Spuds

[eagleflyfisher]

So last year it rained so much my potatoes drowned & had to dig them out around 3rd week in July. Maybe a mistake but I now grow almost everything in garden boxes. 4 x8 . Problem is I guess they don't drain as well as straight in the ground.
This season all was well until 2-3 weeks ago they started looking droopy & turning yellow brown then dead.
Daughter and I dug up maybe half of the 33 hills we have going. Potatoes looked ok but no big bakers and maybe the skin looked a little lumpy ? No signs of bugs anywhere.
Soil is good, lots of compost , peat, sand etc.pretty fluffy stuff.
I thought spuds were pretty much fail safe to grow other than a few bugs to squish.
Watered frequently, hilled them around when they started to flower.
I don't know what's happened.
We are close to Calgary.
Everything else is as usual, should have some corn in next few days.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by eagleflyfisher

So last year it rained so much my potatoes drowned & had to dig them out around 3rd week in July. Maybe a mistake but I now grow almost everything in garden boxes. 4 x8 . Problem is I guess they don't drain as well as straight in the ground.
This season all was well until 2-3 weeks ago they started looking droopy & turning yellow brown then dead.
Daughter and I dug up maybe half of the 33 hills we have going. Potatoes looked ok but no big bakers and maybe the skin looked a little lumpy ? No signs of bugs anywhere.
Soil is good, lots of compost , peat, sand etc.pretty fluffy stuff.
I thought spuds were pretty much fail safe to grow other than a few bugs to squish.
Watered frequently, hilled them around when they started to flower.
I don't know what's happened.
We are close to Calgary.
Everything else is as usual, should have some corn in next few days.

I was always told to add some coarse garden sand to planter boxes (or anything you don't want to hold too much moisture) to improve drainage. You are right spuds like water, just not sitting in it. Moist soil causes rot and weird skins.

[Puma]

Tough year for spuds in your area. Too much wind drying and extreme heat when they were small. Yellow brown sounds like too much water.

[eagleflyfisher]

Originally Posted by Puma

Tough year for spuds in your area. Too much wind drying and extreme heat when they were small. Yellow brown sounds like too much water.

My first thought was too much water, backed off and really babied them last 3 weeks. No overwatering if anything not enough.
I thought too the heat as they get no shade.
I would say the leaves went yellow but the stems still had quite a bit of green to them.
Anyhow I blew it somehow so will start over next season.
Btw used the leftovers from last season as my seed potatoes for this year.
Some were pretty puny when they went in.

[sjemac]

Spuds like sandy well drained soil. That's why PEI grows good spuds. Out here where my soil has a lot of clay, I mix a ton of straw into the soil each spring and instead of hilling with dirt I hill with straw.

Added benefit is that I can harvest new potatoes from individual plants without pulling the plant up. Move the straw aside. Pick one or two little spuds and then put the straw back.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by Puma

Tough year for spuds in your area. Too much wind drying and extreme heat when they were small. Yellow brown sounds like too much water.

Really ? Our are thriving and we're starting to eat them. Of course we've been watering them. Better than having the spoil in storage, like last year.

Grizz

[hunted]

How long have you been growing potatoes in the same spot?
Where did u get the seed?
Compost from what? How much nutrients were in it?

A few things that come to mind are blight, nitrogen deficiency, do you water in the heat?

[eagleflyfisher]

Originally Posted by hunted

How long have you been growing potatoes in the same spot?
Where did u get the seed?
Compost from what? How much nutrients were in it?

A few things that come to mind are blight, nitrogen deficiency, do you water in the heat?

Seed came from last years left over spuds. Had a cpl eyes at least on each and still firm.
Compost from last 20 yrs of kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves etc.
I water either at about 6:30 in the am or late in the day.
1 of the boxes was new & 2 of the others have grown spuds last 5-6 yrs. all 3 boxes had the same result.
Soil originally was triple mix from our local dirt guy.
After year one I've added compost, then a bunch of sand & peat.it gets tilled spring & fall.
Last year they drown.
This year I really don't know.
In past seasons we get 3-4 5 gallon pails of good looking taters.
Today there is a cpl more dead.

[hunted]

Blight is a nasty disease. Old seed not good, 5-6 straight of potatoes not good. Google blight in potatoes.
I would rotate to something else for a year or 2. Fungicide could help but not in extreme cases.

[eagleflyfisher]

Originally Posted by hunted

Blight is a nasty disease. Old seed not good, 5-6 straight of potatoes not good. Google blight in potatoes.
I would rotate to something else for a year or 2. Fungicide could help but not in extreme cases.

Thanks for the help people,
Someone else told me other day to rotate too so I'll do that for sure.
Like the adding straw for drainage?
I'll buy new seed potat next year.
Man I thought these were pretty simple, another case of learning from mistakes.
Thanks again.

[josey]

So here is what I do: I drop the potatoes on the soil and cover them with hay. No digging, no hilling, no care. We had 44 days without rain here and I didn't pay any attention to them until yesterday (harvest).
Here is the first harvest: I dug up 3 potatoes (store bought, mini, mixed bag) where the plants died back already and harvested 4.2 lbs. I left the tiny ones in the field and only harvested "useable sized" ones. Not much digging, they are right below the top of the soil.
Easy. I might be able to harvest more with hilling but why? It's a great return for no effort!

[eagleflyfisher]

Dug up about 8 more hills that were dead today. Good yield from them all but a little on the small size. Have maybe 10 more hills that are hanging in there.
One thing to mention is that the skin has the same appearance as last years spuds that drown mid July from non stop rain. A kind of bumpy looking skin. There are a cpl kinds that I can't remember, a yellow skin Yukon gold I think.
Next years plan, rotate boxes, more drainage, try not to drown them.

[brslk]

I like me some taters. Mmmhmm

[Brian Adams]

Originally Posted by brslk

I like me some taters. Mmmhmm

and post counts

[bb356]

Originally Posted by Brian Adams

and post counts

[Sundancefisher]

Secret formula.

Dig hole.

Put in 30 dead perch. Cover 2 inch soil. Place in spud. Just cover to depth required. Mound as potatoe grows. Harvest tons of potatoes.

[brslk]

Originally Posted by Brian Adams

and post counts

Why would I care about post counts? Give your head a shake.

[Sundancefisher]

We should have a potato count contest. Photo and count of how many potatoes a single plant has.

My record last year was 106. Had a AOF member witness it.

[Arty]

Will potatoes take to transplanting from a pot to the garden?

Assuming you can start them early indoors before the frost is out of the ground, then put them outside when the ground is workable. Idea being that you could get earlier potatoes instead of the last of the musty stored ones from last year at the grocery store. (I know there's always rice and spaghetti and bread, but I like my potatoes).

[Badback]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

We should have a potato count contest. Photo and count of how many potatoes a single plant has.

My record last year was 106. Had a AOF member witness it.

And you didn't even give that person who witnessed it, 1 potato!

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Badback

And you didn't even give that person who witnessed it, 1 potato!

Guy was too proud. I anticipated he was going to eat his own. Maybe using the perch trick?