How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I was always told not to eat green potatoes...if they're exposed to light they turn green.

 

[Dapph2]

I've these two old what were used as compost bins by the FiL. The taller one is just an undrilled barrel but with a crack so it leaks. The short one with holes in has the bottom cut out - pictured upside down.

I could cut one in half.

How then do the spuds grow if I stick a barrel over one of the tall plants and fill with soil? From the covered foliage?

View attachment 506637

The spuds greenery sends out shoots /chits when covered over which become potatoes .. the same a straightforward planting in the earth and ridging up .

 

[Dapph2]

I've said it before, but i don't get all the mounding up potatoes malarkey. Yes I understand that they will crop further up the stems and possibly be a bit more productive, but from my experiance it just isn't worth the hassle, and you don't see farmers going round earthing up fields of spuds.

If your that worried about yield, shove a couple more spuds in per meter.

If I was you @Onoff I'd just leave them too it (maybe a feed with some tomato feed or a sprinkle of chicken manure) but as long as the tubers aren't breaking the surface just let them do their thing. You'll still get spuds off them, just maybe a couple less.

Yes you do or used to see farmers doing the initial ridging and a second or some times even a third ridging up to the top of the greenery .
ridging not only give a greater surface area for rain to soak into it also make for a bigger solar heating surface which helps the spuds grow faster due to not only heat but UV penetration in the soil

Check out this link if you will

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=34400a356e05c5f2a8deb1eb24814a804ec4ed04bee314fa8c97e037b617ab8aJmltdHM9MTc1MzgzMzYwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=0d303ea7-b361-6915-1834-289eb28168eb&psq=does+Uv+sunlight+penetrate+the+soil+surfsce+in+the+garden+or+crop+fields%3f&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnVlZ2xvdy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZXMvaG93LWRvZXMtdXZiLWFuZC1zb2lsLW1vaXN0dXJlLXJlbGF0ZSM6fjp0ZXh0PVNvaWwlMjBtb2lzdHVyZSUyMHNpZ25pZmljYW50bHklMjBhZmZlY3RzJTIwdGhlJTIwYW1vdW50JTIwb2YlMjBVVkIsZHJ5JTIwb3IlMjBzYXR1cmF0ZWQlMjBzb2lscyUyMGNhbiUyMGxpbWl0JTIwdGhpcyUyMGludGVyYWN0aW9uLg&ntb=1

Ridging by machine or hand also helps keep weeds down , so once the umbrella of greenery develops no seed will germinate well , thus making it an effective way of cropping and clearing weedy ground .

Remember the farmers & gardeners adage of one years seeds means seven years weeds , so suppressing weeds with dense cover is a very effective control plus it helps condition the soil .

 

[Dapph2]

I was always told not to eat green potatoes...if they're exposed to light they turn green.

True they contain cyanide but as far as I know haven't killed anyone as it is such a low dose .
If you have produced green part potatoes , put them in a cool, dark drawer and the green will disappear in a few days or put them in a tub of lightly moistened peat for the same result . They'll store in the damp peat for months too , which then gets put on the garden once you have consumed all the spuds ....don't use it for storing spuds a second time as any unwanted organisms in the peat may be strong enough to harm the stored potatoes .

 

[Dapph2]

A few of my potato plants seem to be growing something from the flowers:

View attachment 506658

Presumably these aren't any use for anything. Do they signify something I haven't done? I don't recall seeing this before. Ironically they're more productive than the tomatoes that I've been trying to grow elsewhere.

Separately, my Pyrocantha has a lot of these on it. Are these going to turn into the red berries later, or are they just dead bits that I could trim off?

View attachment 506659

It's got a bit overgrown, alongside a very overgrown buddleia, and I'm trying to trim both of them down. The buddleia is doing a fine job at shielding the living room from the sun (and most daylight, as it goes) so it's been helpful during the very hot weather, but the pyrocantha starts to grow really spiky things all over the place.

Once you get potato apples it usually time to lift them as they come a few weeks after the potatoes flower when the conditions are right . You can use them to make seeds but it take several years to get a viable seed and you cannot grow them in previously used potato bed areas due to potato diseases susceptibility .

By the way they are not suitable for eating .

This link may give you some useful information https://www.cultivariable.com/potato-what-you-should-know-about-fruits-on-your-potato-plants/

Your pyracantha berries will go any colour from golden yellow to a bright red depending on the type .

 

[RobCox]

Yesterday it was time to dig up our second early spuds. This little 2 x 1m patch just outside the workshop:

yielded the trug of spuds on the left:

The reds on the right were the leftovers from a sack of spuds earlier in the year that had sprouted big time. I put them in a border where not much else grows- next to a fence shielding the sun from about 10 o'clock onwards. The tops were dying off so I cleared them out before the pumpkin vine got its tendrils wrapped around them.

 

[Mick Annick]

Keeping slugs & snails out might not solve the problem till you exterminate their eggs in your bath tub .
I suggest you think of using a slug ( Found in nature so as natural as can be ) nematode to get rid of them , follow the instructions exactly & use a fine rose watering can to apply them , as well as use up any left over mixture around other plants .
Two applications of slug nematode saw my beds slug free of four or so years
.
This year because of other problems & commitments I have let my raised beds go feral whilst I'm doing other major works & caring for my lass who was suddenly stuck with level 6.5 MS last year & is struggling with it this last year.

My neighbour has an old bathtub full of snails he’s raising to eat