Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Haha me 2
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Yep I grew potatoes for the first time last Summer too, was very satisfying.

UPDATE:

So after just under 2 months from planting, I did my first "earthing up" or "hilling up" of my potatoes.

First thing to notice is how vigorous the growth has been in the past two weeks since my last update viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12729&start=30#p336563



I earthed up with approximately a 50-50 mix of sugarcane mulch and potting mix/compost.



I ran out of soil, so I did not fill them up as high as I was going to. After watching a few you tube videos this does not seems to be much of an issue though. Different people seem to hill/earth up when the plants are at different stages of growth, and also leave different amounts of foliage showing based on personal preference. Im not sure which way is better: frequent earthing up of small plants with only a little foliage left showing, or less frequent with more foliage showing.

My other seed potatoes arn't doing much, I tried to chitted them a bit longer "in place" by "planting" them in the bottom of their bags, but not covering them....their sprouts have progressed a bit but not much.

I might just cover them and be done with it since I think they would be considered main crop, and hence, wont need alot of sprout showing from what I've heard...I THINK????? Anyway, hope i haven't done them more harm then good by trying to chitted them in place.

Why have I never bothered going to this site before!!!! Excellent stuff. I've always seen the backyard farming link on the BYAP site and never bothered going there.

Very nice.

Now they are some nice healthy looking spud leaves, much darker than mine I think my soil could do with some iron maybe?

Those spuds of yours will be delicious.

thanks. I hope they yield well. At this stage I'm hoping more for the quantity, as opposed to the taste. My other half still isn't highly excited about the amount of time and $ I spend on urban farming, and is used to easting plain foods. A few good crops should start to change minds me thinks

The unfortunate thing is that I need to buy all my soil. At least you can use the existing stuff with some success. We live where an old brick quary/plant used to be (didn't know until after the house was built). All the "soil" already here is solid clay, no organic materials in it.

You might find she is more impressed with the taste of a fresh spud compared to one bought from the shop which has been in cold storage for X number of months.

My misses isn't too keen on potatoes but come spring when I start to tickle the first new seasons out of the ground she just can't get enough of my spuds

Though I might give this a try.

We have a coffee roaster near by and they were selling the hessian bean bags for $2.50 each so I got a couple, they should be a nice size growing bed when they are finished. I just hope they don't dry out too quickly, the hessian will probably wick away most of the water, I will be ramping with a mix of straw and soil.

I also popped into my old lab and stole some expanded polystyrene boxes. You can cut the bases out and then just stack them on top of each other when it comes time to ramp the plants. polystyrene breaks down in UV so I usually render or paint the outside of the boxes.

I heard car tyres were a bad idea because of all the asbestos from the brake pads but I am not sure if I believe this.

Does anone cut the potatoes before putting them in the bags? On the back of my Kipfler seed potatoe bag it had a picture of them being cut but there didn't seem to be any explanation as to why or any directions as to where to make the cuts.

You don't need to cut them afaik. You can if you want to use the rest of the Potatoe to eat. But I wouldn't if they are seed potatoes, they are likely a bit icky as they are not expect to be used to eat.

I cut my big irish potatoes in quarters so there would be more plant spacing. The sweet potatoes were cut in big pieces and put in water about 1/2 way and left to sprout. all the pieces sprouted with many shoots and then were planted or laid on the ground and covered with mulch. I have been watering the mulch piles a lot every day since.

When you say sweet potatoes Don...are you talking about an actual potato variety, or yams, which is what we australian's call sweet potatoes?

Im desparately trying to find tuber for Yam's in local stores, but might have to go to the net for some.

I thought so. Names are so different sometimes for the same things.

Were they orange or green when cut? Yams are orange, sweet potatoes green. Almost everyone calls yams sweet potatoes. Just like everyone calls scallions green onions.

Orange and would be Yams I guess.