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Houston Spud Advice; was 1 potato; 2 potato

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

About those spuds in Houston: wrapping your cage with plastic created more
heat that your potatoes could stand.  They like cool soil in which to create
tubers.  That's why I used only big-mesh wire for cages when I lived on the
Gulf Coast. When you added compost, you cooled the soil a bit.  Also, you
have to bury the seed potatoes in at least 6 inches of good soil before you
start heaping pine needles, straw, leaves or anything else on them.  And,
finally, don't worry about the lack of potato flowers in Houston--it's
normal.  I hardly saw any either and had great crops.  Must be something to
do with the timing of the heat there.  Here in Illinois, I had gobs of
flowers on the spuds and some of the flowers set seeds--big green seeds the
size of a small olive.  First time I ever saw that.  Also, Laura, try
planting your spuds in late October this year, bury with pine needles and
forget about them until New Years.  They will do better than if they are
planted in the spring.  You will harvest at the end of April with
Oct.-planted spuds.
Doreen Howard
Zone 5b--formerly hot, sweaty 9b
-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Wallenius <lwallenius@hotmail.com>
To: sqft@listbot.com <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 11:19 AM
Subject: 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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