Potatoes separate into 4 types of tissue. The leaves which are above ground are solar collectors producing photosynthate that eventually winds up in the spuds as starch. The stem is the vertical part of the plant that supports the leaves and acts as a conduit for water and nutrients going up and photosynthate going down. The roots collect water and nutrients and bring them into the plant to support growth. The Stolons are stem-like extensions that grow out and slightly down sometimes branching numerous times. At the end of each stolon and stolon branch will be a developing potato. The stolons acts as sinks into which nutrients from the roots and photosynthate from the leaves flow. This is key to understanding potatoes, the leaves are sinks for nutrients from the roots, the roots are sinks for photosynthate from the leaves, and the stolons are sinks to both the roots and the leaves. Stolons arise only from stem area that is not exposed to light, but with a caveat that some wild species have a trait that produces stolons from any covered part of the stem even if it has greened up. A very few cultivated varieties also have this trait. These varieties are viable for progressively filled containers. The varieties often mentioned for such container growing produce stolons only in the 6 inches of stem nearest the seed piece. That means growing them in containers and progressively filling the container to the top does not gain any benefit. However, you can increase the number of seed pieces in a given area and from progressive filling of the container you will harvest more spuds. The key to large spuds is even watering. If you want them big, set up an automated watering system. DarJones

SB, Bone Meal for Phosphorus and Calcium As a fertilizer, the N-P-K of bone meal (ground up animal bones) is generally 4-12-0. Steamed bone meals have N-P-K of 1-13-0. Wood Ashes for Potassium and phosphorus Ashes from fireplaces and wood burning stoves are a good source of potassium and a lesser source of phosphorus, a good percentage (25 percent) calcium carbonate, and some micro-nutrients, depending on the type of wood burned. Hardwood ashes being the best source. So if your soil has a potassium deficiency, wood ashes can be a good amendment. Be careful as wood ashes will raise the PH of the soil. DO NOT USE ASHES FROM PRESSURE TREATED WOOD AS IT CONTAINS HEAVY METALS!! Average wood ash would probably be about 0-1-3 Again, be careful using wood ash as it also has the same effect as adding lime. NOTE: One of the best fertilizers for the garden is wood ashes mixed with human urine, and aged chicken poop. I know, I know, you don't want to eat any of my tomatoes. Lou

Dogs, eh? Scrapes under the shrubs and stealthy forays to check for rats in the compost?? Or are they respectable dogs?! I put my seaweed spoils in heavy-duty plastic bags and store them out of nose range until the contents are a black-brown mush, then it gets stirred in to a patch that's going to be used a little while further on - and left to itself. I read about one woman who gardens on one of the offshore islands from Vancouver Island in Canada. The pictures showed these little 'ledges' made from driftwood and the gardens behind were regularly fed on fresh seaweed. Whatever was there seemed to take salt in its stride and flourished. There's also the garden down at the mouth of the Orongorongo River which is breezy (straight up from Scott Base, I think!) which has been hedged with flaxes, toe toe and coprosma of various sorts. Plenty happening on the inland side, despite the droughtiness and the salt spray. Are you coastal? Or inland? That book by, is it Jacob de Ruiter?, on gardening on windy sites 'Gardens in the Wind'(?) I found had some really helpful ideas. He's Wellington-Wairarapa based so I guess he's had PLENTY of experience! I bought some 'baby carrot' seed - short and round variety - so, when the weather warms up a tad (and the thunder stops bellowing overhead) I'll start my first trough. Thanks for helping. Appreciated.

Ezirah, A couple of points about carrot seeds. First, is the seed fresh, like packed for 2016 or maybe for 2015? Carrot seed (along with lettuce seed) has an incredibly short shelf life. Germination drops quickly after it is just a year or two old. Secondly, you cannot expect results better than the Federal Germination Standard for a given kind of seed. For carrot seeds, the Federal Germination Standard for carrot seed to be sold in the USA in interstate commerce is 55%. So, even under exactly ideal situations, you might not get better than 55% germination. Granted, 5 out of 100 is not 55% but I suspect it was the cold soil. Don't forget too that wind can blow seed away, certain critters will eat it, and rain or irrigation water can wash it away. More may pop up as the weather warms. I have had that happen even after I've already thinned the sprouted carrots to the desired spacing. You can try everything under the sun to see what works for you. Some people quit fighting the carrot seed germination issue and only grow carrots from a summer sowing for a fall harvest. That way the carrots can germinate in the warmth of late summer and mature in autumn's cooler weather. Since the carrot seeds sprout readily in hot soil and mature to their sweetest flavor in cooler weather, it seems to me that carrots were designed specifically for the fall garden. I long ago stopped trying to make carrot seed sprout in February/March's colder weather. It just is too time-consuming and also too aggravating, and I decided to stop fighting the carrot's nature, and just wait until soils are substantially warmer in early April. Honestly, they germinate so slowly in cold weather that I can sow seeds in late February or March in ordinary (not pre-warmed) soil and they won't germinate any more quickly than seed sown in April, so I just wait until earliest April and generally get decent germination fairly quickly. I have even sprouted carrot seeds indoors under lights, using a soil-less mix inside cardboard toilet paper tubes and then transplanted them, cardboard and all into the garden. They sprouted fine that way but seemed to stall after being transplanted and I decided that it wasn't worth the effort involved. Now I just sow seed late into pre-warmed soil, sow thickly enough that even if only half of it germinates I'll still have to thin the seedlings, and I sow late (early April) on purpose. I think I get as good of a stand of carrots this way as I got when sowing on time, if not a better stand, and it is less frustrating. If you use carrots with a 50-70 day DTM, they'll still mature before the summer heat gets too dreadful, and you can keep your carrots cooler under thick mulch and some shade cloth. Their flavor is good, maybe not as great as fall carrots, but good enough for carrots in OK's hot spring/summer carrot. If growing carrots in spring doesn't work out for you, try them for fall. Sometimes, the harder you try to do something, the more stressful it becomes and it just sucks all the fun out of gardening. If carrots are that way for you, push them to the back of your mind and raise them in the fall. Dawn