, written by Benedict Vanheems
Love your potatoes but not so keen on the digging part? Growing them in straw is very straightforward to do, your plants will be just as healthy, and it makes harvesting so much easier.
Straw does away with much of the digging associated with traditional methods of potato growing. Planting is simple, while harvesting requires less effort. It does a fantastic job of suppressing weeds, helps keep the ground cooler in hot weather, and will eventually break down to contribute to soil structure and fertility.
Normally potatoes plants are ‘hilled’, when the soil is drawn up against the stem in order to create more space for the tubers to grow. This also reduces the risk of them making their way to the surface and turning green in the light. But straw can give exactly the same results with less of the work.
You’ll still need to prepare the ground first. Remove any weeds and, if you haven’t already done so, consider adding some well-rotted organic matter, such as garden compost, to the soil. Break up any large clods to leave a more even surface and rake it level.
Potatoes are hungry plants, so it’s hard to over feed them. For this reason, I also scatter over some chicken manure pellets or an organic potato fertilizer just before planting time.
'Chit', or sprout, your potatoes to give them a head startUse purpose-sold seed potatoes, which are guaranteed to be free of any disease issues, giving you a clean start at least! After a cool winter you’ll get better results if you sprout, or chit, your potatoes before planting. Just support them so the majority of the eyes – these dimples here – face up, then leave them in a bright, frost-free place to sprout for anywhere up to six weeks ahead of planting. You want the sprouted parts to be up to an inch long.
This primes them to grow, earning you a head start.
I prefer to plant my seed potatoes whole but there’s no harm in cutting each seed potato in two, so long as each piece has at least one eye, though preferably more. Allow the cut to heal over and dry for a couple of days before planting.
Nestle your potatoes into the soil before topping with strawAnd planting couldn’t be simpler. Just push the potatoes into your prepared ground at their usual spacings – about one and a half foot apart each way for maincrop potatoes, and a little less than that for early varieties. Simply nuzzle them into the soil so they’re supported and don’t topple over, and that’s it.
All positioned. It’s now time to cover them with the straw, breaking and fluffing it apart as you go. Aim for a depth of around two to three inches, that’s 5-8cm. Stop the straw from blowing away by laying sticks, canes or a temporary mesh over the top. Once the straw’s laid, give it a water to dampen it.
The straw should help to keep soil moisture relatively consistent.
If you’re unsure where to source straw bales, they’re often listed on websites like Gumtree or Craigslist, or just try asking around. I got my straw – which I recycled from an earlier project – through a call out on social media. You can use hay in place of straw if it’s easier to find. Check that your straw or hay is organic or at least cut from pasture that wasn’t recently treated with herbicides. All sorts of horror stories abound of crops becoming severely damaged or even killed as a result of herbicide residues. You have been warned!
Your potatoes need very little ongoing care. Pull back the straw occasionally to check the soil moisture and water if its dry. Water through the straw, aiming to keep the straw itself consistently moist too. It’s important to make sure that the potatoes are always well covered so no light gets in.
Once the foliage reaches about six inches or 15cm above the straw or hay add another layer deep enough to leave just the tips poking through.
They’ll soon put on masses of leafy growth to cover the entire area.
Start harvesting the smallest, or ‘new’ potatoes, as the plants come into flower. Then lift potatoes as needed. When the foliage starts to die back it’s time to dig up the rest of the crop. Plants may come away from the ground easily if you grip them firmly at the base of the foliage and pull straight up. Otherwise use a fork to carefully encourage them out.
The straw that’s left behind will have already begun breaking down to nourish the soil. Leave it where it is, rake it up to redeploy as mulch elsewhere, or retire it to the compost heap.
I can’t wait to tuck into the first of my potatoes – a prized treat if ever there was one! Growing them in straw worked beautifully last year I have to say, but I’d love to know how you get on with this method too, so don’t be shy in sharing your experiences below.
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As a preparedness-minded person (& chief cook / bottle-washer), I often evaluate foods based on their shelf-life, ability to fill the eater up, adaptability in cooking, and how well they can extend the meal. Potatoes really are winners in these ways.
If properly stored (in a cool, dark, somewhat humid place), they can last months and then the remaining ones can be used as seed potatoes for the following year’s planting. A food source for “fresh” eating and a seed crop for the future- pretty good.
Potatoes are well-known for being filling.
One of our regular rotations on the meal calendar is stuffed baked potatoes. Any number of things can be “stuffed” inside them, from healthy broccoli to hearty chili.
The humble spud can be cooked in a myriad of ways at any meal. Breakfast hashbrowns, homefries, scalloped, mashed, and on and on. They can take center-stage as the main course or be content to be merely a side-dish.
One of the best aspects of potatoes from a preparedness standpoint is that they really help extend a meal. I’ve heard tales of women “just adding another potato to the stew” when extra hungry mouths showed up during hard times. Not more meat, of course, but another potato to fill another stomach. When we eat stuffed baked potatoes, in the winter we often open just one large can of chili to spread over them and top with some cheese. That’s pretty economical.
Nutritionally, they are pretty good too. With their “jackets” on, they are high in potassium and Vitamin C. They’ve gotten a bad rap in recent decades because of the way most of them are eaten these days- skinless and fried.
Of course, we are interested in getting the most nutritional bang for our buck too, so we’d plan to eat them prepared in the healthiest way.
As preppers, we should be giving more consideration to how potatoes may fit in our food plans. That brings me to my present topic- a different way to grow them.
Most of us know that the edible part of the potato plant is the tuber that grows below ground. Traditionally, you put a “seed potato” (a chunk at least 1″ x 1″ with a sprouting “eye”) in the ground and covered it with dirt. As a new plant emerged, you continuously mounded dirt over it, leaving only a bit peaking out. All underground parts would form tubers.
At the end of the season, you had to very carefully dig away the dirt to get the potatoes out of the ground. I found this part to be so aggravating. After months of carefully mounding the dirt and watering, a fair number of the potatoes were always pierced by garden fork or shovel.
Some could be washed and used immediately for dinner, but far too few were left to store and save for seed potatoes.
A couple of years ago, I began to see articles about growing potatoes in straw. That was very intriguing. After more doing more research and reading anecdotes from all over, we have decided to try this method ourselves this year. According to many of these folks, you not only don’t have the problem of ruining the potatoes as you dig them up, but the harvests are much better.
We have some sturdy old plastic bins around that we have decided to re-purpose as our potato gardens. Being that this is an experiment, I only purchased a few pounds of organic seed potatoes for this trial. As mentioned in previous posts, we are starting raised beds this year and I am “great with child” again (due in June), so I didn’t want to put too many new irons in the fire.
I first put several sections of non-slick/non-color newspaper on the ground beneath where the potatoes would go.
(This was to block out weeds from below.) Then I pinned the paper in place with the plastic boxes. I made mounds of “good dirt” (compost and peat moss) and placed the seed potatoes in them and covered them with more dirt. I sprinkled organic bone meal on the soil also, since it helps in the formation of tubers. (You do not want to add much nitrogen or you’ll get lots of leaves on the plants, but fewer tubers). Then I piled straw over top of them in the bins.
As the plant tops grow through, we will add more straw (rather than covering with dirt). We always had a problem in our traditional row garden with having enough dirt to continue to rake up the mounds of growing potatoes (and after a certain height, it just wanted to tumble back down or wash off with the next rain). With high-sided bins and lots of old straw around, we hope to address this problem too.
We’ve had a pretty bad Colorado potato beetle problem in years past. I think I will try planting marigolds and nasturtiums in the bins with the potatoes.
They have helped with bean beetles and squash bugs, so maybe they will deter those ugly brown and yellow potato beetles too.
The only real issue I can see with regards to this method in our fairly warm climate is that the potato plants may get too hot. They are considered a “cool weather” crop, meaning they tolerate cooler temperatures better than hot. That’s why they thrive in places like Idaho. We’ve had good crops in-ground in years past. I’m wondering if they will get too hot this year without soil around them. On the flip side, the straw will be mostly shaded by the high sides of the bin. We’ll have to see how it goes.
At the conclusion of the season, we will tip the bins over and pull the straw away. Hopefully, we will reach right into the straw and harvest a couple hundred pounds of perfect potatoes (at least those are the yields some people claim).
There are some other versions of this method. One is to use old tires and stack them. Plant the seed potatoes in one on the ground.
Toss straw over them as the plants grow and add another tire. Keep going until you run out of tires or time. Since all the covered plant is supposed to produce tubers (as long as they get sufficient water), you get a vertical growing space that can produce far more potatoes than a plant limited by the lower height of the dirt mound in the garden.
Another possibility I’ve seen is literally to plant the potatoes in the midst of stacked straw bales, adding as you go (like with the tires).
I’m excited about this less-work method of growing spuds. At the end of the season, I’ll report back about how they turned out.
Ever grown potatoes this way? Any pointers? Please share in the comments section.
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Potatoes are the main ingredient in any Russian cuisine.
And sometimes it is he who is given the most space for planting in the garden plot. How to plant potatoes so that they grow and do not need regular care? How to protect it from pest attacks? There is an exit. This is an old method of planting potatoes under straw, proven for more than a century.
No wonder they said about the peasants that the need for invention is cunning. Still would! When you have a wife and seven children at home in the shops, a wheat field, a vegetable garden, a garden, it is simply physically impossible to be in time everywhere and everywhere. Loosen here, harrow there. But at that time there were no hoses and pumps, which means that watering was carried out as nature would dispose. So the peasants had to resort to ingenuity. And she didn't let them down. nine0003
This method is simply created for those who cannot find time in their schedule for regular visits to the garden, but who want to harvest an excellent harvest in the fall.
All that is needed is a plot of land (determine the dimensions of the area for planting potatoes yourself), tubers for planting (even, smooth, with sprouts) and straw. Note that it is straw that is needed, and not uprooted weeds, dry branches, reeds, sunflower stalks. All you need is straw. Where to find it? In the fields, or negotiate with the farm. They are already stocking up for their little cows, as if they are stocking up on straw. nine0003
Natural fertilizer - peat (height 10-15 cm) should be poured into a pre-allocated area in an even layer.
Note that it is not necessary to dig, loosen the ground before planting. On a layer of peat in a checkerboard pattern or in rows, as it is more convenient for you, put the seed potatoes. And put straw on top (layer 20-30cm) with a dense flooring so that there is no empty space left. The boarding process is over.
All that remains is to remove the layer of straw and harvest. Potatoes grown in this way are large, smooth, clean, tasty. He did not get wet in the ground while it was raining. It is not dried by the scorching sun. The tubers are not eaten by mice and beetles. Such potatoes are just right for an exhibition or fair to send. Which, by the way, was what the peasants did when they collected not a couple of buckets from the garden, but bags of selected potatoes grown on the floor with straw. nine0003
Similar items
Growing potatoes in old tires The RMNT website has an article on how to grow potatoes not in beds, but in tanks, barrels, buckets, nets, bags, laundry baskets.
This time we will focus on such an interesting option as planting potatoes in old car tires. Judging by the reviews of summer residents, this is an effective method. https://www.wikistroi.ru/story/garden/vyrashchivaniie-kartofielia-v-starykh-pokryshkakh https://www.wikistroi.ru/story/garden/vyrashchivaniie-kartofielia-v-starykh-pokryshkakh/@@download/image/6NSWAhAO.jpg nine0003
The RMNT website has an article on how to grow potatoes not in beds, but in tanks, barrels, buckets, nets, bags, laundry baskets. This time we will focus on such an interesting option as planting potatoes in old car tires. Judging by the reviews of summer residents, this is an effective method.
All you need for this original method of growing potatoes: nine0003
For a tire, you need to choose a suitable place. Not in the shade, on the ground, so that it is convenient to take care of, not far from the source of water - you will have to water it. nine0003
You can put leaves and last year's grass down the first tire, then pour compost and bury potato tubers in it at a distance from each other. On top is another tire, which is also covered with compost. You can add dry manure, a little sand, just earth from the garden.
plant potatoes in tires earlier than in beds, because it is covered with already heated compost and soil. In addition, the tires are black and heat up perfectly in the sun. At first, the entire structure can be wrapped with a film in order to create a greenhouse in general, to speed up the process of heating and germination.
nine0003
The advantages of this potato growing technology are as follows:
The downside is that in black tires the soil will dry out fairly quickly. You will definitely need to water! In addition, in hot climates, car tires will get too warm, and potatoes do not like this.
We state: it is worth planting potatoes in car tires. But just to get early harvest not to buy young potatoes.
