Can I plant potatoes directly over turf without tilling?

15 years ago

I'm expanding my vegetable garden quite a bit this year and there is one area where I'd like to plant potatoes over existing turf. In the past I've always dug the turf out, amended the soil and then planted. But in recent years I've read more about lasagna gardening and no till growing and so I'm wondering if I can just put down a couple inches of rich amendments (llama manure and leaf mold) to smother the grass and feed the potato plant and then plant my seed potato on that. I would then cover the seed potato with sawdust with the intent that the tubers would set in the nice clean sawdust layer. What do you think? Should I put anything like cardboard or newspaper down first?

- Steve

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Comments (7)

stephen_albert
15 years ago
A friend actually did what you suggest, but he used heavy cardboard over the grass. He placed the cardboard -- actually a double layer of cardboard -- on the grass. He then placed the seed potatoes on the cardboard and covered them with about 10 to 12 inches of straw. The potatoes vines came up right out of the straw; and he lifted the potatoes out of the straw at harvest. It seems to me that if you actually did a bit more layering it might work even better: cardboard, then peat moss or compost, then grass clippings or chopped dried leaves, then another layer of compost, then a sprinkle of bonemeal and rock phosphate to up the phosphorus and potassium for strong root growth, and an inch or two of topsoil on top in which to set the seed potatoes. The potato root action this season should help finish preparing the bed underneath for next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com
steve22802
Original Author
15 years ago
>> He then placed the seed potatoes on the cardboard
>> and covered them with about 10 to 12 inches of straw.

That's pretty amazing! But how many pounds of potatoesper plant did he harvest? It's hard to believe that the plants would have much energy to form tubers if they are mainly just feeding on cardboard and straw. But I do know how red worms love cardboard. So maybe lots of the worms got to work on the cardboard early in the season and left lots of nice worm castings for the potatoes to feed on.

I think I'll try one or two test hills with really minimal amendment and see what happens for myself. But I think I'll use some richer amendments right around the seed potatoes for the rest of the hills.
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glib
15 years ago
Steve, I have done it and it works. Some advice

- to quickly rot the cardboard, put some manure or urea in the mix.

- potato roots are fairly penetrating, they will be past the cardboard in a month. Lawn soil is fairly rich, usually, so you will get enough from the plants

- you are better off planting the potatoes while it is still freezing, in MI, around April 1. They will come up when the weather warms up (here, May 1), but in the meantime the grass gets killed and the cardboard gets rotting.
fritz_monroe
15 years ago
I've seen where people have planted potatoes in just straw on top of the ground. As the plant gets 2 sets of leaves above the straw, layer on more straw so just the 1 set of leaves are above the straw. They repeated this over and over until they had about 2.5 feet of straw. Come harvest time, they knocked down the fencing that was holding the straw in place and pull the potatoes out of the straw. There's several videos on Utube about doing this.
lilgardenjon72
15 years ago
OK, what about onions this way? I am trying to give up growing what sounds neat and grow what we eat, and that is cole crops, onions, and potatoes. I am expanding the garden a bit, and would love to lasagna the new area. Wold my potatoes, and onions do better or corn, squash, and beans? I was going to put the corn and such in the new area since the other good spot for them is the same place they were last year. I was going to put the potatoes and onions in where the corn was, but then this caught my eye... any advice?
aloha10
15 years ago
There is one fellow here in town who goes down to the shore and collects large quantities of seaweed and eel grass. He rorotills his garden and then just lays the potato seed on the ground and covers with the seaweed. As the potato plants grow, he hills with more seaweed. Harvesting involves only a rake and I have heard that his production is good. I haven't tried his method but I do line my potato trenches with seaweed and cover them with it before piling on the soil. I seem to get cleaner, less scabby spuds. Here on Buzzards Bay, we have heaps of the stuff after every storm.
Hope this helps
chaman
15 years ago
Remove the top and bottoms of empty milk cans.Arrange them in a row on turf.Fill with garden soil or potting mix by 2 inches from bottom up.Plant the potatoes (eyes) and add 3 to 4 inches of soil on the potato eyes.As the spuds germinate and start growing keep on adding soil till it is 6 inches above planting surface.You can use any kind of similar containers.It will be easier to harvest also just by toppling down the containers.

Can I plant potatoes directly over turf without tilling?

Comments (7)

stephen_albert

steve22802
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Can I plant potatoes directly over turf without tilling?

Comments (7)

stephen_albert

steve22802Original Author

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glib

fritz_monroe

lilgardenjon72

aloha10

chaman

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steve22802
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