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Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:49 pm
by SusieQ
Paquebot wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:31 am
Once you have scab, you are stuck with it for life.
Please forgive my total ignorance, but I often have scab on my apples. Is it the same 'scab' that troubles potatoes, or a different nasty altogether?
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:16 pm
by brownrexx
Nan6b wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:57 am
Would wood chips work in place of straw, do you think? I might be able to get those free.
I wouldn't see why not. The potatoes plants are not getting any nutrients from the mulch so you could use anything that water can penetrate. The roots are in the soil and get their nutrients from there.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:20 pm
by Whwoz
Nan6b wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:57 am
Would wood chips work in place of straw, do you think? I might be able to get those free.
I would think so Nan. Check out post 4 of this thread. It contains most of the information I think you might benefit from and I am not getting fancy typing after nightshift. If needs be cover the tubers with potting mix.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:32 pm
by brownrexx
SusieQ wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:49 pm
Please forgive my total ignorance, but I often have scab on my apples. Is it the same 'scab' that troubles potatoes, or a different nasty altogether?
Apple scab is a fungus and potato scab is a bacteria so yes, they are different organisms. I don't grow apples but I have seen that since the spores survive in the soil and leaf litter that you should rake up and destroy the material under your apple tree before spring. I have also heard that potassium bicarbonate is an organic remedy but I have no experience with this. I would give it a try though since it does work on powdery mildew when applied as a spray.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:29 pm
by Paquebot
Nan6b wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:57 am
Would wood chips work in place of straw, do you think? I might be able to get those free.
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There are several potential problems there. Main one is the chance that there may be walnut in the chips. Second is that they also come with the green leaves and green wood. That combination can start composting. The resultant bacterial herd won't know if the tubers are discarded peelings or something to leave alone. Potatoes will indeed grow in compost piles but only after the heat cycle is done.
BUT, those chips mixed with soil would be perfect. It's exactly what I use as shredded pine boughs. I do not have a formula as to how much to mix but probably 50/50. Shredded boughs and chips by themselves may dry out if they are not sealed. Mixing with soil holds the moisture in. If the stolons are allowed to dry just once, no tubers will form. So, use chips but know what they are and mix with soil. Your efforts will be rewarded.
Martin
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:32 pm
by bower
One of our friends in Finland had a superb crop of potatoes using a tarp instead of mulch. Potatoes were shallowly planted as in all the examples given here. Those spuds did amazingly. Great technique for colder climates, because it warms the soil too. And no green potatoes!
At the end of the day, I'll have to judge the best method for my place by the condition of the soil afterwards. We are constantly building soil because there's nothing there except what we make ourselves. I really liked my trial of the old method last year, which left the soil better than when I started because of adding organic material throughout the season. For all of the no till methods, you amend the soil before planting and that is what it gets for the season. But maybe that is just as good? I have to try some different methods and see how they work out.
What kind of fertilizer do you apply before planting potatoes?
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:45 pm
by brownrexx
I till the entire garden in the fall. It only gets tilled once a year and then I have a soil test done at Penn State Univ in the spring. My nutrients are always in excess due to adding compost and tilling under my organic material in the Fall so I never add fertilizer.
I saw that way of growing potatoes under black plastic and the results looked good but I am unsure how the plants get enough water to the roots. In dry years here my potatoes are always smaller because I do not irrigate.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:22 pm
by brownrexx
What a coincidence! I just read my December/January copy of Mother Earth News which has been sitting around for several weeks. They had an article about an experiment for different methods of growing potatoes. They compared traditional bury and hill, straw mulch and containers. Containers performed the most poorly and interestingly the bury and hill method produced slightly more potatoes than the straw mulch method but the amount of labor required was more since they have to be dug up at harvest time and there is also significant time involved in hilling.
I am happy with my straw mulch method and will continue with that but I did see that in the experiment, they added some compost to the area where the seed potatoes were planted so I may give that a try next season.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 7:34 am
by svalli
Bower wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:32 pm
One of our friends in Finland had a superb crop of potatoes using a tarp instead of mulch. Potatoes were shallowly planted as in all the examples given here. Those spuds did amazingly. Great technique for colder climates, because it warms the soil too. And no green potatoes!
At the end of the day, I'll have to judge the best method for my place by the condition of the soil afterwards. We are constantly building soil because there's nothing there except what we make ourselves. I really liked my trial of the old method last year, which left the soil better than when I started because of adding organic material throughout the season. For all of the no till methods, you amend the soil before planting and that is what it gets for the season. But maybe that is just as good? I have to try some different methods and see how they work out.
What kind of fertilizer do you apply before planting potatoes?
I have to confess being the plastic mulch user.
We used to plant and harvest potatoes by old tractor pulled implements, but many years autumns have been so rainy that the harvester does not work well and I ended up digging the rows manually with a hoe. Since we were always throwing a lot of old potatoes away next summer, I wanted to find a method, which I can manage doing manually and grow only what we need. This plastic mulch has worked great for us. I reuse the same plastic sheet as many seasons as it holds together.
I would like to use an organic mulch, but it is hard to find herbicide free straw. Even with plastic mulch the soil gets amended with organic material, because I rotate now my veggie patch by covering the cultivated area every other year with plastic tarp and all weeding waste and the leaves used to cover garlic planting over the winter are left to decompose under the plastic.
Sari
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:14 am
by MsCowpea
Sari, what a fantastic picture. Talk about being worth a thousand words. I could have never imagined the potatoes if you tried to explain. That may help a lot of people that have the slug problem when using straw. Do you just cut an opening in the
plastic mulch and bury a piece of the potato? How deep? I have tried growing potatoes in S Florida - did OK, not great. Think I would like to try again one day with different method though the pH is high and not correctable with sulphur. Guess we could mix in peat but think we would need a lot. Compost brings it down as well. Thanks for the pic.
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:03 am
by svalli
MsCowpea wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:14 am
Sari, what a fantastic picture. Talk about being worth a thousand words. I could have never imagined the potatoes if you tried to explain. That may help a lot of people that have the slug problem when using straw. Do you just cut an opening in the
plastic mulch and bury a piece of the potato? How deep? I have tried growing potatoes in S Florida - did OK, not great. Think I would like to try again one day with different method though the pH is high and not correctable with sulphur. Guess we could mix in peat but think we would need a lot. Thanks for the pic.
I tilled the soil soft with rototiller and put the plastic sheets on top of it. The slits in the plastic are about 8" long. I just pushed the potatoes through the slits into the soft soil about same depth as the gentleman on the video.
Potato patch 20190530.jpg
The plastic needs to be well secured on the ground before the plants start to grow, because it is easily moved by the wind. I have found out that even the edges would have been weighed down by stones and soil, the wind can get under the plastic through the holes and lift it up from the middle, so I usually sprinkle some sand or soil also in the middle of the plastic.
Sari
Re: Dowding’s No Dig Potatoes
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:26 pm
by Paquebot
Nan, wood chips would work OK if they were smallish. Problem may be to keep them damp. Also, the stolons might have a hard time getting through them. I like a mix of finely-shredded pine boughs mixed with just enough soil to "fill in the blanks". That can be duplicated with wood chips if they are small.
Martin