Sun, 2009-04-12 23:33 — ponyboy
This looks like something you could without having to dig up your backyard. :-)
http://lifehacker.com/5202849/grow-100-lbs-of-potatoes-in-4-square-feet
This looks like something you could without having to dig up your backyard. :-)
http://lifehacker.com/5202849/grow-100-lbs-of-potatoes-in-4-square-feet
Comments
so, its been a good while...
Sat, 2010-07-24 04:18
so, its been a good while... anyone have anything to report?
spuds
i have this to report from down on the the farm..
you can use old tires to do the same thing..but better yet... you can use hay in layers with chicken wire to get that same 100 pounds. food for thought. : )
re my potato boxes
My potatos plants are about 5 feet long and all over the place. Since I have never grown a potato before I am hesident to dig them now... but a neighbor says that they are ready after the flowers bloom.
Anyway, here they are... Note, my green house is finished - but its too late in the year - so next year for the one pound tomato...
I just dug one box of potatos. Very disappointing... 9 plants about 1 pound of potatoes...
So I just planted about 100 garlic for next year... Now is the time to plant the fall stuff...
Potatoes
Ed,
The potatoes are not ready until the green turns dead. Also next time do a deeper box, and as the green grows, bury all but the tops of the green. This way the steam that you bury will produce potatoes. Also plant them 10-12"" apart from each other. With only 6 spuds (actually 3 potatoes cut in half) I harvested 35 pounds of potatoes.
Once you do harvest them make sure your place them in a cool dry and dark place for a least one day, without washing them. This seals the skin and allows the potato to firm up. After that you can either eat them or wrap them in brown paper to save for next year sowing. Remember that a cut up spud with at least 3 eyes on each piece are spectacular for growth.
Your next year will be hardier with the spuds out of the ground, because the potato has grown used to that soil.
Have fun with your harvest, looks good!
Two way spuds...
You know if you just can't wait for the tops to die back, and if you don't care about keeping spuds all winter, they're better before they're ripe. Dig them when they are the size of a quarter and scrub most of the skins off before you slightly boil them. WOW they be da best! They won't keep but then spuds are cheap all year in town. New spuds are a rare delicacy that can only come from your garden.
Spuds update in CA
We have a program called WIC. I believe it stands for Women in Crisis. Women with children they can't afford to feed on their own. The program just remove spuds from their list if approved groceries the program will cover. As a result, the CEO of the spud industry in (I believe) WA is going to eat nothing but spuds for a month to prove their worth in a healthy life. Nothing but spuds with spices added. I like the guy.
WIC
WIC = women, infants & children
potatoes
There are a few of my potatoes. I grew a bunch of yellow, red and purple potatoes...
Really nice
Nice job on the spuds, really like the variety, but I think it will be hard to peel logs with them!! Many years ago we grew potatoes in a trench dug 8-12 inches deep and 3 feet wide. Used the troy bilt tiller first then just scooped out the dirt. Placed the spud eyes in the bottom spaced as many as you think will grow in the space. Drop a teaspoon of cotton meal by each one. Got some really old black compost, sawdust, from chicken farm and filled the trenches. At harvest time you could grab the plant, pick it up along with all the spuds still attached, and shake the dirt off the spuds. Huge spuds. No rocks or roots to compete with. The plan came from either Organic Gardening or Mother Earth. Really works. What you did really works too.
Deeper Box?
Taters as with other root plants like a bit of depth. My boxes are only one foot deep and I only plant one staggered row per box. The size I get are typically 2” round which is good for me as the last thing I need during supper is a one pound tater. By the looks of how tall your plants are, it seems like most of the nutrients went to the stem and leaves.
My plants only got about 16 inches tall which I think is due to watering from below instead of from above. Either way a deeper box will give you much better results.
Box Gardening is a Good Way to go
We are in our second year of box gardening. I found a bunch of FREE 2 feet long x 1 foot wide x 1 foot deep plastic storage bins. I built 16 planting boxes with a plenum in the bottom to serve as a water reservoir. I drilled a ton of holes through the top of the plenum and placed 2A modified gravel down with wed cloth. This prevents the soil from falling into the plenum. I have one pipe passing down from the top of each planter, through the soil and into the plenum so I can add water, and another pipe that passes through the bottom of the planter but only extends up into the plenum. This pipe is an overflow and tells me when I have filled the plenum with water. I can normally go 4-6 days between waterings.
The 16 planter boxes are supported about 2 ½ feet off the ground by a rack built using wood from FREE crates. We have had more than enough veggies – carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes and potatoes. Something kept eating our broccoli and cauliflower.
Our boxes are too small for squash, pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber. We didn’t get these to do well in the planters so we dug up a 20 foot x 10 foot area of the side yard and put chicken wire around it. Worked great! We have to give half of what we row away to neighbors and my Son’s family. I would guess that vine plants might do OK in a 4 x 4 foot box. But if potatoes do good in a 2 x 1 foot box, you can bet they will do great in a 4x4 foot box.
trying it out
Reminds me of the old tire potato growing stacks. Of course, who knows the chemical content there!?
We went ahead and built two of them. Growing some yukon golds and some purples (don't remember which kind). Only took a few boards, so might as well see.
Catherine
SAH mother of 4 under 6 - loving homeschool!
Birth Doula and student midwife
Class of 9/2-3/2006
Spud
I have a buddy near the Goldendale (Washington) area
that's trying this. He planted his a few weeks ago.
No updates yet. :-)
Well, did anyone try the potato thing?
if you did, are you having any luck? or maybe too early to tell?
Cool! I like anything that
Cool! I like anything that provides plenty of produce without having to spend all my time weeding and battling pests.
Square Foot Gardening
I can't recommend this book heartily enough: The All New Square Foot Gardening
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239672794&sr=8-1
It looks like this potato setup is basically a variation on the square foot garden idea.
grow boxes
I just yesterday read an online article on this survivalist website that suggested that laundry baskets that you can buy at the store make great planters for vegetables. You line them with newspaper and then put your dirt in. They are also deep enough for root vegetables and you won't have to break out the saw or water proof glue.
Frances
$ store
I bet the Dollar Store has laundry baskets... :-)
I was gonna hold off on
I was gonna hold off on posting this until I'd tried it out but since this thread is going back to growing in containers... ;) Found this idea linked from the link in your first post, ponyboy. Thanks!
http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/
http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm
http://crazybillionaire.com/2008/05/earthtainer.html
Now I got to thinking, how can I do this without buying a bunch of those plastic tubs? Oh, I know! buckets! How do I get cheap or free buckets? Ask at your grocery. A lot of icing and flour is shipped in bulk- 3-5 gallon buckets. I did a little searching on youtube and found this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUCxBHeq04
I think someone had posted it before, but it didn't click in my head at the time.
Or if you want to buy something already made:
http://www.earthbox.com/
Careful though, the boxes have good reviews but the company has bad reviews for customer service...
http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/1754/
Edit. I've had thoughts too that having an open access to a reservoir of water might attract mosquitos, so some of these sprinkled in should help:
http://www.arbico-organics.com/1211102.html
Or, a little netting taped over the fill and drain holes should do.
ollas
OLLAS are unglazed pottery jugs that can be “planted” alongside your veggies or flowers, then filled with water from a hose when the weather heats up.
It uses capillary action and wicks water through the porous clay to the soil.
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2009/03/05/ollas-o-yeah/