Potatoes and the no dig method

For the first time ever I've grown potatoes using the no dig method

First I layered newspaper onto the ground.
Then spread some cow manure and hay to a depth of about 3 inches
Then placed seed potatoes 15 inches apart In rows 15 inches apart.
Then another 3 inches of pea straw.
When the growth came through this I put another 6 inches of pea straw on top.
I checked today as two had flowered and died off.
I got 2.3 kilo. more than happy with this.

Still got lots flowering so looking at a good crop

We tried it a few years back and all went well until harvest. Wife and I were sitting about a metre apart on the straw lifting the straw back and picking potatoes when a large snake slithered out of the straw between us.

:)( Snakes!!

Are they Dutch Cream ? Keep up the good work.

That would have cured me from gardening for the rest of my life!

Snake and potato pie?

Alan...

Snakes, love em. Not long ago I cut a bush tiger out our fruit netting, took it up to the dam and let it go so it could rehydrate itself in it's own good time.
Don't have much time for sookie lah lahs who think (" I use that term loosely") that a good snake is a dead snake.

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Originally Posted by HUON

Are they Dutch Cream ? Keep up the good work.

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Look more like Rex Hunt's to me....they are the common tater:D

You can use the same systen with car tyres. Keep adding tyres and mulch as the plant grows. Big yield /small footprint.

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Originally Posted by HUON

Are they Dutch Cream ? Keep up the good work.

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I kept the labels from the mesh bags and put them somewhere safe now cant find them. DUH

They do have a creamy colour to them.

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Originally Posted by burraboy

You can use the same systen with car tyres. Keep adding tyres and mulch as the plant grows. Big yield /small footprint.

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Tyres supposedly have issues with nasties leaching out of the rubber, the idea is good but I'd avoid. Pete

Getting to the age where I do not relish getting the big fork out of the shed I have gone over to 'no dig'.
Not spuds as I don't really have the room but so far peas & green beans seem to be coming up OK.

Slightly off opic (forgive me) but last year the local gardening club had a competition - given one spud to grow in a container that could be taken to the village hall.
I planted up two tubs, one for me & one for SWMBO, adding muck as he shoots appeared till the tubs where full.
Before the day of the judging I emptied my tub of spuds (decent crop) and replaced them with a 2kg poly bag of washed spuds from the s/market, filled the tub back up with soil, poked in the old stems plus a few weed seedlings so both tubs appeared the same.
Good laugh with cries of 'fraud' & 'cheat' from the other members....
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Mark


Paul Hogan re snakes 'they make good eating but they give me gas'

Here's my potato story....

We planted a small bed of sweet potatoes. They have a long growing season... All went well andthey were harvested. We got about 20 lbs worth....

The very next day - I go to the grocery store and there is the new harvest of sweet potatoes ready for purchase... $0.10/lb.... My efforts saved me a kingly ransom of $2.00 less the cost of the sets - which was about $4.00....

A month earlier the were about $1.00/lb.... But at harvest time - the prices drop considerably...