Store-Bought Potatoes

[sonny580]

planted mine the day before good friday. just now coming up. Usually cut them but this year not able to so they went in whole! NOT a good idea but it does work, just makes smaller potatoes which I hate! ( bigger = better) I will push dirt over them with the horse tiller. It has the big wing drag attachment on it. I end up with ridges 16" or more high at final push.
Gotta fertilize and water heavy for good crop too!

 

[Del_]

.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Started working on my hose clamp weed-whacker yesterday, will get it finished today.
Looking forward to trying it out in the garden. Then I can start adding the store-bought soil.
But, I think I'm going to keep it covered with plastic for another week since I still hear tractors running in the area.
I know my farmers are being careful, but there are others in the area who might not be.

Finally was able to take photos today. My new battery arrived, but the new camera I bought was defective and had to return it yesterday.

Here's my hose clamp hoe!

 

[TNTreeHugger]

And here are my YG taters
Looking good, so far!

I think they liked being covered with plastic a few days - must have warmed up their little tootsies.

 

[muddstopper]

Now if you can teach me how to put an edge on stainless hose clamps I'm all ears. Anyone having a run in with one knows they are already pretty sharp.

 

[muddstopper]

What do people here do against the Colorado bug? Are there 'feasible' ways to get rid of them without spraying?

You said without spraying, best bet I can think of would be to buy a few ducks and fence them in with your taters. They willl eat the heck out of the bugs and shouldnt eat the tater plants. My personal favorite is to use spinosad spray. I use a garden sprayer. It is organic certified by omri and certified for use in organic gardens. It works pretty much overnite, and if you catch the bugs before the infestation is severe, you can get by with just one spraying. If you wait until the vines are stripped, you might have to spray a couple of times, Also spray the soil along with the vines. the taterbugs live in the soil at night and crawl up the vine during the day to feed. Early spraying kills the larva in the soil before they have time to mature and cause problems.

 

[sonny580]

no spray = NO spuds! Simple as that!

 

[TNTreeHugger]

no spray = NO spuds! Simple as that!

I know you're the expert, and maybe I was lucky last year, but I didn't spray and my sweet potatoes/vines were beautiful. Do the sprays harm butterflies/eggs/larvae? I'd rather have the butterflies.

 

[slowp]

Potatoes are being dumped west of Spokane and you can get as many as you want. The Hutterites are doing this instead of feeding the taters to cows. Apparently the potato buyers reduced the contracts by 30% and room must be made for this year's crop. It's too far for me to go.

I will plant one spud this year, like usual, and hope the dogs don't dig it up.

Growing up, we had a good sized patch of spuds every year and a root cellar to keep them in. I did not like planting them because it was early in the spring and usually cold and windy. Very windy...

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Spinosad​

Spinosad is derived from a soil bacterium and affects the nervous system of insects and mites. It has contact activity, but is even more active when ingested. Several products containing spinosad are labeled for ornamental (e.g., Conserve) and agricultural uses to control a broad spectrum of pests including caterpillars, sawfly larvae, leaf beetle adults and larvae, thrips, leafminer and gall-making flies and emerald ash borer beetles. Spinosad is highly toxic to bees. However, toxicity is greatly reduced once the product has dried on the foliage, within three hours to one day depending on the product. Therefore, avoid use if bees are active, and if applications are needed, apply in the evening when bees are not active and product has time to dry. This product suppresses a broad number of caterpillar species and should not be sprayed or allowed to drift in known habitats for threatened or endangered species of caterpillars and butterflies. Some spinosad products are OMRI-listed and on the EPA Reduced Risk list.

I also read it's toxic to aquatics... and since my veggie garden is literally right next to my fish ponds, which have Ocoee vines planted around them, this product is not for me.

 

[sean donato]

Everything is dangerous to aquatic environments, you're not supposed to dump it in the pond. Just spray the vines.

 

[slowp]

Here it is.

https://www.krem.com/article/news/c...nS1s712OJmmmoxPhkjmBMfM8aFwilD0dWmiCyCAUxW2Vf

 

[farmer steve]

Spinosad​

Spinosad is derived from a soil bacterium and affects the nervous system of insects and mites. It has contact activity, but is even more active when ingested. Several products containing spinosad are labeled for ornamental (e.g., Conserve) and agricultural uses to control a broad spectrum of pests including caterpillars, sawfly larvae, leaf beetle adults and larvae, thrips, leafminer and gall-making flies and emerald ash borer beetles. Spinosad is highly toxic to bees. However, toxicity is greatly reduced once the product has dried on the foliage, within three hours to one day depending on the product. Therefore, avoid use if bees are active, and if applications are needed, apply in the evening when bees are not active and product has time to dry. This product suppresses a broad number of caterpillar species and should not be sprayed or allowed to drift in known habitats for threatened or endangered species of caterpillars and butterflies. Some spinosad products are OMRI-listed and on the EPA Reduced Risk list.

I also read it's toxic to aquatics... and since my veggie garden is literally right next to my fish ponds, which have Ocoee vines planted around them, this product is not for me.

https://www.cmmcp.org/pesticide-inf...lly non-toxic,highly toxic to eastern oysters.

 

[Sidecarflip]

Depends on how well drained your soil is. Here, if I put unscabbed cut spuds in the ground, they will almost all rot.

 

[sonny580]

Sweet potatoes dont need spray. I never spray them but regular spuds GOTTA be soaked all the time with bug killer!! --- unless you dont want any potatoes cause the colorado potato beetles will devour the plants in one night! They also go for tomatoes, eggplant, and all relatives of this family. Here they even go for velvetleaf weeds!

 

[slowp]

We just took a coffee can out and knocked the potato beetles off the plants and into the can where they were killed. Much less toxic than sprays.

 

[muddstopper]

Everybody has to make their own choices as whether or not to use Spinosad in their gardens. I spray my taters late evening so it has plenty of time to dry before the bees become active. in fact the neighbor raises bees right across the road from my tater patch and I havent killed off any of his hives as of yet. I guess it comes down to if you would rather eat , or sit around worrying about a almost non existant problem. Taterbugs are a real problem and if not managed the problem gets worse as the season goes on and can completely destroy a garden practically over nite. The tater bug problem will only get worse year over year if not taken care of. Of course you can always buy your spuds at the store, I am sure all the big farmers walk thru their fields picking the beetles off by hand and would never consider using any pesticides so there is never a chance of any pesticide residues on their farm products.

 

[kyle1!]

You can't do that on sonny's 5 acre garden.

 

[farmer steve]

You can't do that on sonny's 5 acre garden.

Or 15 acres of produce.

 

[sonny580]

Thats why I GOTTA spray!