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Re: 1 potato,2 potato,no potatoes here

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html


Charlie -

I don't really have a solution, but you might want to know that you're not 
alone.  We had the same problem down here in Houston, Tx.  We used a large, 
plastic "bin" (3' tall piece of heavy plastic wrapped into a cylinder) with 
a few inches of dirt on the bottom and planted Russett Burbanks.  We filled 
it with pine straw as the plants grew.  Doreen H. recommended the pine 
needles a while back, so I know they're a good idea down here, but I sure 
must have missed an important detail.

I have my husband to thank for the fact that we got any potatoes at all.  
After a few months with nothing but plants to show for it, he insisted we 
add some compost to the top.  The compost worked its way down, and when we 
dug up half the plants this weekend, we had 2-3 pounds of small potatoes 
growing only in the dirt or compost.

One other odd thing, that might tell more experienced gardeners what I did 
wrong.  Out of approximately 10 plants, we only saw one flower.  All other 
buds that we saw fell off while they were still tiny and green.

Laura
(Whose paltry potato harvest still beat last year's rotted foot-tall
plants.)

>From: "...Charlie..." <csimpson@preferred.com>
>To: "sqftlist" <sqft@listbot.com>
>Subject: 1 potato,2 potato,no potatoes here
>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 08:18:48 -0400
>
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>
>Well my first attempt at growing potatoes certainly didn't "pan" out. I was
>trying the tire method and maybe if I describe what I did someone can tell
>me what I did wrong.
>
>1. Cut a circle of weed block fabric about 1.5 ft in diameter laid it
>directly on the bare ground and covered it about 4 inches of good soil in
>which I placed the seed potatoes.
>
>2. As the plants began to grow I added tires as needed and filled in with
>dead leaves (mostly maple).
>
>Things seemed to going well as the plants grew and I continued to add tires
>and leaves finally reaching a height of 5 tires on one stack and 3 on the
>other, at this point the tops of the plants began to wither and I thought 
>it
>was time to topple the towers and harvest the potatoes. To my dismay there
>were no potatoes!!,the stalk of the plant which had been covered with 
>leaves
>was just a slimy stick (no growth) and the only evidence of potatoes were
>several marble size growing from the roots in the DIRT,I thought they were
>supposed to grow along the stem of the plant as it grew. This was a very
>discouraging experiment and it looked as though growing them in a trench
>filled with good loose soil would have worked out better. Any advice from
>you experienced spud growers would be appreciated.
>
>Charlie
>
>
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