Ways to Grow Potatoes in Every Kind of Yard
A few years ago, I performed a check: I grew German Butterball potatoes using seven different planting strategies. Through the direction of the growing season, the advantages and downsides of every have become quite clear.
Read directly to discover which of them labored the exceptional, and which ones delivered subpar effects.
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1. Cheapest: Hilled Rows
Dig directly, shallow trenches, 2 to a few feet apart, in prepared soil. Plant seed potatoes 12 inches apart and cowl with approximately 3 inches of soil. When the shoots reach 10 to twelve inches tall, use a hoe or shovel to scoop soil from between rows and mound it in opposition to the flowers, burying the stems halfway. Repeat as wished via the developing season to preserve the tubers included.
Unlike box gardening, there may be nothing to buy or build and no soil to transport. This is a simple, cheaper, and validated approach that farmers have used for millennia. It’s practical for large-scale plantings, additionally.
However, the nice of the soil might also restrict the yield. In places in which the dirt badly compacted or low in organic count number, an above-floor technique might paintings higher.
2. Least Digging: Straw Mulch
Place seed potatoes at the floor of prepared soil following the spacing certain for hilled rows and cover them with 3 to four inches of loose, seed-unfastened straw. Mound more straw around the stems as they develop, subsequently creating a layer of 1 foot or extra extensive.
The benefit here is that the thick mulch conserves soil moisture and smothers weeds. Harvest is effortless without a digging, and this technique is usually recommended as a manner to thwart the Colorado potato beetle. However, this produced a smaller yield than the hilled row and discipline mice were acknowledged to use devour the plants underneath the cover of the straw.
3. Biggest Yield: Raised Beds
Loosen the soil inside the backside of a 1/2-filled raised bed. Space seed potatoes approximately 12 inches apart in all directions and bury them 3 inches deep. As the potatoes develop, add greater soil until the bed is filled. If possible, simplify harvest through casting off the sides.
This method yielded the most important harvest in my trials, and the potatoes have been uniformly big in size. Raised beds are an awesome preference in which the garden soil is heavy and poorly drained. The downside: The soil to fill the mattress has to return from somewhere — and it takes a lot.
4. Good for DIYers: Wood Boxes
Build or purchase a bottomless rectangular container — I used lumber from discarded pallets — and plant the same as for a raised bed. The field is designed so you can add extra slats and soil as the vegetation develop. In concept, you could briefly cast off the bottom slat for harvesting, or simply tip it over.
This is every other approach for developing potatoes wherein the floor soil is of negative best. It yielded a comparable quantity to the raised bed. However, a variety of time and effort went into building the container and I felt the results did now not justify the attempt.
5. Best for Wet Yards: Wire Cylinders
Using hardware fabric with ¼-inch mesh, style a cylinder approximately 18 inches in diameter and 24 inches tall. Put numerous inches of soil in the backside, then plant 3 or four seed potatoes and cover them with three inches of soil. Continue to add soil because the potatoes develop. To harvest, lift the cylinder and pull the soil lower back to show the tubers.
In a weather with incessant spring rains, the wire mesh would offer extremely good drainage and prevent the soil from getting waterlogged. This is some other raised method to bear in mind wherein lawn soil is negative. Unfortunately, I best harvested a small quantity of undersized tubers from the cylinders — a depressing showing, probable due to the fact the soil-compost aggregate I used dried out so quickly that the vegetation lacked ok moisture.
6. Easiest Harvest: Grow Bags
Commercial growing bags are made with heavy, dense polypropylene. Put a few inches of a soil-compost combination inside the bottom of a bag, then plant three or four seed potato pieces and cover with 3 inches of soil. Continue adding soil as the vegetation develop till the bag is complete. To harvest, turn the bag on its side and dump out the contents.
Grow luggage can pass on patios or driveways or where lawn soil lacks nutrients. The luggage should remaining for numerous developing seasons. Their dark shade captures sun warmth to speed early increase. Harvest is easy and the yield can be superb, thinking about the small area every bag occupies. However, this could be a high-priced approach. The emblem of bag I used charges $12.95.
7. Best to Skip: Garbage Bags
Fill a massive plastic rubbish bag the same way as a grow bag, punching some holes thru the plastic for drainage. Roll the pinnacle edge of the bag to help it live upright; in any other case the bag will sag and spill soil. To harvest, rip the bag and pour out the contents.
Like the grow bags, a garbage bag may be employed wherein in-floor developing isn’t always an choice. Black bags capture sun warmness to hurry early boom. Aesthetically, but, that is the least appealing desire. Our yield become meager, perhaps due to the fact the thin plastic allowed the soil to heat up an excessive amount of, proscribing tuber formation.
