/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>313725
lol

When you are growing potatoes, try to allow them to bloom and fruit. If you are so lucky as to get ripe potato fruit, make sure to harvest it, clean out the seeds, and save them for replanting next year. If you aren't lucky. Hold back enough potatoes from your eating potatoes to use as seed potatoes next season.

Crop rotation is very important because it interrupts pests' life cycles. If you plant the same crop in the same place season after season the pests for that plant will become a very serious problem. This is very true of the potato flea beetle which eats holes in the plant leaves and can easily kill new plants.

For continual growth of potatoes you'll need a greenhouse or simply just covered to prevent frost formation. Frost will outright kill exposed plants. Mine lasted right up to 20F nights, but died instantly when one morning it frosted.

Potatoes are a warm climate plant.

I have a greenhouse, but I have tomatoes growing there. I've read that those two plants shouldnt be planted together because they share the same pests, but is that really a concern in a greenhouse that is properly kept clean?

Potatoes are pretty easy to grow.

Just toss some seed potatoes in the ground in the spring and dig em up in the fall. Save the ones that are too small to eat for planting next year. A box filled with straw in a cool dark place (like a basement or root cellar) will keep seed potatoes viable for months.

I've planted potatoes that I bought from the grocery store (if you see eyes growing on them you can plant them and they will grow) and gotten plenty of edible potatoes from them.

I've also missed a few in the ground when harvesting in the fall and had them come back in the same spot next year without problems.

If you grow a lot of potatoes, like acres full of them and keep monocropping year after year, yeah you're going to greatly increase the chances of getting diseases or pests. If you're just doing a home garden you don't really have to worry about it.

Potatoes enjoy a nice loose soil the best, so it's a good idea to till the soil before you plant your seed potatoes. If the soil is too hard and compact most of your potatoes will probably come out pretty small, since they'll have a hard time growing and expanding in heavy/clay soils.

>>313745
It depends on your control measures. Flea beetles and white flies are the worst pests for those plants and both can be a real pain in a greenhouse.

>>313749
this

We planted some and they grow nicely, but we had an extremely dry summer, the plant was only green for a week or so then they dried. I was sure nothing will be under the ground but i looked and they all were about fist sized. It yielded 3 times as much what we planted.

>>313752

I have a lizard and 2 hens living in my greenhouse. Do those count as control measures?

>>313837
Only for larger insects.

Potato flea beetles are pretty small and white flies are tiny tiny. Parasitic wasps are best for the white flies. If you must spray something, use nicotine. Covering the soil over with plastic will help prevent flea beetles.

>>313837
The hens will probably do a decent job on the beetles but their scratching may do more damage to your plants than good.
Other options to nicotine as >>313844
suggested are neem oil and Pyrethrum.

was also going to suggest derris dust (rotenone) for the beetles, but it seems that's banned in most places. It's effective but in light of finding out the health effects caution is advised - make sure it's in a position to biodegrade quickly.

You can grow potatoes in a barrel of soil if you're really worried about pests. Makes harvest a cinch. And obviously no worry about rotating crops, just use different soil. The thing you've really got to worry about is nematodes, but there's not much you can do except cross your fingers you don't get them or have them.

>>315496
Oh, and if you don't mind it coming back in that area every year, horse radish is a good companion plant. It's just about impossible to get rid of once it's established though.

OP
UKfag here, I've had potatos from a storebought bag in a pot in my garden survive through snow to the next year, should be fine
why don't you do a small section where you leave the potatos instead of seeding and see what happens

>But I want to grow a continuous supply of potatoes. Is this possible?
Yes, but still, you will have buy seed potatoes every few years.
>I live on the west coast of the usa and only get light frost during the winter.
Potatoes can survive a mild russian winter in earth.
>Are potatoes so domesticated, like corn, that they cant grow naturally?
They can. Plant half a dozen of potatoes in somewhere out of the way now, plant half a dozen in spring and see for yourself. In your climate (i think) they will continue to grow for at least 3 years.
>Do you have to harvest your own seed potatoes and just hold onto them until spring?
Just select healthy, moderately sized potatoes and replant them later. You will see when you'll need new store-bought seed potatoes.

>>315510
>they will continue to grow for at least 3 years.

What is this "3 years"? What makes them die?

>>315512
Cold (not in OPs case), insects, animals, lack of nutrition for two-three dozen of closely growing potatoes?

>>315516
OP gets frost, so that will kill them right off. It doesn't matter if it is light frost or not. Although, there may be a hardier potato than most that might be able to handle it, but I've never heard of it.

>>315534
Potatoes can survive a continental climate winter, with average temperatures about −10 °C. Most likely won't, but some will.
And to be honest, i don't know much about coastal climate of USA but i think it's less harsher.

You guys know you can grow potatoes in a barrel, right?

>>315587
nevermind, just read all the posts.

Organic potatofarmguy from yurop here. When webuy a new seed potato from certified seedling farm it last's for about 4-5 years, after that the productivity drops like 40% over the next 2 years. Not sure how it works with monsanto-potatos (ment it as a joke, but are there?). Anyway, make sure they you have regular looser soil and for the love of our catholic God, make sure you pile up a nice amount of soil over the plant during on the first months. Keep them weed-free. Crop rotation isn't THAT important, but again, it helps alot. Specially if potato loves the pre-crop.

Other than that. We get -30's here during winter, but we still get many rouge plants the next year, snow-cover helps a bit.

Also a tiny protip: sunlight turns potatoes green, keep your omnomnom potatoes covered or in a dark room. But when you harvest them, give seed potatoes some sunlight. It makes them less susceptible to all sorts of "rotting" but turns them bitter, so dont eat them.

>>315664
>monsanto-potatos

>In 1995, Monsanto completed U.S. regulatory authorizations for NewLeaf™ potato, a Russet Burbank potato improved using biotechnology to provide protection from the Colorado potato beetle. Canadian authorization was completed in 1996. The NewLeaf™ potato used naturally-occurring bacteria found in the soil known as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to provide in-plant protection from the yield-robbing Colorado potato beetle.

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/new-leaf-potato.aspx

Fuck Monsanto. I lol'd when PeerBlock was blocking their IPs.

>>315664

>Dem typo's

Sorry in advance, my brain sucks balls sometimes

>>315670
I think it has something to do with the reply box. It happens to me a lot even though I proof read in the reply box. Once posted everything becomes clear and I can spot a ton of typos.

truly fuck monsanto
get some old species and grow grow grow

Grow potatoes from true seed.

Not 'seed potatoes' which are just small tubers. I mean seed from the fruit produced by the potato flowers.

Pic related, it's the fruit.

Tubers are basically clones of the plant. If the plant picks up a virus, the tuber is also effected. After a while the plant has several viruses and productivity drops.

By starting with true seed, you start with disease free stock.

The downside is that it takes two years to get a sizeable harvest.

The first year you plant the seed and treat it like a tomato seedling until you transplant it into the garden. After you transplant treat like any other potato. The first year you will only get a few small tubers.

BUT these potatoes are special. They will be a unique, new type of potato never seen before. Potatoes don't come true from seed, like apple trees. And they will be disease free. You will be able to grow them indefenately, re-planting them every year.

>>317997
so grow tubers for two years and then switch out the clone. durr

Diseased potatoes will infect the soil, which will infecting the 'clean' tubers you plant next year.

>>318006
Which is why crop rotation is important.

>>317997

I have never heard of anybody doing this.

Why would anybody wait 2 years to harvest when they could start with seed potatoes and harvest that same year? I mean, unless you're a large scale tater farmer and you're interested in playing with the breeding/genetics of your crop. Then I could understand it.

The idea is to create a potato that is disease free, that you can replant indefinatly in the same place, and is best suited for the microclimate of your garden. Just like creating your own tomato variety.

A simple google search would yield a ton of info about growing potatoes from true seed, and the subculture of 'tater lovers who do this.

Pic related, Bintje a variety grown from seed, now very popular

>>318071
>Just like creating your own tomato variety.

This reminds me. I have yellow pear tomatoes that come up every year like weeds. This year one of the plant's fruit was the same shape as the Roma tomatoes I grew last year but they are bright yellow when ripe. Obviously is was hybrid. I had Roma and yellow pear this year to. Hopefully, I'll get some more of those next year. Roma is open pollinated and yellow pear is heritage.

Tater blossoms

>>318018
It takes something like 6 years for a nematode infection to pass, and you can infect soil by walking from an infected area to an uninfected one. It's not your basic crop rotation for that kind of thing.

An un-named variety of potato grown from seed by Alan Bishop.

>>318125
My own crop rotations are many years apart. Next year will actually be the first year anything in the Solanaceae family will be planted in the same spot in my gardens. It'll be the 7th season of crops too.

>>318191
That should help keep it down if you ever do get them. It won't get rid of them completely should they appear, but they hopefully wouldn't be much of a problem.

More 'tater berries

>tfw all your potato fruit gets yellow stems and falls off before it develops mature seeds

Every damn time.

Ag scientist here
There are several viruses that can effect potatoes which will retain in tubers pretty much permanently in consequent life cycles.. This is why seed potato tubers are grown in high altitude areas where viral vectors do not exist.. You can grow potatoes consecutively if you rotate crops with rooting brasicas and obtain new seed stock. bacterial soft rots will often accumulate over time if sown in the same area consecutively. so a break is also needed without any host or residues disease can reside in.. Maybe try cultivate and light a bon fire on the site after and you might get away with it..

Also pretty sure most spuds varieties grown are through qaudplody and are sterile for breeding due to this and offspring are pretty much clones..

There are tons of fungicidal chemicals that will keep your seedpieces (the cut up potatoes you use to replant) intact and relatively unrotted. Look for a plant pathology program at any local university and go talk to the 'potato' guy. He may even give you free labor to plant, harvest, and seed as well if your willing to let them use your plots to do controlled testing of various products. They just need to measure seedpiece rot, and sometimes yield amounts depending on the study.

>>318337
Uh. no. Ever leave them on the counter so long they start growing roots?

>>318360
Genetically sterile no seed as they can't successfully pollinate..

>>318356
and how do you intend to get fungicide in the ground? and prevent bacterial and viral infections?

>>313725
Hey OP, keep an eye on these guys: plantlab.nl
This tech will take care of your problems in the near future.

>>313725
Keep a few potatoes in a cellar. When they get all those eyes growing they're ready to seed in the spring cut into quarters and stick them in the ground. Don't grow potatoes in the same area since they'll leech all the nutrients out of it. Never learned which when growing up, just that it'd leech nutrients (I grew up with Germans so potatoes were unquestionable to be planted). Till and everything like normal. I think we planted in May and harvested around Sept./Oct. IIRC, being hot was good for them in the last couple of months. Cold & Rainy = bad, but they need to be kept watered. Been a long time since growing up on the farm.

>>318366
Marigolds

No seriously.

True potato seeds look like tomato seeds.

True potato seedlings growing in peat plugs.

Anyone else grow 'non standard' varieties this year?

Types I grew:

Sangree
Desiree
German Butterball
Red Chief

And the more traditional:

Yukon Gold
French Fingerling
Redskin

>318363

Most of the new varieties of potato don't set fruit. (It's one of the traits you can select for when breeding your own potatoes). Some set fruit but produce sterile pollen. The reason you would select for plants that don't flower/ fruit is because the energy that goes into producing the fruit and flowers could be used by the plant to produce more/ bigger potatoes.

Many of the older varieties produce viable seed.

I began my own 'tater project last year, with seed I bought from Tom Wagner of New World Crops. I started by planting lots of seed, selecting the largest healthiest seedlings, and planted them 2 ft apart in the garden.
About half the plants produced tubers, which is fine because I planted 3 twenty foot rows. I overwintered the tubers in my basement, then in the spring I planted them (3 feet apart this time). I had lots of interesting potatoes come up!
Skin color ranged from white, creamy tan, pink and red. Flesh colors varied from white to canary yellow. The tubers also grew in interesting ways around the central stem. Some were clustered around the stem like grapes, while others were growing up to 8 inches from the central stem. I had lumpy taters, smooth taters, big taters, small taters.

I'll post some pice when I can find them.