Small space potato growing

[zigs]

Dug my potato clamp up for Christmas today, one had grown a baby one without putting out any Haulms.

Virgin Birth?

 

[Chuck]

Dug my potato clamp up for Christmas today, one had grown a baby one without putting out any Haulms.

View attachment 3987

Virgin Birth?

It's a miracle

 

[ChanellG]

Haulms

Okay, what are Haulms? Are we talking about the green stems and leaves that grow up from the seed potato?

 

[zigs]

Okay, what are Haulms? Are we talking about the green stems and leaves that grow up from the seed potato?

Yep, it's an old English word that the colonists forgot to take with them Means Straw really

 

[ChanellG]

Yep, it's an old English word that the colonists forgot to take with them ...

Ha, ha!

Means Straw really

Had to look it up yesterday. Said something about stems... I thought when you covered them more potatoes grew from the parts under the soil.

 

[zigs]

I thought when you covered them more potatoes grew from the parts under the soil.

They do with some varieties, but not all, as I discovered when I used a dustbin to earth up one, didn't get a better yield, just had to dig deeper for the spuds

Pink Fir Apple Potatoes will produce more if you earth them up.



Put some old drain connectors round this one as it was growing and back filled with compost.

 

[ChanellG]

That was clever, @zigs! I did a similar thing with the laundry baskets for my potato growing experiment last year. I'm thinking now that the potatoes I grew must have been the ones that only grow on the bottom. There is just so much to know about this gardening stuff!

 

[zigs]

It was a bother trying to get them out, i'll use bigger rings next time

Can't find any info on which varieties produce more and which don't, most sites just seem to think all of them will produce more when earthed up, but if that's happened to both of us there must be something in it.

Think the variety that didn't increase was Rocket.

 

[Durgan]

They do with some varieties, but not all, as I discovered when I used a dustbin to earth up one, didn't get a better yield, just had to dig deeper for the spuds

Pink Fir Apple Potatoes will produce more if you earth them up.



Put some old drain connectors round this one as it was growing and back filled with compost.

I am of the opinion your photos are fudged. No potatoes grow like you depict This is most misleading to the novice growers on this forum.

There is nothing unique about a potato, They grow just like any other plant, and the requirements are the same.

 

[Chuck]

I am of the opinion your photos are fudged. No potatoes grow like you depict This is most misleading to the novice growers on this forum.

There is nothing unique about a potato, They grow just like any other plant, and the requirements are the same.

I believe you also stated that potatoes will not produce tubers except next to and slightly above the seed potato. That is also misleading the novice gardener. Sometimes that is true but not always. It depends on the variety. I am too cheap to buy $7 a pound seed potatoes so I use what they have at the grocery store and I plant them similarly to Zigs. Most times the potatoes continue to form tubers all the way up the stem but having said that many times they don't. I guess it is varietal but I can't be sure because the grocery store doesn't say what varieties they are, only baking potatoes, red potatoes and Idaho potatoes. And Zigs photo shopped his pics? Utterly absurd

 

[Durgan]

There is not one photo on the internet of potatoes growing along the stem. I am waitng some to appear.


This is new pictures to make viewing easier.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZFZLX
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QHBIN 21 August 2009 How a Potato Plant Grows
There is a great deal of information on the Internet about growing potatoes in tires, boxes and indicating that large quantities of new tubers can be produced with high vertical hilling. The view propagated is that potatoes grow from branches all along the main stalk. This is utter nonsense, as the pictures indicate. New tubers are formed around the seed potato and always slightly above it.

My potato growing test box was opened today. The pictures speak for themselves. Clearly there is no advantage in carrying out excessive hilling when growing potatoes. The purpose of hilling is to insure the tubers are covered, since light affects potatoes producing a green appearance, which is an indication of solanine, which is harmful if ingested in large quantities.. For comparison one Pontiac Red was dug in the same row, which was almost identical to the test box potato in appearance.

 

[CanadianLori]

I really like the look of the foliage just by itself- and I would be happy with little potatoes. They do charge more for those at the store.
I have some 1/2 inch wire cloth - maybe I'll try making a cylinder out of that in the spring.

Thank you for bringing this back up.
Lori

 

[zigs]

I am of the opinion your photos are fudged. No potatoes grow like you depict This is most misleading to the novice growers on this forum.

There is nothing unique about a potato, They grow just like any other plant, and the requirements are the same.

Hmm, not sure I know what the word fudged means in UK English other than a confectionary product made from milk and sugar, it's very nice by the way

Au contraire, I was sieving the compost heap yesterday and found some fine potatoes that had matured without producing any top growth at all.

They looked like Charlotte variety and i'd certainly not planted that variety since 2013.

Had half of them for lunch today and they were delicious

Before you go casting Nasturtiums at someone who volunteers on multiple gardening forums with the sole intention of helping others and having a good time while i'm at it, might I suggest you take a seed potato, bury it in your compost heap and then cover the whole thing with black plastic and then come back at the end of the season to observe and hopefully enjoy your crop

 

[zigs]

There is not one photo on the internet of potatoes growing along the stem. I am waitng some to appear.

Yes there is, post #36 above, beleive it now it's on the internet?

Clearly there is no advantage in carrying out excessive hilling when growing potatoes. .

Try growing Pink Fir Apple potatoes.

 

[Durgan]

Surrely the easiest thing to grow would be a potato growing tubers off the main stem. Babble babble and obfuscation but no photos. STRANGE.