PLANTED POTATOES TWO DIFFERENT WAYS
Planted some potatoes in two different ways. The first way I show you is more of a traditional way of planting them. The second is in a Ruth Stout Style garden bed.
The first step I take in planting potatoes is laying them out and cutting them in half if each half will have two eyes. I let them sit for 24 hours so the cut half will scab up a little bit and not rot when you put it in the ground.
When planting potatoes you want to try to place the eyes of the potatoes up and the cut side down.
FIRST WAY
The first step I took in getting this more traditional bed ready for potatoes was using a pitchfork like a broadfork and loosened the soil about 8 in deep. We plan on investing in a broadfork soon!
The Next Step was carving out some rows about 6 inches deep and a foot apart. Planted the potatoes about 10 to 12 inchrs apart from each other.
The last step is to push the dirt back in the rows. I also added about a half inch of compost on top and watered them in.
SECOND WAY
The second way I planted potatoes was in my Ruth Stout Style garden beds. I would definitely have to say that this way was a lot easier and faster. We'll see how well they grow compared to the more traditional way of planting potatoes.
Ruth Stout figured out that if you laid a lot of hay on your garden beds you could plant through the hay into the ground and have very little weeding, watering and the hay breaking down acts as the fertilization.
All I had to do to plant the potatoes was pull back the hay till I got to the ground. Put the potato in the hole. And put back the hay over the whole.
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Getting set to put ours out ASAP, hoping to score some mulch cause Ruth stout's method seems like a winner. We've done this before but never knew her by name, thanks for sharing.
It worked for her why can't it worked for others. Thanks @mountainjewel
I have used a method with straw/hay and it worked well.
Even better was leaf mould. I just put the potatoes in some year old leaf mould. When they were ready I just put my hand in and plucked them out.
No dig planting. No dig harvesting.
I love using leaf mold. Going to have to try that with potatoes one time
The Ruth Stout approach is definitely a winner! Its just so much easier
I agree. I'm definitely going to have to put together some more of those garden beds.
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I didn't have much luck planting in hay...I get much better results in soil (though it's much more work).