Thank you for being the first to put numbers to theories/trials finally. I can’t imagine the amount of work you put into this to deliver it concisely and so clearly. All the behind scenes efforts (camera set ups/positioning/sound & planning including data recording. Hugest respect for all that to produce a fun interesting and informative demonstration of three potato growing techniques.
I hope you do more videos like this. It was very informative; I love seeing people testing different methods side-by-side and seeing which one works best.
Thank you, Brilliant, just what is needed, a true comparison, and very professional. Also, it shows if you had used all Norland Potatoes then the 'no' dig yield would have been equal to the other methods, and if the other type of potato the result would have been poor. So perhaps the learning points are expanded to be aware of what variety of potatoes you should use to suit the method.
One possible reason for difference between your results and Downings could be bed development. He has been no dig for many years so it would make sense that each year that soil would continue to improve with that system. Since you have been doing no till for years that would be expected to produce more. Would be interesting to see the results from someone who has always used the double dig, of course, I don't wanna be the person doing the double digging each year😁 This was a great video. As a senior preparing to move to my retirement acreage with hopes of years of producing my own food, I highly value anything that reduces the labor time involved. Based on your results, it confirms that without a significant reduction of yield in the no dig that will be my choice.
Other possible reasons for the differences could be potato varieties and climate. Also I was surprised to see dry leaves being used as a mulch here, rather than grass cuttings or spoilt hay, or indeed the compost that Dowding uses. A good mulch feeds the soil life as well as reducing water loss.
From this experiment, the best choice would be to plant Norland potatoes on No Dig since the yield was almost the same and you use the least time! its a no brianer really.
Yes. If we only had two potato varieties to choose from, I would come to the same conclusion. We are running an official No Dig vs No Till trial with a new variety called Red Sangre this season to see how it compares.
I like the No dig technique it just seems so gentler and natural as nature intended plus it’s just easier cleaner work. But the yields of the other two were exciting!! I’d prefer scab potatoes than inviting slugs. No Til would totally suit me.
Seeing the data breakdowns in so many ways is great. I'd like to see other methods included, such as using GrowBags, spud towers, mulching with woodchips/grass. Potato varieties clearly matter significantly as well.
Yes. I would like to see a comparison of these other methods as well. I will plan another trial for next season. I like the container growing and mulch type suggestions as possible variables to explore.
Thanks so much for doing this trial. I make videos also so I know how much effort you put into this! Of course, there are a lot of different situations that could give different results, and I know you can't test every one very easily. One such test would be doing the exact same trial with no drip lines, but only relying on natural rain. In that case, it is possible, and probable in my mind, that the mulched bed could do better because of better water retention and lower soil temperatures in the summer. Most people don't use drip irrigation so this could give different results in other people's gardens. Another is the type of mulch you are using, (and that would be a whole other study). I use leaf mold as my mulch that I make over the winter and it is mostly decomposed already. The added fertility from that could have pushed the numbers up considerably with no added work, cost, or time. One last thing about that is, if you were to use partially decomposed mulch year after year, the soil in the mulched bed would become considerably richer compared to the dug and broad forked beds. So one more criterion you could add to your chart could be the soil analysis of each of the beds after harvesting, as this is a very important "end product" as well. I would be interested in seeing what your results would be if you used the same methods on each of those beds for a period of 3 years. Thanks again for your great work!
Thanks for sharing some of your ideas. There are definitely many others ways to set up future trials. I hadn't thought of trying a bed with no irrigation. That could be interesting, especially in our very dry climate. The impact of cutting out that irrigation would obviously vary a lot depending on the rainfall one was receiving, but I'd still be curious to do a trial like that.
Thank you for the informative video. I will use some of what I learned in 2022. I don't have the room for beds so I grow potatoes in 3' tall towers of compost and straw. I use sprouting potatoes in my cupboard (local farm spuds) and get ~1.5 kg/tower. Just enough for two suppers worth. Each year I learn something new. The straw is an amazing insulator, keeping the soil wet and cool even in hot S.Ontario summers. Next year I'm going to reduce the soil core from ~75% to ~40% and increase the straw, to reduce moisture. I also found that the tower needs support about half way (flat sheet of mesh) otherwise the potatoes at the bottom rot as the soil gets too compressed.
Interesting! You're right about potatoes preferring cooler soil. That is important for those growing potatoes in containers warm summers. Is there a place where I can see photos of your towers? I'm curious to see how you set them up.
Thanks for the trial! Double dig is out for me. Too much labor and doesn't seem like potatoes need the extra depth. For no-till... my beds are new and rocky so it would be a significant amount of time before my beds are that easy to broad-fork + expense of broad-fork, not there yet. Time is my most valuable asset, so No dig is my choice for now but I respect if anyone likes the other approaches. Thanks for the work, I like to see people trying a variety of things!
A YT channel called Uk Here We Grow does extensive vids on container potatoes vs ground and I’m doing potatoes by both methods again this year. I’ve got potatoes growing in buckets in the house and containers outside as well as dig beds outdoors. I’ll be thrilled if I get a good crop!
Isn't Charles in England where it rains a lot? That would probably mean the watering would be different between his and yours. Also, because he is a proponent of no dig, I think his mulching could possibly be more nutrient rich than yours. Just a couple thoughts. That was some very interesting data. While I knew there was no way I was going to do the double dig because I have no desire to have a heart attack (double whammy of being both old and fat) I think I am going to try tilling the bed once and then using lots of mulch. I'm going from lawn to garden this year. I love videos that provide a great deal of info especially the yield per sf which gives me a wonderful way to realistically gauge my own production. By knowing what a successful garden might produce it helps to keep my fantasies of production in check so I don't become disappointed with reality. Thank you.
Thank you for the extensive trials. The double dig method translates to deep plowing, I think it's too much disturbance for the soil regarding what you get from it - especially if you do the work manually. I've tried the Ruth Stout method with a heavy layer of straw mulch a couple years ago, worked great, but I got a awful lot of slugs. They ate half a baking potato, about 25-30% yield decrease. It was really easy work, spread the straw in early spring (February here in Denmark), put the potatoes in late March and wait for harvest 😊 No work in the meantime, no weeds, easy harvest, I'm going to try again and practice slug control better :-)
I'm planning to do the no dig method this year, first time i will. Thanks for all these statistics and advices. Hope my harvest will be good ! Nice video, very interesting
This is a good step by step trial. I add that we still want improve yield in no till, because it looks better option even with low yield. Please get away of improving fertility-- may be use specific to nutrients compost formula, (C:N ration may not completely have decomposed so expect improvement next time)use also another deeper mulch eg old grass, introduce some deliberate microbes and of course stick to hybrid suited to no till approach. also at your margin calculation include the cost of mulching.👌
This is the beginning of good research. As a pathologist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada I did many research trials. I have two suggestions to modify this experimental setup. First is a modification within your site. Replicating the beds to have three beds of each style, randomized in location, would really strengthen the research. The beds could be smaller, in fact, but the reps would make statistics much stronger than larger single beds of each. Second, work could be expanded by someone, or a cooperative group of persons, to repeat the setup in various locations with different soil and other conditions. Actually, I will add a third comment which is a really strong design would repeat the experiment for at least 3 growing seasons. Not withstanding these comments, thank you for this excellent trial!
Thanks for your suggestions Julie. I agree that this is just the start and that there is a need to continue this testing into future seasons and see how repeatable these results are.
@@VegetableAcademy , you and Julie are both science geeks - after my own heart! 😁 I love experiments. Thanks for taking us along! I've been doing some similar poorly-designed experiments with potatoes. 😉 The only conclusions I can share won't be terribly useful for city growers. But for those who do their gardening in deer country, you don't need to worry too much about fencing your potato patch: I grew a large patch outside my fenced garden and concluded that deer and horses seem to recognize that the potato plants are poisonous, and they don't bother the potatoes at all. Now I can save the beds in the fenced garden for crops that need more protection.
@@tedpreston4155 Thanks for sharing that Ted. I am growing in the city right now, but I've got plenty of students in rural areas who will appreciate that tip.
@@VegetableAcademy Mate, I think you nailed it (as we say here) You definitely proved double dig is a no brainer also the no-till and no dig methods are comparable (especially if you use the best type of potato fot he situation).
I just ran across your channel and really love it so I subscribed. Thanks for the video today. Very informative. Looking forward to seeing many more. It's so unselfish for you to take the time to post all these free of charge and give so much of your time. Blessings to you!
What about the Old Woman Method? I'm forced to get serious about growing food more today than in my lifetime. I yhink I'll go with the no dig laced with a little no tilling. I love this video, thank you so much. Living in the California valley with some farms under flood water. The prices of produce is going to take more out-of-pocket for senior citizens, so I'm stepping up my garden so the low income neighbors can still have a nice baked potato this year. Wish me luck.
Thank you for running this experiment, with very few variables I must say, and for sharing it with us. I always use the double dig method. I to 3 weeks prior to planting, when I till the first time in the spring, I'll gather a fresh bounty of wild microbes. I will collect just enough of the first 2 inches of topsoil in the woods near the garden, to make 3 to 4 gallons. Store it in a cool place and not sealed up so it won't go through a heat. Early in the next morning while the ground is still cool, I sprinkle the topsoil along a row and then till it 3 to 4 inches deep, spray it lightly with water and then do the next row. I also carefully dust my seed potatoes with a mixture of 1 part sulfur to 3 parts slaked lime and 2 parts hardwood ashes the evening before planting. After planting, with the potatoes covered, I will use the same mixture to dust the row about 12 inches wide down the center of the row. This is the method that I was taught by my elders and has been used by my folks for at least 150 years. About 3 years ago I planted red potatoes in 13, 45 foot rows with the potatoes approximately 13 inches apart. The end results was in excess of 1,300 pounds of potatoes with a large portion of them being 4½ inches and bigger. I'm not a gardening specialist by any means, I just follow what I have been taught. 😌
You're welcome, and thanks for sharing a bit about your process. I am curious about the reasons behind the sulfur, lime and ash dusting. Our yields vary by potato variety, but average around 75lbs per 20 foot long row. So with a little math, we can determine that with our average yields, our standard methods would have produced 2200 lbs from the same amount of planting you described (13, 45 foot rows).
@@VegetableAcademy Thanks for asking. We have a bad problem with fire ants and boring bug larvae. And, since I will not use insecticides or herbicides, I use the method recommended by my Elders. The sulfur, lime and ash act to help produce a temporary but more natural form of ammonia, which helps keep down the early attack on early development of the potato eye into the stalk. Also along with the microorganisms and helpful spores from the wooded area topsoil, the sulfur, lime and ash helps to feed the potato plant in the nutrient poor soil. I inherited the garden area having been over used without much help for it to recover. Over a three year period of treatment with biomass, rotation, cultures and cover crops, we went from a couple hundred pounds of potatoes to 1,300 in that garden. I do a light till and broadcast root bearing greens and peas for a cover crop, mow and till it in with a little burned-out chicken manure compost at the end of harvest. Also I skip growing potatoes every third year which also helps with the bugs and recovery of the soil.
Also for the no dig method if you put the hay down it's supposed to get better year by year so maybe second year or the third year you'll get a higher yield at least from watching another RUclips video.
Charles Downing is actually just going into the compost he has put down prior to planting the Potatoes, hence still No Dig because only going into compost not original soil levels. You could lay the potatoes down and put compost on top resulting in the same outcome.😉
I sis a different method using my chicken manure compost pile which was sorta in a row where i would just dump wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of chicken litter. i use mainly leaves and sand for litter and by the time i clean it out its pretty much all the leaves are ground up by the chickens. the pile was about a year old. maybe like 14 months. i dug in and planted the potatoes about 6 inches deep and something like 8 inches apart. then i covered that with about a foot of mulched leaves. later after they settled some i added about the same amount again. in about a 25 foot row there was like 70 lbs of nice clean potatoes. the other method was using tires the first tire was the composted chicken litter then potatoes the second tire on top of that was more of the rotted chicken litter. and on top of that i used 3 tires stuffed with mulched leaves stuffed in pretty tight. each tire had 2 small red potatoes . they grew right up thru the mulch . i didnt weigh them but its was a pretty solid yield! for potatoes i got off the bargain rack at the supermarket that had eyes growing it wasnt bad!
I think the mulch material matters. Hay is much more dense than leaves. A true comparison to Ruth Stout would have started with hay that is 12 inches deep.
Last year I grew some in a pile of wood chips mixed with grass clippings, a few in a pile of dried grass clippings and dead weeds, and some in tubs of soil. Sadly I just do not think I had enough of a sample size or variety of potatoes to properly test any one method, though across three potato cultivars all did better in my tubs of soil and digging. This year I am excited to have more seed potato varieties and TPS. Though it will be next year when I can start everything on an even field via tuber propagation. I will have 4-5 varieties grown via tuber in each of the different methods I described with the addition of growing in straw as well.
Wow talk about timing. Just about to plant my potatoes. Used a broad fork for the first time this week. Far surpassed the best thing since sliced bread. Wow cut my weeding and preparing my beds by hours if not days. Loved how when weeding I was pulling out up to 2 ft of quack grass roots. Dandelion the whole root came out no breakage. Going to get my son to weld me one. Would like one 30".
Superb comparison of the three methods. Apart from all the results you spoke about there is one more that I find interesting. In the no-till bed tuber size is much greater for both varieties but tuber numbers of Norland much less than both of the other beds. Advantage no-till I think especially since the total yield is so good. Again well done!
Great Video!! You left out ONE good conclusion. It seems if you were to plant ONLY Norlands in the no dig bed, you would get the best results in BOTH of the last categories… the most yield and the least time. I might have to give that a try…
One of the largest seed growers in main went into all of that. It is so much better to cover with straw than soil ! As long as the seed had at least 4” of soil under it and straw covered the fresh shoots at 4 intervals ! The plants averaged almost 8 lbs of potato’s. So it’s way worth the effort to cover the shoots 4 times
All your beds seemed to be in an existing garden that has probably been worked up from the previous year so soil is still loosened to a degree. But was a great experiment anyhow. Wondering if a variation in the mulch would make any difference
good video thanks. a point for thought is double digging is only done once in years, so if it is yielding more its worth the investment of time single time. but in the video it shows very similar resualts to no till. when choosing a method it needs to take into consideration that once bed is made uncompacted and filled with essential life than what i understand you can change from one method to the other...
One way to reduce the amount of digging required for potatoes, would be to plant them denser. I've found that potato plants don't need more than 8" x 8" x 8" so you can put 9 pieces into 4 square feet. I typically do 4 seed pieces / square foot. I live in Toronto, Canada where we get plenty of sun during the summer so a bit of coverage of one plant by another is not a big deal.
That may be the tightest spacing I have come across yet. Even John Jeavons only pushes his intensively grown potatoes to 9" x 9" spacing. Like other growers, we have done higher density plantings (eg. double rows in our 30 inch wide beds with 12 inch spacing in row) for early harvests of smaller baby potatoes, but we have never pushed the spacing that tight. Have you got any yield per square foot data to share and compare with us?
@@VegetableAcademy Yes. Keep in mind though that Toronto is very sunny throughout the summer. A: In one of my plots last year (11 sqft), I put 43 seed pieces (determinates) and got about 39 pounds. I used about 100g of Miracle Gro 10-5-15 and 440g of 24-8-16. Each plant had about 2g of K fertilizer. 3.5 lbs/sqft. B: I did some experiments in 5gal Homedepot buckets (effectively 1 sqft) and with 7 seed pieces (determinates) in 3 layers, I got 4.5 pounds in that bucket. I used 50g of Miracle Gro 10-5-15 and 130g of Miracle Gro 24-8-16. Each plant had about 3.2g of K fertilizer. 4.5 lbs/sqft. I mainly did these tests based on my testing from 2020 in which I tried out 8x8, 6x6 and 8x12. In terms of yield/area, 8x8 > 6x6 > 8x12. At that time, I had just used compost so too tight and there's not enough nutrients to go around, too sparse and some areas aren't accessible. That was what I found. Also, my soil is heavy clay so I amend mulched leaves and grass clippings at planting. It seems to work well as moisture is trapped and the dense foliage blocks out the sun. Weeds don't stand a chance. In my bucket experiments, I used Sandy Loam purchased from a garden store and although it worked well per sqft, it wasn't as efficient when it came to input fertilizer. In experiment A (above), I got about 210g of Potato per g of K while in B, I got about 100g Potato per g of K. This year, I will be increasing the density of my seed potatoes to 6/sqft and 8/sqft while keeping the fertilizer amount the same (I'm thinking 3g of K per plant). We're still about 2 months away from planting and I can't wait!
@@theurzamachine I love the specifics! Thanks for sharing. With a spacing of 2.5sqft/plant and no synthetic fertilizers, the best yield we have got yet is 2.86lbs/sqft. Yield at maturity varies with variety but most will be in the 2lbs/sqft range for us with our current plant density. I will be doing a really early trial of potted potatoes in our high tunnel this spring so I am curious to see how the numbers will compare there to. As for sun, I think we have the advantage there being in Saskatoon. (www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-sunniest-cities-in-canada.html) So there should be nothing holding us back from trying some similar high density stuff. I have to admit, I would rather avoid synthetic fertilizer though.
@@VegetableAcademy Yeah I would one day love to avoid synthetic fertilizers entirely simply because I can get organic materials (leaves and grass clippings and food waste) for free but for the sake of experimentation to get the numbers, I'm okay with it. As for my organic only plot that I tried in 2020, I had about 1.96 lbs/sqft for 8"x8", 1.53 lbs/sqft for 8"x12" and 1.6 lbs/sqft for 6"x6". I was using 130 lbs of store bought triple mix (1.0 - 0.15 - 0.11) in 11 sqft. In 2021, I also tried 1 recycling bin (16 gal Homedepot bin) in which I had 21 seed potatoes and only fertilized with urine (just the morning one on Wednesdays and Sundays diluted with 1 gal of rain water). Yield was 8.75 lbs. An identical recycling bin was fertilized with 657.6g of Miracle Gro All Purpose Plant Food 24-8-16 and 200g of Miracle Gro Organic Tomato Food 10-5-15 and reached 10.75 lbs. I probably wouldn't do this experiment again because it was just a waste of Nitrogen overall lol.
Yeah that's how you should see it : no dig gives you the same yields but you don't have to dig, so less labour. Also, it tastes better, sadly you ignored that part. More than 90% of newly established vegetable farms in France are no dig. Here the method is to put a lot of wood chips from landscape gardeners, private gardens or train companies on the ground. After 3 years, your worm populations is multiplied by 1000 (x10 every year) and you have incredible yields. Worms are the key in those systems : they provide aeration of the soil, help create humus, and the amount of mucus they produce is the main source of nitrogen for the plants. Even without adding manure, or any nitrogen rich material, you get incredible amounts of nitrogen from azotobacters and the worms. That's how carbon mulch gives you nitrogen, it's totally counterintuitive but those farmers have proven it 100% works. So you can only really compare no dig vs dig after those 3 years of transition, especially if your initial soil is bad. Farmers testify of incredible yields with potatoes, but that some varieties get eaten by soil life, and are not made for no dig. Which is logical : we've selected potatoes for intensive tilling and fertilizing for decades now. I've been doing no dig for 2-3 years now, and since I have heavy clay, I still need to dig some areas that haven't got enough wood chips/worms yet, and wood chips alone are not enough : I need powerful cover crops in winter to drain the heavy rains. But on the areas that had wood chips the longest, I don't dig at all. Yields are very high on tomatoes, squashes, etc... And for sowing small seeds, remove the wood chips on the bed, and put a thick layer of compost to sow into. That's the only way I use compost. The rest is all wood chips, and some spent barley for hungry crops from a local brewery.
I agree it would be nice to have a comparison of flavour and nutritional value and also that a trial like this would be more telling after several years of management with each soil preparation method. Unfortunately, I am not equipped with the right technology to measure these qualities. I am glad to hear farms in France are adopting the no dig methods and using waste organic matter to restore their soil fertility. One of our plots is heavy clay as well, and wood chips have worked wonders there, so I am confident you'll see similar results in time if you keep at it.
I use buckets for convenience. Though I did have around 8 potatoes that were in storage start to grow and no buckets to put them in, so I did do a no dig on those as a trial. The worst part about potatoes is digging them up. Not only is it labor intensive but the risk of damaging them is pretty high. Also if you miss a few (which is likely), you will have volunteers where you might not want them next year. The bucket method does a pretty good job of eliminating or reducing those factors. I will say the bucket method does seem to yield lower than in ground growing but it is worth it for me.
We actually just wrapped up a trial of potatoes in containers this season. I still need to have a closer look at the numbers so I won't jump to any conclusions right now. I plan to publish. the results on our Field Journal page by the end of the month. www.vegtableacademy.com/fieldjournal
The mean differentiation with "Lbs per sq/ft" is about 0.17 lbs, the mean differentiation of "lbs per minute of labor" is about 0.56 lbs. That indicate the average difference between the three methods when considering "lbs per sq/ft" is about 1 more or less small to medium potato per sq/ft, while considering "lbs per minute" it is about 3 more or less small to medium potatoes, or one very large or one semi-large. Since you get a greater average differentiation out of the "lbs per minute" measure, it should be the priority Key performance indicator and therefore its winner would be the technical best option. That of course means No dig is the winner. However, No dig requires there to be abundant access to depositional material AKA mulch. So No dig should be chosen as the preferred method in all situation in which there is a capacity to produce or obtain mulch in great abundance, and only in the circumstances where no mulch is available should digging methods be relied upon and in which case No till would be preferred since it is the second best option in "lbs per minute" category. There is no world where tillage and especially not extra tillage like double dig, is the best option. By the time your planting area got small enough to try and prioritize "lbs per sq/ft", you'd already have to small an area for the potential output difference to matter because you'll be buying potatoes at the store no matter what. The only reason modern farmers have reason to prioritize "lbs per sq/ft", is because they are using industrial methods, equipment, subsidized and running on oil for the purpose to produce capital profits from the potatoes themselves and their life span across the capitalist material supply chain. That's what capitalism does, it disconsiders energy and labor spent on a product, when in actuality it naturally is the most significant input.
How did you make sure that the watering was "exactly the same"? Did you measure it? It also seems like that your no dig bed was made on top of a bed that was previously dug. That would not really be no dig in this case. As others have mentioned, the experiment should be repeated over several seasons. But I would not switch beds as I expect that the no dig bed will improve over time and the dug beds will likely degrade. There was a reason why farmers worked a field for two years and then let it go wild for the third year, before the times of fertilizer. The difference to CD could easily be the potatoe variety, the climate or the increased watering with your irrigation system. I live in a potatoe growing area. The farmers here also water pretty much every day when it does not rain. Apparently that makes bigger potatoes fast, otherwise they would not do it. AFAIK CD only waters occationally. Overall a nice trail, but I think one year certainly is not enough to draw any conclusions.
I agree that there is need for more experimentation. It would be nice to see what would happen after five years of each soil management practice and with 10 different potato varieties in each one. This is just a starting point, and I think it shows that the no dig approach warrants some further investigation even for potatoes, which are typically grown below the soil. The water was controlled by running the same length of the same drip tape fed by the same water lines operated by the same timer. I did not measure the drip output in each bed.
Bit late to discover you but I'm really pleasantly surprised with quality content in many of your videos I watched. This was really cool experiment and would be perfect if two potato varieties were found that can do well in all three systems. That one clearly didn't liked no dig. I must say that double dig way don't look attractive at all. Maybe if you planting one small bed but on anything larger scale it would just be way to much. Also if you are older or tall (like me), idea of extra digging really puts me off, even if results were in favor for that. I have small urban garden and big one in the country, was thinking of trying no dig system but afraid of what badgers would do to it (also slugs issue you found is bit worrying), they don't dig potatoes in the soil but I often find they rummaged the compost bin looking for worms. Potatoes in leaf mulch could be to vulnerable, at least that is my worry.
Welcome here! I don't have experience growing with badgers in the area, but the no dig method is certainly the top pick if you want to reduce your digging work as you mentioned. If slugs are a concern with the leaf mulch you have access to, then I would stick to the no till method. The overall amount of digging with that method isn't too bad, especially since most of it is at harvest time when we are generally eager to dig up the hidden potatoes.
I agree. We did do a separate container potato trial this season testing two different growing containers. You can check that out here: www.vegetableacademy.com/post/growing-potatoes-in-containers
I would go for no dig, being not as young or strong as I used to be, this would be the way for me. We also live with super rocky soil, so the double dig would be a huge amount of work. This year, the potatoes were planted in 10 gallon buckets - basically half peat and half compost. (per simplify gardening) we'll see how it works out.
Kim, you might be interested in this post I did about our container growing trial last season, also in 10 gallon buckets. We compared two different varieties and two different container types: plastic and fabric. www.vegetableacademy.com/post/growing-potatoes-in-containers
Check out Growing In The Garden /potatoes with straw. Also I just watched Charles Downing and he put compost down and he just nestled the potatoes in the compost. No doing and covered with compost😮
In the bin or on the ground ..for those of us WHO DO NOT HAVE A TON OF COMPOST .. dig up the grass wigs..flip them over .. wet and cover with plastic .. the wig will break down and feed the plant ..the plastic will keep the wig moist ..
next year try making a valley in the middle with hills either side, place potatos in the valley and just barely cover, each week as the plants grow fill in the valley by collapseing the hills a bit to just barely cover the plants except the very top, when the valley is full, hill up the centre covering the plant stems. this hilling and covering controlls weeds and because your leaving the tops uncovered the potatous are still making energy to grow and out-compete the weeds and the weeds buried rot and make compost and spaces for the potato roots to grow along. it's called "hilling up" the potatoes and is a very old method.
Ok, im intrigued... I watched your video and was really interested in how you did it & the results. But in looking at the latter, I was a little perplexed. I grew Huckleberry Gold Potatoes last year for the first time. We harvested judt over 16 pounds of potatoes from six plants. That's 2.66 pounds per plant. They were planted in raised bed box, one per square foot. That makes my production substantially higher than yours. So I'm wondering if Huckleberry Gold Potatoes just produce a higher yield than the two varieties you grew, or was it something else? We planted our starters about 3 inches deep and watered them from my Duckuaponics Pond. I let my ducks swim in a 300 gallon watering trough I converted into a pond & gravity feed my garden with. One other thing, we harvested our potatoes about 2 weeks after what should have been their maturation date. They had not died back nearly as far as yours, so i might have gotten more had I waited. Your thoughts?
No one seems to want to elaborate on the issue of scab on potatoes. Can you explain what scab is why it happens and is it a problem for using the potatoes for cooking.
All the difference in the yield comes from the second potato variety....I still dig my plot however if you had only the first variety you would see completely similar yields as far as I understand
Yep. That's right, and that's why I was really thankful that I used two different varieties for this trial. Had I used only one variety, our results would have given an entirely different message. More trials are definitely in order to see how other varieties respond to the no dig method.
A better way would to be remove the top 12 inches of soil, bury the potatoes, then after the plants are taller than the rest of the surrounding soil, cover them in compost burying most of the potato plant, letting it grow tall again, then once again mound with more compost, that way by the end of the season you will end up with potatoes down to 2 feet deep in the soil and that huge harvest will reflect that.
If you are indeed interested in being a teaching resource, you should recall that there are neophyte gardeners out there who have no idea about the 'greening of tubers,' why it is not good, etc. Just as cooking shows need to explain 'stirring in the figure of eight,' & such to those who have barely boiled an egg. Everyone has to start somewhere...
Double dig usually you would add soil fertility into the trench as you loosen the soil at the bottom, well rotted manure traditionally Without doing that it's definitely a lot of work without a lot of benefit
Will you kindly let me know the temperature of your growing season during the time you grew all those lucious potatoes please.i live in Arkansas and I noticed you grew them all during the summer. You must have very mild temperatures. Here, our temperature gets up to over 100 f with an heat index of over 110 degrees. 🥵. Thanks so much
We are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan so you can look up climate data for that location if you are curious about temperatures. We grew these potato beds between early May and early September.
Slugs??? Beer, open a bar, they love it. Oregon is notorious for having slugs. I put tin pie pans of the cheapest beer I can buy uner leaves or a protection and end up with a tinfull in no time at all.
Embarrassed to talk potatoes ,you should see people's faces when I start talking compost 😁 thanks for the content of this video ! Try coffee grounds around or scattered over your no dig bed , I have access to 50 lbs a week and it has certainly cut down the slugs in my veg patch and cats
I think your other beds may have performed better with a little mulch... but you didn't add the mulch collection and application to your time spent on the no dig beds.
The mulch application to the no dig bed was included and accounted for in the Maintenance category on the Inputs chart. You can see this at the 26:07 mark of the video. I agree that the other beds might have performed better with the moisture preserving and cooling ability of a mulch layer. That's an experiment for another time.
6" deep 😲!!! How about 3" deep until the plants are 4"ish tall then mounding the soil 3"-4"? Doesn't everyone do this??? And till then wait 1 week then till and wait 1 week then till and plant? Your results are interesting but if you include a small garden tractor on a 1+ acer plot I'm not sure how they would apply 🤔 ?
Or they might get more water thanks to the drip lines, because if I watered those heavily mulched no dig beds from overhead, a lot of the water would be absorbed by the mulch every time.
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Thank you for being the first to put numbers to theories/trials finally. I can’t imagine the amount of work you put into this to deliver it concisely and so clearly. All the behind scenes efforts (camera set ups/positioning/sound & planning including data recording. Hugest respect for all that to produce a fun interesting and informative demonstration of three potato growing techniques.
I hope you do more videos like this. It was very informative; I love seeing people testing different methods side-by-side and seeing which one works best.
Thanks Carrie. That's good to hear because I have already started a garlic spacing trial that should wrap up next summer.
Very thorough. Thank you for making the effort and for taking the time to record this for people free of charge.
Blessings
You're welcome. It's nice to know it is appreciated, so thank you for your comment.
Thank you, Brilliant, just what is needed, a true comparison, and very professional. Also, it shows if you had used all Norland Potatoes then the 'no' dig yield would have been equal to the other methods, and if the other type of potato the result would have been poor. So perhaps the learning points are expanded to be aware of what variety of potatoes you should use to suit the method.
One possible reason for difference between your results and Downings could be bed development. He has been no dig for many years so it would make sense that each year that soil would continue to improve with that system. Since you have been doing no till for years that would be expected to produce more. Would be interesting to see the results from someone who has always used the double dig, of course, I don't wanna be the person doing the double digging each year😁
This was a great video. As a senior preparing to move to my retirement acreage with hopes of years of producing my own food, I highly value anything that reduces the labor time involved. Based on your results, it confirms that without a significant reduction of yield in the no dig that will be my choice.
Other possible reasons for the differences could be potato varieties and climate. Also I was surprised to see dry leaves being used as a mulch here, rather than grass cuttings or spoilt hay, or indeed the compost that Dowding uses. A good mulch feeds the soil life as well as reducing water loss.
I've heard that no dig beds take 3-4 years to reach their full potential. I think that's reflected in Dowding's trial results as well.
From this experiment, the best choice would be to plant Norland potatoes on No Dig since the yield was almost the same and you use the least time! its a no brianer really.
Yes. If we only had two potato varieties to choose from, I would come to the same conclusion. We are running an official No Dig vs No Till trial with a new variety called Red Sangre this season to see how it compares.
I like the No dig technique it just seems so gentler and natural as nature intended plus it’s just easier cleaner work. But the yields of the other two were exciting!! I’d prefer scab potatoes than inviting slugs. No Til would totally suit me.
@masau100
A no b r a i n e r
for sure 😮
Seeing the data breakdowns in so many ways is great. I'd like to see other methods included, such as using GrowBags, spud towers, mulching with woodchips/grass.
Potato varieties clearly matter significantly as well.
Yes. I would like to see a comparison of these other methods as well. I will plan another trial for next season. I like the container growing and mulch type suggestions as possible variables to explore.
Thanks so much for doing this trial. I make videos also so I know how much effort you put into this! Of course, there are a lot of different situations that could give different results, and I know you can't test every one very easily.
One such test would be doing the exact same trial with no drip lines, but only relying on natural rain. In that case, it is possible, and probable in my mind, that the mulched bed could do better because of better water retention and lower soil temperatures in the summer. Most people don't use drip irrigation so this could give different results in other people's gardens.
Another is the type of mulch you are using, (and that would be a whole other study). I use leaf mold as my mulch that I make over the winter and it is mostly decomposed already. The added fertility from that could have pushed the numbers up considerably with no added work, cost, or time.
One last thing about that is, if you were to use partially decomposed mulch year after year, the soil in the mulched bed would become considerably richer compared to the dug and broad forked beds. So one more criterion you could add to your chart could be the soil analysis of each of the beds after harvesting, as this is a very important "end product" as well. I would be interested in seeing what your results would be if you used the same methods on each of those beds for a period of 3 years. Thanks again for your great work!
Thanks for sharing some of your ideas. There are definitely many others ways to set up future trials. I hadn't thought of trying a bed with no irrigation. That could be interesting, especially in our very dry climate. The impact of cutting out that irrigation would obviously vary a lot depending on the rainfall one was receiving, but I'd still be curious to do a trial like that.
You should do another similar study and include grow bags.
Thank you for the informative video. I will use some of what I learned in 2022. I don't have the room for beds so I grow potatoes in 3' tall towers of compost and straw. I use sprouting potatoes in my cupboard (local farm spuds) and get ~1.5 kg/tower. Just enough for two suppers worth. Each year I learn something new. The straw is an amazing insulator, keeping the soil wet and cool even in hot S.Ontario summers. Next year I'm going to reduce the soil core from ~75% to ~40% and increase the straw, to reduce moisture. I also found that the tower needs support about half way (flat sheet of mesh) otherwise the potatoes at the bottom rot as the soil gets too compressed.
Interesting! You're right about potatoes preferring cooler soil. That is important for those growing potatoes in containers warm summers. Is there a place where I can see photos of your towers? I'm curious to see how you set them up.
@@VegetableAcademy I subscribed to your Field Journal. Send me an email and I will send some photos and more details.
Thanks for the trial!
Double dig is out for me. Too much labor and doesn't seem like potatoes need the extra depth.
For no-till... my beds are new and rocky so it would be a significant amount of time before my beds are that easy to broad-fork + expense of broad-fork, not there yet.
Time is my most valuable asset, so No dig is my choice for now but I respect if anyone likes the other approaches.
Thanks for the work, I like to see people trying a variety of things!
You're welcome. I can certainly see the added advantage of the no dig method if you need to take rocks into consideration as well.
A YT channel called Uk Here We Grow does extensive vids on container potatoes vs ground and I’m doing potatoes by both methods again this year. I’ve got potatoes growing in buckets in the house and containers outside as well as dig beds outdoors. I’ll be thrilled if I get a good crop!
Isn't Charles in England where it rains a lot? That would probably mean the watering would be different between his and yours. Also, because he is a proponent of no dig, I think his mulching could possibly be more nutrient rich than yours. Just a couple thoughts.
That was some very interesting data. While I knew there was no way I was going to do the double dig because I have no desire to have a heart attack (double whammy of being both old and fat) I think I am going to try tilling the bed once and then using lots of mulch. I'm going from lawn to garden this year.
I love videos that provide a great deal of info especially the yield per sf which gives me a wonderful way to realistically gauge my own production. By knowing what a successful garden might produce it helps to keep my fantasies of production in check so I don't become disappointed with reality.
Thank you.
Your welcome Betty. I'm glad you found this helpful. Have fun with your lawn transformation this season!
I really appreciated evaluating the time cost. Critical for so many important decisions.
Thank you for the extensive trials. The double dig method translates to deep plowing, I think it's too much disturbance for the soil regarding what you get from it - especially if you do the work manually.
I've tried the Ruth Stout method with a heavy layer of straw mulch a couple years ago, worked great, but I got a awful lot of slugs. They ate half a baking potato, about 25-30% yield decrease.
It was really easy work, spread the straw in early spring (February here in Denmark), put the potatoes in late March and wait for harvest 😊
No work in the meantime, no weeds, easy harvest, I'm going to try again and practice slug control better :-)
I'm planning to do the no dig method this year, first time i will. Thanks for all these statistics and advices. Hope my harvest will be good ! Nice video, very interesting
Thank you so much for doing this experiment!
This is a good step by step trial. I add that we still want improve yield in no till, because it looks better option even with low yield. Please get away of improving fertility-- may be use specific to nutrients compost formula, (C:N ration may not completely have decomposed so expect improvement next time)use also another deeper mulch eg old grass, introduce some deliberate microbes and of course stick to hybrid suited to no till approach. also at your margin calculation include the cost of mulching.👌
This is the best viedo I have watched on growing potatoes!
This is the beginning of good research. As a pathologist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada I did many research trials. I have two suggestions to modify this experimental setup. First is a modification within your site. Replicating the beds to have three beds of each style, randomized in location, would really strengthen the research. The beds could be smaller, in fact, but the reps would make statistics much stronger than larger single beds of each. Second, work could be expanded by someone, or a cooperative group of persons, to repeat the setup in various locations with different soil and other conditions. Actually, I will add a third comment which is a really strong design would repeat the experiment for at least 3 growing seasons.
Not withstanding these comments, thank you for this excellent trial!
Thanks for your suggestions Julie. I agree that this is just the start and that there is a need to continue this testing into future seasons and see how repeatable these results are.
@@VegetableAcademy , you and Julie are both science geeks - after my own heart! 😁 I love experiments. Thanks for taking us along!
I've been doing some similar poorly-designed experiments with potatoes. 😉 The only conclusions I can share won't be terribly useful for city growers. But for those who do their gardening in deer country, you don't need to worry too much about fencing your potato patch: I grew a large patch outside my fenced garden and concluded that deer and horses seem to recognize that the potato plants are poisonous, and they don't bother the potatoes at all. Now I can save the beds in the fenced garden for crops that need more protection.
@@tedpreston4155 Thanks for sharing that Ted. I am growing in the city right now, but I've got plenty of students in rural areas who will appreciate that tip.
@@VegetableAcademy Mate, I think you nailed it (as we say here) You definitely proved double dig is a no brainer also the no-till and no dig methods are comparable (especially if you use the best type of potato fot he situation).
The best comparison I've seen so far. Great Video!!! I will also go with no till!!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you appreciated this one.
This was laborious and thank you for doing a great study!
I've had about 30 inches of rain so far this June. I envy your soil structure.
You I’m trying the No dig method this year!! Can’t wait!
I appreciate all the effort you have put into this extremely informative video I found it very useful for me. Thank you
I just ran across your channel and really love it so I subscribed. Thanks for the video today. Very informative. Looking forward to seeing many more. It's so unselfish for you to take the time to post all these free of charge and give so much of your time. Blessings to you!
What about the Old Woman Method? I'm forced to get serious about growing food more today than in my lifetime. I yhink I'll go with the no dig laced with a little no tilling. I love this video, thank you so much.
Living in the California valley with some farms under flood water. The prices of produce is going to take more out-of-pocket for senior citizens, so I'm stepping up my garden so the low income neighbors can still have a nice baked potato this year. Wish me luck.
Best and most thorough trial I've seen👍
One of the best video! Good explanation !....and really useful!
Very scientific and thorough experiment. Great information here.
Thank you for running this experiment, with very few variables I must say, and for sharing it with us.
I always use the double dig method.
I to 3 weeks prior to planting, when I till the first time in the spring, I'll gather a fresh bounty of wild microbes. I will collect just enough of the first 2 inches of topsoil in the woods near the garden, to make 3 to 4 gallons.
Store it in a cool place and not sealed up so it won't go through a heat.
Early in the next morning while the ground is still cool, I sprinkle the topsoil along a row and then till it 3 to 4 inches deep, spray it lightly with water and then do the next row.
I also carefully dust my seed potatoes with a mixture of 1 part sulfur to 3 parts slaked lime and 2 parts hardwood ashes the evening before planting.
After planting, with the potatoes covered, I will use the same mixture to dust the row about 12 inches wide down the center of the row.
This is the method that I was taught by my elders and has been used by my folks for at least 150 years.
About 3 years ago I planted red potatoes in 13, 45 foot rows with the potatoes approximately 13 inches apart.
The end results was in excess of 1,300 pounds of potatoes with a large portion of them being 4½ inches and bigger.
I'm not a gardening specialist by any means, I just follow what I have been taught. 😌
You're welcome, and thanks for sharing a bit about your process. I am curious about the reasons behind the sulfur, lime and ash dusting. Our yields vary by potato variety, but average around 75lbs per 20 foot long row. So with a little math, we can determine that with our average yields, our standard methods would have produced 2200 lbs from the same amount of planting you described (13, 45 foot rows).
@@VegetableAcademy
Thanks for asking.
We have a bad problem with fire ants and boring bug larvae.
And, since I will not use insecticides or herbicides, I use the method recommended by my Elders.
The sulfur, lime and ash act to help produce a temporary but more natural form of ammonia, which helps keep down the early attack on early development of the potato eye into the stalk.
Also along with the microorganisms and helpful spores from the wooded area topsoil, the sulfur, lime and ash helps to feed the potato plant in the nutrient poor soil.
I inherited the garden area having been over used without much help for it to recover.
Over a three year period of treatment with biomass, rotation, cultures and cover crops, we went from a couple hundred pounds of potatoes to 1,300 in that garden.
I do a light till and broadcast root bearing greens and peas for a cover crop, mow and till it in with a little burned-out chicken manure compost at the end of harvest.
Also I skip growing potatoes every third year which also helps with the bugs and recovery of the soil.
Also for the no dig method if you put the hay down it's supposed to get better year by year so maybe second year or the third year you'll get a higher yield at least from watching another RUclips video.
Charles Downing is actually just going into the compost he has put down prior to planting the Potatoes, hence still No Dig because only going into compost not original soil levels.
You could lay the potatoes down and put compost on top resulting in the same outcome.😉
I sis a different method using my chicken manure compost pile which was sorta in a row where i would just dump wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of chicken litter. i use mainly leaves and sand for litter and by the time i clean it out its pretty much all the leaves are ground up by the chickens. the pile was about a year old. maybe like 14 months. i dug in and planted the potatoes about 6 inches deep and something like 8 inches apart. then i covered that with about a foot of mulched leaves. later after they settled some i added about the same amount again. in about a 25 foot row there was like 70 lbs of nice clean potatoes. the other method was using tires the first tire was the composted chicken litter then potatoes the second tire on top of that was more of the rotted chicken litter. and on top of that i used 3 tires stuffed with mulched leaves stuffed in pretty tight. each tire had 2 small red potatoes . they grew right up thru the mulch . i didnt weigh them but its was a pretty solid yield! for potatoes i got off the bargain rack at the supermarket that had eyes growing it wasnt bad!
I think the mulch material matters. Hay is much more dense than leaves. A true comparison to Ruth Stout would have started with hay that is 12 inches deep.
Last year I grew some in a pile of wood chips mixed with grass clippings, a few in a pile of dried grass clippings and dead weeds, and some in tubs of soil.
Sadly I just do not think I had enough of a sample size or variety of potatoes to properly test any one method, though across three potato cultivars all did better in my tubs of soil and digging.
This year I am excited to have more seed potato varieties and TPS. Though it will be next year when I can start everything on an even field via tuber propagation.
I will have 4-5 varieties grown via tuber in each of the different methods I described with the addition of growing in straw as well.
What a great video. Time is definitely my limiting factor, so I'm going to try the no dig method this year! Thank you.
Wow! Very well done at all phases!
Thanks for a very informative vid & keep up the good work!
Wow talk about timing. Just about to plant my potatoes.
Used a broad fork for the first time this week. Far surpassed the best thing since sliced bread. Wow cut my weeding and preparing my beds by hours if not days. Loved how when weeding I was pulling out up to 2 ft of quack grass roots. Dandelion the whole root came out no breakage. Going to get my son to weld me one. Would like one 30".
Ha. Yes. The width and leverage of the broadfork sure makes things easy.
Superb comparison of the three methods. Apart from all the results you spoke about there is one more that I find interesting. In the no-till bed tuber size is much greater for both varieties but tuber numbers of Norland much less than both of the other beds. Advantage no-till I think especially since the total yield is so good. Again well done!
I forgot to ask if both varieties are indeterminate. Thank you again.
Great Video!! You left out ONE good conclusion. It seems if you were to plant ONLY Norlands in the no dig bed, you would get the best results in BOTH of the last categories… the most yield and the least time. I might have to give that a try…
GREAT info Thank you for your great experiment for us
One of the largest seed growers in main went into all of that. It is so much better to cover with straw than soil ! As long as the seed had at least 4” of soil under it and straw covered the fresh shoots at 4 intervals ! The plants averaged almost 8 lbs of potato’s. So it’s way worth the effort to cover the shoots 4 times
Awesome job on tracking ♥️
Thank you for all the methods you showed. It is very informative..
All your beds seemed to be in an existing garden that has probably been worked up from the previous year so soil is still loosened to a degree. But was a great experiment anyhow. Wondering if a variation in the mulch would make any difference
good video thanks. a point for thought is double digging is only done once in years, so if it is yielding more its worth the investment of time single time. but in the video it shows very similar resualts to no till. when choosing a method it needs to take into consideration that once bed is made uncompacted and filled with essential life than what i understand you can change from one method to the other...
One way to reduce the amount of digging required for potatoes, would be to plant them denser. I've found that potato plants don't need more than 8" x 8" x 8" so you can put 9 pieces into 4 square feet. I typically do 4 seed pieces / square foot. I live in Toronto, Canada where we get plenty of sun during the summer so a bit of coverage of one plant by another is not a big deal.
That may be the tightest spacing I have come across yet. Even John Jeavons only pushes his intensively grown potatoes to 9" x 9" spacing. Like other growers, we have done higher density plantings (eg. double rows in our 30 inch wide beds with 12 inch spacing in row) for early harvests of smaller baby potatoes, but we have never pushed the spacing that tight. Have you got any yield per square foot data to share and compare with us?
@@VegetableAcademy Yes. Keep in mind though that Toronto is very sunny throughout the summer.
A: In one of my plots last year (11 sqft), I put 43 seed pieces (determinates) and got about 39 pounds. I used about 100g of Miracle Gro 10-5-15 and 440g of 24-8-16. Each plant had about 2g of K fertilizer. 3.5 lbs/sqft.
B: I did some experiments in 5gal Homedepot buckets (effectively 1 sqft) and with 7 seed pieces (determinates) in 3 layers, I got 4.5 pounds in that bucket. I used 50g of Miracle Gro 10-5-15 and 130g of Miracle Gro 24-8-16. Each plant had about 3.2g of K fertilizer. 4.5 lbs/sqft.
I mainly did these tests based on my testing from 2020 in which I tried out 8x8, 6x6 and 8x12. In terms of yield/area, 8x8 > 6x6 > 8x12. At that time, I had just used compost so too tight and there's not enough nutrients to go around, too sparse and some areas aren't accessible. That was what I found.
Also, my soil is heavy clay so I amend mulched leaves and grass clippings at planting. It seems to work well as moisture is trapped and the dense foliage blocks out the sun. Weeds don't stand a chance. In my bucket experiments, I used Sandy Loam purchased from a garden store and although it worked well per sqft, it wasn't as efficient when it came to input fertilizer. In experiment A (above), I got about 210g of Potato per g of K while in B, I got about 100g Potato per g of K.
This year, I will be increasing the density of my seed potatoes to 6/sqft and 8/sqft while keeping the fertilizer amount the same (I'm thinking 3g of K per plant). We're still about 2 months away from planting and I can't wait!
@@theurzamachine I love the specifics! Thanks for sharing. With a spacing of 2.5sqft/plant and no synthetic fertilizers, the best yield we have got yet is 2.86lbs/sqft. Yield at maturity varies with variety but most will be in the 2lbs/sqft range for us with our current plant density. I will be doing a really early trial of potted potatoes in our high tunnel this spring so I am curious to see how the numbers will compare there to. As for sun, I think we have the advantage there being in Saskatoon. (www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-sunniest-cities-in-canada.html) So there should be nothing holding us back from trying some similar high density stuff. I have to admit, I would rather avoid synthetic fertilizer though.
@@VegetableAcademy Yeah I would one day love to avoid synthetic fertilizers entirely simply because I can get organic materials (leaves and grass clippings and food waste) for free but for the sake of experimentation to get the numbers, I'm okay with it.
As for my organic only plot that I tried in 2020, I had about 1.96 lbs/sqft for 8"x8", 1.53 lbs/sqft for 8"x12" and 1.6 lbs/sqft for 6"x6". I was using 130 lbs of store bought triple mix (1.0 - 0.15 - 0.11) in 11 sqft.
In 2021, I also tried 1 recycling bin (16 gal Homedepot bin) in which I had 21 seed potatoes and only fertilized with urine (just the morning one on Wednesdays and Sundays diluted with 1 gal of rain water). Yield was 8.75 lbs. An identical recycling bin was fertilized with 657.6g of Miracle Gro All Purpose Plant Food 24-8-16 and 200g of Miracle Gro Organic Tomato Food 10-5-15 and reached 10.75 lbs. I probably wouldn't do this experiment again because it was just a waste of Nitrogen overall lol.
Yeah that's how you should see it : no dig gives you the same yields but you don't have to dig, so less labour. Also, it tastes better, sadly you ignored that part. More than 90% of newly established vegetable farms in France are no dig. Here the method is to put a lot of wood chips from landscape gardeners, private gardens or train companies on the ground. After 3 years, your worm populations is multiplied by 1000 (x10 every year) and you have incredible yields. Worms are the key in those systems : they provide aeration of the soil, help create humus, and the amount of mucus they produce is the main source of nitrogen for the plants. Even without adding manure, or any nitrogen rich material, you get incredible amounts of nitrogen from azotobacters and the worms. That's how carbon mulch gives you nitrogen, it's totally counterintuitive but those farmers have proven it 100% works. So you can only really compare no dig vs dig after those 3 years of transition, especially if your initial soil is bad. Farmers testify of incredible yields with potatoes, but that some varieties get eaten by soil life, and are not made for no dig. Which is logical : we've selected potatoes for intensive tilling and fertilizing for decades now. I've been doing no dig for 2-3 years now, and since I have heavy clay, I still need to dig some areas that haven't got enough wood chips/worms yet, and wood chips alone are not enough : I need powerful cover crops in winter to drain the heavy rains. But on the areas that had wood chips the longest, I don't dig at all. Yields are very high on tomatoes, squashes, etc... And for sowing small seeds, remove the wood chips on the bed, and put a thick layer of compost to sow into. That's the only way I use compost. The rest is all wood chips, and some spent barley for hungry crops from a local brewery.
I agree it would be nice to have a comparison of flavour and nutritional value and also that a trial like this would be more telling after several years of management with each soil preparation method. Unfortunately, I am not equipped with the right technology to measure these qualities. I am glad to hear farms in France are adopting the no dig methods and using waste organic matter to restore their soil fertility. One of our plots is heavy clay as well, and wood chips have worked wonders there, so I am confident you'll see similar results in time if you keep at it.
I like this comparison! I cannot dig that hard... but im using wood chip mulching.
Nice. Wood chips will work too. Just be sure to add plenty so that any tubers forming remain in complete darkness.
i think straw, hay, grass clippings would be a better mulch/cover and use more at the beginning.
I use buckets for convenience. Though I did have around 8 potatoes that were in storage start to grow and no buckets to put them in, so I did do a no dig on those as a trial. The worst part about potatoes is digging them up. Not only is it labor intensive but the risk of damaging them is pretty high. Also if you miss a few (which is likely), you will have volunteers where you might not want them next year. The bucket method does a pretty good job of eliminating or reducing those factors. I will say the bucket method does seem to yield lower than in ground growing but it is worth it for me.
We actually just wrapped up a trial of potatoes in containers this season. I still need to have a closer look at the numbers so I won't jump to any conclusions right now. I plan to publish. the results on our Field Journal page by the end of the month. www.vegtableacademy.com/fieldjournal
Perfect! Thank you very much 😊
Love your video. Very clear and concise. Have you done a trial with potatoes in grow bags or containers?
The mean differentiation with "Lbs per sq/ft" is about 0.17 lbs, the mean differentiation of "lbs per minute of labor" is about 0.56 lbs. That indicate the average difference between the three methods when considering "lbs per sq/ft" is about 1 more or less small to medium potato per sq/ft, while considering "lbs per minute" it is about 3 more or less small to medium potatoes, or one very large or one semi-large. Since you get a greater average differentiation out of the "lbs per minute" measure, it should be the priority Key performance indicator and therefore its winner would be the technical best option. That of course means No dig is the winner. However, No dig requires there to be abundant access to depositional material AKA mulch. So No dig should be chosen as the preferred method in all situation in which there is a capacity to produce or obtain mulch in great abundance, and only in the circumstances where no mulch is available should digging methods be relied upon and in which case No till would be preferred since it is the second best option in "lbs per minute" category. There is no world where tillage and especially not extra tillage like double dig, is the best option. By the time your planting area got small enough to try and prioritize "lbs per sq/ft", you'd already have to small an area for the potential output difference to matter because you'll be buying potatoes at the store no matter what. The only reason modern farmers have reason to prioritize "lbs per sq/ft", is because they are using industrial methods, equipment, subsidized and running on oil for the purpose to produce capital profits from the potatoes themselves and their life span across the capitalist material supply chain. That's what capitalism does, it disconsiders energy and labor spent on a product, when in actuality it naturally is the most significant input.
Thanks! I was about to do this experiment this year.
We have been doing bags but this year was considering towers.
Thank you for the real comparison!
How did you make sure that the watering was "exactly the same"? Did you measure it?
It also seems like that your no dig bed was made on top of a bed that was previously dug. That would not really be no dig in this case. As others have mentioned, the experiment should be repeated over several seasons. But I would not switch beds as I expect that the no dig bed will improve over time and the dug beds will likely degrade. There was a reason why farmers worked a field for two years and then let it go wild for the third year, before the times of fertilizer.
The difference to CD could easily be the potatoe variety, the climate or the increased watering with your irrigation system. I live in a potatoe growing area. The farmers here also water pretty much every day when it does not rain. Apparently that makes bigger potatoes fast, otherwise they would not do it. AFAIK CD only waters occationally. Overall a nice trail, but I think one year certainly is not enough to draw any conclusions.
I agree that there is need for more experimentation. It would be nice to see what would happen after five years of each soil management practice and with 10 different potato varieties in each one. This is just a starting point, and I think it shows that the no dig approach warrants some further investigation even for potatoes, which are typically grown below the soil.
The water was controlled by running the same length of the same drip tape fed by the same water lines operated by the same timer. I did not measure the drip output in each bed.
Bit late to discover you but I'm really pleasantly surprised with quality content in many of your videos I watched.
This was really cool experiment and would be perfect if two potato varieties were found that can do well in all three systems. That one clearly didn't liked no dig.
I must say that double dig way don't look attractive at all. Maybe if you planting one small bed but on anything larger scale it would just be way to much. Also if you are older or tall (like me), idea of extra digging really puts me off, even if results were in favor for that.
I have small urban garden and big one in the country, was thinking of trying no dig system but afraid of what badgers would do to it (also slugs issue you found is bit worrying), they don't dig potatoes in the soil but I often find they rummaged the compost bin looking for worms. Potatoes in leaf mulch could be to vulnerable, at least that is my worry.
Welcome here! I don't have experience growing with badgers in the area, but the no dig method is certainly the top pick if you want to reduce your digging work as you mentioned. If slugs are a concern with the leaf mulch you have access to, then I would stick to the no till method. The overall amount of digging with that method isn't too bad, especially since most of it is at harvest time when we are generally eager to dig up the hidden potatoes.
I have to do all my "gardening" in containers, so it would be interesting if you included that in your comparison.
I agree. We did do a separate container potato trial this season testing two different growing containers. You can check that out here: www.vegetableacademy.com/post/growing-potatoes-in-containers
Wow.
Thank you for sharing all this info.
I appreciate it ✌🏼😆
Best comp ever! Thx
Thank you- really valuable, high grade information.
What about a hybrid bed? A no dig on top of a no till? I will probably utilize this method this year.
Nice work thank you
I would go for no dig, being not as young or strong as I used to be, this would be the way for me.
We also live with super rocky soil, so the double dig would be a huge amount of work.
This year, the potatoes were planted in 10 gallon buckets - basically half peat and half compost.
(per simplify gardening) we'll see how it works out.
Kim, you might be interested in this post I did about our container growing trial last season, also in 10 gallon buckets. We compared two different varieties and two different container types: plastic and fabric. www.vegetableacademy.com/post/growing-potatoes-in-containers
Check out Growing In The Garden /potatoes with straw. Also I just watched Charles Downing and he put compost down and he just nestled the potatoes in the compost. No doing and covered with compost😮
Excellent study! Thanks!
In the bin or on the ground ..for those of us WHO DO NOT HAVE A TON OF COMPOST .. dig up the grass wigs..flip them over .. wet and cover with plastic .. the wig will break down and feed the plant ..the plastic will keep the wig moist ..
That NO DIG METHOD IS MISLEADING TO NEW GARDENERS ... You need loads of compost !!
next year try making a valley in the middle with hills either side, place potatos in the valley and just barely cover, each week as the plants grow fill in the valley by collapseing the hills a bit to just barely cover the plants except the very top, when the valley is full, hill up the centre covering the plant stems. this hilling and covering controlls weeds and because your leaving the tops uncovered the potatous are still making energy to grow and out-compete the weeds and the weeds buried rot and make compost and spaces for the potato roots to grow along. it's called "hilling up" the potatoes and is a very old method.
Great video
Very very well done, thank you.
Ok, im intrigued...
I watched your video and was really interested in how you did it & the results. But in looking at the latter, I was a little perplexed.
I grew Huckleberry Gold Potatoes last year for the first time. We harvested judt over 16 pounds of potatoes from six plants. That's 2.66 pounds per plant. They were planted in raised bed box, one per square foot. That makes my production substantially higher than yours.
So I'm wondering if Huckleberry Gold Potatoes just produce a higher yield than the two varieties you grew, or was it something else?
We planted our starters about 3 inches deep and watered them from my Duckuaponics Pond. I let my ducks swim in a 300 gallon watering trough I converted into a pond & gravity feed my garden with.
One other thing, we harvested our potatoes about 2 weeks after what should have been their maturation date. They had not died back nearly as far as yours, so i might have gotten more had I waited.
Your thoughts?
No one seems to want to elaborate on the issue of scab on potatoes. Can you explain what scab is why it happens and is it a problem for using the potatoes for cooking.
All the difference in the yield comes from the second potato variety....I still dig my plot however if you had only the first variety you would see completely similar yields as far as I understand
Yep. That's right, and that's why I was really thankful that I used two different varieties for this trial. Had I used only one variety, our results would have given an entirely different message. More trials are definitely in order to see how other varieties respond to the no dig method.
A better way would to be remove the top 12 inches of soil, bury the potatoes, then after the plants are taller than the rest of the surrounding soil, cover them in compost burying most of the potato plant, letting it grow tall again, then once again mound with more compost, that way by the end of the season you will end up with potatoes down to 2 feet deep in the soil and that huge harvest will reflect that.
If you are indeed interested in being a teaching resource, you should recall that there are neophyte gardeners out there who have no idea about the 'greening of tubers,' why it is not good, etc. Just as cooking shows need to explain 'stirring in the figure of eight,' & such to those who have barely boiled an egg. Everyone has to start somewhere...
Great videos, much appreciated.
Jason thankyou for encouragement for planting potatoe may l know when or what month the proper planting potatoe ?
Thank you
I have never heard of, and cannot find, a “Smart” potato variety. Where did you obtain it?
Excellent!
Thank you,
Double dig usually you would add soil fertility into the trench as you loosen the soil at the bottom, well rotted manure traditionally Without doing that it's definitely a lot of work without a lot of benefit
I agree.
How did it workout? Would you keep on doing this way?
what was that double handled thing you prepped the bed with?
Yes just lay potatoes on the ground and line and separate a foot apart, and pile old hay on them, then come back in a 150 days, whalla!
Will you kindly let me know the temperature of your growing season during the time you grew all those lucious potatoes please.i live in Arkansas and I noticed you grew them all during the summer. You must have very mild temperatures. Here, our temperature gets up to over 100 f with an heat index of over 110 degrees. 🥵. Thanks so much
We are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan so you can look up climate data for that location if you are curious about temperatures. We grew these potato beds between early May and early September.
Slugs??? Beer, open a bar, they love it. Oregon is notorious for having slugs. I put tin pie pans of the cheapest beer I can buy uner leaves or a protection and end up with a tinfull in no time at all.
Potatoes type matters on yeild
Thank you very much appreciate
You're welcome Brad.
Embarrassed to talk potatoes ,you should see people's faces when I start talking compost 😁 thanks for the content of this video ! Try coffee grounds around or scattered over your no dig bed , I have access to 50 lbs a week and it has certainly cut down the slugs in my veg patch and cats
How does plants get nutrition growing in hay??
I think your other beds may have performed better with a little mulch... but you didn't add the mulch collection and application to your time spent on the no dig beds.
The mulch application to the no dig bed was included and accounted for in the Maintenance category on the Inputs chart. You can see this at the 26:07 mark of the video. I agree that the other beds might have performed better with the moisture preserving and cooling ability of a mulch layer. That's an experiment for another time.
how do you store them potatoes for long term use
This is excellent!! 🎉🌿👩🏻🌾🌾🌿🕊️🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔❤❤❤❤
What kind of fertilizer did you use during the trial? Was it just compost?
Yes.
Brilliant.... far too much pseudo-science in market gardening/ vegetable gardening.... really appreciate the attention to detail....
6" deep 😲!!!
How about 3" deep until the plants are 4"ish tall then mounding the soil 3"-4"?
Doesn't everyone do this???
And till then wait 1 week then till and wait 1 week then till and plant?
Your results are interesting but if you include a small garden tractor on a 1+ acer plot I'm not sure how they would apply 🤔 ?
I can see one issue due to water tape, with no dig the potatoes on the surface would get less water than overhead watering.😉
Or they might get more water thanks to the drip lines, because if I watered those heavily mulched no dig beds from overhead, a lot of the water would be absorbed by the mulch every time.