On Nov 27, 8:09*pm, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:
Higgs Boson wrote:
On Nov 27, 2:53 pm, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:
Higgs Boson wrote:
Have cut up some red potato eyes to plant. Looked it up on-line.
They say to mound up +- 6" of mulch after burying the eyes. I never
understood why one has to do this, rather than just let the new
potatoes grow underground.
You can plant below the surface and mound as the shoots grow or
plant them in a hole (or trench) and fill the hole as the shoots
grow. The purpose is to get the 'seed' tuber down deeper. The reason
to get it deeper is that the new tubers will grow at the level of
the old one so if you leave it too shallow the tubers may come to
the surface or the plants will fall over. But if you just plant very
deep the shoot may not make it to the surface (especially if you
reduce the food that it has by not planting whole tubers).
***Interesting. *The Web site I consulted:
http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/ex...toplanting.php
suggested NOT giving the "eye" too much food, so it won't be lazy
about growing, having plenty of goodies available underground.
I left some potato, but not a whole tuber.
That makes no sense to me. * The taters are cut up so that if you have large
tubers you can get more than one plant out of each. *If they are small you
don't bother.
***But how can you get more than one plant out of each eye? Now I am
confused.
A third method is to use a layered raised bed such as a stack of
tyres. You plant the tubers in the top layer and when they shoot add
another tyre and refill with soil. This has the additional advantage
that you don't need to dig your taters but just dismantle the stack.
So you plant very deep but allow the shoots to see the sun using one
of these methods and then backfill. You end up with the tubers down
deep and the shoots above ground which is what you want.
***Using tires has been discouraged here because of toxic problems
from the tires. *Anything to this?
I don't know, *I don't use this method. *You can do the same with timber
frames, like bottomless boxes.
I prefer the hole (trench) method as it is easier to fill them in
than maintain the mound.
Also, the mulch we get from the City every few months is very finely
ground. Picture shows more of a straw-like mulch. ???
Sorry I have missed the point.
***The point about the finely-ground compost is that it doesn't
resemble the picture on the Web site, which had what I described as a
"straw-like" mulch, from which I inferred that the mulch should be
more loose. *??.
I am still confused, compost and mulch are usually different materials used
for different purposes. *What purpose do you have in mind for this stuff?
D
***Sigh - finally got my head screwed back on g. The City is
distributing COMPOST, not mulch. In my foggier moments I sometimes
confuse them. I actually don't have anything on hand to serve as
mulch. Would pine needles do? I have an endless quantity Otherwise,
will have to scrounge leaves from a neighbor.
HB