[*Andi]

I thought I had posted this but I couldn't find it. :dunno:

It's quick and easy with no digging at the end of the season. I'm thinking of doing it this year but (you knew there had to be a but ) each time I have planted this way the snakes moved in. (I don't care for snakes) Then again doing a pro and con list ... the snakes are the only 'con' I had. :scratch

Growing Potatoes in Straw

 

[bunkerbob]

Each year I cover the potato rows with straw to protect them from freezing, then just recently, as I do each year, I rototilled the rows, nice and slow, this way the straw is incorporated into the soil and the remaining potatoes are spread out. Some remaining potatoes are cut but still grow into more taters. YUM

 

[HozayBuck]

I did this many years ago, just once but it sure worked...bed of straw with a layer of dried cow flops and more straw and the eyes in the pile and more flops...worked really well!

A question, here in East TX, if it's really cold the ground might get hard maybe an inch or two... could we just leave the spuds and carrots etc right where they are and just dig them as we eat them? kinda like a natural root cellar??...

 

[UncleJoe]

I never tried it with spuds but carrots and beets work well that way... unless there's 3' of SNOW on top of them.

 

[Woody]

Here in NC I leave the fall plantings of carrots in the ground and dig them up as needed. This year was unusual and we did have maybe ½” freeze hard, it usually never freezes. They will get very hairy, lots of smaller roots on them, as time goes by and get pithier but still edible. I don’t have a root cellar so this is what I have to work with. I have never grown taters but will this year. I plan on leaving a considerable portion of them in the ground for winter harvest, I’ll let y’all know how it goes next spring.

 

[SnakeDoc]

Last week I clean out the chicken coop. I put 200 pounds of feed in there per month for the last 5 months and 1000 pounds of wheat. That and the straw litter get scattered on the garden and tilled in. Last year my largest red potato was 4 1/2 pounds.

My FIL has done the straw method. It seems to work well, but you get laughed at here in Idaho.

 

[mitchshrader]

I don't know if anyone has tried growing potatoes in stacks of tires, but it works very well indeed. harvesting is just restacking the tires..