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I am pondering the minimal conditions for growing potatoes.

What type of soil, nutrients and space would it necessitate?

aitía
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2 Answers2

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All you need is soil, then put potatoes on top of that, then put hay, or wood chips thick enough to cover the plants. Occasional watering is necessary.

black thumb
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    Actually, you don't even need to do that much. Just leave them in the bag you bought them in, and they wlll grow! Your method sounds like a good way to get a "crop" of small green (and therefore inedible) potatoes IMO. But then in my part of the UK a "big" (but not "exceptionallly big" potato is something 8 or 9 inches long that weighs well over a pound. YMMV. – alephzero Aug 28 '18 at 09:30
  • @alephzero I think they're trying to grow potatoes for food, and you should use enough hay to keep them well covered. – black thumb Aug 28 '18 at 18:39
  • Allowing potato tubers to 'see' the sun makes those spuds toxic. Green potatoes are toxic, at least the skin of that tuber starts producing chlorophyll: Potatoes start turning green when they are exposed to light. The green itself isn't a problem — it's chlorophyll. But the same conditions that cause the potato to produce chlorophyll also cause it to produce solanine, a natural toxin that causes nausea and other intestinal upsets.Mar 19, 2014 https://theboatgalley.com/are-green-potatoes-safe-to-eat/ – stormy Aug 29 '18 at 02:56
  • @stormy that's why i say well covered with hay. Look up no till potatoes, and you'll understand what I'm talking about. – black thumb Aug 29 '18 at 04:59
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    Black thumb, trust me I know what you are talking about. I knew you said 'covered with hay' I just thought I'd add a reason why they needed to be covered. Grins. – stormy Aug 29 '18 at 05:22
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Potatoes growing in raised bedsraised beds for vegetable garden this is done just once at the beginingA cultivated bed, double dug down at least 12 inches, smoothed down and then firmed by jumping up and down on a piece of plywood. Add shallow trenches around the base of the 'raised' beds which will easily be at least 1 foot high. Need to know what kind of soil and what compost you've access to. Acid soil; 5.5 -6. That is the toughest to amend the soil unless you already have this soil pH. Where is it that you live? Have you ever done a pH test of your soil? There are ways to lower the pH but they are temporary and only minute changes of pH. They help, yes they do. They are always in the form of a sulfur compound.

Go to Potato Gardens on the internet. They grow certified potatoes in Colorado. You can also grow potatoes in pots using a cage and straw and growing vertically. Best fertilizer is one with even numbers such as 5-5-5. I always get my seed potatoes from this company. The owner's son is a professional in the soil world and they can educate you about soil for potatoes. Very cool mom and pop operation.

We need to know what you've got available for soil, zone and how much you know about growing vegetables, potatoes, greens...

stormy
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  • Thank you for explaining this much to me, further how much sunlight and how temperate should the cultivation area be? – aitía Aug 27 '18 at 23:53
  • Let me know what you've got to work with, far easier to help answer your questions. A picture of the area you are considering for a vegetable garden. If you notice, I've got my tomatoes in pots. Potatoes and tomatoes are the same family, Solanaceae. A 'virgin' soil that has never had this family planted in it is great ONE time. You won't be able to grow potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant or peppers in that soil for two years. Potting soil and pots really help to enlarge my vegey real estate! No other 'soil' than sterilized potting soil in pots...is more on the acidic side already. Easy to cg – stormy Aug 27 '18 at 23:58
  • I am growing potatoes in alkaline pumice at 4,000 feet elevation. They are a great crop, fast...one of the first crops to 'harvest' with baby potatoes. yummmm. Because they produce so quickly there is less chance for disease. Remember the Irish Potato famine? It is a big deal to rotate your crops! – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 00:02
  • I should point out the difference in colors of soil. Those beds are not wet. This is what decomposed organic matter does to the soil. And the soil organisms did all the mixing. Honest! Organic matter holds moisture and that is part of what you are seeing. – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 00:05
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    @stormy he never specified tilling, or no till. You're putting too much work into growing potatoes. – black thumb Aug 28 '18 at 00:24
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    Grins, black thumb. I am the laziest MOST 'organic' farmer there ever was or ever could be. I am so serious. What do you see about my simple beds shows excessive tillage after one time double digging. That is it. I clean out the trenches and throw all the goodies that washed out and off of the bed during the previous season to throw it all back on top of the bed. I am trying to teach this stuff. Not everything is a one size fits all but my goodness, I am not at all doing anything to excess. – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 01:09
  • @stormy Your tilling is too much work for me:| Why not just chickenize the area like our other permie friends do? I'll take my ant infested Stropharia Rugoso Annulata wood chip bed over tillage any day. – black thumb Aug 28 '18 at 04:57
  • Major grins black thumb. I rescued 70 chickens one day to include a kitten and a goat after neighbors took off forever. Half were roosters. Very interesting. I've actually cut open an impacted craw, cleaned it out and sewed it back up; 2 layers. He lived just fine until a month later when a coyote got him. What the heck is so wrong with double digging a bed ONCE? ONCE? Give me one good reason to not 'till' or double dig ONCE. – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 07:12
  • Seriously, that double digging is no big deal. The drainage, the warm soil is critical for growing our artificial crops. Chickens? They are wonderful but they are not the end all be all in gardening. – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 07:14
  • My goodness. You got the points on this one for just put potatoes on the soil and cover them with non decomposed stuff and water whenever? Sigh. What can I say? – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 07:17
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    ...and you know? He asked what was minimal and your answer sufficed! Honest! – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 07:18
  • @stormy "They are a great crop, fast..." That depends what variety you grow. In the UK, first early potatoes can be ready in 10 weeks from planting, but maincrop varieties take more like 20 weeks to get to their full size. – alephzero Aug 28 '18 at 09:32
  • New potatoes are so...yummy. Crops of potatoes are usually prolific enough that one needs to keep harvesting and start eating them. There will be plenty of potatoes left to get bigger before the final harvest and off to the cool potato cellar. Always has been one of the first crops to mature that I know...right in there with the 'salad bowl' stuff. Way before corn and even squash. – stormy Aug 28 '18 at 10:16
  • @blackthumb I just gotta repeat, those beds were double dug JUST ONCE. Never again. This is the second year you are seeing and all I do is clean out the little trenches dumping the soil and organics back up on the bed. I do not till, this pumice soil I most certainly could till but I don't need to. How can you possibly think I work too hard? I am the laziest gardener in the world. I abhor doing anything twice that should have been done right once. Extra steps? Only if I am dancing in my garden! – stormy Aug 30 '18 at 05:34