gift
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • Andrés Bernal
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden

Why won't potatoes grow?

 
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am losing things right and left in my garden, it's horrifying.
I have potatoes from the store, various types, that I have been sticking in empty spots. They are all sprouty, and growing in the storage area. I plant them, give them a bit of mulch to keep them cool, and they sit there. They don't seem to be dying, or sprouting more, or anything. They are just sitting. It has been hot, but currently is rainy and cooler (below 80F) and they still sit. Is it just too hot for them to consider growing at all? They seem to be growing just fine in the kitchen! I don't expect them to make tubers till it cools, but I thought they'd at least put out some leaves.

:D
 
Posts: 1521
110
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I read somewhere that most non organic potatoes sold in store are treated with something to keep them from reproducing
 
master rocket scientist
Posts: 6734
Location: latitude 47 N.W. montana zone 6A
3605
cat pig rocket stoves
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Good Morning Ms Pearl;
This is easy... Potato's grow in Idaho...  You removed the Idaho rock from your garden recently... Silly girl!  
Put it back and maybe.. the potato gods will forgive you!
download-(3).png
Idaho is that way
Idaho is that way
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

bruce Fine wrote:I read somewhere that most non organic potatoes sold in store are treated with something to keep them from reproducing


They are sprouting like they'll grow, and others I planted in spring and last year that were sprouting grew, all grocery store ones...
I know some never sprout, I'd say they are treated ones. I buy cheap, I bet they don't waste money treating cheap ones
All I can think of is the heat....
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

thomas rubino wrote:Good Morning Ms Pearl;
This is easy... Potato's grow in Idaho...  You removed the Idaho rock from your garden recently... Silly girl!  
Put it back and maybe.. the potato gods will forgive you!


Hahaha, that's the best logic I have heard all day!!
:D
 
bruce Fine
Posts: 1521
110
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
can't help my green thumb turned black this year, but if theres a fair this year I could probably get a blue ribbon for my weeds
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Bump! I need to figure out if I'm wasting my very limited space if I plant more potatoes. I want them because it's so late to be panting, and they'll handle the fact that it's getting cooler. And might not die of the fungus that is taking out my squash, but not hurting my tomatoes, as they are related to tomatoes. I need storage crops, and it looks like I'm not getting any winter squash this year. I'll buy some, but my garden isn't going to do it.

I also have a thread running about keeping sprouty sweet potatoes, but I know they won't handle a frost and am really not sure they'd do anything before it gets cold, and the soil I'm working with is crappy. I'm fairly sure potatoes will handle a frost or three... And I have a space I can do something with.

The other thing that's thriving is blackeyed peas for some reason, they were just grocery store cheap bags by the pound. They seem to be amok, I'm dumping them in everyplace I can.
 
master steward
Posts: 7600
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2799
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am about to head down to my garden.  I pulled one potato plant a few days ago.  The plant had died off. The tubers were smallish. The beets and tomatoes are doing great. The carrots I checked are tiny.  I use 2 ft tall raised beds with straw out of my stalls packed in in the fall.
 
John F Dean
master steward
Posts: 7600
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2799
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Pearl

I just got back from the garden. Beets, potatoes, carrots, and onions are all acceptable.  I will probably harvest the potatoes in a week of two and replant.  But my pole bean plantsmaybe a foot tall. I suspect you and I have pretty similar weather.
IMG_0236.JPG
[Thumbnail for IMG_0236.JPG]
 
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4490
Location: South of Capricorn
2466
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have had similar things happen with potatoes, they just stalled and/or did nothing, grew when they darn well wanted to. But your weather is a bit more predictable than mine, and like you said you can expect some good growth in the cool that's coming.
If it were me- I'd do both. Put in a few more potatoes if you have them, and while you still have a good bit of warmth left get those sprouty sweet potatoes in the ground (like Jan mentioned in the other thread). They should establish themselves enough to survive and then next year you will be able to start slips or just redistribute any small tubers.
 
Posts: 341
Location: Brendansport, Sagitta IV
44
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm not sure heat bothers young potatoes much. A week ago I planted some growthy potatoes that I'd forgot about (they already had baby tubers going), and they're leafing up nicely, even tho it's been pushing 100F here. (The ones I planted in early May are about done, for the most part.) I'm going to try an experiment with these and leave them in the ground over winter, and see if being so late they'll keep for spring digging.

Treated potatoes will sometimes eye up, start clumps of baby sprouts, and look like they plan to grow, but it doesn't happen. If you let them sit for a LONG TIME (I've seen it take over a year!) sometimes they will grow, but don't put them in the ground before they get good growthy sprouts -- they'll just rot.
 
gardener
Posts: 2018
Location: Zone 6b
1243
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am wondering if that has to do with the unusually hot july we had. I got totally different results from my potatoes.

First group are the ones that overwinter in the ground, red skinned type and russets. They were volunteers and showed up as soon as the ground warmed up. By late june/early july they were pretty lush but not yet flowered. I needed space in the garden so I pulled them up. And I found lots of full sized potatoes ready for harvesting!

Second group are the one bought from store and I planted them in big containers with compost. So they were a least one month later than the other kind. They seemed to be growing alright but last time I checked no potato coming. Maybe they didn't like the heat and will resume growth when it cools down.


 
gardener
Posts: 1033
Location: SW Missouri • zone 6 • ~1400' elevation
479
2
fish trees chicken sheep seed woodworking
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My spring potatoes behaved the same way. Production was nothing to brag about, but they still made food. Here's what we got from about 36 square feet.

 
gardener
Posts: 1964
Location: Longbranch, WA Mild wet winter dry climate change now hot summer
476
3
goat tiny house rabbit wofati chicken solar
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Consistent moisture in the soil seems to be the determining factor for me.  Where the soil did not get wet enough to keep wicking water to the plants they did not grow and produced only a few small tubers.
A volunteer in dry soil at the back of my greenhouse nest to the wall where rain water was wicking in grew fine though spindly due to lack of light.
 
pioneer
Posts: 471
Location: Russia, ~250m altitude, zone 5a, Moscow oblast, in the greater Sergeiv Posad reigon.
72
kids hugelkultur purity forest garden foraging trees chicken earthworks medical herbs rocket stoves homestead
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Bummer! Our potato-onion-chamomile-weeds patch is rocketing along just fine. It hasn’t been especially hot, though.
 
John F Dean
master steward
Posts: 7600
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2799
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Its official,   my potatoes are doing great. I just took up one raised bed with 30 pounds. Two more to go. Then, I replant. To my amazement,  my beans are doing nothing.
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Update on those potatoes: we had a cold snap (below 80 in the day,) and they decided to grow! YAY! I got others planted while it was still cool, I guess they'll come up when they are ready to.

I put some in a pretty fresh pulled weed pile with some seeds for beans, peanuts, squash and cantaloupe. the beans came right up, followed by the squash and melon. No sign of peanuts, no sign of potatoes. Some mushrooms came up though. Was in that area the other day and realized the mushrooms are patterned in a nice neat diagonal grid that matches my potato planting. Crud. Think I lost those.

I'm learning....  :D

 
gardener
Posts: 865
Location: N.E.Ohio 5b6a
593
food preservation homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This year I experimented with our potatoes.  We don't use NPK only compost. We just laid them on the ground in a row and covered them in soil.  Then I put 1 year old chicken compost on top of that about an inch thick.  I then made a 6" hill.  They grew quickly and then got froze off.  They started growing again and I hilled them when they were about 6" tall.  2 weeks later they were about a foot tall and I hilled them the best I could.  They died off completely with the rain ending in early July. It was a bunch of work, but I have the best yield I have ever. Some of them are softball size.  The row I did not use chicken poo on only made about as many potatoes as what I put in for seed.
 
Myron Platte
pioneer
Posts: 471
Location: Russia, ~250m altitude, zone 5a, Moscow oblast, in the greater Sergeiv Posad reigon.
72
kids hugelkultur purity forest garden foraging trees chicken earthworks medical herbs rocket stoves homestead
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Pearl Sutton wrote:

the mushrooms are patterned in a nice neat diagonal grid that matches my potato planting. Crud. Think I lost those.


    LOL! I’m sorry, but this is hilarious. Are they edible mushrooms?
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Myron Platte wrote:

Pearl Sutton wrote:
the mushrooms are patterned in a nice neat diagonal grid that matches my potato planting. Crud. Think I lost those.


    LOL! I’m sorry, but this is hilarious. Are they edible mushrooms?



If they were I'd definitely consider that a win! But no, just some kind of slimy inky caps munching on my taters. :D
This area has a lot of edible meadow mushroom (Agaricus campestris) wish it had been them!
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

bruce Fine wrote:I read somewhere that most non organic potatoes sold in store are treated with something to keep them from reproducing



Oooh, I don't think that is a problem this year! There are tentacles in the garage!



And, uh... bless me y'all, for I am a psycho...
That box is sitting on top of another 50 pound box of potatoes, they didn't get stored right last fall.... and I'm afraid to open it and look, the tentacles are coming out the cracks....
I don't have near enough ready to go dirt for them!!
 
gardener
Posts: 497
Location: Middle Georgia, Zone 8B
285
homeschooling home care chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
According to this site vegweb, "...researchers in tropical climates have found that when soil temperatures rise above 75°F (25°C), potato plants signal their roots to stop making tubers."

 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Stacie: Ah, thank you. That makes sense. It was hot last year when I was having problems.
:D
 
Stacie Kim
gardener
Posts: 497
Location: Middle Georgia, Zone 8B
285
homeschooling home care chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Pearl Sutton wrote:Stacie: Ah, thank you. That makes sense. It was hot last year when I was having problems.
:D



I experimented with growing my potatoes in containers last year. Black containers. In the middle of a Georgia summer. NOT GOOD. LOl, but I learned lessons along the way. I am "healing" over my potatoes, hopefully to go in the ground tomorrow.
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I opened that box, as much as I could. Will have to cut the box off....

This is why you are supposed to store potatoes well...
Tentacles! OH MY!!!


 
May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 2018
Location: Zone 6b
1243
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Pearl, I buried store potatoes in ground last winter, they all survive and grow happily. They tend to produce much earlier too, making room for fall crops.
P1130131.JPG
[Thumbnail for P1130131.JPG]
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15436
Location: SW Missouri
11141
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I planted some today, had to cut the box off to get them out intact, and they were VERY snarled. I saw nothing totally break off, I'm good at untangling things gently.
This is what it looked like when the box was cut off, rather spectacular. I have a couple of people who want some of them. They are very enthusiastic plants, they WANT to grow!! :D

Tentacles!!! OH MY!!!



 
gardener
Posts: 693
Location: South-southeast Texas, technically the "Golden Crescent", zone 9a
495
3
foraging books chicken food preservation fiber arts homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Howdy!
Those potatoes have definitely been in the presence of and Elder God at some point. Very creepy.
I have my first potato experiment waiting on me. It's a little too warm to grow them here, in theory, but based on what some of the other commentators have said, I have ways to keep the soil in the "EXPERIMENTAL FOODS" bed cooler than it might have been otherwise, so they/it will have enough time to decide what they want to do this year.
 
May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 2018
Location: Zone 6b
1243
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Quick update: one month later, potato plants are 1 to 1.5 ft tall and starting to flower.
Teach me not to give up on any potato: they will grow!
P1140178.JPG
[Thumbnail for P1140178.JPG]
P1140182.JPG
[Thumbnail for P1140182.JPG]
 
So it goes - Vonnegut
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic