[kev]

What fertilizer does everyone use for potatoes?

When planting potatoes I start out with 13-13-13. This is a well balanced fertilizer that I feel helps get the plant established.

Around six weeks after planting I side dress with 10-20-10 and then work up a mound around the plants.

13-13-13 - well balanced for plant growth
10-20-10 - helps promote tuber growth

Before side dressing watch the weather very closely as I want a nice rain after side dressing. The rain helps wash the fertilizer into the soil.

A couple of weeks later I typically work the soil up around the plants. I usually do this by hand, but in 2019 I will use the tractor. Planning on planting a large garden and need to conserve time when I can.

Around May or June the tops of the potato plants start to die, so the potatoes are harvested.

The question is, what is your preferred fertilizer for potatoes?

Picture of potatoes I grew a few years ago:

 

[n1d]

CAW

Chicken poop.....:

 

[PigFarmer]

Chicken manure and compost the fall prior to planting. I've found potatoes arnt very picky. They just like lots and lots of poop and they do fine.


Chris

 

[Justme11]

When I was 13, i worked on a farm that had been left fallow for several years (Pennsylvania). My dad arranged with the absentee owner for me to try farming it. Dad grew up on a farm, and had me brush hog it, plow, disc harrow, spike tooth harrow, then spread lime on 1 pass, then Some fertilizer. Maybe 10-15-10 or so, but don't remember the exact numbers.

Used the cabbage planter to plant the seed potatoes. About 5 acres. Ran the cultivator as needed to rip out the weeds until the plants dominated any remaining weeds.

Also planted about 10 acres of sweet corn.

Everything grew like mad. Made a pass with bugspray halfway though the growing season.

Not sure if the lime is needed everywhere. I would check the soil Ph and get recommendations. Now that acid rain has been pretty much eliminated, the soil might already be on the alkaline side.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

In my version of EP (emergency preparedness) I only garden with what resources would be available to me in a grid down scenario. In my case, that would be leaves.

 

[inMichigan]

I like bone meal for my root crops, either bought or self ground depending on what is laying around.
InMichigan

 

[n1d]

CAW

I like bone meal for my root crops, either bought or self ground depending on what is laying around.
InMichigan

How do you grind down to bone meal consistency?

 

[Justme11]

Wood ashes would be another sustainable fertilizer.
Dr Wallach says that by throwing the family's wood ashes on the garden, trace elements that the tree had pulled up from the soil depths would be brought into that plant and then into the farmer's food. When we transitioned to natural gas for cooking and heating, that micronutrient supplementation went away and we were left with the 3 element NPK fertilizers, which still makes the plants grow, but the plants no longer contain the nutrition that people need from their food.

 

[dmas]

Chicken manure needs composting 6-9 months, even a year before use. Its high nitrogen content can burn plants unless mellowed out by composting. Needs to be well watered, too.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Well composted manure and triple 13 produce amazing results.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

Wood ashes would be another sustainable fertilizer.
Dr Wallach says that by throwing the family's wood ashes on the garden.

Forgot about that. I do add fireplace ash as well. Haven’t researched it enough to know how much difference it makes, or if there are suggested density amounts.

 

[benson56]

Ashes change the alkalinity of the soil.
I use green grass clippings and dry leaves for compost.
Some folks mulch with grass clippings, then till it in after harvest. Works well.

 

[st0n3]

I find that taters don't much like growing in the deep south. Surprised they did so well in TX.
My sweet potatoes, on the other hand... did very well.

 

[Good beer]

Horse and chicken manure and wood ash.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

Ashes change the alkalinity of the soil.
I use green grass clippings and dry leaves for compost.
Some folks mulch with grass clippings, then till it in after harvest. Works well.

That’s essentially my approach except I don’t till the grass in. Just cover them with unshredded leaves.

 

[n1d]

CAW

I find that taters don't much like growing in the deep south. Surprised they did so well in TX.
My sweet potatoes, on the other hand... did very well.

That's strange, they do just fine for me in the deeper south i.e. on the coast of mr-sissippi :upsidedown:

 

[Mountain]

I intermix plenty of old rotting hay and refuse from the garden into the soil for my potatoes.

Hay is great for potatoes, you can grow potatoes quite well without even using soil, just use old hay.

 

[Justme11]

Just a reminder that if you have a walnut or pecan tree near the potato or tomato plants, they will be badly stunted or killed by the juglones.

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/vegetables-can-grow-near-walnut-trees-54124.html

 

[sonya1]

potatoes like acidic soil, and ours is around PH 7 so we add sulfur. I order it online, 50 lb bag. The shipping costs more than the sulfur. Our blueberries get some of that also.

Not growing potatoes this year, they didn't sell well at the farmers market, plus they are a pain in the ass to dig up

 

[Justme11]

My brother in law had success growing potatoes in a loose mulch pile (pennsylvania).
he just tossed the old potatoes in, and dug them up in the fall.

He said they were super easy to dig, because they weren't actually in dirt.