RE: Oh Woe! Potato Wilt!

Hello 'tater lovers! 
My first experience at growing these wonderful plants started the day I
opened my cabinet to find L-O-N-N-N-G sprouts on potatoes supposedly treated
so they would not sprout. The spuds themselves were rather shriveled, but I
thought it would be a shame to thwart plants that were doing their very best
to survive in the dark cabinet. It being spring, I dug a trench and planted
them with as many of the sprouts up as possible. 
	I remembered the day my brother-in-law let us help him dig potatoes
in his garden, and what fun it was! And it was great fun to harvest my first
crop from potatoes that should have been mashed in February!
	For five or more years, I grew potatoes in the same spot, a south
facing slope, and rather than hilling with dirt, I filled the trench with
peat moss...this didn't seem to hurt the potatoes, which had their roots in
good Indiana clay, and it made it very easy to dig the potatoes at harvest
time. You could do it with your bare hands! 
	The potato patch was a dream to dig in the spring, too, as the
trench became wider and wider, with peat and clay and worms making a
treasure chest to be opened by my nieces and nephews on a summer
evening...then into the oven (the potatoes, Stan, not the kids!), seasoned
with a bit of salt and herbs for a treat that convinced the 'tater-haters
that potatoes are not only nutritious and fun, but also tasty! 
	Potatoes are a kid's crop, alright!
	Fortunately, I have not experienced potato wilt...perhaps the south
exposure, or the dryness of the peat for hilling?

Carol 
Indianapolis



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Allan Day [SMTP:allan@crwys.demon.co.uk]
> Sent:	Sunday, May 23, 1999 12:58 AM
> To:	veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject:	Re: Oh Woe! Potato Wilt!
> 
> On Sun 23 May, Julianne Wiley wrote:
> > >Julianne,
> > >
> > >At the risk of sounding a bit silly, what climate do you live in, when
> > >did you plant the potatoes and have you ever grown potatoes before?
> > >
> > Not silly a'tall.
> > 
> > Upper East Tennessee. The earliest went in the second week of April and
> the
> > last were in by the end of April.
> > 
> > Where we are planting:
> > 
> > Backyard - in tires and four foot round plastic thingies. We are filling
> > both with composted leaves which we collected last fall. There is
> another
> > patch which had been a garden site before, where we planted in rows.
> Again
> > into basically a layer of composted leaves, mixed with store bought
> topsoil.
> > Those are in raised beds.
> It seems a bit soon to use those leaves. I would rot them for at least
> a year until they have crumbled down to a brown uniformity, otherwise
> you get the grey-white growths which can't be good on the young plants.
> I plant my taties direct into  a thin layer of fully rotted garden
> compost and they do fine. Another suggestion, if your beds are too new
> then you might be getting air pockets round the roots as it settles. Try
> it for looseness, if too puffy firm it gently and see that it doesn't
> dry out too far.
>  Allan.
> -- 
> 
> Allan Day  Hereford  allan@crwys.demon.co.uk
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