I planted 192 potato cuttings today.

[DirtMechanic]

You got 47" of rain from Jan 2022 to April 2022?

Must be one of Noah's kids!

 

[headfullofbees]

Wow that looks like nice garden. What type potatoes do you grow? How many lbs of potatoes do you get from each plant? How many plants to you have?

We get lots of rain in TN. We had 47" of rain last year Jan to April. Not sure how much rain we have gotten this year. I should have looked at TV weather before planting potatoes yesterday we have 3 days of rain in the forecast about 3" every day. I should have waited and planted potatoes next week. OH well.

I would like to plant potatoes like you do but a bale of straw cost $40 each here. If I drive 250 mile north a bale of straw in southern ILL is $3 each. If I was 50 years younger I would drive to ILL bring enough straw home in truck & trailer to sell to pay for my trip and have free straw for my garden. LOL

My garden rows are 32' long, 32" between rows, 21 rows. We like yellow onions best 4" spacing in ok for them. If I plant sweet onions they are larger but shelf life is short. We like Red onions best but I did not grow any this year shelf life is very short.

I'm still eating red onions that came out of the ground last Aug.
They are a day long OP variety called Red Baron, so you can save your own seed.
If you want, I'll send you some.

 

[gary350]

I grow Red Pontiac as my main spring potato crop, but also grow some Kennebec, Yukon, etc. for variety in the fall. You may have seen my thread on my search for the "best" variety for East Texas. I've got 12 different varieties currently under trial...and all have healthy plants.

I normally harvest over 220 pounds of new potatoes from 20 pounds of seed...we just can't use much more than that annually. My first year I harvested well over 1000 pounds of new potatoes from 100 pounds of seed...never again. Way too much work.

I'm also growing Jicama and sunchokes as possible potato supplements/alternates this year. The Jicama is very popular in Mexico and widely grown there. In addition. I'm also growing the Murasaki sweet potato. We just don't care much for the orange sweet potatoes but these Japanese types sound very tasty. The Jicama, sunchokes, and Murasaki will all be harvested in Oct/Nov which corresponds to the time my fresh new potatoes from spring are about used up.

Regarding onions, the 1015 is a yellow sweet onion, short day...and I have not found any onion which can begin to match its sweetness and flavor as well as size. They along with the 1015 red onions store well lasting us from May through about February the following year. I use walking onions as a gap filler.

I make my garden raised rows (about 80 ft long and 2 ft wide) once a year and normally don't till much if any other than that. I make extensive use of summer and winter cover crops and regular crop rotation. Something is growing 365 days a year in my garden. No fallow time. No synthetic fertilizers. Pure organic.

I grew Jicama a few times. We like white color sweet potatoes but I can't find anyone local that sells them anymore. Sweet potato plant leaves can be eaten like lettuce on sandwiches or salads. Sweet potatoes like hot weather each plant grows 25 to 30 lbs of potatoes. Sweet potatoes are zero maintenance all summer I don't dig them up until frost kills the plants about Nov 5. Best garden I ever grew was when I lived in Phoenix AZ area it is 65°f all winter I grew 18 lb Napa cabbage and melons in summer they did good in 114° hot blistering sun, 1 summer I had 28 water melons on 1 plant. I should have planted a few Red onions this year we like their strong flavor best.

 

[Meadowlark]

Both the Murasaki (Japanese origin) and the Khoia (Asian origin) are white fleshed sweet potatoes. I had to purchase the slips online as the local feed stores no longer carry sweet potato slips. The reason I was given is that it's too difficult to store the slips while they are waiting to be sold. Strange. Whatever, if these work out, I will have an unending source for my own slips. I'd be happy to send you a tuber for slips if you wanted it.

So, what was your take on Jicama? It sure is popular in Mexico. Driving in small towns in Mexico (back when it was very safe to do so), the local kids would come out to meet your car at the frequent speed bumps to sell you tubers of Jicama. Its very popular there.

 

[gary350]

Both the Murasaki (Japanese origin) and the Khoia (Asian origin) are white fleshed sweet potatoes. I had to purchase the slips online as the local feed stores no longer carry sweet potato slips. The reason I was given is that it's too difficult to store the slips while they are waiting to be sold. Strange. Whatever, if these work out, I will have an unending source for my own slips. I'd be happy to send you a tuber for slips if you wanted it.

So, what was your take on Jicama? It sure is popular in Mexico. Driving in small towns in Mexico (back when it was very safe to do so), the local kids would come out to meet your car at the frequent speed bumps to sell you tubers of Jicama. Its very popular there.

I only tried to grew jicama 2 times about 5 years ago seeds would not germinate. Seeds were for sale on ebay under several names, Mexican potato, oriental potato, Asian potato, Korean potato, Chinese potato, Australia potato. I bought an oriental potato at the local oriental grocery store. It reminds me of a very hard turnip that tastes like potato. I fried several slices they taste like fried potatoes. I made hash brown potatoes that were good. We have French fries too. It was good. A lady I know from Vietnam puts it in egg rolls.

Thanks for the sweet potato slip offer but my garden is full. Every inch is already spoken for. I have all my plants grown from seeds in 4" pots to 2 gallon pots. Only thing not already growing is, corn & beans. I even grew, watermelons & cantaloupes in 5" pots to get a 1 month head start on melons. I always plant melons seeds about May 10 then have ripe melons about Aug 15. This year we will have melons 1 month early about July 15. My garden is 32 ft long rows about 60 ft long garden with 21 rows. Practice makes perfect I squeeze every thing into the smallest space possible. 32" row spacing is perfect for my 26" wide tiller. Almost forgot to mention I have 2 pots 10 gallon each with about 400 carrots growing in each pot. I don't do raised bed and never did pots either until this year, big pots of very soft soil works great for carrots. I use to make 30 ft long hill of soil to be up high enough our of the swamp to plant carrot seeds about Feb but all this none stop rain washes away the hills so there is no place to plant carrot seeds anymore, then I learned about 10 gallon pots. Our weather is crazy, 4 months of rain then 4 month of desert. Garden is usually a swamp Jan thru April.

 

[Ruderunner]

Ah, yeah I took it wrong about the nitrogen and potatoes thing.