Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[aart]

Random gardening questions. My husband saw the thing where you build a potato garden "box" and add dirt to it as the plants grow, and then remove the sides at the bottom to harvest the potatoes. (Link here if you are a visual person.) My questions are: does it actually work? Did you find that the potato bug-load was lower? I've found that when I've grown my TOMATOES in either raised bed or pots that I didn't have any tomato worm issues, so I'm wondering if it would be similar with potato bugs. And what in the HECK do you do with that many potatoes if you don't have a root cellar??? I'm also curious as to why they are showing full-size potatoes for the "starter" since I remember from gardening with my neighbor as a child that SEED potatoes are quite small?

I've seen this done in burlap sacks supported by a frame of pvc......never tried it but it makes sense.
I think the wood box would work better because it's sturdier and reusable is screwed together.
Not sure why they used what look like large whole potatoes....everything with a grain of salt, everything on the net with a half shaker of salt. ;-)

 

[gladahmae]

This is encouraging Gladahmae ! None of my group are "pickers" per se, but I do see them licking the beards of the EE's lol...I occasionally give yogurt and warm oatmeal bowls where the EE's get lots stuck in their beards. I think Silkies are adorable! Just a newb reading about the different breeds and what some people on BYC have encountered. We need more Michigan people to share and debunk the information

I *think* the issue with silkies is that [if I remember correctly] their feathers don't repel/bead water off like a "normal" chicken feather, so if they get wet, they can get wet down to the skin. They really are adorable! At this point, we built a sub-coop (walled off a small part of our big coop) to keep the silkies in. They've been cooped-up all winter and are doing just fine. I REALLY need to figure out what to do with my extra cockerels though.

 

[1muttsfan]

I have grown potatoes in tubs with drainage holes in the bottom - just keep adding dirt and humus as the plants grow. It only works with certain kinds of potatoes, those that will set new spuds along the stem (a lot of fingerlings will work), as opposed to those that set in the bottom roots (typical Idaho type ones).

Since both potato bugs and tomato hornworms arise from flying insects, growing in a raised container will not prevent infestation - sounds like you may have been lucky.

 

[gladahmae]

I have grown potatoes in tubs with drainage holes in the bottom - just keep adding dirt and humus as the plants grow. It only works with certain kinds of potatoes, those that will set new spuds along the stem (a lot of fingerlings will work), as opposed to those that set in the bottom roots (typical Idaho type ones).

Since both potato bugs and tomato hornworms arise from flying insects, growing in a raised container will not prevent infestation - sounds like you may have been lucky.

Good to know! I wouldn't have even considered potato type! And I kind of figured on the tomato worm thing......but I was trying to be optimistic.

 

[chickflick]

Of my first 4 chickens I started out with, two were silkies. That was almost 6 years ago. Still have them. They're fiesty little things. Hang with the standards and no problems. Scrappy, (silkie) was the first one out today when I opened the pop door after several days of being closed. Mine are pretty hardy. Roost on the the top roost and keeps the other hens in line. I love them.

 

[mara1]

I feed my hens a diet of butter, ham, bell peppers and onions.
That way I get pre-mixed western omelettes.


Food sign up in my signature.

Give it a greek twist with some feta

 

[lbrykowski2011]

And what in the HECK do you do with that many potatoes if you don't have a root cellar??? I'm also curious as to why they are showing full-size potatoes for the "starter" since I remember from gardening with my neighbor as a child that SEED potatoes are quite small?

Do you have a cold basement? Were gonna try and build just a small root cellar in the backyard this yr. Just like a 3x3 hole sorta. There's a book i got off amazon for $3 on how to build lil and easy root cellars in your yard. We do white, yukon and red potatoes. Each plant has 1 lg potato, 1-3 mediums and then 1 -5 lil ones. The boxes look nice. We actually put ours on the ground and throw straw over it mixed with manure and dirt here and there. Then just move straw in the fall. A friend of our's who raises goats showed us this. She does her's around the whole perimeter of the garden. Our chickens scratched in it and ate alot of tomatoes, so we will be looking into new garden ideas this yr so we can keep the garden and the chickens can still free range. Fencing is so expensive.

 

[gladahmae]

our basement has radiant in-floor heat (through our wood boiler). we didnt turn it on this year but our basement hasn't gotten below 55. we found out last winter that if we turn the floor on the 2nd floor stays at around 60, and thats where the kids spend most of their time.

 

[snowflake]

I'm not sure just how we are going to face the day. I just saw on the news that Justin Bieber has been arrested in Canada. That's major news that we definitely needed to know about. a high volume customer.

Lol! We still have Miley Cyrus and Madonna twerking at a the Super Bowl festivities!

LOL

Random gardening questions. My husband saw the thing where you build a potato garden "box" and add dirt to it as the plants grow, and then remove the sides at the bottom to harvest

saw this in a mag. they used old tires and added a tire and dirt as the plant grew. thought it was a clever idea but wonder about the rubber in the tires??

 

[snowflake]

Question.......does any one have cement floors in their coop? my son in law said his brother has lost 8 hens this winter (I think he has around 50) he contributes it to the cold cement floors even though he has lots of hay/straw on the floor.