my way and I'm sticking to it.

Couldn't have said it better! That's exactly how I feel too....there's the right way, the wrong way and then there's my way. My way can change some but most frequently it doesn't, no matter what "they" say. Not that I'm averse to learning a new trick...I'll take those and run with them but I don't see the point in rushing crops where I currently abide. It takes as long as it takes.

It sounds like you guys are cussing.

Mary

I know!!! When I first read that word over on the UK site, I had to chuckle as someone was having problems chitting their potatoes. I almost suggested a laxative but figured they would not be amused by the "cheeky" American.

Chit chit chit.

Most likely what I'll say if my tater crop is minimal and I am standing there thinking, " I guess I should have chitted 'em."

 

[catjac1975]

Here's one I've never seen!


http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/potatoes/potato-masquerade-prod003184.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

With Burpee you can often get free shipping if you wait a while, but $20 for 10 mini-tubers that will make 10 plants? They'd be cute but once you peel them, what difference does it make, that's if they are big enough to peel. At $0.59 per pound for Red Pontiac or Kennebec or Yukon Gold at the local Mom 'n Pop, that's almost 34 pounds. After tax say 30 pounds. I figure I can get at least three and probably four plants per pound of seed potatoes, especially if I can pick the tubers. That's at least 100 plants instead of ten. To me , they are just not that cute.

That's why I responded to Bee's first post in this thread the way I did way back when.

I'll add that if I want something I'm willing to pay for it, like that Thai Pea Eggplant I've ben looking for. But I have to really want it to pay that kind f price for something.

 

[Beekissed]

We think a lot alike on many things, RR. My frugal mind doesn't allow money for cute, just for things with a good purpose. I don't like to pay for seed taters at all and prefer to plant from last year's crop if possible, but if I do pay for potatoes, they better have a really good yield and pay back for the money spent.

 

[catjac1975]

Burpee has free shipping TODAY!!!! 20% off a few days ago.

 

[Beekissed]

Been watching vids on YT about folks planting taters in bins and was thinking I may try to plant a few in my worm bin soil when I'm done growing worms in it. Some of it will go in my seedling mix, of course, but the rest will mostly likely be dedicated to a container tater or two, just to have a little fun.

I would most likely set the container in my garden with chips/mulch mounded up around the bottom where the drainage holes are so the roots can mine for moisture and even more nutrients there....got that idea off a UK dude growing lots of different kinds of taters in containers. If I only had small growing space like those folks, I'd come up with space saving ways of gardening also.

Oh..and he chits his potatoes too.

 

[digitS']

I have long had a love/hate relationship with potatoes, moving towards love and away from hate. They were a staple in my family although, I don't remember that we once grew them.

As an adult gardener, I pretty much thought that if you put a tuber in the ground and waited until the end of the season, you would have potatoes. The seed could come from the grocery store.

My experiences have not been consistent. With my first gardens, I probably lucked out once or twice. Then, disasters began to occur. Scab - some varieties have almost no resistance. Learning how much damage Colorado potato bugs can cause in a short time. Another bad moment was planting under mulch and providing a wonderful home and food supply for field mice. That was remarkably devastating to my garden crop and enthusiasm.

All for what? Potatoes that I could buy at the store for very little money?

My neighbor once planted a nice little plot of store potatoes. Not one of those tubers grew! I try to learn from other's mistakes and did a little reading how virtually all potatoes conventionally grown, are treated to retard sprouting. The treatment begins in the field by spraying the growing, green plants! Gassing in storage occurs later.

Growing in containers seems like a bother. Still, Irish Eyes has advice and they are kinda the real deal for potato gardening. Only some varieties are suitable for a continuing application of mulch. Foliage is required for plant photosynthesis however, higher/younger leaves contribute to photosynthesis more than the lower/older leaves. But, only some varieties will continue to develop more tubers as more of the stem is covered.

Compost is handy for me to use for hilling ~ if I have enough of it! It's valuable and there often doesn't seem to be enough for all the purposes ...

Growing potatoes can be fun but I stayed away from them as a garden crop for many years. Fresh veggies was what I wanted. Fresh, fresh, fresh! I'm still at it and it is one of the reasons why I go for the early potato choices. Still, I understand the fun of finding the hidden crop - one after the other!

I was reading last night the words of a gardener who just has no intention to apply his hard work to the production of food. He's all about ornamentals. Okay ... I grow them too. I realize the experience of caring for plants which bloom with such exquisite beauty that the flowers can bring tears to my eyes just looking at them.

Wonderful food brings happy emotions, also. Personally, I'd rather pay someone to grow beautiful surroundings. It's why I find time during the busiest weeks of my year, to walk through parks and public display gardens.

It's gotta be on my schedule of a free moment! I can be several feet above the ground moving through a rose garden ... but, I can also be several feet above the ground in my kitchen. Both experiences are important.

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

I hear ya on all of that. I love, love, love flowers but~coming from the youngest of a family of 9 kids~food crops were the focus of my life. Now that it's just Mom and I, I still focus on that, as the family seems to pop up come harvest time like I am the little red hen or something.

We've grown potatoes most of my life and they were, and still are, an important part of our food supply. Potatoes, like most root crops, store valuable minerals from the soil for winter diets and you can plant a little and receive a lot with potatoes.

We've never had much trouble growing them, though this current garden plot leaves much to be desired as it's hard pack clay and very acidic. I'm hoping the BTE method of producing new soil and mulch will help improve yields so that I can plant less and grow more. The soil on the old homestead just a few hundred yards from here would grow potatoes bigger than a baby's head and tons of them...go figure. Sadly, we no longer own that soil.

Should be an interesting year for our potatoes here. I planted in the late fall, for the first time ever(NOT sprouted potatoes, but apparently they sprout strongly on their own during the winter....HUGE single sprout out of each one by mid-winter), and am using this new garden method to boot.

I've got the potato rows mounded up about 2 ft deep with compost of various kinds~grass clippings, shredded leaves, composted wood chips, old cow manure, and more leaves. Those rows out there look like I've buried bodies in my garden!

I'll likely sprinkle some wood ash there for good measure this winter and let the snow melt it into the biomass of the rows.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have long had a love/hate relationship with potatoes, moving towards love and away from hate. They were a staple in my family although, I don't remember that we once grew them.

As an adult gardener, I pretty much thought that if you put a tuber in the ground and waited until the end of the season, you would have potatoes. The seed could come from the grocery store.

My experiences have not been consistent. With my first gardens, I probably lucked out once or twice. Then, disasters began to occur. Scab - some varieties have almost no resistance. Learning how much damage Colorado potato bugs can cause in a short time. Another bad moment was planting under mulch and providing a wonderful home and food supply for field mice. That was remarkably devastating to my garden crop and enthusiasm.

All for what? Potatoes that I could buy at the store for very little money?

My neighbor once planted a nice little plot of store potatoes. Not one of those tubers grew! I try to learn from other's mistakes and did a little reading how virtually all potatoes conventionally grown, are treated to retard sprouting. The treatment begins in the field by spraying the growing, green plants! Gassing in storage occurs later.

Growing in containers seems like a bother. Still, Irish Eyes has advice and they are kinda the real deal for potato gardening. Only some varieties are suitable for a continuing application of mulch. Foliage is required for plant photosynthesis however, higher/younger leaves contribute to photosynthesis more than the lower/older leaves. But, only some varieties will continue to develop more tubers as more of the stem is covered.

Compost is handy for me to use for hilling ~ if I have enough of it! It's valuable and there often doesn't seem to be enough for all the purposes ...

Growing potatoes can be fun but I stayed away from them as a garden crop for many years. Fresh veggies was what I wanted. Fresh, fresh, fresh! I'm still at it and it is one of the reasons why I go for the early potato choices. Still, I understand the fun of finding the hidden crop - one after the other!

I was reading last night the words of a gardener who just has no intention to apply his hard work to the production of food. He's all about ornamentals. Okay ... I grow them too. I realize the experience of caring for plants which bloom with such exquisite beauty that the flowers can bring tears to my eyes just looking at them.

Wonderful food brings happy emotions, also. Personally, I'd rather pay someone to grow beautiful surroundings. It's why I find time during the busiest weeks of my year, to walk through parks and public display gardens.

It's gotta be on my schedule of a free moment! I can be several feet above the ground moving through a rose garden ... but, I can also be several feet above the ground in my kitchen. Both experiences are important.

Steve

Good points Steve, especially about the ability, or non-ability of different varieties to make tubers further up the buried stem.
That no doubt, would account for such wide differences in the success or failure different gardeners have container growing. Potatoes aren't all built the same!
I can't account for my obsession with growing potatoes. There are certainly vast amounts of important, productive and prettier vegetables to be grown.
But I'm a slave to those homely little dirt dwellers.

I'm also glad that there are people willing to pay someone to grow and maintain non edibles in the landscape.
It satisfies something in me to make beautiful surroundings for others homes, and it helps keep me off the streets.
It would sure be nice if I could spend all that time on my own gardens, vegetable and flower, though.

 

[Beekissed]

We always used to cut our taters, making sure an eye/sprout was on each section and planting them in that manner. It's just always how we did it, probably more out of frugality than any other reason.

This past year I was watching the BTE vid and he mentioned that he took the biggest and best potato from each hill and planted it right back in the hill as he harvested his potatoes. Something he said made a lot of sense to me....he said that the new plant will use the old potato for nutrition until all its roots are well established, so it only makes sense to give it more nutrition by giving it the whole potato. He also said, it made sense to plant the best potatoes from your harvest, rather than the little, scrubby ones that are left over at the end of the winter season.

Both of those things made a lot of sense to me, though part of me was wondering if the new plant will be forced to form better, more, and quicker roots due to the lesser nutrition of just a piece of potato vs. a whole potato simply due to needing more nutrition. And, do the outcome of the plant all derive from individual tuber size and does their relative size have anything to do with the tubers to be grown later on that plant or does that have more to do with available nutrition? In other words, if you plant a big potato, is it more likely you'll grow more big potatoes and vice versa, with the small spuds?

All questions to ponder.....