George Shirley wrote:
On 7/18/2014 8:40 AM, 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 did that same thing years ago, made a bunch of tomato cages out of
heavy duty concrete wire, they were three feet in diameter, they
lasted over twenty-five years and two moves. One year I tried the
tater thing by planting the potatoes in the bottom of the cage, then
layering oak leaves, of which we always had plenty, up to about four
feet. Had the same problem other folks had, two or three taters down
in the dirt, nothing above but a really long, skinny tater vine. Hope
it works for you, I never tried it again.

George

See my reply to Pavel blooming .

--
Snag