@Sjoerd, I chit them inside in a bright room. I don't know how much it matters. Today I found an old bag of potatoes that sprouted in a dark cabinet. I think they look fine. So I decided to plant them. They are a little bit soft and might not make the best potato salad. For these I will use the container method. It will give me a comparison. Plus, I don't want to grow them near my main crop. I don't know how healthy they are. In the past, grocery potatoes have never been a problem for me. I grow everything on rotations - after the potatoes, those containers will grow beans. Last night we had a frost. There was ice in the birdbath. It didn't bother the potato plants already growing in trenches. Here is how I planted the potatoes as shown. Then I covered them with a few inches of topsoil compost mix. I will continue filling in as they grow.
Ahhh, right then. I somehow thought that you took them outside to chit. I chit mine on a table near the windowsill, but once they begin to chit, they go outside on the balcony in the shade. They can harden a bit to prepare them for being in the garden soil, and there is enough sunlight to keep the chits ‘not white’. Those spuds that you discovered look good don’t they. Jut a little bit of chit whitening. Please keep us posted on how those little guys do. They ought to do well, don’t you think.
Looks nice, and a LOT of work on your potato patch. I planted potatoes a few weeks ago. One had sprouted so far, but something nibbled my sprout. Oh yeah. Horsey sampled them too. Thankfully she did not get much.
Now there’s a garden pest that I have never heard of. How did your horsey get into your veggie bed? I wonder what was nibbling on your bud.
I sometimes let her nibble the grass in my veggie garden. She leaves a bit of fertilizer when I do. It never occured to me that horses like potatoes. Her pasture is a bit small, and I don't have a lot of other fence. She never bothers the garlic or most things. I have my strawberries covered with screens. The blueberries and raspberries and blackberries are just beginning to put out leaves for the season, so they are not in danger. I guess she is banned from my garden until fall.
Potato update! @Sjoerd, how are your potatoes doing? Everyone else? I started filling in the trenches for the spuds I planted in Feb. Between the rains brought from Hawaii ("Pineapple Express") and my physical issues, I got behind on their care, especially filling in and weeding. Today I made progress. It's not pretty, but I'm happy to start filling in the trenches. Next are the container - planted potatoes from sprouted red grocery store potatoes. I planted those April 6. I showed the sprouted potatoes upthread a while back. Most of the rest are quite small, but I can see the majority of them are growing.
Here's a potato hilling question. I've grown potatoes for many years. I was reading about them - you are never too old to learn - and everything I read said to cover the lower leaves when hilling them up, just leave the top pair above soil level. I always hold the leaves up and fill in around them, so the nodes are underground but the leaves themselves don't get buried. What do you do?
I will hill them up right to the top of the potato. If they are small, or especially if frost is predicted, I will completely bury them. I sometimes mulch with a thick layer, about 20 cm of woodchips. This way all the potatoes form between the woodchips and the soil, and no need to hill them.
I really appreciate hearing this. Potatoes and I have gardening issues. Last year I tried using lawn clippings to mulch instead of hilling, and it was a bit disasterous. It was also an extremely hot year. I have woodchips - so that is a good idea for me to try. Thanks for that. Between trenches and chips, maybe I'll have a good bash at it this year.
Your spuds are looking good, Daniel…the ones in the container are making a good impression, don’t you think. Arrrrgh, too bad that you were out of commission there for a couple of weeks, because weeds wait for no man. just looking only at the foliage of the outside spuds, it looks like we are about at the same stage of development. My spuds are coming along oké. They got a little frost nip a few days ago in spite of earthing-over. You asked about earthing-up. I plant my spuds similarly to you. When the leaves first show, I earth them over a couple of times, then I wait until there is a possibility of frost before earthing-up again. Then, as the plants continue to grow, I will earth up the stems twice more with soil from the hills that are on either side of the potato trenches. This ultimately results in a topographical reversal— what was hill becomes trench and what was trench becomes hill. This means that sometimes some of the lower leaves inevitably get covered up, for as you pointed out— the stems need to be covered as that is where the tubers form. BTW Odif, that wood chip idea sounds interesting. Do you first let those chips age somewhere before use? I am thinking here about nitrogen uptake from the surrounding soil. I may try and locate some chips here.
If you use woodchips in a thick 20cm layer, then you want to let them age at least 2 months in place before planting in them. The reason for 20cm is no need to feed garden for 3 years. I chip in winter and spread them in place and then plant in the spring. If you let them age for a year or two they are partly decomposed an excellent, but you will need to renew them after a season. You can mix green material into your woodchips to help them decompose faster if your goal is to create compost. If your thickness of woodchips is about 5cm then they won’t really rob much nitrogen, especially if you have fed your ground compost before. I made about 20 cubic meters of chips last winter, mostly ash wood and the piles are just sitting in the forest. I collect and spread them when and as I need them. They are starting to have lots of mycelium growing in them. not advisable to use fresh woodchips in the garden, except on well established perennial plants. So the short answer is that it is good to age them first. Optimal would probably be 3 to 6 months.
Thanks for that answer, Odif. It is an answer that I can do something with. Short answers are good, but I like a short answer with the back story. To me that makes an answer complete and gives something to think about.
I rotate garden beds and am always discovering buried treasures. Sometimes I let wayward potato plants grow, if they are not in the way of anything. Last year I grew a variety from seeds "Clancy". They didn't amount to much, and I never got around to digging one row. Plus some strays from ones I did dig. They are growing now so maybe I will leave them be, and see what they are like growing from tubers.
