Garden Experiments 2014

I don't believe much of anything that doesn't have some evidence to go along with it. Maybe I have issues with authority, or maybe I'm too well-trained as a scientist, but sometimes I don't even believe evidence provided by other people. I like to test things myself.

The garden is my experimental lab. I tested the 'potato towers grow twenty times more potatoes' theory, twice, and now definitively believe that the only advantage of potato towers is ease of harvest.

Two years ago, I sought proof for the garlic growing wisdom that one should remove the scape for the garlic plant to produce a bigger bulb. I planted a large patch of seed garlic. I split the patch down the middle and removed half the garlic scapes for cooking - they usually come up in early June - and left the rest as is. They grew beautiful flowers. At harvest time, we saw clearly that the plants with scapes removed produced bigger bulbs.

2014 Garden Experiments

This year, I've set up trials to answer these garden-related questions:

1. Which is better for production - organic seed garlic from out of state or high quality, locally grown garlic? I planted three varieties of garlic from multiple producers to answer this question. I am running the trial in two separate locations to eliminate location variables.
2. Are seed potatoes worth the cost? Organic culinary potatoes sprout readily and have grown well for me before. I question whether $6/pound seed potatoes are any better than sprouted $2/pound organic grocery potatoes. Because of the availability of seed stock, I wasn't able to choose varieties to directly compare but we can still measure yield from the four varieties planted (one seed stock, one grocery store and two saved over from last year's planting).
3. Can I grow artichokes in Ohio? If so, where? I grew four varieties of artichoke from seed and am planting them in locations around the garden including in the hoop house, the hugelkultur, and in regular beds.  Alex and I fondly remember artichokes from our year living in Monterey, California and we would love to have a source of fresh artichokes again.

Experimenting in the garden excites me and gives me a chance to explore my limits while learning new things to pass on to others.

What are your garden experiments this year?

Garden Experiments 2014

I don't believe much of anything that doesn't have some evidence to go along with it. Maybe I have issues with authority, or maybe I'm too well-trained as a scientist, but sometimes I don't even believe evidence provided by other people. I like to test things myself.

The garden is my experimental lab. I tested the 'potato towers grow twenty times more potatoes' theory, twice, and now definitively believe that the only advantage of potato towers is ease of harvest.

Two years ago, I sought proof for the garlic growing wisdom that one should remove the scape for the garlic plant to produce a bigger bulb. I planted a large patch of seed garlic. I split the patch down the middle and removed half the garlic scapes for cooking - they usually come up in early June - and left the rest as is. They grew beautiful flowers. At harvest time, we saw clearly that the plants with scapes removed produced bigger bulbs.

2014 Garden Experiments

This year, I've set up trials to answer these garden-related questions:

1. Which is better for production - organic seed garlic from out of state or high quality, locally grown garlic? I planted three varieties of garlic from multiple producers to answer this question. I am running the trial in two separate locations to eliminate location variables.
2. Are seed potatoes worth the cost? Organic culinary potatoes sprout readily and have grown well for me before. I question whether $6/pound seed potatoes are any better than sprouted $2/pound organic grocery potatoes. Because of the availability of seed stock, I wasn't able to choose varieties to directly compare but we can still measure yield from the four varieties planted (one seed stock, one grocery store and two saved over from last year's planting).
3. Can I grow artichokes in Ohio? If so, where? I grew four varieties of artichoke from seed and am planting them in locations around the garden including in the hoop house, the hugelkultur, and in regular beds.  Alex and I fondly remember artichokes from our year living in Monterey, California and we would love to have a source of fresh artichokes again.

Experimenting in the garden excites me and gives me a chance to explore my limits while learning new things to pass on to others.

What are your garden experiments this year?

How and When to Plant Potatoes

I just finished sorting bulk seed potatos into smaller portions for the group buy. Thirty nine pounds of organic seed potatoes are making their way to gardens around central Ohio! A few weeks ago I shared how NOT to grow potatoes. Most of those who ordered with me would rather know the best practices for success, not failure.

Here's what I can gather from personal experience, the Ohio Extension fact sheet, and a most helpful guide from Dayton Nursery.

When to Plant

Guides vary widely about when to plant. Some say to wait until a week before the frost free date (May 15 in Columbus, Ohio). Others advise planting as soon as the ground is workable.

Everyone agrees that gardeners should allow the seed tubers to begin sprouting indoors. Simply place them in a single layer in a sunny place until sprouts appear in one to two weeks.

If seed potatoes are large with many sprouts, cut them into pieces for additional plants. Do this a few days before you wish to plant, leaving the pieces again in a sunny place inside to dry.

My plan is to spread the seed potatoes in a single layer in a sunny place soon, wait two weeks, and plant in early April, weather permitting.

How to Plant

Potatoes like well-drained loose soil. If yours is heavy with clay or full of clods, break these up and enrich with compost or composted manure. You can also add thin layers of broken straw pieces.

Plant potatoes in a 3-4 inch deep furrow or trench. Space them 9-12 inches apart. Rows for commercial production are recommended to be space 24-36 inches apart. For the backyard gardener, this can be reduced to 12-24 inches.

If planting in a bucket, select 2-3 tubers per five gallon bucket laced with holes.

When potatoes sprout their beautiful leaves, allow to grow to 8-12 inches high. Then, hill up around the stem with additional soil or a mix of soil and straw. These hills are where many of the potatoes will grow. Hills also cover the potatoes so they do not turn green and develop the toxic alkaloid solanine.

Potato plants are susceptible to frost. If you plant before the frost free date, as I plan to, watch for frost warnings and cover your rows with a sheet or tarp if necessary.

When to Harvest

Potato plants will mature into tall leafy things. In July or August, they will send out interesting spiky flowers. Most gardeners pick these flowers to encourage the plant to put energy into the spuds, not flowers.

If you do not pick the flowers and the potatoes set fruit, know that the berries are poisonous like many other fruits of the deadly nightshade family. We had no idea potatoes would grow berries! After a little research, we decided to pick ours and throw them in the trash lest we contaminate our compost bin.

When the leaves die back in September, allow them to lay fallow for two weeks. This waiting time allows the potatoes to set their skin.

Carefully dig up the potatoes. Wipe off dirt but do not wash until you intend to eat them. Potatoes will keep in a dark cool place for 4-6 weeks, if they aren't eaten before then!

Ohio State University extension recommends curing potatoes for storage in a dark 60-65 deg. F place at 80 percent humidity for 10 days before placing in a dark 40-45 deg. F high humidity for permanent storage.

Do you have any potato growing tips or tricks? Share in the comments!

How NOT to Grow Potatoes

Sometimes my inner voice says I'm too preachy about things. It is true that I share a lot more success stories than mistakes. So far, our potato growing has been nothing but missteps and I'm ready to share so we all can learn from them. Here are all the ways I do NOT recommend you grow potatoes. 1) Give potato buckets only a little drainage. Last year we tried growing some seed potatoes in old buckets. I washed them and Alex added a row of holes near the bottom. I said "Don't we need holes on the bottom and up the sides?" But he insisted the single row was enough.

It wasn't. The potatoes grew but rotted before they set new tubers.

Because we still have the buckets and they aren't useful for much else now, I will drill drain holes all over the things this year and try again.

2) Plant potatoes near the pets. Our chickens and dogs conspired against us to destroy the potatoes planted in dirt. Just as they do all over the yard, chickens dug around the potato bed. We gently covered over the exposed seed potatoes and they did continue growing.

In late summer, Devie caught drift of the tubers. What spuds the chickens didn't peck, she gnawed on. That dog will eat anything.

3) Harvest too early. One day at our community garden plot, we were overanxious about harvesting potatoes. The first plants we dug had only tiny tubers. After waiting for several more weeks for the plants to truly die back and leaves to wither, the harvest was much greater.

4) Believe the potato tower myth. For two years now we have operated under the promise of harvesting 100 pounds of potatoes from a few pounds of seeds. We set up our potato tower, added soil, and waited to harvest. Both years we harvested 10 pounds for our one pound planted.

Like One Straw, we found no evidence that potatoes are sending out new tuberlets each time they are covered. The idea that perpetuates the potato tower myth seems to be truly false.

There are still several advantages to the tower.The harvest was dead simple because once the sides were removed the potatoes were visible. It required no digging.

Our animals had no way to get to the tower potatoes. Drainage and watering were not a problem in the open bottomed tower.

Good ideas:

• Space potatoes at a foot or so apart.
• Plant in a mix of soil and straw, hilling up with more soil and straw as the tuber grows.
• Remove flowers when they appear. Legend has it that Marie Antoinette like these flowers for her hair and they are very beautiful.
• Allow potatoes plants to be totally spent, i.e. very yellowed and hanging over, before harvesting.
• Elevating or containing the beds make harvesting easy.

There is one modification to the tower idea that might allow greater harvest in a four foot square area. After the potatoes shoot up 1 foot of stem, train the stem out the side of the tower between planks. Place another layer of soil and seed potatoes on top and allow those to grow as normal. One could be growing two crops on top of each other. We will experiment with this idea this year.

Good luck fellow spud growers! Share your challenges and solutions in the comments.

PS. Don't forget about my free basic gardening ebook, Grow Your Garden! Plant something edible soon.

Added to Simple Lives Thursdays 33.

Organic Seed Potato Order 2011

Local folks, are you interested in growing potatoes? Last year a small group of us ordered seed potatoes together to save on shipping. This year I offer to organize a group to do the same.

If you want to participate, fill out the order form below. I will accept orders until Monday February 28 at 8 pm. Totals will be emailed on Monday evening with payment (paypal preferred, cash or check accepted) due March 4, Friday. I will order Saturday morning for delivery around March 15. Pickup will be at my home in the Clintonville area of Columbus Ohio.

Cheers!

Campfire Potato Packets

I mentioned in the Labor Day camping post that our campout menus are generally very simple.  There's grilled meat, cold veggie salad, fresh fruit, and always potato packets.

The 'packet' method of cooking is a standby because it can use a variety of ingredients, virtually any method of cooking, and cleanup is easy.  You can cook fish in parchment paper packets, meat and veggies in aluminum foil for packet stew, and many more combinations of ingredients.

After years of refining our method, here's how my family makes campfire potato packets:

Slice russet and/or sweet potatoes into 1/4 -1/8 inch rounds.  Try to get them as thin and uniform as possible.  If you are doing this at home, you could use a mandolin.

Cut onion into thin rounds too and chop a mess of fresh garlic.

Lay out a two foot length of aluminum foil.  Dot it with butter or olive oil.  Stack potatoes, onions, and garlic alternately.  Sprinkle seasoned salt and pepper between the layers and on top.  Dot with butter on several times and on top.

When the vegetables are three to four inches high, it's time to wrap up the packets.  Fold the long sides towards each other, crimping ends tightly.  Flip the packet onto another piece of foil and crimp again.  Depending on how stuffed the packets are and whether the foil is heavy duty, we often add a third layer of foil.

Place the packets on a wood fire.  Ideally, the packets will get low even heat for 40 - 50 minutes.  If there is room on the grill top, place them there, turning every 15 minutes.

Sometimes the packets need to be placed into the fire ring so the grill is free for other things.  Keep them away from the hottest part of the fire and turn every 10 minutes.

You can generally tell when the potatoes are fully cooked by gently squeezing the packets.  You should feel no resistant uncooked rounds.

Open the packets gingerly because they are hot and steamy inside.  Dump the potatoes into your serving container, in this case the cookset's largest pot.

Don't forget to enjoy the cook's treasure - the crispiest bits stuck to the foil.  Yum!

Campfire Potato Packets

makes one packet to serve four

1 - 2 pounds (about 4 - 5 large) potatoes, sliced into thin rounds

1/2 onion, sliced into thin rounds

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons seasoned salt (Lawrey's or Old Bay are our favorites)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

6 - 8 feet aluminum foil

1. Spread a 2-3 foot length of aluminum foil on work surface.

2. Dot foil with 1/2 tablespoon butter or olive oil.

3. Layer half of potatoes, onions, and garlic onto foil.

4. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon seasoned salt.

5. Dot with 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil.

6. Layer the rest of potatoes, onions, garlic, and seasonings.

7. Finish with the rest of the butter or olive oil.

8. Wrap the foil, crimping on all sides.  Flip onto additional foil and crimp on all sides again.  Repeat a third time if you wish.

What is your favorite camping recipe?

Head High on the Fourth of July!

We visited the other garden last Tuesday.  Look what we found: Corn!!

Corn that hides Lil the corn princess!

Ears of corn with tassels!

Corn with whispy leaves taller than me!

Baby squash lacing through the corn and...

...heart shaped sweet potato leaves winding their way through the squash!

Our community garden plot is growing according to plan; mostly it takes care of itself.  Here's hoping the rest of the summer proceeds with fairly normal weather so that we might harvest great gobs of corn, squash, and potatoes to put up for the winter.

I love America, a place where there's still room to sow seeds of change, where one can nurture gardens and hopes.  Happy Independence Day!