Planting Potatoes
 

"Wildbilly" wrote in message
...

Buckwheat, and rye can do wonders to clay soil. I grow it until May,
when I plant, cover it over with alfalfa, water, and wait two weeks
before I plant. When I pull weeds, nearly all the roots come up.

I LOVE buckwheat as a cover crop! I grows so wonderfully here. Maybe in a
few years I'll be able to actually plant things in my soil instead of
building new soil.
--S.

Planting Potatoes
 

"Suzanne D." wrote in message
...

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Suzanne D. wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

You are correct. Plant them in holes or trenches.

I just laid mine on top of the ground and covered them with straw.
Worked perfectly, and they weren't even dirty when I harvested them!
--S.

how deep was the straw?

About 18 inches (45 cm). I piled it up little by little as the plants
grew, to within 5 inches of the top of the plants. When I needed
potatoes, I just moved the straw over to the side and picked some up from
the ground.
--S.

Unless you live in an area where the snakes like to live in straw also.

Dwayne

Planting Potatoes
 

Dwayne wrote:
"Suzanne D." wrote in message
...

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Suzanne D. wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

You are correct. Plant them in holes or trenches.

I just laid mine on top of the ground and covered them with straw.
Worked perfectly, and they weren't even dirty when I harvested
them! --S.

how deep was the straw?

About 18 inches (45 cm). I piled it up little by little as the
plants grew, to within 5 inches of the top of the plants. When I
needed potatoes, I just moved the straw over to the side and picked
some up from the ground.
--S.

Unless you live in an area where the snakes like to live in straw
also.
Dwayne

I was watching a demonstration of a permaculture garden which was very
interesting and included providing habitat for predators of pests. Every
mandala had its own lizard "house" which was a pile of large loose stones.
The lizards were being encouraged to take up residence to eat snails and
slugs etc. All good. I had to point out that this idea was not useful for
me as I would get a couple of species of elapid snakes taking up the space
instead of lizards. For the same reason I have to be very strict on rodent
control.

David

Planting Potatoes
 

"Dwayne" wrote in message
...

"Suzanne D." wrote in message
...

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Suzanne D. wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

You are correct. Plant them in holes or trenches.

I just laid mine on top of the ground and covered them with straw.
Worked perfectly, and they weren't even dirty when I harvested them!
--S.

how deep was the straw?

About 18 inches (45 cm). I piled it up little by little as the plants
grew, to within 5 inches of the top of the plants. When I needed
potatoes, I just moved the straw over to the side and picked some up from
the ground.
--S.

Unless you live in an area where the snakes like to live in straw also.

We get king snakes around here occasionally, and there may be some poisonous
ones that I simply have never seen, but I always move the straw back with a
rake anyway, and just pick up the potatoes instead of sticking my hand in to
get them.
--S.