No dig potatoes

17 years ago

This is my first year doing the hay/straw method of potato growing. I planted 10 pounds of seed potatoes total on April 10, that's about 5 weeks from our frost free date. (May 15) I added 3-4 inches of fresh cow manure and deep till it in, raked smooth. I set the seed potato on top of the ground pushing in slightly to make good seed to soil contact. I then covered them with a foot of thatch that came out of my yard, you can use straw, clippings, hay etc.

This is the easiest I have ever grown potatoes. Almost effortless.

about a 6 weeks later AND getting hit with frost it looked like this (may 26th)

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Holy cow they got away from me I couldnt keep them mulched fast enough. (July 12th)

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Taken August 2nd, they are starting to size up and the vines are starting to die.

We have been picking here and there for about 3-4 weeks. No shovel required, just reach in and grab what you want. A special treat for my birthday on July 3rd was a pan full of red and gold new potatoes cooked in bacon w/drippings and fresh rosemary. My favorite!

That one above weighed almost a pound, was a meal in itself.

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We harvested on August 9th. Vines were mostly dead, and didnt want to chance a critter coming in and having dinner.

We weighed the ones you see here, 85 pounds. I guestimate we had total of 90 pounds from 5 pounds of potatoes. 18-1 ratio not bad. I planted 5 pounds of youkon gold a 5 pounds red pontiac. The red pontiac are a late season variety here and are still growing. Originally, I thought I planted 7 pounds each but found the bag and it was 5 pounds at $7.44 a bag.

(this was taken on a lg tritan camera btw. I'm impressed!)

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Comments (5)

homegardener2009
17 years ago
That looks great!! Thanks for sharing. How do they compare in terms of taste? I planted red pontiac this year, and am thinking about yukon gold for next year too in addition to the red.
cyrus_gardner
17 years ago
Congrats. It is a good first year.
Considering you planted 10 lbs an you've got what is in the picture(85 lbs), is a fair yield.
From the size of your potatoes I can tell that they were still growing. But you siad the vines were dead !?!?(naturally?)

If I were you I would have hilled the young stems up to 10" with good soil and then use straw. This way the roots will have had plenty of moisture. I would have also sprinkled some soil after each straw piling to get some of the air out.
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joe-il
Original Author
17 years ago
Homegardener - Yukon golds are great! better than any russet. I planted Pontiacs also. Those 2 are my favorites.

Cyrus- 5lbs seed = 90lb yield. Vines were about 80% dead, yes I could have left longer but for reasons stated I didnt. I like to cook with the small ones, more so than the larger ones. There were about 20 potatoes that weighed close to a pound.
Hilling? To much work (for me), spuds too hard to find (and dirty). Moisture LOL we have had 4 inches of rain every week since april. (sometimes more few times less) For some reason straw here is friggin 2-3 bucks a bale. My grass clippings ..free. I have $15 into this, I should yield about 200 lbs for $15. No hoeing , no hilling , no digging and easy cleaning ;)
spaghetina
17 years ago
That's so great! I just planted 4 potatoes. Yes, you read that right - four potatoes, about a week ago, and they're doing NOTHING. I dug one up, and it had barely sprouted. Checked the others, and one was rotten! I guess I'm not really sure how long it takes for them to go from having sprouted to pushing out of the 1/2" to 1" of soil I put over them. At this rate, they may never make their way out, but I figured I had everything I needed to grow them anyway, so I'd try it out.

I can't imagine getting 90 lbs. of potatoes. I wouldn't know what to do with them all! Lol. I don't think I even eat 10lbs. of potatoes in a year (although I do love, love, love them, I try to only eat them in moderation).
heather38
17 years ago
thanks amazing, I did the same thing but with lawn cuttings parsally rotted compost,Cos thats how I thought it was done! my dad and pops did that, I hadn't planed on pots but I found a few at the back of the pantry that due to poor house keeping, had sprouted, so I put then in a no veg gaden part of my garden as not seed pots, only yeilded 4 ibs but they where lush and given that the bag they had come out of was a 3ib bag and I had used 3/4 good value, Yukons.
I had to harvest as some criter had eated every stalk one night!
any one here of picasso pots (maybe spelt slightly wrong) my fav in the UK white but with the old speck of red on them? again lush, new. old, boiled, fried, roasted!

Here is a link that might be useful: picasso maybe different name here? hoping?