Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

As a mechanic Ive been kicking tyres my entire working career...

The fun just isnt there anymore

Charlie, all citrus rely on feeder surface roots. First problem - you will be disturbing these roots when you dig up the potatoes. This could stress out the mandarin tree, and result in it not fruiting(at a minimum). Secondly, you shouldn't grow anything under citrus (even grass) because it competes with the citrus for nutrients / water.

Its funny you should say this. A while back (Icant remember what thread) I asked around if anyone had heard of issues with planting under citrus, because I had heard of the same issues you have described. The general consensus was that it wouldnt be an issue and I couldnt find anything on the net.... so I went ahead and did the potatoe thing.

I can only say that this garden bed under this mandarin tree has been there for about 8 years with god knows how many vegies grown there in that time. Seems to be ok and we got about 6 shopping bags full of mandarins this year.


It may be a bit of an old wives tale?

Water you citrus with fish tank water in the spring and they will love it.
But citrus are fussy in my experience, and really need to get mature to handle our hot summers. 47C day here a few years ago wiped out our lemon tree

How do you know when your spuds are ready to harvest?

When the plants die your spuds are ready




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I was once young and stupid, i'm not so young now

Thanks!

so wait till they are totally dead and flat on the ground

It depends what you intend to do with them and how many you harvest, you can pick some as you go if u intend to use them fast, and you can harvest them when the plant has just died if you use them fairly fast as well. But if you intend to store them for use later you need to leave them in the ground about 14 or so days after the plant is dead so the skin toughens up and they store longer



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I was once young and stupid, i'm not so young now

I am going to give this a go out of one of the bulker bags. What a good idea.
Do the spuds going in need to have visible eyes happening ?

This is my first shot Jessy but I left mine in the bottom of the pantry until the eyes formed, this way I could tell which way up to plant them (so the bulk of the shoots are facing up)

Seemed to have worked.

Me to.

I'm not sure if they definitely need visible eyes/shoots, but they certainly work even when the eyes are fairly small.

I was at the B the other day looking at the seed potatoes. Some packs had huge sprouts, some had hardly any at all, so I'm not sure how important it is for them to be visible before planting.

When I was reading up about spuds before I planted, I came across an article that stated that if you let them sprout first you can see what side up is best to plant them (so sprouts are facing up)... but like you say, not sure how important this is, I believe they will still make thier way up.

Mine are ready to harvest so Ill be pulling them up tomorrow.... excited much!

Better if they are spouting in my opinion

Pics please....and weigh your yield if u can pls.

Although I found I was digging smaller ones out of my pot last year for q couple of weeks.

Also remember to let the skins harden.