What have you been doing today?

[Rocket Man]

I planted 192 potato cuttings with 1 eye each. We hope to have about 500 lbs of Red Norland potatoes and about 300 lbs of Kennebec potatoes in about 4 months.

 

[Steamchick]

"Potato cuttings with 1 eye each"..... That's a new one for me?
I guess you take a potato with a few eyes chitted, then cut so it is in smaller pieces - each with one eye...?
Are the eyes buried? Is the eye exposed to the sun? - I understand the eyes produce roots and top growth from the side of the spud, so the piece of spud is simply providing the initial food (starch) for that growth. So how small a piece will allow a chit to develop successfully? - Your spuds look exposed. When do you bury them? I think in my garden, the birds, slugs 'n all, would eat the spuds before the chits had grown into viable plants. My spuds are always buried whole when chitted.

 

[WisJim]

Interesting that you plant your potatoes so close together. We plant ours about 2 to 3 feet apart in rows at least 3 feet apart to give the plants enough room to grow.

 

[ajoeiam]

"Potato cuttings with 1 eye each"..... That's a new one for me?
I guess you take a potato with a few eyes chitted, then cut so it is in smaller pieces - each with one eye...?
Are the eyes buried? Is the eye exposed to the sun? - I understand the eyes produce roots and top growth from the side of the spud, so the piece of spud is simply providing the initial food (starch) for that growth. So how small a piece will allow a chit to develop successfully? - Your spuds look exposed. When do you bury them? I think in my garden, the birds, slugs 'n all, would eat the spuds before the chits had grown into viable plants. My spuds are always buried whole when chitted.

Hmmmm - - - here a 1" cube works reasonably well - - - - rare that a plant doesn't grow.

 

[ajoeiam]

Interesting that you plant your potatoes so close together. We plant ours about 2 to 3 feet apart in rows at least 3 feet apart to give the plants enough room to grow.

I choose to go for more ground use efficiency than that.

Presently using what I call paired row planting for our spuds.
So 2 rows around 20" (50 cm) apart (enough room so that I hill in between the rows at least once) and then a bigger space of somewhat short of 36" (thinking 32 to 34" actually (80 to 85 cm)).

Now I work in compost the fall before and I'm watering if I'm not getting 1" (2.5 cm) of rain in the week.

Hilling around the plants about three times trying to get lots of looser ground for the developing underground buds. (Quite sandy soils here - - the very heavy clay soils I grew up on we went to just putting the potato chunk on the ground and hilled it at planting and that was about it for ground work (except for weeding).)

Thinking of adding some phosphate and potash this spring to boost the size of the spuds at harvest.

Please - - - this is from memory but each potato bit (circa 1" cube) produces up to 4 and sometimes even 5# of spuds when digging some close to 4 months later.
(More northerly latitudes get more growth due to longer daylight periods I think.)

HTH

 

[Rocket Man]

"Potato cuttings with 1 eye each"..... That's a new one for me?
I guess you take a potato with a few eyes chitted, then cut so it is in smaller pieces - each with one eye...?
Are the eyes buried? Is the eye exposed to the sun? - I understand the eyes produce roots and top growth from the side of the spud, so the piece of spud is simply providing the initial food (starch) for that growth. So how small a piece will allow a chit to develop successfully? - Your spuds look exposed. When do you bury them? I think in my garden, the birds, slugs 'n all, would eat the spuds before the chits had grown into viable plants. My spuds are always buried whole when chitted.

About Feb 15 I bought 10 lbs of Red Norland potatoes from the grocery store and 5 lbs of Kennebec potatoes from garden supply store. We had 2 yellow grocery potatoes in the kitchen pantry. I kept potatoes in a north window every day to grow short stubby chits. April 1st I cut potatoes into 1" cuttings. Cuttings were allowed to dry several days inside the house before planting. I learn 1 eye cuttings grow large potatoes, 2 eye cuttings grow smaller potatoes, 3 eye cuttings grow smaller potatoes than 2 eye cuttings. It is not easy to make all 1 eye cuttings sometimes eyes are too close together so there are a few 2 eye cuttings. No matter how many eyes a cutting has they all grow the same size root system. Red potatoes will all grow 4 lbs of potatoes from each cutting. A 1 eye cutting will grow 4 lbs of new potatoes. A 2 eye cutting will grow 4 lbs of new potatoes. If you cut the 2 eye cutting in 1/2 to make 1 eye cuttings you can grow 8 lbs of new potatoes instead of 4 lbs. I put several wheel barrel loads of dry ground up tree leaves in the 32" long potato and tilled it into the soil. I tilled tree leaves into the soil 3 times to make very soft soil easy for roots to grow. Then I placed cuttings on the soil surface 6" apart to see how many will fit in my potato bed. I have 3 rows of cuttings 8" between those 3 rows. Once cuttings are in the correct location I pushed them down into the soft soil so they eyes are about 1/2" to 3/4" below the surface. Cuttings being not very deep they grow plants very quick. When plants are about 4" to 6" tall I mulch them with pine needles. A bale of straw in TN is $40 each. I have a row of pine trees along 1 side of our house I can rake up enough pine needles to mulch potatoes in 15 minutes. TN soil is very heavy and very hard in summer. We have rain 6 days a week Jan to April then garden is desert almost no rain June to Sept. Boards around the potatoes allow me to flood potatoes with about 30 gallons of water 2 times a week all summer. I use 5 gallon buckets to measure about 30 gallons of water. Red potatoes out produce white potatoes 4 to 1. Each red potato plant should produce 4 lbs of new potatoes. Kennebec potatoes are hybrid they are hot weather potatoes they should produce a minimum of 2 lbs of new potatoes per plant. Most white potatoes produce 1 lb new potatoes per plant. I have 9 yellow cutting I'm now sure what to expect from them I never grew yellow potatoes before. Yellow potatoes will probably produce 1 to 4 lbs of new potatoes per plant. We have 100°f weather and about 1/2" rain per month all summer June to Sept. If potato plants don't get enough water plants will not blossom. If plants do not blossom they won't produce many new potatoes. If your potato plants blossom that is an indicator plants are getting plenty of water and you will have a good harvest of new potatoes. We had 11" of rain in the past 5 days. June to Sept garden is dry as desert. I grow onions the same way as potatoes so I can water flood them 2 times a week other wise onion & potato crop will be worthless in TN hot summer weather. I don't do raised beds. I do flat bed usually same level as the rest of the garden or many 1" higher so prevent water leaks under to boards that act like a levee to hold in water. Here is a photo of 500 onion plants on the left and potato bed on the right. In about 2 weeks there should be potato plants. Left of onions is 112 strawberry plants that will become about 800 plant by the end of summer. Left of strawberries will be 3 rows of green beans spaced 12" apart. Left of beans will be 4 rows of G90 sweet corn spaces 5" between seeds. Right of potatoes will be watermelon & cantaloup bed 4 rows wide. Right of melons 1 row of peppers, then 1 row Roma flat pot beans, then 1 row of tomatoes then a 30" row of zinnias. No squash, okra or cucumber this year. Squash & cucumber are bug magnets they attract bugs to the whole garden. Most of what I plant have no bug problems in TN. The boards are my idea of irrigation, I hate to water plants, my water hose produces 5 gallons per minute with no sprayer nozzle this makes watering much faster and no water escapes into the walk area. Boards are less work than hilling up soil to make a levee around plants.

Red Pontiac potatoes are hot weather potatoes they grow great in TN but we like Red Norland best they taste like white potatoes.

 

[Bentwings]

skittle humor here being a city boy how do I plant mashed potato powder Lol I get my eggs and orange juice in bags . I still get milk in a plastic jug so we still need a few cows lol . Our traveling Streetrod group used to go to an annual old time fam breakfast . It was really good with nice big waffles and for those that like real male syrup it was svailable. They even had real egg coffee for those that are coffe people . And the teens had a little corner where they had real Indian tobacco Often over run by parents LOL. Of course good old tractor pulling .
The virus killed this off unfortunately
I choose to go for more ground use efficiency than that.

Presently using what I call paired row planting for our spuds.
So 2 rows around 20" (50 cm) apart (enough room so that I hill in between the rows at least once) and then a bigger space of somewhat short of 36" (thinking 32 to 34" actually (80 to 85 cm)).

Now I work in compost the fall before and I'm watering if I'm not getting 1" (2.5 cm) of rain in the week.

Hilling around the plants about three times trying to get lots of looser ground for the developing underground buds. (Quite sandy soils here - - the very heavy clay soils I grew up on we went to just putting the potato chunk on the ground and hilled it at planting and that was about it for ground work (except for weeding).)

Thinking of adding some phosphate and potash this spring to boost the size of the spuds at harvest.

Please - - - this is from memory but each potato bit (circa 1" cube) produces up to 4 and sometimes even 5# of spuds when digging some close to 4 months later.
(More northerly latitudes get more growth due to longer daylight periods I think.)

HTH

 

[Steamchick]

Mashed potato powder is best fed to cattle isn't it? I would not even buy it and put it in the charity food bin... But I believe it will not be affected by nuclear fall-out when the bomb drops... I just won't be there to eat it.
I'm a Towney. Cities are too impersonal and convenient, for me. Villages waste too much time repeating the same gossip with the few people there, but Townies talk to each other, just not too much. And we have better bars, shops, busses, etc. Hospitals just a bus ride away, and cemeteries within walking distance. You don't need a Hearse, just the wheel barrow. (Empty the garden muck out of it first!).
K2

 

[ajoeiam]

Mashed potato powder is best fed to cattle isn't it? I would not even buy it and put it in the charity food bin... But I believe it will not be affected by nuclear fall-out when the bomb drops... I just won't be there to eat it.
I'm a Towney. Cities are too impersonal and convenient, for me. Villages waste too much time repeating the same gossip with the few people there, but Townies talk to each other, just not too much. And we have better bars, shops, busses, etc. Hospitals just a bus ride away, and cemeteries within walking distance. You don't need a Hearse, just the wheel barrow. (Empty the garden muck out of it first!).
K2

Snickering - - - - why bother emptying out the garden muck?

It will just help things along - - - - -grin!

Sure wouldn't hurt my feelings!!!!

 

[Rocket Man]

When I was growing up in grade school in the 1950s we lived in central Illinois the soil was soft & sandy and we had an afternoon 15 min rain every day all summer about 5 pm. My grandfather cut potatoes into 1" pieces to dry 1 week before planting about May 25. He planted cuttings 8" apart 3 rows side by side 8" between rows. 3 rows about 40 ft long. He threw 15-15-15 fertilizer on the cuttings then covered them with 2" of soil. Once a week we covered new potatoes with just enough soil to keep sun from turning new potatoes green. When plants were completely dead 4 months later he pulled up the dead plants and about 1/2 of the new potatoes pulled up out of the soil with the dead plants. It was me and my cousins job to haul 600 lbs of potatoes to the root cellar.

Relatives in Michigan planted potatoes the same way but there soil was much different, it is like soft potting soil. And they have plenty of rain. They grew big crops of potatoes also.

I moved to TN after college 1977 I tried to grow potatoes and seldom got more than 1 golf ball size potato form each plant. I would plant 5 lbs of seed potatoes and harvest 2 lbs of new potatoes. For 35 years I could not figure out how to grow potatoes in TN.

When I retired 12 years ago I moved to Phoenix AZ area. Winter weather is full sun and 65°f all winter with no rain. I planted potatoes Oct 15 and used the yard irrigation to water my plants. Wow I had a great crop of new potatoes Feb 15. AZ soil is extremely fine powder sand.

I moved back to TN and started watching videos how people grow potatoes on YouTube. I learned very soft soil and lots of water is what potato plants like best. Not much nitrogen and lots of P&K is the fertilizer potatoes like. We have 100°f temperatures all summer that is not a problem for potatoes. TN soil is hard as cement when dry I have to till in lots of organic material in TN soil to grow new potatoes. My plants need irrigation or there won't be any potatoes.

Where ever you live, what ever type soil you have, what ever your weather is like, give potatoes what they need you will have a good harvest. You may think you already have a good crop of potatoes, maybe it could get better. If your happy with the crop you get keep doing it.

Red potatoes out produce white potatoes 4 to 1. I get 4 lbs of new red potatoes per plant. I get 2 to 4 lbs of new Kennebec potatoes per plant. I only get 1 lb of Russet potatoes per plant, I think TN is too hot for Russet.

 

[stanstocker]

Mashed potato powder is best fed to cattle isn't it? I would not even buy it and put it in the charity food bin... But I believe it will not be affected by nuclear fall-out when the bomb drops... I just won't be there to eat it.
I'm a Towney. Cities are too impersonal and convenient, for me. Villages waste too much time repeating the same gossip with the few people there, but Townies talk to each other, just not too much. And we have better bars, shops, busses, etc. Hospitals just a bus ride away, and cemeteries within walking distance. You don't need a Hearse, just the wheel barrow. (Empty the garden muck out of it first!).
K2

I've told my kids to put my carcass out in a wooded part of our property for the vultures. I've enjoyed watching their social order and grace in flight for many years, and they provide a valuable service in cleaning up the dead critters. Just seems reasonable to give them a few good meals. Should some sniveling bureaucrat put the cosh to that idea then they are asked to put me on the burn pile and round up hats similar to the goofy "Viking" hats at the end of History Of The World Pt. 1 where the central portion of the hat lifts off in honor while the horns remain connected to the head Happy that some of the closest neighbors are about as goofy as I am, they'll join in. Maybe smoke a nice brisket by the house while I smoke in the rear of the property. Bet the brisket will smell better. If the burn pile is the way the kids know to put the ashes in the garden, peppers always can use a bit more potash and potassium.

Hopefully this year I'll get at least some seeds in, turns out the neurosurgeons get to sort out my lower spine in around three months. It will be nice to not hurt all the time, but this summer isn't likely to be filled with yard and garden work. The back isn't a surprise, I was in a back brace my junior year in high school. Back then I was told sooner or later things would deteriorate and fusion and such would be in the cards. Hard to act surprised when you've had just shy of 50 years to get used to the idea, just lucky to have had such a good run before needing an overhaul. Such surgery is common place, they now have you up and about the day after it's done, unlike the bad old days of long slow recovery. As with my knees and shoulders, I'm grateful the techniques and skills allow a lot of repairs to be done with minimal gross dissection compared to 50 years ago.

My work around for this year is to put peppers and herbs in the planters we usually use for flowers on the patio, most of them are as pretty as flowers, just a bit more subdued. On the model engineering side, I'm planning to spend at least some of the down side learning to use Alibre and Blender beyond my utterly rubbish rookie level. Hope our English friends note that I've adopted one of your phrases, utter rubbish is just so perfect a description of some things and so rarely heard in the U.S. Time for us to no longer be separated by a common language. Going away from ME again, learning more about some of the software synthesizers I've played around with is in the mix, wave table and west coast (Buchla) style synthesis fascinates me, but my understanding of it all is pretty minimal. If I just sit I'll get grumpy, forced limited activity really does get to me but making the best of it and keeping the brain cranking will help.

Well that's my rambling vaguely related to the thread post for today, hope it hangs together. The Gabapentin has me making more typos than usual and neither I nor the spell checker catch them as well so several read overs are needed. Bonus fun is occasionally having to dig around for the word I want, but that's usually after a long day when I hurt and have just had another dose.

Best to all, hope every ones garden does well this year. Last year my Poblanos did very poorly, perhaps in a container close to the house they will thrive.

Hope springs eternal. Best to all,
Stan

 

[minh-thanh]

Hi All !
I will change the topic a bit :
" What surprise gift did i get today ? "
Today, I received a gift from my Australian friend, a wonderful and very useful gift and I used it as soon as I returned to the project.

Thank you very much, my friend !
I said thank you to him , but hopefully he reads here too .

PS , Edit : I just deleted the label , I just accidentally and didn't notice....

 

[michael-au]

Cleaned up the flywheel for the Thompson engine
Had to put a slot in the flywheel for a woodruff key, never tried to use a broach before, I have a 2mm broach but no bush to fit the flywheel
So I mad a bush with the correct size slot (width & depth), turned out very good and worked well, I had no trouble broaching the slot.

First time for everything

 

[Steamchick]

Well done sir! Broaching is something I have never tried. My Dad made the (rare) internal keyway with a reground special boring bar, mounted in the lathe while making the bush, and using the main saddle travel with locked mainshaft (not rotating!), and turning on the cut a couple of thou per cut. Took time, but he had spare buckets of that.
K2

 

[Bentwings]

Nice solution.

It’s hard to believe it’s 70 deg already today going to 80. A week ago I had a foot and a half of snow to shovel now there are only a few ice piles that are melting fast .

 

[awake]

Well done sir! Broaching is something I have never tried. My Dad made the (rare) internal keyway with a reground special boring bar, mounted in the lathe while making the bush, and using the main saddle travel with locked mainshaft (not rotating!), and turning on the cut a couple of thou per cut. Took time, but he had spare buckets of that.
K2

Sounds like we should broach the topic ...



(Not sure that pun works in all dialects of English; my apologies if it does not!)

 

[lee webster]

My Nephew is visiting his mother for a few weeks. He emigrated to Australia several years ago and this is his first trip back. One of the first things he noticed was how cold it was! When you're used to taking the family down to the beach on Christmas day I suppose you would notice if the temps were a bit cooler. My sister asked me for some photos of my place to show him as he has never been here. I sent her several pics including this one consisting of four photos stitched together by the computer. All I had to do was press a few buttons and the hard work was done for me.
I hope to have the garden tidied in the next few months. The area to the right will be fitted with decking to become a seating area.

 

[Bentwings]

another brilliant day 80+ forecast rain Sunday . Yesterday it got to 85 really funny it was too hot to walk up to get the mail . How crazy is that low if 50 last night . I left the windows open it’s supposed to get to 87 today . This is mid summer weather . The yard is still soaked and of course a mess once grass starts growing it will push the clutter up . Mowing will take care of it from there I hope . I’m going to put all the model steam stuff away for a couple weeks as I have some minor surgery scheduled nothing serious hope. My back is finally healing . Another day or so and I’ll be back to hobbling around again . One of the old hot toddlers puts on a spring warm up that guys bring their noise and fume makers to for a barbecue and BS. Session . It usually a fun event if you are into powerful really noisy cars usually a couple funny cars dragster burning nitro and alcohol . A couple of us really old guys usually get our pictures taken There are only about 6 of us left there are sons and grand kids so lots of old days BSING On guy has his grand dad 32 ford racer un restored. It has a real Arden hemi conversion head flat head engine one of very few left. It was actually run in the 60’s This is probably the oldest car event here in Minnesota or anywhere I was probably only 19 or 20 the first time I came out. If it’s 85 degrees it will be a very hot dusty day But that’s what we did back then . It will be interesting to see how many are “ carrying” . I’d bet half or better . I don’t know if any animosity among us so I would not expect a mass shooting . However in todays climate I’ll be watching my back as well as my my long time friend’s . Nearly all of us won or lost very controversial races so there were some hard feelings. The method of settling things was usually a winner take all race then shut up . I can’t remember any hard feelings after this Nobody carried guns back then I can’t even temper any pushing or shoving after the final race . So I think it will be a safe event . I hate to even think this way but after the funeral attack in the nation capital you have to be careful at many of these we laugh about old things . It actually a pretty select group as we all have known each other for 50 years or more . So we are looking forward to the event . I’ll post after it just for fun . Maybe a couple of pictures . Ironically most of us look at it as it might be our last time together . Kinda like ww2 vets and nam vets have done
Nice solution.

It’s hard to believe it’s 70 deg already today going to 80. A week ago I had a foot and a half of snow to shovel now there are only a few ice piles that are melting fast .

 

[dalem9]

I planted 192 potato cuttings with 1 eye each. We hope to have about 500 lbs of Red Norland potatoes and about 300 lbs of Kennebec potatoes in about 4 months.

View attachment 145905

Wonderful work. I live in Michigan and my garlic was up before Christmas.

 

[Bentwings]

Mid to upper 80’s again today late afternoon rain. . Back pain finally pretty well gone today so I feel much better it’s really windy again 30-40 mph . Definitely making ice piles go away . Kitty has been laying in window all morning . We brushed heavy early. Spring is shedding time hard to believe amount of fur . My big German shepherd used to almost molt . I used to fill a big plastic bag twice a year . He had longer fur than my Australian shepherd had a full natural long fur coat not quite as thick but it came out in big brush fills . When cats and dogs shed it seems to get into everything I vacuum around the heat ac unit every eeek I usually have to empty the vac just after this . I just vac today and dumped a full bag of fine winter fur I have a brushing glove for kitty she just loves to be rubbed down I use another pin brush to clean the glove .

I saw on the news the Irish presidents mountain dog didn’t like Biden . He was barking and growling . As former K 9 trainer I’m surprised the security agents didn’t seem prepared for this a big mountain dog gets to well over 100-120 pounds plus they are incredibly strong .