On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:40:08 AM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:

We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I

harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the

pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of

the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if

not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I

find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few

tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat

quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.



Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?





Paul



I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method using

tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow . I have

modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as the

plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in the cages

and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes to light

, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with either black

plastic or tarpaper .

--

Snag

* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes with the

intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I ended up

using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .

I've heard of the straw method but never tried it; good luck with that. A few years ago I made a cage of hardware cloth, put potatoes at the bottom and covered with rich, loose soil. As the plants grew, I added more dirt, layer after layer. We kept up with the watering, too. After the plants died back, I opened the cage and found only three or four potatoes inside. Not sure what went wrong; I'll have to try again.

Paul