My Pontiac potatoes are growing at a great rate of knotts in the raised garden. Today I noticed that there are already tubers breaking through the surface of the soil. Should I be surrounding them with straw at this stage? I know this is the done thing but I assumed that because they were in a raised bed (60 to 65cm) that their roots would grow down because the soil was soft and loamy. I need some advice pretty quickly. I know some of you are potato experts.

pomolo said:

My Pontiac potatoes are growing at a great rate of knotts in the raised garden. Today I noticed that there are already tubers breaking through the surface of the soil. Should I be surrounding them with straw at this stage? I know this is the done thing but I assumed that because they were in a raised bed (60 to 65cm) that their roots would grow down because the soil was soft and loamy. I need some advice pretty quickly. I know some of you are potato experts.

Not me, Kiddo…I do know how to kill them tho’…

Where you plant the original seed potato, all the spuds will grow above this point.
So bury ‘em deep pom and keep hilling up the soil/mulch/whatever around the stems of the plants.
Lest you end up with green spuds and get crook.
Then who will give me a hard time while you recover?

Dinetta said:

pomolo said:

My Pontiac potatoes are growing at a great rate of knotts in the raised garden. Today I noticed that there are already tubers breaking through the surface of the soil. Should I be surrounding them with straw at this stage? I know this is the done thing but I assumed that because they were in a raised bed (60 to 65cm) that their roots would grow down because the soil was soft and loamy. I need some advice pretty quickly. I know some of you are potato experts.

Not me, Kiddo…I do know how to kill them tho’…

Yes you will have to cover them or they will go green and be poisonous

I’m still trying to get around to D referring to Pom as “Kiddo”.
If i did that i’d have bruises all over my ego and anything remotely attached.
Maybe it’s a Qld thing……

potatoes.. only bury deep if you have very well drained soil.

The Bill Mollison permaculture method follows the Esther Dean style of No-Dig .. Not that these people invented the processes, they did write books about their observations.

Put a sheet of newaspaper on the soil and place your seed spuds on that. Start covering with layers of straw or similar mulch. as the potatoes grow through the mulch.. add another layer. Keep doing so until it is time to dig the spuds. You will find that you don’t need to dig.

Another popular method for smaller spaces is like a strawberry hanger.. The potatos are grown vertically in a stack of old tyres or any containing material like wooden boxes. Each time they grow out of the last layer add another tyre or box full of straw.

Myths about potatoes;
• Don’t eat raw potatoes: .. This is rubbish as many recipes call for raw potato. I have eaten raw potato for more than fifty years.. must be a slow killer. ;)
• Don’t eat green potatoes they are poison: .. Again a tale that needs to be taken with a grain of salt(like all potatoes). Yes it is true that eating the green parts of potato and tomato plants can be toxic but the potato can be peeled of any greenish parts and still be perfectly edible. If when they started going green they were toxic, then the humble potato would never have spread all over the world as such an important staple.

So, yes I have eaten potatoes that were green on the outside., I have sliced them and eaten them raw.. Not once have I ever had a reaction which caused me illness from doing so.
Not that I am telling you to deliberately allow green spuds to be eaten. What I am saying is that you do not need to throw away good food. Yes if they get too green, by which time many in the bag will also be rotten or soft.. then these should be planted for next years crop.

Longy said:

Where you plant the original seed potato, all the spuds will grow above this point.
So bury ‘em deep pom and keep hilling up the soil/mulch/whatever around the stems of the plants.
Lest you end up with green spuds and get crook.
Then who will give me a hard time while you recover?

I would never be so sick that I would stop giving you a hard time LF. It’s part of what keeps me going.

pomolo said:

Longy said:

Where you plant the original seed potato, all the spuds will grow above this point.
So bury ‘em deep pom and keep hilling up the soil/mulch/whatever around the stems of the plants.
Lest you end up with green spuds and get crook.
Then who will give me a hard time while you recover?

I would never be so sick that I would stop giving you a hard time LF. It’s part of what keeps me going.

;)

being a gardening forum .. that post calls for use of pesticide.. ;)

sorry it was a joke that came tto mind..

Longy said:

I’m still trying to get around to D referring to Pom as “Kiddo”.
If i did that i’d have bruises all over my ego and anything remotely attached.
Maybe it’s a Qld thing……

It’s a kind of term of endearment LF. Something I’m not sure you know much about. LOL.

Endearment ?

well it only works if you are already dear friends.

roughbarked said:

Endearment ?

well it only works if you are already dear friends.

Morning RB. Early riser I see. Dinetta and I have been chatting for quite a few years.

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

Endearment ?

well it only works if you are already dear friends.

Morning RB. Early riser I see. Dinetta and I have been chatting for quite a few years.

thus it is perfectly acceptable between you two.. Though I would never use it towards you.. unless our relationship was as well cemented.

roughbarked said:

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

Endearment ?

well it only works if you are already dear friends.

Morning RB. Early riser I see. Dinetta and I have been chatting for quite a few years.

thus it is perfectly acceptable between you two.. Though I would never use it towards you.. unless our relationship was as well cemented.

Time will tell.

Daylight is starting to appear and I want to check my tomato plants. Something is having a go at them and I want to see if I have nipped it in the bud this time. Catch you later RB.

pomolo said:

roughbarked said:

pomolo said:

Morning RB. Early riser I see. Dinetta and I have been chatting for quite a few years.

thus it is perfectly acceptable between you two.. Though I would never use it towards you.. unless our relationship was as well cemented.

Time will tell.

Daylight is starting to appear and I want to check my tomato plants. Something is having a go at them and I want to see if I have nipped it in the bud this time. Catch you later RB.

Hope you win that one..

Longy said:

I’m still trying to get around to D referring to Pom as “Kiddo”.
If i did that i’d have bruises all over my ego and anything remotely attached.
Maybe it’s a Qld thing……

It’s because Pomolo is young at heart…

:)

sweet potatoes grow downward. with ‘irish’ spuds you plant the tuber 200mm (8”) in the ground and mound a similar quantity of soil over – so they end up being well buried beneath 400mm (1’4”) of soil.

it’s not unusual for farmers to furrow between the rows, digging trenches and throwing the soil from the trenches over the spuds – leaves get buried. so you probably have to use a hoe to trench either side of the row and hill the soil over the spuds. its only the central growing shoot that needs to be left unburied.

some people say that spuds will set new, small tubers on the stem as it grows upward. so pomolo, if you have planted the original tubers deep in the soil, and if your leaf growth is massive as you say, and if the tubers now being exposed are small ones – then you might have discovered that pontiacs are the ideal spud for growing in tyres.

All the spuds I grew last time had their tubers on the same level as the seed spud. None grew up the stems at all. I guess this may not be true of all varieties though.

pepe said:

sweet potatoes grow downward. with ‘irish’ spuds you plant the tuber 200mm (8”) in the ground and mound a similar quantity of soil over – so they end up being well buried beneath 400mm (1’4”) of soil.

it’s not unusual for farmers to furrow between the rows, digging trenches and throwing the soil from the trenches over the spuds – leaves get buried. so you probably have to use a hoe to trench either side of the row and hill the soil over the spuds. its only the central growing shoot that needs to be left unburied.

some people say that spuds will set new, small tubers on the stem as it grows upward. so pomolo, if you have planted the original tubers deep in the soil, and if your leaf growth is massive as you say, and if the tubers now being exposed are small ones – then you might have discovered that pontiacs are the ideal spud for growing in tyres.

Amazing how the more info you get, the more determined you become to do it better next time.