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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: rodekyll on April 22, 2015, 02:54:23 PM
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So I'm at the hardware store and they got Yukon Gold seed potatoes @ $5.47/lb. I move on down to the grocery store and Yukon Gold eatin' spuds are $1.47/lb, with a 5#bag @$4.99.
My question is . . . if the 5# bag leaves new York travelling 60mph . . . no, wait. Wrong forum.
My question is: Why should I buy a pound of seed potatoes @ $5.47 when I can get 5# for less? The eatin' ones also sprout . . . .
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That, my friend, is what we call Economy of Scale. Just like why a pencil costs 17 cents at Staples but would cost you about a thousand dollars to make one on your own.
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My dear old mum would have me drive her all over Townsville to buy her groceries , potatoes are on special here, tomatos over somewhere else etc. She saved on the veges , I paid for the fuel :D
In the end, it was easier and a lot quicker to get everything at one shop, and I paid for the groceries. She was horrified that I would pay so much for fruit and Vegetables, but I figured I saved more than that on the fuel bill ;D
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The spendy ones may have been raised as seed potatos with a lot of hoops to jump thru and inspection criteria to make sure they are disease free-more slanted toward the commercial grower, but they had better have a certificate with them or it is just BS. For your own garden I would not worry about it.
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I'm leaning toward not worrying about it. It's been a long time since I planted spuds. I think I remember my dad simply setting aside the more pimply ones for next year's crop. He'd say "The eyes have it!"
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Potato, potato, potato...Is this a Harley exhaust thread? Non organic spuds may be sprayed to prevent sprouting in the bag...
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You mean the potato in the HD pipe?
When I was in high school I was on a team that travelled via VW bus to competitions. We encountered a team from an all-girl's school that were staying in the town for extra days. We thought we'd like to hang out with them, so some clever guy shoved a spud up the tailpipe of the team bus. We got our extra day in town. Also some detention when we got back. It was worth it.
Thanks for the word on spray. I've noticed the seed variety aren't washed at all -- still have crusty field dirt. I'll rinse the eatin' ones before planting, should I go that route.
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Although taters are a pretty plant that's easy to grow, I stopped planting them, they're cheap to buy and I really shouldn't be eating them anyway. I'll use My garden time/effort on maters & 'sparagus.
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After ten years, my asparagus won't sprout anymore. It was a major excavation to plant the crowns. I don't think I'll be doing it again. I do prefer the perennials though -- less work, and I'm hungry, but lazy.
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We're knee deep in the stuff and lovin' it!
(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag65/guzzistajohn/031_zpsgsbqssdw.jpg) (http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/guzzistajohn/media/031_zpsgsbqssdw.jpg.html)
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You mean the potato in the HD pipe?
The sound a big twin makes when guys turn the idle down real slow...
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The literature suggest sprayed potatoes won't sprout. So, I doubt washing them prior to planting will help. Might try pricing organic potatoes to see if there is a price difference from seed potatoes.
Personally, for the few bucks difference, I'd go with the certified seed potatoes and then maybe aim for storing enough from harvest to plant next year.
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Taters from the supermarket may not sprout. Generally sprayed with sprout inhibitors. Also, growing your own food isn't always cost-effective but you do have the satisfaction of watching something grow and being able to control how you grow it. A lot of pesticides are used in commercial potato production. I find growing things very satisfying personally so it's not an economic thing for me. What kinds of potatoes do you like? Me, I like waxy potatoes that are used for boiling, roasting, mashing, and potato salads. Not interested in starchy potatoes used for baking, french fries, chips etc. Most Americans don't pay much attention to potato varieties, starch content etc. presumably because they don't eat boiled potatoes. For the past 20 years or so, I have experimented with probably a dozen different waxy potato varieties and have found an old Dutch variety called "Nicola" to be the family favorite. WAY better tasting potato than a Yukon Gold but the seed can be hard to find. This year I am also planting Makah Ozette (read up on this variety, very interesting story!!) which is a fingerling type and rumored to taste even better than Nicola. We'll see! I get my seed from a seed potato farm in Colorado called "Potato Garden" (http://www.potatogarden.com). Seed from them ain't cheap when you factor in shipping but it's more cost-effective if you can share shipping costs with other waxy potato farmers!
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I've had great luck growing chili peppers. Happened by accident actually. The neighbors cat was crapping in the wifes succulent garden. She wanted me to go and buy here cayenne pepper to sprinkle around there. I brought red pepper flakes home from work (the ones in pizza places and italian restaurants) and sprinkled away. Ended up with 3 plants, each about 3-4 feet tall.
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So I'm at the hardware store and they got Yukon Gold seed potatoes @ $5.47/lb. I move on down to the grocery store and Yukon Gold eatin' spuds are $1.47/lb, with a 5#bag @$4.99.
My question is . . . if the 5# bag leaves new York travelling 60mph . . . no, wait. Wrong forum.
My question is: Why should I buy a pound of seed potatoes @ $5.47 when I can get 5# for less? The eatin' ones also sprout . . . .
"Cheap spuds save lives!"
Todd.
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That's a true statement right there.
Some people think of them as famine food, but they keep millions of people alive.
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That's a true statement right there.
Some people think of them as famine food, but they keep millions of people alive.
The Irish potato famine was because of a lack of potatoes due to disease...It's said, prior to the famine, the Irish diet was primary a few pounds of potato's a day washed down with goat or cows milk...
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All I know is we were poor dirt farmers when I was a kid. We *bought* seed potatoes, so I'm guessing there was a reason. <shrug>
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The Irish potato famine was because of a lack of potatoes due to disease...It's said, prior to the famine, the Irish diet was primary a few pounds of potato's a day washed down with goat or cows milk...
Wonder what the Irish ate before the potato was introduced to Europe ?
Dusty
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I just put in a small garden this week. Built a raised bed of 6'x3'x12". We have 'maters, bell peppers, jalapenos, strawberries and Chinese long beans. So far it's cost me about $120 for materials, plants and soil.
The strawberries are in pots, the long beans in their own box.
Now to keep the possums, squirrels, birds, and other organic ailments away.
Good looking asparagus John. We eat it often.
Tobit
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The Irish potato famine was because of a lack of potatoes due to disease...It's said, prior to the famine, the Irish diet was primary a few pounds of potato's a day washed down with goat or cows milk...
And the rest of the food the Irish peasants grew went to England. The farms and crops for most things other than potatoes were owned by the English.
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Seed from them ain't cheap when you factor in shipping but it's more cost-effective if you can share shipping costs with other waxy potato farmers!
Sorry, that should read "farmers of waxy potatoes" ;D
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Glad you cleared that up. I was thinking Brazil . . .
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I asked my wife, who is a master gardener...she says seed potatoes will have much higher yields and are free of blight.
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I decided to settle it by planting the retail and seed potatoes side-by-side. We'll see which grow.
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I live in Amish country, and it is much easier and cheaper to buy veggies from them than to have a garden. I have been spoiled by the abundance here in season.
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I decided to settle it by planting the retail and seed potatoes side-by-side. We'll see which grow.
Yes, a great idea to get to the truth...actually do it and see what happens!!!! The man of action has spoken...
And please take two and a half minutes to watch this video.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBEFCiWyW0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBEFCiWyW0)
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Cute video.
Apparently not all potatos are sprayed. I was able to sprout store-bought sweet potatos last year. I'm too far north, I guess, to grow them because I didn't get much yield, but they did grow. But, I buy from a local produce store, not a chain store, so maybe that store uses different sources for its veggies.
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We have a fresh veggie event a couple times a month in the summer. A produce truck loads up in Chelan, WA and takes the ferry through SE Alaska, spending a day or two per town as the ferry allows. So after a day or so collecting the produce, a day getting to the ferry, a few days on the ferry, and a few days in other towns, we get food that's only a couple weeks old.
Without the Chelan truck (also does special orders) we get some really awful stuff. In the spring and summer we get the inventory they're clearing out of the warehouse to make room for the new crop. In the winter we get stuff from the warehouse. Right now with the new crops coming in and us getting last year's stuff we're paying $1.19 for bruised russets, and pushing $2.00/lb for basic red or Yukon Gold spuds. Sweet onions run up to $3/lb, and ducks would turn their backs on the starchy, sour ear corn. For a guy that grew up eating dinner in the garden that's unacceptable. So although I'm really growing for the sake of watching them sprout, there is a practical return.
There is no local agriculture. That's partly because we have a median temp of 42ºf and 115+ inches of rain a year. The rest is because there is no dirt here and not a lot of horizontal landforms. Alaska is very young, geologically speaking. Dirt is a product of erosion and the organic cycle and takes a lot of time to produce. The glaciers scraped away most of what may have been here and ancient tsunamis scoured the rest. I buy bags of dirt from the store and try making more. Once I retired a raised bed. I put a notice up on our radio show "Problem Corner" that everyone could have a white bucket of free dirt until the bed was gone. People lined up for it.
Even the Russians gave up on trying to subsist agriculturally. Their farm colony was at Ft. Ross in California (possibly the only part of coastal California where nothing grows). The little bit they did in Alaska was in raised beds. They planted Siberian food -- kale, beets, and cabbage mostly -- very bleak. They planted some sour apple trees that can still be seen but probably never produced.
We do have a good variety of currents and berries up here if you don't mind browsing brakes and bushes with brownies. The skeeters stay in world-class condition eating blueberries.
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Yukon Gold spuds from both sources are in the ground. Half a row to one, and the other half to the other. Now I'll pull up a lawn chair and wait. . .
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Sounds somewhat familiar. Where I lived before BC was Cochrane Alberta. 63 frost free days, on average. Farmers only grew green feed (unripe barley). Good soil but risky weather.
Vancouver Islanders I knew who lived on rocks hoarded seaweed, for the most part, to build their soil beds. Except once, they took a van load of sheep manure almost home from my BC barn one winter, leaving it at a ferry terminal. They left it too long. It started to decompose once the weather warmed and pretty much ruined their van.
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Yes, seaweed is good. A local state park leaves the service gate unlocked for seaweed gatherers. Kelp is good too, and if you add some clam or oyster shells and household compost I understand you can have real dirt in a few years.
I spent a summer scraping seasoned manure from corral enclosures. It was fun -- one on the skid scoop and the other driving a war surplus jeep around in circles. We'd get paid to clear the ground and then paid by the load to deliver it to various customers. Seasoned manure has a musky, but clean smell. Rotten manure is pretty rank. It needs a lot of sun and circulation to not rot. I pity the van. Could you imagine if it turned bad on the car deck? Ewww! I'll bet the crew would have rolled it over the side . . .
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I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes. They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought. As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries. The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name. The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside. I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. :food:
You can't beat Alaska home-grown. :thumb:
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I grow my own vegetables.
This year - Spinach, radishes, peas, blackeyed peas, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelons, tomatoes, corn, squash, zucchini, pole beans, bush beans, green peppers, okra.
All better than what you can buy in a store. No artificial fertilizer, no artificial pesticides, the dog keeps out the deer and bears, Jobu the scarecrow keeps out the crows, and Winnie the solar-powered owl keeps out the furry varmints. The turtles get a few tomatoes but we're drowning in them so they're welcome.
The relative cost isn't an issue - the quality is!
Lannis
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Before the introduction of potatos, the Irish probably ate kale and turnips. The Scots ate oats and sheep, two of the primary ingredients
of Haggis. Haggis being a sheeps' stomach filled with a sort of meatloaf mixture of heart, liver, and lungs, and other stuff to create an enormous looking sausage kind of thing.
Each clan had its' own recipe. Some worse than others.
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Our garden is a mess after being gone for pretty much July. Great tomatoes, peppers, kale is ok but struggling with crab grass, as are the collards and cabbages.
Best blueberries so far this year, asparagus beds actually produced too-but the weeds, the weeds.
Not sure what to do, weeds have seeded and are ready to do it again. As I see more bike travel, we may cut back and do the farmer's markets for a while.
Oh-several renegade potatoes too, in the abandoned bed.
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I've canned 40 qts. of tomatoes already and still got them coming out my ears. Wife has been blanching, peeling and putting them in the freezer too. I won't put out this many plants next year. Perfect hot summer with enough rain in NC for them this year.
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Our garden is a mess after being gone for pretty much July. Great tomatoes, peppers, kale is ok but struggling with crab grass, as are the collards and cabbages.
Crabgrass in the watermelon, cantaloupes, and pumpkins is my biggest weed problem. Have to pull it by hand, can't get the tiller in there, and it takes tons of mulch (expensive) to fix it.
And it's hard not to plant "too many" tomatoes and squash. You don't know how many will survive, and you don't want to be short.
But if they ALL survive, then you can't stand to throw away perfectly good vegetables .... and you can and freeze until you're tired of it ....
Lannis
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Wonder what the Irish ate before the potato was introduced to Europe ?
Dusty
The Welsh. Tasty!
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The Welsh. Tasty!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
OK then , what did the Italians eat before the tomato was proven to be edible to the inhabitants of Europe ? :grin:
Dusty
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I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes. They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought. As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries. The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name. The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside. I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. :food:
You can't beat Alaska home-grown. :thumb:
So how is the experiment between seed potatoes and your potatoes turning out?
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I stuck my fingers down where a potato vine had just wilted off and grabbed a handful of Yukon Gold potatoes. They're the same size and color, etc as store-bought. As 'new' (not seasoned for skin toughness) they cut easily into fries. The interior has that yellow tint that gives them their name. The fries cook up perfectly -- crispy crust and soft inside. I added them to a plate of fresh 'butt cheeks for some superb fish and chips. :food:
You can't beat Alaska home-grown. :thumb:
Yeah, you forgot to answer the basic question of the whole thread. Are you eating the "seed" half of the row, or the "store" half?
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as a pretty serious gardener... I never bother with potatoes and hardly with onions... The only onions I plant are to pick as spring onions... but no growing to maturity, seasoning, and storing for me.... Thats two items that are too cheap at the grocer to take up valuable garden space, plus potatoes are lot of work!
I have grown small batches of specialty/heirloom potatoes using the tire stack method.. but a significant crop? no thanks.
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HMMM. I had reported on the difference a month or so back. The post seems to have disappeared.
I planted 5 pieces of grocery store spud and 5 of hardware store stock. The grocery store ones did not grow. None. Next time I'll leave them lying around till they sprout and then plant them. :laugh:
I had 4/5 hardware store plants come up. They were cut from two seed potatoes. A sickly plant that made little deer-dropping tubers and the one that didn't grow were from one tuber. The three that did well were from the other.
Mayor -- I did this as an experiment to answer a question, not to pretend I'm some master gardener with a truck farm.
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
OK then , what did the Italians eat before the tomato was proven to be edible to the inhabitants of Europe ? :grin:
Dusty
Alfredo sauce, risotto - and lots (and lots) of wine...
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What you grow and take out of the ground tastes better than anything someone else is selling to you. You know what you put into it.
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as a pretty serious gardener... I never bother with potatoes and hardly with onions... The only onions I plant are to pick as spring onions... but no growing to maturity, seasoning, and storing for me.... Thats two items that are too cheap at the grocer to take up valuable garden space, plus potatoes are lot of work!
I have grown small batches of specialty/heirloom potatoes using the tire stack method.. but a significant crop? no thanks.
I'm going to be experimenting with onions. After having eaten Vidalia onions for some time now, I just can't go back to the strong, bitter "normal" yellow or white onions that you buy. I'm going to see what kind of "sweet" onion I can grow, because Vidalias are pretty expensive and not always available.
I agree, though, that when potatoes are $.40 a pound, it's not worth plowing, planting, cultivating, digging, cleaning, and storing your own ....
Lannis
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Are you kidding? Potatoes have to be one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest part is digging them up fast enough to eat them before they either get too big or too many.
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Sometimes we get gnarly old soft Russets under $1/pound. Good spuds like reds or Yukons run from about $1.25 - $1.80/lb. The best 'deals' are 5# bags @ about $6.00. There are no fresh veggies in town, ever. A truck from Chelan, WA makes the rounds of SE bush communities on the ferry. Their stuff is the freshest (and they do special orders), but it's still at least two weeks old by the time it swims to Sitka. I got very spoiled on good food as a kid -- we farmed acreage for subsistence and barter. Store bought produce always looks limp and tastes 'turned' to me.
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Are you kidding? Potatoes have to be one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest part is digging them up fast enough to eat them before they either get too big or too many.
Yes.
But to get a potato, you have to:
1) Plow up the ground.
2) Make rows with a middlebuster or however you like to make rows
3) Cut up the seed potatoes and set them in the ground
4) Cover up the potatoes
5) Cultivate the ground so that the weeds won't choke out the young plants.
6) Spade up the potatoes, or use the middlebuster again, and separate the potatoes from the dirt.
7) Clean and store the ones you are going to use in a cool dry place.
Not much different from any other vegetable, but (A) I can't tell any difference between my potatoes and store potatoes, whereas I CAN tell a significant difference with my corn, tomatoes, okra, etc etc and (B) Potatoes are still dirt cheap in the store, compared to other produce .....
Lannis
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^^^^ yep. And I'll add another. Corn. Takes way too much space and labor. You can buy sweet corn at farmer's stands for practically nothing.
Tomatoes, however, are special. :laugh: There's nothing better than an Indiana tomato. I just brought in a half sack today. I'll be doing some stuffed tomatoes tomorrow..
FWIW, when the grand kids were here from the City of the Angles, they didn't like fresh tomatoes. :smiley: Didn't taste like anything they'd ever had..
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:1: On the vine ripened tomatoes , Indiana or otherwise . Big ol beefsteak , picked at just the right time , sliced thick , between two slices of good bread , touch of M&M , very lightly salted :drool:
Dusty
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^^^^ yep. And I'll add another. Corn. Takes way too much space and labor. You can buy sweet corn at farmer's stands for practically nothing.
Just goes to show. In my opinion, you cannot beat the flavor of corn where you already have the water boiling when you pull the ears off the stalk. Shuck it, silk it, into the pot, and you're eating it 12 minutes after it was picked.
You just can't do that with corn bought from a stand. Stale old stuff was probably picked yesterday or even the day before. Besides which, we don't even have many farmer's produce stands around here. Except for Saturday morning in the town Farmer's Market, there just aren't any.
Corn's my favorite in the garden for that reason. Tomatoes - same reason as yours!!
Lannis
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Just goes to show. In my opinion, you cannot beat the flavor of corn where you already have the water boiling when you pull the ears off the stalk. Shuck it, silk it, into the pot, and you're eating it 12 minutes after it was picked.
You just can't do that with corn bought from a stand. Stale old stuff was probably picked yesterday or even the day before. Besides which, we don't even have many farmer's produce stands around here. Except for Saturday morning in the town Farmer's Market, there just aren't any.
Corn's my favorite in the garden for that reason. Tomatoes - same reason as yours!!
Lannis
Forgot. I live in corn country. :smiley: Fresh corn? No problemo..
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Potatoes hard to grow? Sheesh. Just get them into the ground.
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Potatoes hard to grow? Sheesh. Just get them into the ground.
So, which of the steps that I laid out above do you skip, in growing potatoes? Maybe I'm doing too much ....
Lannis
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I didn't say potatoes are HARD to grow, I said they are labor & space intensive... and very cheap at the store
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certified seed 'taters are certified to be free of disease, to begin with anyway. doesn't mean they won't catch something when you put 'em in the dirt.
Bees, or lack thereof caused a tremendous loss of productivity in our garden. Squash went bust, ditto beans. My brother in NC had same problem. Our honey bees are almost gone. If the bees disappear, will all life on earth cease to exist?
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So, which of the steps that I laid out above do you skip, in growing potatoes? Maybe I'm doing too much ....
Lannis
I have had success with digging a hole and dropping the whole thing in.
Also dropping them on the ground and throwing soil on them.
Also just missing a potato in the harvest and finding a new plant in spring.
Ruth Stout used to drop them on the ground and kick hay over them. I mean, really, they will grow if you don't eat them fast enough-except these days they get fumigated for supermarkets so they won't easily sprout-though they will eventually.
I bought Andean potatoes at the supermarket and buried those-they all came up and gave us nice weird potatoes!
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Bees, or lack thereof caused a tremendous loss of productivity in our garden. Squash went bust, ditto beans. My brother in NC had same problem. Our honey bees are almost gone.
That's scary. They're real numerous here - honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, and leafcutter bees which are a new one on me.
I think we'll be able to get the bees back, once we clean up our act and lay off the pesticides, but there will be some lean years.
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That's scary. They're real numerous here - honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, and leafcutter bees which are a new one on me.
I think we'll be able to get the bees back, once we clean up our act and lay off the pesticides, but there will be some lean years.
The little black bees (they have a name but I can't remember it) are picking up the slack that the honey bees have left, at least around here ....
Lannis
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Crabgrass in the watermelon, cantaloupes, and pumpkins is my biggest weed problem. Have to pull it by hand, can't get the tiller in there, and it takes tons of mulch (expensive) to fix it.
And it's hard not to plant "too many" tomatoes and squash. You don't know how many will survive, and you don't want to be short.
But if they ALL survive, then you can't stand to throw away perfectly good vegetables .... and you can and freeze until you're tired of it ....
Lannis
I got fed up with tilling up/pulling weeds. Put down the layers of newspaper and cover it with straw in the spring. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but I'm done then with weeds. The plants all seem to do much better in a dry year too with the soil covered. Some early hard labor that pays off through the season. At least for me.