25.04.15 POTATO GROWING WITH LYLE AT SANDGATE COMMUNITY GARDEN
Big thank you to Lyle (Betts) from the SCG for providing a potato growing workshop for our members, though we did have a couple of ring in's from BOGI in the form of Ed and Louise. Always good when other groups can join us.
What an excellent, no nonsense approach Lyle has to growing spuds.
Below Lyle is discussing the properties of certified and regular store bought spuds.
POINTS OF INTEREST:
Below: Some of the group taking a tour through the refugee gardens.
Below: Lyle cutting up some of the Potkin (Kabocha) pumpkin that grows in the garden for sharing and seed.
Thank you to everyone who turned up, including Mark and Katrina who came quite some distance from the south side. Good turn out for a very useable workshop. I hope you all came away with some usable hints and we now all have tremendous success growing spuds. I know now I was watering mine too often for starters!
If anyone has other information or photos that can be added please add below or message me and I'll add it to the main body of the report so it doesn't get separated and overlooked.
June 2015
So grateful to Lyle for running the workshop for us I had high hopes of some success but things aren't going that well.
I had limited space to plant the potatos but did manage to put them in spots that wouldn't get the same amount of watering as the balance of the beds (full of salad and brassicas).
Plants came up. Yay. I mounded them as directed. They grew well and tall but then a couple of them started dying off.
This morning I have "cropped" the tubers for these plants to see what the problem is and this is what I found - something has been chewing on them. The soil was full of little earth worms - would they do this? I'm thinking the answer to that is yes.
GROWING POTATOES IN GROW BAGS:
There is an interesting website called KENOSHA POTATO PROJECT in America which gives good information about soils and planting etc.
09.08.16
Success at last! This season I stuck with store bought chitted potatoes - bought with soil on, not washed, healthy and whole - planted them out in the decomposing compost pile, mulched some weeks back with composted horse poo and topped with lucerne.
Many plants came up. Most are in the process of producing flowers at the moment so will wait until they have finished as per HOLLIS' INSTRUCTIONS IN HIS VIDEO.
Noticed yesterday that one of the plants was dying so dug around and came up with these below. The biggest is palm sized.
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And fresh young cooked spuds are *great* cold.
Things that I learned from my first crop this year. Once the vine is dead, the tubers stop growing. No sense waiting longer to see if you get more spuds. Oh, and tiny tubers taste great steamed and then with a bit of added butter.
We never see the cut worm either do we but their work is evident in the morning with a ring barked plant.
Have a read of the article attached to the photo comment Elaine. Apparently they do go underground, something I didn't know.
I'd be lucky to find one slug per month in the entire yard though. And there are no curl grubs in this patch of ground that I see, though they also move around per the blurb.
I see similar damage sometimes too. Yet I have never seen either a snail or a slug. Both slugs and snails have sharp rasps with which they get their food. But it implies that slugs eat underground. Do they?
Someone in another forum has suggested slug damage and the pic does look similar to my spuds. I have a problem accepting this though as there is no sign of slugs and my soil is light and friable, no weeds.
I've added some information about a potato growing project and their video at the bottom of the blog.
Afaik the technical term is 'chit'. Not that the word conveys anything of what is happening. 'Developing eyes' is at least clear if not correct.
Peggy - I've tried them in grow bags with little success, but I didn't know about not over watering then either. The ground these came out of was moist but not wet. They are at the end of one of the beds and I just don't water there. I need to dedicate an entire bed to spuds, garlic and onions so I can control the watering better.
Elaine - no idea of variety. Store bought spuds. Those little scrubbed jobs you buy in plastic bags. Lyle recommended not using the scrubbed sort but I had them and they were sprouting so in they went. I have some seed potatoes but still waiting for them to shoot (technical term?).
Perhaps I should take them and show them to Lyle. Lyle doesn't seem to be on the net so a personal visit is needed.
I reckon it's the same as happened to mine. Either a borer or some kind of rot. Elaine, the bad news is mine were in the wicking bed.
On a brighter note: my sweet potatoes did very well both above the ground for slaw and pesto and below for tubers. They are in the same wicking bed.
Always add photos using the "From my computer" option, even if you are on a mobile phone or other device.
Added by Doug Hanning
Added by Doug Hanning
Added by Doug Hanning
Vetiver grass helps to stabilise soil and protects it against erosion. It can protect against pests and weeds. Vetiver is also used as animal feed. (Wiki.)
GrowVetiver is a plant nursery run by Dave & Keir Riley that harvests and grows Vetiver grass for local community applications and use. It is based in Beachmere, just north of Brisbane, Australia.
Talk to Andy on 0422 022 961. You can Pay on this link
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