my new no-dig potato bed.

[nickolas]

Greeting’s and salutation’s to all my gardening friend's out there.

A few weeks ago I started a new NO DIG potato bed that uses straw instead of dirt to grow the potatoes in.

What I did is I selected an area that was overgrow with grass and weeds and covered all the grass/weeds with a few layers of cardboard, I then gave the layer of cardboard a spray of water, I then proceeded to space the potatoes 1.5 feet apart on top of the cardboard, with that done I covered the potatoes with 12 inches of straw then, then I whet the whole lot down with a last spray of water.

And now 3 weeks later I have potato shoots coming out of the straw, when I see this I just put more straw around each potato shoot until weeks later when the potato shoots go yellow the potatoes are ready for you to uncover them.

Please don’t hesitate to Let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter and what I have said about it.


befor



in progress


I will keep you all up to date with more pics and result's when i get them.

Nickolas

[DoubleDogFarm]

If you have good results, I'll be trying this in the spring.


Seed potato will have trouble rooting through the cardboard.

Where will the plants get their nutrients. I think all the grass below will lock up nutrients. Do you think the straw will supply all that is required or will you be adding some compost?

Eric

[nickolas]

If you have good results, I'll be trying this in the spring.


Seed potato will have trouble rooting through the cardboard.

Where will the plants get their nutrients. I think all the grass below will lock up nutrients. Do you think the straw will supply all that is required or will you be adding some compost?

Eric

I don't want the potato roots to go through the cardboard, i want the roots to stay in the straw for ease of harvesting, and if the potatoes need nutrients then i can suply them with some of my homemade organic liquid fertiliser.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I'm talking about the true roots. http://potatoplantpress.files.wordpress ... plant2.jpg
I like the idea of the tubers on the surface. Make sure no sun light gets to them.

Comfrey tea is my suggestion and maybe some complete organic fertilizer.

Eric

[nickolas]

Comfrey tea is my suggestion and maybe some complete organic fertilizer.

Eric

i make and use comfrey tea as well as compost tea, nettel tea, manure tea and worm juice(or worm wee).

[Bobberman]

That should work fine. I would also consider some saw dust or even leaves along with the straw since the potatoes may need some other nutrients! River or lake sand will also work with the straw and is cheap! I have cut weeds and put the weeds on top of themself and put potatoes on top of the dried weeds and covered with leaves and had success. I think the cardboard is great and will kill everything under it so next year you may have a even better place for growing other crops! If I have a new area for a garden I first plant potatoes in the area and cover with leaves so the next year the soil is very loamy for other crops!

[ruggr10]

Here's a cool video of someone growing potatoes this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1OShZZUt0k

[nickolas]

here are a few pics i took today of 1 of my 2 potatoe beds(sorry about the top one being a bit fuzzy, it was raining very heavily at the time i took the pics(look at the clouds i love rain).

[nickolas]

Here's a cool video of someone growing potatoes this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1OShZZUt0k

Thank you for the link to that very good video, i have never seen that episode of Gardening Australia before, i use to watch every episode of Gardening Australia untill peter cundall(the man in the video) left 2 years ago, now i never watch Gardening Australia because it is all about ornamental plants and ornamental garden's and never about productive plants and productive gardens.

[ruggr10]

Great looking bed.

I found that video when trying to figure out how to grow potatoes myself. My ground is tough to till so this is great. I'd like to see more of his videos. He also helped me show my wife I wasn't crazy when I told her how I was going to grow them this upcoming spring.

[nickolas]

Great looking bed.

I found that video when trying to figure out how to grow potatoes myself. My ground is tough to till so this is great. I'd like to see more of his videos. He also helped me show my wife I wasn't crazy when I told her how I was going to grow them this upcoming spring.

If you would like to see more of his videos just search for Gardening Australia/peter cundall videos on the net. Peter Cundall is VERY famous in Australia for his vast Knowledge on productive gardening . I have a lot of respect for Mr. Cundall, for it was he who made me get interested in productive gardening in the first place.

[DeborahL]

This all looks marvelous ! I hope to have raised beds someday.

[GardenRN]

Here's a cool video of someone growing potatoes this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1OShZZUt0k

That was a way good video! Much more visually telling. I'm going to go "all out" and do a huge section of potatoes that way this year. The only thing I think I'll change is that he didn't divide his potatoes, and I think I will.

Any thoughts on whether this would work just as well for sweet potatoes????

[nickolas]

That was a way good video! Much more visually telling. I'm going to go "all out" and do a huge section of potatoes that way this year. The only thing I think I'll change is that he didn't divide his potatoes, and I think I will.

Any thoughts on whether this would work just as well for sweet potatoes????

i have done two 20 foot by 9 foot potatoe beds this year. i don't see any reason why it wont work for sweet potatoes.

[GardenRN]

Well it's just that sweet potatoes seem to be such a different plant. First off you usually plant slips, a lot different from planting seed potato sections. But maybe you could leave the slips on the cubes of sweet potato IDK. I tried doing a little searching on it but didn't find anything in my 15 minutes of looking on youtube. Sweet potatoes are also much more vine-like than regular potatoes. I suppose if the nutrients is there, they will grow. We shall see. I'm sure I'll try some this year. It's just going to limit how many starts I can get from one sweet potato. Last year I got about 20 slips from 1 potato by continuously pulling them off and rooting them in water before planting. This year, if I am planting the sweet potatoes like regular potatoes I can only count on about 3-5 vines from one potato. hmmmm.