Friday, February 6, 2009

Planting Time

Preparation for the spring garden began in December this year. 
With my old John Deere A, we started breaking ground, this time in an area surrounded by hog wire. I don't want to repeat the losses we had last year do those critters.
Hopefully I'll have potatoes in the ground by this time next week and maybe a few greens.
If you are planting a garden out there, I would love to hear from you and maybe we could share some thoughts and ideas.

3 comments:

  1. If you could give me a brief explanation on how you plant your potatoes. I haven't planted in a few years, so I might try a new way this year. I have a small garden, probably plant a couple rows of potatoes, 5 lbs. maybe. The last time instead of plowing a whole row, I just tilled the ground then used post hole diggers to plant my potatoes and actually they turned out pretty good. I just wanted to know how deep, what type of fertilizer, the actual planting process, etc. Thanks.....Jason

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  2. That sounds like a good idea. I have even heard of people growing potatoes in hay. Here is a link from somebody in Texas growing potatoes in hay: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2008-02-01/Grow-Potatoes-in-Hay.aspx

    Here is another Web site about growing potatoes in hay, this method sounds easier to me: http://www.thegardenguy.org/

    As for me, I plant them about four inches deep and cover them with soil. For fertilizer I usually use triple 13; or you can use something with a higher potash and potassium number for good root growth.
    As the vines grow up from the ground I just pull more dirt up around it. I plant quite a few so I use disc-hillers on my tractor to pull the dirt up to the plant. I also have a potato digger, which makes the work a lot easier, when we dig this year I will try and shoot some video and post it. It is fun to watch.

    I hope this helps.

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  3. Up in Canada, it was very dry, We planted them in 3ft wide 2 foot deep holes, and covered them lightly with dirt & kept adding straw & pure compost. They were really light to dig out, and very clean. Here it is too wet to plant in a pit :) so I was wondering how to grow them down here.

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