Lazy Man Potatoes

As a step toward producing as much of our own food as possible, I got serious about gardening last fall. I started several raised beds, using the lasagna method of layering cardboard, mulch material (hay lawn clippings, wood chips) and my perpetual supply of horse manure. This spring, I had my garden all planned out, using a new software program, with every bit of garden bed accounted for. Then, hubby made a trip to the local Coop and came home with 10 pounds of seed potatoes.

Before I could get too wound up about not having bed space for them, one of our gardening friends hooked me up with a video on growing potatoes right on top of the ground, without digging. If I was going to grow “unplanned” potatoes, at least I could do it with the minimum possible effort. Lazy (Wo)Man Potatoes!

It so happened that there was a patch of ground on which I had piled excess grass clippings, which seemed like a reasonable place to give the method a try. I pulled the grass aside laid the whole sprouted seed potatoes down, sprinkled a bit of compost over the top (since the patch was right next to the compost pile) and covered liberally with the 4-year old hay rotting down at the barn.

Within a couple weeks, we had sprouts peeking up through the hay.

As the plants got bigger, I added more hay, and a tad more compost. During this time, I never watered. The reasonably frequent rains we got kept things sufficiently moist.

Things were looking great by the end of April. A few of the plants started blooming; a sign it was time to stop hilling. Then I went on an 8-day business trip.

We’d had quite a bit of rain just before I left and more while I was gone. I came home to a very sad-looking potato patch. I panicked, thinking my potatoes were rotting and decided I needed to lift them ASAP.

As it turns out, potatoes wilt and turn yellow as they reach the end of their growing time. The recommendation is to stop watering and let them “cure” in the ground for a couple weeks to toughen the skin on the potatoes. I’ll know better next year! My potatoes may have been prematurely senesced by excess rain, but were sufficiently mature that I found a nice yield.

Lifting potatoes grown this way was so easy! I never used my digging fork, just my hands. So, no damaged potatoes from being skewered by fork tines. There were interesting differences between the varieties in growth habit. The Red LaSoda were much more variable in size, and the potatoes very close to the center of the plant. The Red Pontiac were fewer, bigger potatoes and much more spread out. Worth noting. I’d choose the LaSoda’s if I was interested in new potatoes and the Pontiac for aging and storage, as well as if I was using potatoes to help loosen soil.

The LaSoda’s also won out on the total yield. The photo is from 2.5 lbs of each variety planted in this plot. As a wild experiment (and because we ran out of room), we stuck the rest in the mulch around our crepe myrtles, We delayed planting those by a few weeks, so we’ll find out soon whether that’s an even lazier way to plant.

Bottom line is that I doubt I’ll ever plant potatoes in trenches again, unless I’m specifically doing it to break up soil. Even in that case, I think I’d use a cover crop mix that includes some root vegetables instead.