OT: garden question

Richard G.

Well-known Member


How tall do yall let your taters get before hilling them up. And how far up the plants do you hill them.
I use my JD H with the hillers on the front cultivator. This pic was taken 2 years ago when I was planting, but it shows my rig.
Richard in NW SC
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I start hilling when they are about 6 inches tall & keep at it every other week or so until they bloom. (60 days after they are planted) Then I keep an eye on them (while picking off beetles) in case any of them break ground. Some years the hills will be a foot tall.

BTW, I've always got a better yield by spacing them 18" apart.
 
Bruce, do you cover the entire plant when hilling or leave the top showing. Been planting taters 40 years, but always trying to learn.
Richard
 
I planted my first garden the summer of 1971, the year after I got out of the Army. And I too learn something every year.

Like when a buddy told me how to make a small fortune farming: start with a large one.

I try to leave a little green showing when I hill them, but if the entire plant gets covered, I don't worry about it.
 
Thanks Bruce. It has been so wet here, a lot of weeds are coming up in the taters. I want to loosen the middles by using sweeps then use the loose soil to hill over the little weeds.
Richard
 
Reminds me of planting potatoes when we were growing up--Never planted whole potato--cut several "eyes" off of a seed potato(with chunk of potato--then had to space them precisely about6 inches apart with all eyes facing up..Finally convinced Daddy to let us just drop some and let the eyes face any way they happened to fall...seemed to make no difference in how fast they came up..Sure made planting taters a little easier since each one no longer had to be hand placed..
 
Potatoes grow like weeds.
I plants them whole.
18" 24 " or maybe 36" apart makes digging them up without stabbing them easier.
I run a single bottom mold board plow as deep as it will go.
Drop the potatoes in. and, when they grow to about a foot tall,
I hill them to about six inches from the top.
Which, is usually even with grade.
Then, I mound up as high as I can while they grow.
I've gotten good yields this way.
And only one year in seven or eight have I had a Beatle problem.
I always plant in a different area from the year before.
Weeds don't seem to really matter much as they are usually shallow rooted and the potatoes are deep.
The toughest part is getting someone to help me dig them up!

Joe
 
Our tater growing season is probably a lot different than yours in Maine. They are done in late June here. It gets hot as Hades after that here.
Richard in NW SC
 
Bruce, Out of curiosity, what do you figure your yield per hill is? We average between 1-1/2 to 2lbs, depending on season and variety.

Colin
 
We space ours in a two row checkerboard pattern 12" apart. We'll hill twice, adding one to two inches of soil around the base of each plant during each pass. We don't hill as aggressively as some of the other posters. Our total annual harvest is right around 500lbs of potatoes. I mentioned to Bruce, below, that we get between 1-1/2 to 2lbs per hill depending on variety, season, and pocket gopher damage.

Colin, MN
 
Makes sense that it would especially depending on type soil and whether or not u got heavy soil and pounding rain etc...well the little ritter is already headed the right way if planted looking up at the sun..
 
Richard, did you teach the dog to smile for the camera or
was that natural? LOL Good looking dog!
I can't seem to get taters to grow here worth a hoot.
Or anything else that grows below ground. Carrots, radishes, etc.
Ground is all clay and it seems it packs too hard for any of them
to grow to a decent size. They grow, but are very small.
Anything above ground does just fine, so we stick to those.
 
I don't hill mine at all. I throw the seed potatoes right on the tilled soil and cover them with straw. When they die back I rake off the straw. The potatoes are right on top or an inch or so down. Very handy.
 
(quoted from post at 19:46:25 04/23/14) Richard, did you teach the dog to smile for the camera or
was that natural? LOL Good looking dog!
I can't seem to get taters to grow here worth a hoot.
Or anything else that grows below ground. Carrots, radishes, etc.
Ground is all clay and it seems it packs too hard for any of them
to grow to a decent size. They grow, but are very small.
Anything above ground does just fine, so we stick to those.

Royse, That is one fine dog. He is grinning because when I am not looking, He steals a tater and run up to the house with it.
Richard
 

I sometimes grow sweet taters but have a hard time keeping them after harvest. And the groundhog loves the vines. Deer used to be a problem eating the vines until I started hanging CDs from tape in the trees around the garden. Also keeps coons out.
Richard
 
(quoted from post at 19:03:33 04/23/14) Bruce, Out of curiosity, what do you figure your yield per hill is? We average between 1-1/2 to 2lbs, depending on season and variety.

Colin

I had to back into this.....

My rows are 150 feet long. I always buy 50 potatoes per row & cut them in half, giving me 100 hills per row at 18" spacing. If I get less than 4 bushels per row, it's not a good year. More than 5 is a great year.

So.........

4 bushels = 240 lbs

240/100 hills = 2.4 lbs per hill, avg yield.

Yield is usually the same for Yukon Gold, Kennebec or Pontiac. This year, just for s&g's, I'm trying russetts. It's probably too hot here for them.
 

" I sometimes grow sweet taters but have a hard time keeping them after harvest."

Dig them 90 days after you plant them. Dig them by hand. Wear gloves & treat them gently. Lay them flat on the ground & cover them in direct sun w/ black roofing paper for at least 3 - 4 days. This sets the sugar. Then, cover the bottom of a bushel basket w/ newspaper, then a layer of potatoes, then another layer of newspaper, etc, until the basket is full. Then, put them in a warm closet. (the wife loves the fact that I keep them in the hall closet w/ all the winter coats) We eat sweet potatoes all year.
 
Very impressive! We've been doing this for 30 years, but there's always new things to learn. We might have to increase our spacing. Thank you, Bruce! :)

Colin
 
(quoted from post at 05:53:06 04/24/14)
I sometimes grow sweet taters but have a hard time keeping them after harvest. And the groundhog loves the vines. Deer used to be a problem eating the vines until I started hanging CDs from tape in the trees around the garden. Also keeps coons out.
Richard

Rap music CD's work best for that!

This was half my yeld last year from about fifty feet of Kennebecs

1.
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I plant them as deep as I can and, hill them as high as I can.
As I understand it, the seed potato is the bottom of the plant.
It rots. And, all other tubers grow above it. So, the more soil above, the more room for tubers. I almost cover the whole plant when Hilling them. Just leave a few green leafs to get the sun.
 
Man i sure wish my grandpa did that straw trick i dug alot of potatoes for my grandpa . And dont you dare stab one with pitch fork you lazy %&$#@*. What fond memories
 

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