On Friday, July 18, 2014 3:03:18 PM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:

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



Did your potato plants blossom ? I've been told they have to bloom before

they'll make taters . I still pretty new to a lot of this stuff , and I'm

growing stuff I've never tried /been successful at .



--

Snag

I don't remember if they blossomed or not, it's been a few years. If I try that again, I'll watch for blossoms.

Paul