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Grow your own potatoes
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| Shanez |
These days many people consider it not worth their while growing their own potatoes, preferring instead to buy them, avoiding the long cropping period, blight, and other downsides. However there is great satisfaction to be had from sitting at your own dinner table, tackling into a plate of your own hot buttered new potatoes. For those of you thinking of popping in a few pops, here’s what you need to know.
You will require.
1. A sunny area of fertile and well-drained soil, preferably forked over the previous winter, with lots of well-rotted compost/farmyard manure dug in at that time. This is preferable but not essential; so don’t let it put you off your potato planting.
2. Certified seed potatoes, purchased from a local farmer or garden centre, these will give you the best chance of growing a good crop. You can of course use shop bought eating potatoes or potatoes you saved from last year, but you will have an increased risk of growing a diseased crop.
3. Some time between Mid-March / end of April for planting.
4. A few humble garden tools such as a spade, hoe, garden fork, and a strong back.
Preparing the rows.
Loosen your soil by digging it over with a garden fork, removing any weeds and other debris as you go. Follow this by digging your planting trenches to 6 inches (15cm) wide and six inches deep, the individual trenches can be spaced about 3 feet apart.
Into the base of the trench, you should add some fertiliser to aid the growth of your new potato plants, as they are very hungry feeders. You can add a light shake of artificial potato fertiliser (7:6:17) or some shovels of well-rotted compost/farmyard manure. To prevent burning of the new plants and an increased chance of potato scab, both these additions should be covered with an inch or two of soil before the seed potatoes go in.
How to plant.
Press the seed potatoes lightly into the trench at about 12 inch (30cm) spacings. Ensure that the eyes of the potato are facing up; it is from these small depressions found on each potato that the buds will appear, if they have not already.
Return the dug soil into the trench without disturbing the seed potatoes too much. Mark the exact location of your rows if you wish, with sticks driven into the soil at either end.
Earthing up.
Now the crop of potatoes forms in the soil area between the top of the soil and the seed potato you have sown. Because of this, your potato rows will require earthing up during the growing season, also known as hilling or mounding. This gives the potatoes a larger area of soil to grow within, and prevents some of your crop appearing over the soil to become greened by the sun, to a state where they become poisonous.
When the potato stems and leaves are about 8 inches high, you get between the rows and break up the soil with a garden fork removing any weeds as you go. Using a spade or a hoe, hill this loose soil up in a tent shape around the plants to a height of about 6 inches.
Drills of earthed up potato plants, but god that soil looks dry, photo / pic / image.
Harvesting.
Harvesting of your potatoes usually takes place sometime between June and September. The time to harvest early potatoes is just after they finish flowering (before the flower becomes a green fruit), whereas the maincrop varieties are best tackled after the plants leaves turn yellow. Cut away these yellow stalks and wait for about two weeks before using a garden fork to gently loosen the potatoes from the ground.
When harvesting your potatoes it is very important to totally clear the soil of each and every potato, even the small marbles that you may never eat. This is because left over potatoes can harbour pest and diseases within your soil e.g. wireworm, blight etc.
Now grow safely and do ask a parent if you need to use a scissors
Regards
Egg Mayonnaise |
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| jupiterone |
| thanks dude, i'm going to go grow my own taters now |
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| OrZonE |
Nothing compares to the taste of your own homegrown potatoes (or any other garden fruit/vegetable). Unfortunately it is not part of North America culture :(
Back in Russia we had roughly 1000 sq meters of potatoes grown and harvested every year. Mmmmmm :tongue2 |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by jupiterone
thanks dude, i'm going to go grow my own taters now |
taters, grow your own maters!
My parents have one of these, apparently it's retardedly easy to use and grow maters.
https://www.topsyturvy.com/ |
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| yukii |
| i want tots & hashbrowns right about now- with grease coming off the bottom of the plate :tongue2 |
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| Joss Weatherby |
| i knew instantly this was a thread by an irishman... |
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| dj_alfi |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shanez
3. Some time between Mid-March / end of April for planting.
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ing retard, why the hell are you posting this 3 months after i would have to plant them?
never post here again! |
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| dj_alfi |
| quote: | Originally posted by ziptnf
taters, grow your own maters!
My parents have one of these, apparently it's retardedly easy to use and grow maters.
https://www.topsyturvy.com/ |
maters, grow manatees! |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_alfi
maters, grow manatees! |
If you make a manatee growing system, I will be the first person to buy it from you. |
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| simplcake |
| i grow my own parting meters :o |
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| basd |
| quote: | Originally posted by OrZonE
Back in Russia we had roughly 1000 sq meters of potatoes grown and harvested every year. Mmmmmm :tongue2 |
I take it that was just about enough for your personal vodka supply? |
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| OrZonE |
| quote: | Originally posted by basd
I take it that was just about enough for your personal vodka supply? |
Vodka comes from bottles, not potatoes. Stupid. |
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