Potato plant question...?

[nao57]

Is there a trick to keeping your potato plants from getting glued into the soil? Like what, I'm worrying about is how to keep the soil loose enough that they can expand the growing and forming tubers enough to have a good crop and not be unable to expand properly?

Part of the worry comes from the idea that we have clay soil in this area. I've fertilized and put other stuff in there but just wish I could get to having better potato numbers in growing at harvest time.

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Have you tried growing them in raised containers? We have clay soil here too. Took me years of adding leaves, grass clippings, and manure to get good soil. Growing anything in clay is difficult.

Potatoes also do well when you continue to add soil to the plants. I've seen some wonderful containers where you add to the top and continue to top them off. They will keep making new potatoes on the freshly buried stems.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I till old wood chip (not shaving, but the bigger flake/chips) bedding from my poultry into my potato bed, hill it immediately adter tilling and then when it starts to really sprout cover in chopped straw. The wood chips especially help break up the clay soil. I did not do this our first year here and I only got a few small little potatoes. After that I started using the above method and I have had huge potatoes with 5lb average per plant harvest (even with our very dry and hot summer last year). The first picture is one of my potatoes last year and the second is what I was getting from one plant.

 

[nao57]

Have you tried growing them in raised containers? We have clay soil here too. Took me years of adding leaves, grass clippings, and manure to get good soil. Growing anything in clay is difficult.

Potatoes also do well when you continue to add soil to the plants. I've seen some wonderful containers where you add to the top and continue to top them off. They will keep making new potatoes on the freshly buried stems.

Thank you.

 

[Birdsonghill]

It does take years to loosen up our clay soil with organic additions and potatoes like loose soils or even growing in mostly straw. Growing them under straw with some compost on top of the ground or in bags works well without the soil work. For some reason I still try to grow them in the garden soil probably because of how much work I have done to improve it and it does better now and is great for most things. I guess, I just like to dig in the garden. The easiest potatoes grow for me in bags/boxes/raised beds with soilless mix and compost or straw and compost. I like to harvest by just dumping them out or being able to pull them out by hand from the raised beds with straw and compost. You can't harvest potatoes by hand in our clay soil and the digging in summer is hard work. I learn something new every year and those are adding up, I hope to get smart someday and figure it all out!