Getting any kind of crops in after nine weeks of storms can be challenging, even potatoes. Risa has some experience using "lasagna" beds and patches now, and is willing, in this emergency, to push the envelope a little. The problem here is that she's had black plastic on site for the whole nine weeks, but in pulling it off she's discovered the sod still isn't dead yet. Mostly -- but not enough. And it's now or never for the spuds.
If she'd trusted the floods not to carry everything away, as of last fall, she'd have put on cardboard instead of the plastic -- and by now it would be mushy enough to accept potato roots (and would have encouraged worms as well). What to do?
She's trying this: newspaper, only one sheet thick. The seed spuds are laid out in rows on the leading edge of each row of sheets, which spaces the rows two feet apart. It's windy, so she's dipped the sections of newspaper in a bucket of water, which gives them a certain gravitas. Gusty conditions, as shown here, lead to holding down paper with branches that have blown out of fir trees, until the crop and mulch are in place.
The paper theoretically will insulate the spuds from mold a little bit, give them time to sprout while the sod is wondering what's going on, and dissolve fast enough for the spuds to root down. Potatoes build the tubers upwards from where they are planted (which is why you hill them in traditional agriculture), so it's up to Risa to keep enough nutritious mulch piled on to both discourage sod and encourage spuds. That, she's willing to do.
I've had success with just placing potatoes directly on the grass and then putting lots of straw on top. I probably don't get the best yield, but it couldn't be any easier.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the ground to thaw here, but I enjoy reading about luckier folks' gardening in the meantime.
Now or never?! I thought Steve Solomon said I could wait til May! Ack!
ReplyDelete@b, where are you? Grass is the one thing that really really grows well here, as in six or eight feet, unattended.
ReplyDelete@a, this has to do with the quality of my seed spuds, which are saved seed. I notice the German Butterballs could wait, but the reds and Yukons are getting really antsy. YMM very well V! Solomon knows about 10,000 percent more than I do... is one of the gods of tiny farming.
Eh, I'm hoping that a sunny day on Sunday will be sufficient for some sod busting ... my potatoes are going in the ground traditional-style, although they will go in shallowly and be covered with mud and yard debris. Solomon also offers some interesting cheats, for instance, I want to plant onion sets, but it's still to muddy to cultivate ... so I am going to hew out a shallow trench and fill it with potting soil, then plant the sets in that. Hopefully the bulbs will have a chance to grow fat in the potting soil while their roots contend with the clay below. It's worth a try. Lonni
ReplyDeletePotting soil is a Standard Practice here; IMHO you are doing this right.
ReplyDeleteI reckon this is why they say hindsight is 20/20. Still, one has to do something! Since I plan to use black plastic to do some grass killing of my own, I was interested in the 9 weeks. I may as well plan to leave mine down the entire summer. We're knee deep in mud here, so I'm noting the use of potting soil. Spring planting is supposed to be around the corner, but I may be taking some desperate measures of my own.
ReplyDeleteHere is an old post about using potting soil in seed beds -- though it's not about our wet springs, but gives an idea. We liked the system in spring so much we used for potting soil as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://risashome.blogspot.com/2009/07/fall-planting.html