Growing potatoes in pine needles

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Depending on the species, you may find that the pine needles get embedded into the potato.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:It's a worthy experiment. I think the roots would need to be in contact with actual fertile soil for the plants to thrive. The pine needles, loosened perhaps, would be mulch to protect the tubers from light.

I'm not sure about your soil pH. In my area, the slight acidity of the pine needles would be an asset -- helping suppress the organism causing scab.

P. Pitcher wrote:I'm also a fan of *free* growing mediums, and live in a pine forest. I've added pine needles to soil, and used it extensively as mulch. My concern would be simply the acidity? We have very basic soils by default here, so it only seems to bring balance to my beds. I also will be curious to hear about moisture retention, I feel like needles tend to hold more air spaces in them when we gather and disturb them (as opposed to them falling naturally), and in the mountain west humidity is rarely high. Let us know how the experiment goes!

Joshua States wrote:I am going to watch this thread to see how this goes. I recently moved from 9a to 6a and also have an abundance of pine needles to cope with. I'm lucky that we have a lot of oak mixed in with the conifers here. I have already started composting piles of needles, leaves, and bark to prepare mulch and raised bed filler for the new garden. Santa brought me a woodchipper/shredder and the idea is to create loads of shredded organic matter. I have already used the needles and leaves in raw form to mulch over the garlic beds and the saffron corms. Potatoes won't go into the buckets for a few months, but I plan to use the same to cover them. I might just try a 50/50 soil to needles and leaves mix in one pot and see what does better. Thanks for the idea!

Bob Waur wrote:I have been using pine needles as mulch over potatoes for several years. I have a chicken yard that is 50' x 50' divided into two sections. I run the chickens in one for a year and then in the other one. I plant my potatoes in the one the chickens vacated three months before. This gives the manure time to 'mellow'. To plant I make trenches about four inches deep and place my seed potatoes in them with one foot spacing. Then I pull the dirt over them. When I see them beginning to sprout I mulch with pine needles one foot deep. As they grow I will add more pine straw. I get good production and very little scab as my soil tends to be slightly acidic. When the plants die back I rake the needles to the side and the potatoes are easily harvested since they were not planted deeply.
Gotta go stir the shrimp and sausage gumbo...

Christopher Parker wrote:You may want to consider the waxy coating on the pine needles cause them to decay slowly. Therefore not releasing the nutrients you need. Some wood ash, aged manure and mixed in with the pine needles may make it nice and fluffy. Create rows of these piles and then the spring  pull back and drop seed in there.  This could give them all the nutrients they need to produce a good crop. They would probably suffer for a good crop if grown in straight pine needles. Would love to hear how your grow goes!!

Joshua States wrote:

Your waxy coating observation makes me think about whether chopping them up would help speed up decomposition.[/quote wrote:

I know that chopping them up will speed up the compost cycle.  I try to chop up our kitchen waste that doesn't go to the chickens and it composts about 10 times faster.
My mom used to have an old blender just for chopping up food scraps for compost.