Hey, 'tater man! (SwampDonkey)

DanG · February 23, 2007, 01:53:40 PM

You seem to be the resident expert on 'tater growing, so I'll direct this inquiry to you. Others, please feel free to comment or advise. ;)

I'm in the process of getting my Red Pontiac potatoes planted, but I gotta switch gears this year. I usually fertilize with mushroom compost, but my source has dried up. I have a bag of 10-10-10 granular on hand and thought I'd use that, but I haven't a clue how much I should use. 'Bout how much per 30 foot row?

Murf · February 23, 2007, 03:29:37 PM

DanG, a question like dat is sorta like how much vittles will it take ta fill a feller up? :

Depends on da feller, da vittles and how long it's been since the last chow call. :P

Best thing ta do is make soma da Goobermint work fer yer money. Take a soil sample in ta da County Extension agents and get a test done. Dey will tell you *exactly* how much of what *your* soil needs for what crop.

Basically speakin' tho' taters need lotsa Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Zinc, and maybe in barren soils, some Iron.

Past that, sandy soil, some water and lotsa sunshine and yer off ta da races!!

breederman · February 23, 2007, 06:40:29 PM

we always wait for the snow to melt before planting! :D

Onthesauk · February 23, 2007, 07:21:13 PM

I use 10-20-20 on most of the garden but use azalea/rhododendron food on the potatoes, they like the acid.

Best potatos I ever grew, or at least the biggest, were mulched with compost made out of rabbit manure and maple leaves. I had individual potatoes that were over 2 pounds!

Chris Burchfield · February 23, 2007, 07:34:51 PM

I' batchen it tonight. Going to fill in at the horse-pistol shortly. Fatherinlaw's left leg ampt. on Wed. Not been havin too good a time. Tater's and onion with plenty of salt and black pepper for taste for supper. Things are looking up, it's suppose to rain Saturday.

Had to get my Forestry Forum Fix before I cut out tonight. Say a prayer if you can, Chris.

SwampDonkey · February 23, 2007, 08:23:54 PM

It would be hard for me to prescribe how much fertilizer on your garden rows Dang. Got no idea what type of soil you have. On my garden I use a handful every 3 feet of row in the furrow. Composting is very good for potato yield, especially we found chicken manure to be very good. It also seems to prolong the life of the plant a bit. Some early varieties die down after 70 days or there abouts or from drought stress,and once the plant does this it ain't feed'n the tubers. Spacing also increases average tuber size, but doesn't influence the number of tubers produced too much. ;)

Well since I'm up on the soapbox for my 5 minutes..... ;D :D

When father packed and sold spuds we had a market for 10 oz minimum, called chef specials. We sold a good many trailer loads per season. There was potatoes in them boxes as big as your feet. There was no hollow heart in them either that some 'processor thieves' tried to assert. Dad's spuds didn't turn black when cooked neither. The other counts (# in a 50 # box) were 70, 80,90,100, 120 and the smaller ones, but bigger than 2 ", were called 'strippers'. Strippers or maybe 100-120 counts are what you see mostly in the grocery store.

"New Brunswick has a calcium rich soil type called "Carleton" soil which is one of the most fertile soil of North America's soil types. Many people believe this accounts for the excellent taste of New Brunswick potatoes." If you look on our soils maps of New Brunswick all the grey areas is the Carleton soil and it's mostly in Carleton county. ;)

And I'm sit'n right on some of it. ;D

Grocery store potatoes sit'n in the heat and bright light :

bleck, gag. I don't eat a lot of potatoes, but usually 6 meals a week has a spud.

Take the family out to a potato farm during harvest and pick the fall outs from behind the harvestor. Remember to keep well away from the machinery. That air head of an air vac harvestor can toss a stone with enough force to knock ya stone dead. I've seen fan parts get ejected out them suckers before. ;)

DanG · February 23, 2007, 11:49:02 PM

Thanks guys. As I said, I've always used mushroom compost but suddenly can't get any. :-\ I have a heavy loam that tends to get mucky when we get a lot of rain. Thats why I'm so late planting, as target date around here is Valentine's day. I'm gonna incorporate some sand in the rows and mulch with some 3 year old sawdust. I'll go with the handful per 3 feet and see what happens.

Breederman, the snow already melted here, the day after Christmas.......1982. :D :D

Dana · February 24, 2007, 06:19:26 AM

Go easy on the sawdust. It is a big robber of nitrogen until it has fully decomposed. ;)

Jeff · February 24, 2007, 06:29:00 AM

And it also will add to your muck woes.

stonebroke · February 24, 2007, 08:09:36 AM

If you have a lot of sawdust you can make compost out of it by mixing pure nitrogen fertilizer( urea) with it . Sawdust by itself does not compost well because of the high carbon content by introducing nitrogen you have a better carbon nitrogen ratio to feed the microbes. Compost of any kind is probably your best bet. The more organic matter you can put in the soil the better.

Stonebroke

hiya · February 24, 2007, 08:19:55 AM

One thing we have done was lay the taters on top of the ground and cover them
with about 8-10 inches of stwaw or hay. When my wife needed some before they were picked (not dug ;D) she would just reach under and pull out what she wanted. Nice and clean too.
Richard

DanG · February 24, 2007, 11:11:21 AM

I plan to use the old sawdust much the way Hiya describes using hay. I can scrape it off after the taters have been et.

Future muck isn't a big issue, either. I'm going to move the garden to a new spot in the next year or so, and the current garden area is slated to become a catfish pond. ;D 8)

SwampDonkey · February 24, 2007, 12:44:11 PM

I've caught catfish here on the Dungarvin river. I didn't know what it was until grandfather told me. I ain't never seen another one in the rivers here since. Don't even know if it's a native fish up here.
-------------

I just looked it up, it's the Brown Bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus and it is native here. It's color would blend well in the waters of the Dungarvin, it's dark murky water.

http://www.briancoad.com/NCR/Ictaluridae.htm

SwampDonkey · February 24, 2007, 01:02:24 PM

Tater Raisin Man

limbrat · February 24, 2007, 10:46:57 PM

Dang i do real good with rice hulls, and worm castings I fed the worms cotton jin trash. I dont know about chemical fertilizers but them castings are hard to beat.

WDH · February 24, 2007, 11:00:31 PM

Wow DanG, pretty soon you can have both catfish and potatotes. Yum!

isawlogs · February 24, 2007, 11:26:10 PM

Could one call that Surf and Turf ???

DanG · February 24, 2007, 11:37:33 PM

Ain't sure I ever had catfish and taters at the same time. If I did, I don't remember it, but there's lots of things I don't remember. ??? :

I most always have grits with my catfish. ;D

WDH · February 24, 2007, 11:44:10 PM

Not even French Fries ?????????????

.

DanG · February 25, 2007, 12:03:11 AM

Well, I never saw no sense in having fries with grits, and I also never saw no sense in having catfish without grits. I can't say that I never ever had taters with catfish, but.....................................why?? ???

Got the taters in the ground this afternoon. I spread about 3 inches of sand on the area and dug it in with the rotor tiller 3 times. The sand really helped the tilth of that mucky soil! It's supposed to rain tonight, so I'll lay some drip line over the spuds next week, then cover the whole mess with old sawdust. I'll let y'all know how they go with the pole beans. ;D

WH_Conley · February 25, 2007, 12:06:49 AM

Quote from: DanG on February 24, 2007, 11:37:33 PM
Ain't sure I ever had catfish and taters at the same time. If I did, I don't remember it, but there's lots of things I don't remember. ??? : I most always have grits with my catfish. ;D

Carefel, Dang, Carefel

WDH · February 25, 2007, 12:43:05 AM

You are right, DanG, I have never saw any sense in having fries with grits, either. I see your point.

Like you say, taters and pole beans are a pair made for each other. It hungers me.

SwampDonkey · February 25, 2007, 06:50:33 AM

I'm afraid fish and chips (fries) would be a culture shock for the old feller. I don't think he could handle it. ;D :D

WDH · February 25, 2007, 10:03:29 AM

Before he did that, he would fry the grits first. I bet that you have had fried grits, haven't you DanG?

DanG · February 25, 2007, 10:39:13 AM

DanG right I have! 8) I've also eaten fish n'chips plenty of times. But, you usually don't get catfish with that. You usually end up with some bland, tasteless fish from Northern waters, and it is rarely cooked properly. :

I would gladly consume french fries with catfish if I found myself in some establishment that had catfish, but didn't have grits, but I don't know of any places like that.

Some things just belong together, like horses and carriages and love and marriage, and hamburgers and french fries. I don't know that I ever ate grits with a hamburger, now that I think of it. Not sure I ever will. That would be like putting peanut butter on a hot dog. I like'em both, but they just don't go together.