Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Try planting a marigold in a bag near your potato bags. Brush your hand against the flowers to release some of the fragrance. That'll keep some bugs away.

I've planted some different types of mint in wicking tubs. They are going nutso in the tubs. This weekend I'll move the mint tubs over near the taters to help keep some bugs away.

It's been raining so I haven't had to water the bags much. Water the bags? Sounds funny. Might ought to stop drinking and head off to the bed.

Thanks. I have the good bug mix from green harvest, but have not planted yet. I should probably by a mature plant to tied me over though.

My regular potatoes are dying so I think I will have to dig spuds out of the compost in a couple of weeks. That should be about the 22nd. I think we call them Idaho Spuds.

On the sweet potato patch it really looks like it is doing great. It still looks like it should be a while longer before it starts to die off. I have seen potatoes through the leaves while watering. They are about 4 inches long. I wish I had more mulch to cover them with.

Nice don

The sweet potatoes I put in the container of water few a few small roots, but not much action. What would I be looking for.

The normal potatoes I put in there with them were going great gun, but the bottoms of them started to rot, so have pulled them out to dry.

You should start seeing shoots come on pretty soon. I planted mine when the shoots were a couple of inches long.

The regular potatoes seem to do fine just leaving them in the dark pantry till they start sprouting. I check the grocery for ones that look like the eyes are starting to sprout. They usually start sprouting before we get to use up the bag since there is only 2 of us here a bag lasts a while.

Question about the Hessian bags. What are they made of? Looks like woven white plastic bags. Do they hold water or not? They do not look like the burlap bags we use here for feeds and such. Rough brown fibers loosely woven gets plenty of ventilation.

Thanks don,

Will have to persist with the yams. Got the normal potatoes down pay, just tying a couple if different approaches to see which results in fast chitting.

The bag is not really hessian/burlap. The white one is some type of poly or nylon woven fibers. The green ones are much more tightly woven poly.

The white one seeps water out slowly when it has been saturated. But the green ones tend to hold the water well and only let it out the drainage eyelets at he bottom.

The potatoes I'm chitting at the moment I will put in the empty plastic compost and soil bags the "grow media" (dirt) came in. I saw an Irish guy do it on YouTube by punching a few holes in the bottom I them. Seemed to work just as well as the proper green grow bags.

So, my first lot of potatoes are coming to their end. I'm a bit worried that they have not flowered. I'm not sure if this is a necessary stage in the tuber development.

The royal blues I put in a while ago have shot up, and I have left t way too long to earth up.

My regular irish potatoes died and I waited a couple of weeks and dug them up. Guess how many potatoes I got. None. Not a single one. I have no idea what went wrong but something did.

My sweet potatoe patch is still nice and green. I dont know when they will be done. Wife says after the frost.

Hmm, hope mine are not suffering the same fate.

Good to hear about sweet potatoes. I couldn't get mine to sprout

the backyard farming site is broken. Are potatoes an autumn through spring crop or can you do them all year round?

They are spring and summer plants. they wont grow in the winter. Should start in early spring.

They are winter, spring and autumn crop in the sub tropics
Mine are doing well
I have some in a old wine box and some in a rubbish bin (wicking bed)
The ones in the ground didnt survive,either brush turkey scratched them out or they got collar rot form me mounding up the soil???

Okay. As I feared, my first two Potatoe bags that I've been updating on have been a bit of a fizzer. The yield is only slightly higher than the number put in. The reasons I think this may have happned are:
1- only high nitrogen fertilizer used (as per very green leaves) with low potash content
2- as noted earlier, I think the plants' lives were prematurely cut short during bulking up phase
3- they were in too much sun/heat for this time of year
4- (possibly most important) the 50-50 mix of soil and sugar cane mulch was too thick. I found the roots only ventured into the section with the original 25-25-25-25 mix of compost, soil, cow manure, and sugar cane mulch, greatly restricting the area in which the roots/tubers could expand. This was mentioned by another member (simo?). Another problem with this was that, due to the hot weather, only the 25-25-25-25 mix section stayed nice and wet it seems.

For the second batch of seed potatoes that I have put in I have now rectified points 1, 3, and 4. Particularly I have used a full compost soil mix for earthing up. I will also water more regularly to ensure the top sections of soil stay moist. Hopefully this will promote growth of roots up into the earthing up area. I will get some potash fertilizer soon.

On a third experiment, I have plant potatoes in the large deep pot were I go the big yield last year. Some things I noticed so far about the pot compare to be bags.
1- the soil is very fine but still full of organics. The distance between where the potatoes are planted and he bottom of the pot is much deeper than where I put the potatoes in the bags.
2- the combo of the pot wall, it's position in semi shade, and it finer soil means that it seems to maintain moisture for longer.

I will earth up on this pot to. But if I find that the roots do not expand into the earthing up area, I will not do earthing up next year. I will just fill the entire bag or pot with finer potting mix and compost, plant the potatoes mid soil column to give plenty of room for roots to grow outward/downward then leave them to do as the wish without tampering.