Article in the lastest issue of BHM

[Laura]

I read the article about growing potatoes in straw / hay.

Having hideous clay soil, this looks like a smokin' good idea!!

Has anyone had personal experience with growing potatoes in straw / hay, and how did it work for you?

I have blue potatoes that I am trying to grow.

Thanks!!

[Anon001]

Laura,

I know several people that have used straw and hay to grow potatoes. It works great.

I'm doing it different this year. Rather than use tires, or "boxes", I'm going to use pallets with partially decomposed hay.

Paul

[Laura]

I am doing raised beds this year because my soil is heavy crazy clay. I will better be able to control things if I do 8 x 4 boxes (about 12 of them).

First, I don't know what to buy, straw or hay, and where would I buy it?
Second, I was thinking of tilling the soil, adding hay / straw, placing the seed potatoes, putting a layer of hay on top of the spuds then a layer of soil.
As the plant grows, add alternating hay/straw, and soil.

Does this sound reasonable or nutty :-)

[AlchemyAcres]

First, I don't know what to buy, straw or hay, and where would I buy it?
Second, I was thinking of tilling the soil, adding hay / straw, placing the seed potatoes, putting a layer of hay on top of the spuds then a layer of soil.
As the plant grows, add alternating hay/straw, and soil.


There are no potato roots above the seed piece, only stolons and stems, so there's not necessarily a need for soil. In other words, you can use moist mulch above the seed piece if that's what will work best for you.

The best mulch, is, IMHO, conifer needles....pine...spruce...whatever....the acid will discourage scab.

Any conifer trees near you where you can rake the needles up?

If you do go with straw, it's best that it be chopped up fine so that it'll hold some moisture and stay in place.


~Martin

[MooseToo]

i did the barrel and spoiled hay routine - beautiful plants and then boom - fungus went wild and i got no spuds - my next attempt will be with fresh sawdust to try to avoid the fungus -

[nhlivefreeordie]

I feel sorry for you folks with the poor soil.
I amend mine every year by adding lots and lots of compost and straw that I use as a mulch, but I had nice dark soil to begin with, as this place used to have a barn and livestock were kept here, I imagine a lot of the manure and stall cleanings over those many years helped the soil. But this is still PA and we have a lot of ROCKS in our soil, I have removed the majority of them over the years, but every spring I turn up a couple with the tiller, along with all kinds of other neat stuff. When tilling this past fall I turned up a wooden square button, obviously hand made.
But having good soil is a blessing, I have seen some of the clay people deal with, would seem worth it to me to remove the soil from the garden area, and truck in screened loam for the start of a garden.

[NCLee]

Here's a few links that may be of interest.
I haven't done it, but my neighbor did, a few years ago. He mixed in a lot of shredded leaves with the straw he used. Worked fine.

http://www.thevegetablepatch.com/patch/potato.htm (using newspapers)
http://www.ehow.com/how_2240028_grow-potatoes-wire-cage.html
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/potato1.html
http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4DMG/VegFruit/potatoes.htm
http://www.humeseeds.com/potato.htm
http://tipnut.com/grow-potatoes/ (Growing in boxes)

Lee

[aprilconnett]

I have grown them in a big bin with shredded leaves with good success. Taters in a container just makes for easier harvesting.

[Pokeberry Mary]

the guy who was here before me spread hay over the terrible clay (red kind) and grew his potatoes. I don't think he had a good garden-- I saw the tail end of it when we were negotiating the sale. Anyhow--our first season gardening here was horrible. This stuff has NO nutrients that I can tell. I amended it like crazy and it did so bad. But-- I did start growing in containers and making lots of compost and the container plants did beautifully.

His potatoes --many were still in the soil after we got the place were tiny!

I think get the straw and grow some that way--but add some to the soil and some manure and compost and wood chips--whatever you can get add it to the top of that mess and grow over it.

[aprilconnett]

Have you considered raised beds? I also have that lovely red clay and raised beds are the only way to go. Eventually the ammendments in the raised soil will help the clay.

[Steve_L]

One thing that causes tiny potatoes is hot weather. My mom came from Montana and moved to California, and couldn't figure out why her potatoes grew to be smaller than tennis balls, to about the size of marbles.

Ground grapes is what they looked like.

[Pokeberry Mary]

well we sure get hot enough weather there. The guy who had that garden here was from new york--maybe he didn't understand how to garden in the south. There's certain times of year to grow things. We have overlapping growing seasons. You can have something in the garden all year--but you have to have the right something at the right time. ;)

[Pokeberry Mary]

Oh--I think when I said 'grow over it' I mean grow on top of the nasty soil--like in a raised bed. I do have some of those now but also lots of containers.