Hmmm it's good to know what kind of results another West Virginer is
getting, I'm going to be trying potatoes next year, probubly Kennebecs. My
soil here in the Panhandle is very hard clay, with about 5 or 6 inches of
topsoil. It was also my first year with this soil. This area is in a valley
so much of the soil is ancient run-off from the mountains. It's extremely
minerally rich but difficult to work. We have a very rich silt soil
available down the hill from my house along a stream. I use this for my
flower plantings in raised beds. I spent considerable time working the soil
for the garden, breaking and removing the sod, using peat moss and composted
manure.

My roommate is from central WV, Fayette county originally. He says the soil
down there is much better quality then what we have here. From what your
saying though I'm not so sure its any better. This mountain soil, however
old the mountains, is still pretty damn hard to work with until you get it
built up. I didn't have compost available for my soil this year, I should
have some next year. I'm thinking perhaps I could build a raised bed for the
potatoes to allow for deeper growth...do you think this would help you next
year? I'm not dealing with nearly the quantity of potatoes you will be
however, my garden is rather small compared to what people around here
consider a garden, only 293 sqr. feet. Next year I'll be doubling that size,
and creating a seperate area for the potatoes. The info I have says potatoes
require a high acid soil for best results and to avoid several rot diseases.
Ph around 6.5-5.5 is considered best...

"Mark & Shauna" wrote in message ...
Brian,
Thanks for the reply. Sorry for not including the plant/location data.
We are in central WV and yes, our plants have died back to nothing.
Planted around the end of March. This is the first year for the ground
we are growing in (the whole garden). It is ridge top land and has been
very wet here in WV this year. The ground was far from what we left in
our old garden, oh how we miss that ground. Ten years of building it up.
Most of the people in the hollow have lost their potatoes to rot from
all the water but ours were still growing strong when all of theirs were
yellow and going to poop. In the floods we will be fine, in the drought
we will be dieing heheh. The toils of living up high.
It sounds like you are getting 6-8 lbs per pound and in reading this
post back to my wife I think I may have over judged the yeild and
perhaps we only have about 25-30 lbs. Its a very crude measure now as I
have not dug all the potatoes yet. My current guess is perhaps 100-150
lbs for the 50 lbs planted. Which I guess isnt bad as 2 of the 5 rows I
left unhilled as an experiment.
I was hoping to someday get to 50lbs yeilding 400 lbs of potatoes but
not sure if that is possible with organic practice.

Mark


Brian wrote:
I usually get about 3-4 lbs per hill (yukon gold) I didn't buy mine by
the pound but by the piece from Gurney's. 30 sets may weight 1/2 lb
What location are you in. Kenebecs are still green and growing here in
PA. Did you wait until the plants died back to nothing, or are you
digging them as new potatoes ?

Mark & Shauna wrote:

What are those in the group getting for a yeild on potatoes? In
pounds of harvest compared to pounds planted. I have heard that if you
are really kicking some butt you can get 10 pounds per pound planted,
I am guessing this is the best of the best conditions? We havent
weighed our yeild yet but we last night just for fun we dug about
1/6th of the 50 lbs we planeted and have gotten two 5 gallon pails
worth. Perhaps 30-40 pounds?
I didnt get them hilled as well as I should have this year so
thats hurting us but I was surprised to have even the biggest plants
only yeilding perhaps 5 medium sized potato's each. If there are 6
they are small and if there are only three they are large baking size.
Oddly I left two rows unhilled and they are yeilding only slightly
less than the rows I hilled a couple times.
We planted Kenebec's and next year, even though we are no till as
much as possible, I am going to furrow and hill with the farm tractor
rather than by hand. Over 50 lbs (which we will do next year) is just
too much for us by hand. Even if I have to run the subsoiler every
other year it will be the only way for us to grow a lot of potatoes.

Mark