Potato yeild

[Mark & Shauna]

What are those in the group getting for a yeild on potatoes? In pounds of harvest compared to pounds planted. I have heard that if you are really kicking some butt you can get 10 pounds per pound planted, I am guessing this is the best of the best conditions? We havent weighed our yeild yet but we last night just for fun we dug about 1/6th of the 50 lbs we planeted and have gotten two 5 gallon pails worth. Perhaps 30-40 pounds? I didnt get them hilled as well as I should have this year so thats hurting us but I was surprised to have even the biggest plants only yeilding perhaps 5 medium sized potato's each. If there are 6 they are small and if there are only three they are large baking size. Oddly I left two rows unhilled and they are yeilding only slightly less than the rows I hilled a couple times. We planted Kenebec's and next year, even though we are no till as much as possible, I am going to furrow and hill with the farm tractor rather than by hand. Over 50 lbs (which we will do next year) is just too much for us by hand. Even if I have to run the subsoiler every other year it will be the only way for us to grow a lot of potatoes.

Mark

[Brian]

[Mark & Shauna]

Brian, Thanks for the reply. Sorry for not including the plant/location data. We are in central WV and yes, our plants have died back to nothing. Planted around the end of March. This is the first year for the ground we are growing in (the whole garden). It is ridge top land and has been very wet here in WV this year. The ground was far from what we left in our old garden, oh how we miss that ground. Ten years of building it up. Most of the people in the hollow have lost their potatoes to rot from all the water but ours were still growing strong when all of theirs were yellow and going to poop. In the floods we will be fine, in the drought we will be dieing heheh. The toils of living up high. It sounds like you are getting 6-8 lbs per pound and in reading this post back to my wife I think I may have over judged the yeild and perhaps we only have about 25-30 lbs. Its a very crude measure now as I have not dug all the potatoes yet. My current guess is perhaps 100-150 lbs for the 50 lbs planted. Which I guess isnt bad as 2 of the 5 rows I left unhilled as an experiment. I was hoping to someday get to 50lbs yeilding 400 lbs of potatoes but not sure if that is possible with organic practice.

Mark

Brian wrote:

[dstvns]

I can't really say. I plant whatever is rooting in the kitchen cabinet, it grows, and then just before the hard winter freeze dig em all up :) Aren't potatoes great? They must be one of the best plants to grow, especially when you've dug the garden up right (the potato area is dug very deeply down 18-20" full of compost). I would say for every pound maybe I get back 5, but it's only a very small area (~200 sq feet). The leftovers get thrown back into the garden in early spring.

Dan

[HomeGrownVegies]

What are those in the group getting for a yeild on potatoes? In pounds of harvest compared to pounds planted. I have heard that if you are

I sell yeild of potatoes for less than what you would buy in the local store.

[Mark & Shauna]

Mike, Your soild sounds a lot like ours. Very shallow top soil, clay, then shale. Like I said our garden is on a ridge which seems to make the soil even shallower and more depleated. We too had no compost this year as it was our first year on this ground. We have been building compost all we can but we will surely not have enough to make a difference in the whole garden next year. We are just going to trudge along with what compost we have, cover crops, and manure in the fall each year. We have access to obscene amounts of manure as cattle is big here so thats our aim in the fall. The raised bed thing would be a good idea but not on our scale. In my opinion you just want to make the process as labor friendly as you can. Put a lot of work in when you plant to make the subsequent hilling easier. We dug a deep furrow hilling all the material from the furrow on the sides. Planted, then as the plants grow its fairly easy to just move down the isle knocking the piles back into the furrows as the plant grows. I think next year we may try hilling with hay or mulch as well. I am a little concerned about weed seeds as we will be using hay from our own farm but perhaps if we keep it thick it will foil the weeds. We are in Roane/Calhoun county and will keep you all posted as to our progress.

Mark

Mike Stevens> Hmmm it's good to know what kind of results another West Virginer is

[FarmerDill]

14-1 is the target central Virginia always aimed for. 10-1 is not bad, because summer heat and foliar diseases always make us less able to sustain yeilds like our more Northern neighbors,

[Fudge]

Depends on your soil fertility and weather. I have a poor yield because I have poor soil and not a lot of good compost. If I till in a good one foot high stand of fall rye before planting, my yield goes way up. Since my soil is quite poor, the plants succumb to potato blight as the tubers form thus decreasing my yield. Potatoes like an acidic soil. Homespun potatoes are the best especially potatoes with the silky skins.

Farmer John