Mulching Potatoes

[packyderms_wife]

Ok when do I mulch my potatoes??? They range in size from 3 to 6 inches above the soil. How deep do I mulch them? How densely do I mulch them?

I'm still not sure if and when we will get rain tomorrow does this matter at all?

TIA

Kimberly

[packyderms_wife]

btt cause I really want an anwser

[goatlady]

I start "hilling" mine at about 6", and every 6" growth again, but always leave the top few leaves exposed. I just hoe up dirt from all around each plant, but I always also plant in a deep hole to start with and hill twice before they reach ground level then usually twice more above ground level. If I don't have enough dirt handy I'll use bedding right from the barn gently cause I don't want to damage the growing stems. No need to pack whatever you use cause taters love loose soil anyway to grow in.

[ovendoctor]

I use rotted wood chips

I keep adding chips up to 12'' deep

we did well last year,was gone for 90 days and the spuds did fine

[Tesla'sMom]

I just bought a couple of bales of straw for the berries- would that make good covering for the potatoes too?

[ovendoctor]

I just bought a couple of bales of straw for the berries- would that make good covering for the potatoes too?

yep

ya can grow them in straw too

very clean at harvest

[valkyree]

I have lots of leaves - what about crushed dried leaves?

[ovendoctor]

I have lots of leaves - what about crushed dried leaves?

mix with the soil and hill them up

leaves work great

the nitecrawlers love them and ya know wat they make

[Nicho1]

OK, a little more information for me, if someone would be so kind. This is my first attempt at potatoes. Someone had told me about mulching them but I thought it was when I began to see some potatoes at ground level, not the potato plants! My plants are 18-24" tall. Am I supposed to be covering the actual leaves? Please help with some detailed information. Apparently I am more "in the dark" about this than I thought. Isn't that always the way it is. Those who think they know, probably don't! Thanks for the help.

[packyderms_wife]

I have straw AND I have wood chips but the wood chips are not rotted, it's pine tree chips can I still use them?

Kimberly

[Navajo]

I'm doing it like this...

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?t=57265

small plants are up and I have a large amount of straw ready to be used....

[valkyree]

great photos - do you mix the straw with dirt as you add layers?

do you check your soil pH? my bag of seed potatoes said it should be at 5.5 so I added sphagnum peat moss

what about adding something like perlite for better drainage and what kind of fertilizer do you use?

[Patches]

This is the first year I didn't use any mulch at all. Of course this has been an unusual spring with all the rain. My potatoes are in raised beds and I noticed without the mulch, I am not seeing any of the roly poly potato bugs.

Something different that I did this year too, was to side dress with cotton seed meal. I don't know if it was all the rain or the combination of things, but I think this is going to be the best crop of potatoes I have ever had.

I am growing Yukon Gold and the ones I have sneaked out so far have good size and no blemishes.

[Berean]

OK, a little more information for me, if someone would be so kind. This is my first attempt at potatoes. Someone had told me about mulching them but I thought it was when I began to see some potatoes at ground level, not the potato plants! My plants are 18-24" tall. Am I supposed to be covering the actual leaves? Please help with some detailed information. Apparently I am more "in the dark" about this than I thought. Isn't that always the way it is. Those who think they know, probably don't! Thanks for the help.

Don't wait until you see them at ground level. (You really don't want them to "see daylight" anyway. That will turn the skins green and that part will be poisonous)

Go ahead and mulch/bury the leaves leaving about 6 inches since yours are so tall already. You'll get even more potatoes along the stem.

[packyderms_wife]

Don't wait until you see them at ground level. (You really don't want them to "see daylight" anyway. That will turn the skins green and that part will be poisonous)

Go ahead and mulch/bury the leaves leaving about 6 inches since yours are so tall already. You'll get even more potatoes along the stem.

Too late mine are about 12 inches tall or better we've been having rain and then high winds and then rain and then high winds etc., for the past two weeks. Everytime it's not blowing hard enough to mulch and the plants are actually dried out, it's pouring rain!

We'll figure something out I suppose.

Kimberly

[packyderms_wife]

I wasn't able to find straw, it's really hard to find in these parts, so I bought two bales of hay for mulching my potatoes. Is hay a bad thing or not for potatoes???

Kimberly

[packyderms_wife]

the fence is up around the potato patch now and the hay is a little bit deeper leaving about 2-3 inches of the plants exposed. Planter is 4 x 8 feet.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/3552247591_5eeac83263.jpg

[packyderms_wife]

I put chicken wire fencing around the potato patch to keep the hay/straw and the plants contained! Don't know if it'll work or not but I'm out of wood at the present time.

[AngelDance]

We plant ours in heavy duty contractor bags. Roll the edges down until the bag is only 12" tall. Poke holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage. Fill with good loose soil mixed with some chopped straw or chopped old hay (we use composted stable litter). Plant the seed potatoes.

When the vines are 8" tall, roll the bag up a little and fill with more dirt/chopped straw until only 2" of vine is left above ground. Poke a few more holes around the sides of the bag.

Repeat until the bag is rolled all the way up and full of dirt. Let the vines do their thing until harvest time.

To harvest, roll the bag down and get the potatoes out. Let cure in a single layer out of direct sunlight for several days before long term storage. Recycle the dirt. Shake out and fold up the bag to be stored till next spring.

This method will at least DOUBLE your potato yield over growing them in the ground. Simple physics dictates one can only "hill" potatoes so high before the hill is unsustainable as a structure.

Every terminal node where leaves come out of the vice stalk is the place from where potatoes will grow. The bag method gives you about 4 feet of depth of covered vine from which your spuds can grow.

Angel

PS: we have Kennebec, red Bliss, yukon gold, fingerlings, red (the flesh is red, not just the outside), blue, and purple potatoes growing.