Last fall and over winter, I had several ideas for tests to do this year involving potatoes. For example, last year I got my first metal raised beds which I filled on the cheap using a lot of fill dirt. Mixed in with this fill dirt was a lot of organic stuff like grass clippings and banana peels as well as some compost. The idea is that while the soil might not be the greatest this first year, by adding compost every year it should get better. So one test I wanted to do was to get three containers and fill one with just the fill dirt, one with the fill dirt and some compost, and one 50/50 fill dirt and compost to see how big of a difference compost makes. But I didn’t have three empty containers that were the same size, and there was a lot of other stuff going on so I never got around to it. Maybe next year.
Another test I wanted to
do was I had seen some posts of people mocking people – worried the economy
would collapse under Trump – of wanting to grow all their food. The mocking was along the lines of, “You don’t
even have a shovel to work the soil up,” or something. So I had the idea of marking off a section of
the yard and planting some potatoes as best I could to see if they did
anything. I think the plan was to also
plant some in a raised bed to compare. But
I forgot about it until after I planted all my beds, and again there was a lot
of other stuff going on. Again, maybe
next year.
But the third test, I
actually did. We have some old tires we
grow in. I know, I know, you shouldn’t
do that, and I’ve been meaning to write up a post why I still do. The main reason being, I live in a part of
the country where if people have a brush pile that is too wet to burn, they’ll
just throw some old tires on to get it going.
People worry about stuff leaching out of the tires, but worst stuff
might be blowing in on the wind no matter where I plant. Anyway, the bigger old tractor tires I plant
with onions or beets or whatever, but the smaller ones I plant with sunflowers
and potatoes.
I have seven tires for potatoes, and last year after harvesting them I covered them in grass clippings. I wanted to do a very basic test where I did very little work and started with smallish potatoes.
I took a handful of
shifted compost and put it on top of the old grass clippings. I then pushed a potato into the compost. And since the level in the tires had fallen,
I filled them up with the fill dirt.
Once the potatoes sprouted, I mulched them with grass clippings. And that was it. I didn’t even water them. Although, we did have a wet spring, and it’s
only the last few weeks – when the potatoes were already dying – that it’s
become hot and dry.
Five of the potatoes came
up, and after waiting a couple of weeks, when I dug up the other two, I found
one had rotted and the other I think was eaten by a mole. I replanted those tires, but I didn’t include
them in this study. Later, when the
plants were starting to go strong, one of the remaining five and one of the
replanted ones were killed. Something chewed
them off right above the mulch. So I
lost almost half of what I planted for the test.
Still, when I dug up the first plant, I was pleasantly surprised.
Was it a great harvest? For starting with smallish potatoes, only fertilizing with a handful of compost when I planted them, and not watering them, it was okay. We’ve already eaten some of the larger ones. I might save seven of the smaller ones to plant next year.
The one difference I plan
to make for next year, is while harvesting them I noticed the soil was rather
hard since there’s little organic matter in it.
So when I have an afternoon to kill, I plan to work up the soil, add
some compost, and then cover it with grass clippings so the worms and such will
have the rest of fall and winter to work.
Then depending on how low the level is next spring, I might not add more
dirt. We’ll have to see.
But that is the results
of the one potato test I was able to run this year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do more next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment