Potatoes the Ruth Stout Way: Follow-up and Reveal
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- I filmed a video back in June (about 4 months ago) where I showed how a 4'x10' potato garden could be built and planted in 6 minutes using the Ruth Stout method. In this video I follow up with a harvest of one of those gardens. I think you will like the results! Thanks for watching, and if you enjoyed this content, please share and/or subscribe to my channel. You can also check out my podcast (maritimegardening.com) where I discuss how to grow healthy food in your backyard cheaply and easily. Special thanks to Audionautix.com for the music ("pioneer" and "panama hat" ).
Potatoes are my favorite crop. Before I found this method of gardening about 4 or 5 years ago I hated my garden by June, every year. The amount of physical work involved for this single, old lady, wasn't worth it. Then, ta da, hay! I mowed, covered the area in a foot tall mound, walked away and watched nature work! It's just that simple and exactly as described! Thanks for the video
Thanks for sharing
I love the way you give Ruth Stout her due credit.
Thanks - she was a trail-blazer!
Man I am impressed. Someone that doesn’t have a tiller could really produce a lot of food. Thanks just came across you today
You got it!
Even those who have tilling equipment would be taking better care of their soil without tilling or by tilling biologically-rich compost into their soil once and then never tilling again.
Did you water as much using straw? Thank you, nice video!
@@mister-action1 I don't water potatoes at all.
@@xxpowwowbluexx 12 Ruth Stout Potatoes
Great knowledge available. I am 68 years plus old this is keeping me busy..
Keep it up
Those small marble taters are great for breakfast , boiled a few minutes then fry with onions ,sprinkle with herbs and pepper just before serving , sooooo much better than the biggies.
Which herbs do you recommend?
You said it MrDynamitd! I did recently learn to take those little taters and press em down, you know, squash em till they're as thick or thin as you'd like, and fry em up in a skillet...they get so light and crispy all around the edges and go great with a hearty breakfast or a sidedish at suppertime...we call em Smashed P'taters! Yum!
@@dbirdeycapozzi9807 My wife will make a gravy and put those little potatoes in it. She calls that "new potatoes". Delicious.
I'm about to start ~1008 sq ft of new garden space doing this with winter potatoes and hay. Rewatching this video to mentally prepare lol. Wish me luck!
Awesome!
I hope your garden is doing fine and you're having lots of fun getting some vittles!
@@Rivenrock Hey, it is! I'm pulling up a plant or two every morning. I'd say about 35 to 40% of the potatoes survived through winter, and the ground where I put them has improved significantly--especially for that being the only amendment. I think it's a good way to start a bed in the fall, but the potatoes don't come up early in the spring bc the hay keeps the ground cooler and reflects more sun. I saved seed potatoes over winter too though and planted in any patchy areas to sure up the beds that had poor sprouting.
@@gangofgreenhorns2672 by the way, what method do you store your potatoes so they don't sprout?
My mantra is 'some is always better than none! Better to plant one potato you can't eat and get one you can than not at all :)
Amazing! I’ve seen videos of the Ruth stout method, but yours was the best for showing how to do it and the comparison between the Ruth Stout bed and the surrounding weeds. You do a lot to help new and old gardeners!
Awesome! Thank you!
My Ruth stout potato garden is doing great this year. I use leaves , like you I collect those bags on the side of the road.
Thank you Ruth Stout for the technique; thank you you for the illustration
You are so welcome!
I love picking potatoes. It's like an Easter egg hunt. Lol
Thanks for sharing this is especially good for people who has no tools or not able to dig
You're very welcome
Today I watched a video in which she told about her gardening and her life. She was a absolutly stunnig and wise woman. I love her humor. She grow all of her vegetables with her method.
Will try it in my garden with hay and straw this year. I'm beginning the garden and this seems a good method for me because I don't have much time.
I think you're on the right path!
I love before and after videos like these! So inspiring
Thanks, I'll try to do more :)
When I lived in Colorado's Wet Mountains (grossly misnamed - the north end where we were was VERY dry!) I tried a RS garden with the only mulch I had - lots of pine needles, raked from under our ponderosa pines. I laid my seed potatoes on the ground, heaped them with a mix of pine needles and aged horse/cow/goat manure, and let 'em go. That fall, I just rolled back the pine needles and stuff, and there lay my crop of taters! Some had burrowed down into the softened soil and required a little digging, but the top 4-6 inches instead of the former foot or more - a LOT better!
So many people believe that pine needles will not work as a mulch! The science suggests that it works fine - so it's great to hear of people using it and having success!
@@maritimegardening4887 Its the manure that worked. Pine needles make compost not much nutrients
Love this channel, Greg. Just wanted to say thanks!
Thanks man :)
This wonderful! I live on top of volcanic rock in the Rocky Mountains and I have to have raised beds...14 of them now.
Thanks for the video. AND thumbs up for the music! LOVE Leon Redbone!
Thanks!
I’ve loved planting out potatoes this past summer in Australia. The taste is so much better than store bought ones which are cold stored for months before hitting the supermarkets. The nutritional value must be greater too! I might try this method next.
Sounds great!
I am so excited to try this method!! We are going to do this next since we have already planted out potatoes this time. Thanks for sharing!!
Brilliant result!!
Right on, its exciting to dig up spuds
I can't wait to try this method.
Thank you very much Greg, fantastic demonstration of Ruth Stout method. See you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Fantastic Video!!!!!
Love, Love, love your potato garden!!!!!
This method iWorks like magic!!!!Wish I had a garden space . Thank You !!!!!💖💖💖💖💖💖🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Glad you enjoyed it!
It’s not boring! Completely fascinated by this method. Will be trying for myself!
Thanks
Great harvest!!!
Now I can’t wait to plant potatoes this year!!!
Potato towers are easy too and similar in material use.
Nice to see some gardening from Nova Scotia. My grandmother was from Halifax and I heard they were gardeners 😀
Thanks!
Wow, Thank YOU for this no-till no-work quick and easy Ruth Stout gardening method! I shared this video with others and hope that you will, too!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the update. I’m doing Ruth Stout this year for potato, watermelon, and pumpkin... first time...
I think you'll be pleased!
Wow! Thank you for making this video!
Thanks, hope it helped :)
Awesome video, we are very grateful for you doing this video. We appreciate you so much.
Thanks
@@maritimegardening4887 Of Course, People such as yourself makes the world great.
@@libertylandsforall4689 Aw shucks :)
Timeless classic.
Thank you so much for making s follow up video!!! Very very useful and informative!
Thanks
Thanks for the video I was up in the air on the method I would use for growing potatoes. This method seems to yeild more than others I've seen and much easier than the build your soil method. Happy Growing!
Glad it helped
Impressive and inspiring!
Thanks!
awesome the way it makes the ground better under it.
If what you're doing can be done without manure, I'd love to see the idea spread everywhere. Manure is hard for some folks to get (especially in urban areas), but lawns are all over the place. People go hungry or eat cheap processed junk everywhere. If a garden plot can be prepared that easily, that lazily, and produce food while it's working, that might help the idea of the Victory Garden catch on again.
Well, I can say from direct experience, if you just pile hay a foot high, it will kill the grass for sure. Another trick is to cut the sod out and turn it upside down - instant garden!! That's much more work but more immediate results.
Most urban areas have home improvement stores like Home Depot which do sell manure. At $1.47 a bag it won’t break the bank.
Be choosy with that stuff, if you read the bag, a lot of them are only partially manure, they mix it in with sand , etc.
If I remember correctly, the potting soil I had lying around and used for for my sub-optimal, just don't care variation has a lot of wood fines in it. Good for organic material, not so good for nitrogen, but at least it won't stink up the place. If it can be made to work that way with some kind of inoffensive nitrogen supplement, that could show more practicality for doing it cheap/free with waste, in urban areas where you might have issues with the neighbors or homeowners' association. May be doable with, for example, a bag of shredded office paper and a bucket of used coffee grounds from the same building or a local coffee shop, or clippings from the lawn which the plot will be replacing a section of.
Most people I know are too lazy to even attempt gardening. They would rather complain about being hungry than do something about it.
Thanks Greg. Great job. Good info.
Glad it was helpful!
I think I'm going to try your way of planting potatoes sir...It was hard to believe how much you harvested from a small space and no digging...great idea and thank you for sharing with us...looking forward to seeing more of your videos..happy gardening and God bless..
Very good Sonia - let me know how it goes :) Don't be shy with the hay. Pile it at least a foot high - and possibly 1&1/2 foot high if you can.
Hi Sir, thank you for this video and for sharing your experience.
Thanks for watching!
moved last year, my whole new garden is this, this year might be a little lame, but I am hoping that its an excellent start to a long enjoyed garden. Thanks for showing the after!
Potatoes are a low-maintenance, easy, and effective way to break/prepare new ground. Glad this helped!
Impressive for the time you put in! Another year or two and that soil will be amazing:)
I just added some more manure and hay a few weeks ago, and also planted some garlic. There's a couple vids on that if you are interested.
I'll be checking all your vids out! I'm in Alberta, so nice to see fellow Canadians getting their grow on:))
Great video, keep at it, love your way of gardening. I'm gonna try it this year. PS, I love that potatoe song.
Awesome! Thank you!
Great job, I'm doing the same process this year.. Thank you..
Good luck!
I discovered Ruth Stout last year. I live in a very difficult climate for gardening, high desert, hot days cold nights two weeks of summer, no rain, no water in the ground.Anyway, green alfalfa works just as well as old hay, here particularly because we are such a dry climate, so the top layer dries quickly, and the bottom layer starts cooking. IT was like night and day. It actually smells like manure when it's breaking down. I'm sold. Don't be tentative with the hay. I applied it three times, the first time, then again in late summer, and at end of summer, just laid out flakes on top of everything after planting garlic. I'm sold.
Yes, I've found the same thing - the hay needs to be reapplied. Good to hear confirmation that it works in arid places! I talk to so many people that will not even try. The first time I heard about this approach (actually through the back to eden film) I immediately changed my whole garden over. Like you, I've not looked back. Strange, I get a lot of people asking about mice and ants. I have them, but they're not a problem. Do you have them - also, do you have poisonous snakes? Is it a problem in your RS garden?
Maritime Gardening I had nothing but pluses. I have a dog and a cat. Everything grew great. People are afraid of all sorts of things, particularly bugs and weeds. I had no invasions once I used the hay. My tomato plants were consistent green from top to bottom.
That's great to hear. It's awesome to see it working in so broad a range of conditions!
Maritime Gardening Don't be afraid of it. Add lots! No weeds, fertilizer, moisture held in. No extra fetilizer is necessary. I do compost my kitchen scraps and chop and drop garden waste. But the alfalfa fed the garden. It's phenomenol.
Awesome!
Thank you for the Great videos! I live near Thunder Bay in zone 3a (frost ‘til the the first week of June and frost in early September). I found the Ruth Stout video first and thought that method would not work for me here, because of the shorter seasons and colder nights. But in a previous video you state that you also have frosts in May and September. I will try potatoes this way. I have a regular garden that I have worked for 15 years. We have hard clay soil and last year I tried to till a new area and gave up. I have both horses and hay, so the cost for me to experiment is a few seed potatoes. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I am amazed by the change in your soil in just one season and I am excite to see if I get similar results. Thank you again. I look forward to watching more of your videos!
We have frost here as late as early June! As I've said lots of time - the zone only tells you how cold it gets in winter - it has nothing to do with length of growing season - or even how hot it gets in summer. Toronto is zone 5 - yet has a much hotter summer than here - for instance. Anyway - think you'll be happy with your potatoes - thanks for watching :)
Did it work for you?
Good show
Very nice 👍🏻
Very Handy way to do gardening.
Hello from Mobile, Alabama USA. This is my first visit and I enjoyed your video and I found it interesting and educational. I liked, subscribed and hit the bell, so I look forward to additional videos. Good growing.
Thanks that's great! Hope you have a wonderful growing season!
I will try this with fall leaves as I have no straw. Plus I have tons of leaves that I have collected from around town. Another plus is that I will not have to spend so much time on it. I think my daughter will like the "lazy" method. I am trying to get her into gardening but she doesn't like putting in the work. I won't stop trying though. I love your videos. You do my kind of gardening.
I've used leaves before and they work great, in fact they really retain water well.
Great to know, have lots of leaves!!
Impressive!
Hello from New Brunswick!
Hello there!
I’m a big believer in Ruth stouts gardening , I do all my gardening that way now , (back to Eden) love Paul gautchi method also .
Thanks for sharing!
Amazing!!!
Great advice - i am new to your channel. I cant wait for more new ideas! ty vm!
Great, good to hear sir!
If you follow the potato plant stem, you can find the spuds easier. Great job.
Great! Thank you and Thanks to Mrs.Stout in Heaven.
You bet!
You should check out strawbale gardening. I live in bed rock in southcentral MO. Nature's raised bed, if you will. I grow my potatoes in mulched straw (from broken down straw bales) in tires. My granddaughters had a blast harvesting potatoes last fall. I hope to do some videos with the beginning of this growing season. Happy Gardening!
Straw tends to be more sprayed than hay and more homogenous too. Make sure those tyres aren't leaching certain chemicals into the food you're eating.
I live in the Arkansas Ozarks. I have 14 acres and only two tillable acres. and 3 acres are rocky pasture the rest is limestone. only grows cedar trees. You could put a rock quarry here.
@@thecollectoronthecorner7061 No kiddig. This will be my first year not using strawbales. We are switching to raised beds this year. Now if the rain would just let up so we can get stuff in the ground!
One foot when you plant then another foot under the leaves midway through the growing season. Also something in the paths would help keep the weeds under control.
Thanks for this video!
Thanks :)
I planted potatoes like that only I just laid them in rows on the heavy grass. I covered with about 10inches of straw and the plants did wonderful. It’s nearly time to start looking for potatoes. I’m not peeking. I bet it’s a good crop. I used all kinds of potatoes including a couple bags from the grocery store. Next year I’m going nuts with this back yard technique.
I learned a lot from this video, thank you!!
Glad it was helpful!
I enjoyed your video.
Thanks :)
After watching a few of your videos, I had decided you are the type of person I'd like to live next door to. Then you played that little piece by Leon Redbone. Now I really have to move to Nova Scotia! I've been gardening in the same SE Michigan location for 17 years, but I've been a Redbone fan since the 70s! :) Haven't grown potatoes in a while but you've inspired me to try again in 2018. First time I grew potatoes I had one that looked like Mickey Mouse. My photo icon shows it sitting in a bowl of soy beans.
That's a crazy potato sir!. Sure move out here! There's plenty of room. Good luck with your potatoes next year and thanks for watching!
Brian White ha ha ha. Love your Mickey Mouse potato.
I love it!
wow just beautiful makes me want to go right out and do the same. I need some seeds potatoes. Very nice thnx for sharing.
Thanks
So sorry to come off as preachy. Just trying to keep mother earth happy. You are right, I am new to your channel, but that's just a one day issue. I have subscribed. Will look for you again. Ps. Ruth often laid out 16 to 24 inches of hay she would fluff off the bales for winter coverage. The rain and snow would beat it down during the winter. Loved her.
.
Yes, the hay on these was over a foot high when I planted them, and then later that fall I piled more on. Thanks for subbing :)
@@maritimegardening4887 And you use hay, not straw? Hay I have in plenty, but I always thought it produced too many weeds, when used as mulch?
I’ve always canned my baby potatoes. They are amazing in chili and soup and fried or smushed 😂
I’ve never heard of Ruth Stout and everyone it’s talking about her methods this year like the cattle panel planting last year.
Would love to see a video on how you can your baby potatoes!
You got a good harvest for very little work. Never eat green potatoes they will eventually cause you to not be able to absorb your minerals, but, as you said can be used as a seed potatoe. Thanks for this video.
love all your videos, would like to see you start a new bed with suflowers. They say that they have a massive root ball that with help to break up soil, just cut Above ground and leave roots and stub. can plant around stub other plants. maybe first planting use sun flowers an pole beans or some other climbing crop. love the bread and other videos also.
Good idea
I'm growing my first no dig potaoes this summer! I keep the hay thick on top and so far they are growing nice plants. My spot had goat manure and then I wintered my chickens on the area. So hoping I get a few potatoes out of it..
I'm sure it will work out great!
You got more than a few, right? ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭*
Love it. And bonus this guy sounds like Norm MacDonald!
I don't see it - but I do love Norm!
I can hear it, too! Similar tone.
I am planning to double the size of my garden next year, and will try no-till. Would like to put in fruit trees and perennial berries, etc. Plan to lay down contractor's paper, then grass clippings (of which I have an abundance) and hopefully I can get a truck load of manure. I have a load of chips and have been hot composting them with grass clippings, so I'll spread a layer of that down too. But then I think I'll top it off with chips since it seems I can get them for free. I expect to pull that all back to actually plant (well at least pull back the chips layers.
Just discovered your channel and subscribed. I garden on Campobello Island and hay is a scarce commodity here a few people have horses so I plan to ask if they have any spoiled hay this spring I would love to try this. I've been told that the critter that eats the potatoes under ground is a vole not a mole but like you I don't care what they call the miserable thing, unfortunately I have lots of them. Really enjoyed your video.
You're in the bay of fundy - does any seaweed wash up on the beach?
Tons of it. They harvest it over the border in Maine and I would say at least half of escapes unfortunately I don't have a truck.
new sub here ..this was amazing 👏👏
Thanks for subbing!
Brilliant! :)
Our ground is so hard that we had to use a pick ax to dig a hole to plant a tree. I've been working on my garden going on 8 years now but I alway tilled. This year ,thanks to you I am changing my way of gardening. With any luck,if I can get the manure and hay I will have a better garden and expect it to be much easier to take care of than in years past. The garden usually started out good but when it got hot the garden became so stressed from lack of moisture. Watering only helped temporally. I think you gave me the answer to my problem. Thanks so much.
That's great I hope it works out well for you!
Thank you for the video. I have grown in a pot but, like this idea better. In response to those who are getting snarky: I remember the old adage please, please. “If, you have nothing nice to say- don’t say anything at all”.
Thanks for sharing!
20+ that is bigger than the big bag at wally world and for so little input good job. I must do this thnx for sharing
Thanks, and yes, it works surprisingly well. Use lots of hay!
Thank you ! I appreciate your valuable videos!
Thanks!
New sub from Ozark, Missouri
Great thanks!
I'm not a potato fan, but you did a great job, friend..😎👍
Thanks man
How can you not like a potato?
Impressive. Asuggestion. Cover it with either new hay, or a cover crop asap. Mother nature does not like exposed soil. Your exposed soil over the winter will harden up again and lose many of the nutrients . sprinkle kale or spinach seeds now and lightlycover with hay. Theycan stand the cold. So can sugar beets and if you can get their seeds to sprout then side dress with hay, adding side dressed handfuls of hayevery week or so, their roots will break up that hardpan clay for you during the winter. Much success to you. .
I think you're new to my channel - I'm a permaculture gardener, soil is always covered, everywhere. You're preaching to the converted :)
Greetings from New Hampshire! Great job with Ruth Stout's method. I had her No Work book in the 70s. What zone are you? Back in the mid 70s, I bought a small farm stead in Anagance, NB. Really beautiful on the ridge!
Zone 6a, Nova Scotia Canada
This kind of stuff excited me to no end! For less work, you have better soil! Why aren't we do this on large scale? (Big ag, I know...) No matter...I'm doing it and encouraging everyone I can to do the same.
Everyone does what they were taught, and rarely thinks outside those parameters. If someone tells you there's an easier way, you don't believe them - that's why I like to show results. Nothing is more convincing than results! Check out the vid: "Ruth stout's garden" for more inspiration!
@@maritimegardening4887 do you mean THIS video??? ruclips.net/video/GNU8IJzRHZk/видео.html I am trying to learn to grow potatoes for when the economy collapses and the zombies attack. only half joking
Plant daicon radishes there, depending on climate you could seed right after the potato harvest and let them over winter, or plant in the spring. They store left over nutrients so you don't loose them, and drill down through the compaction later to loosen that hard clay for you.
They can be eaten, be fed to livestock, or you could cut their leaves before next planting and let them compost in place to fertilize the next crop.
Looks like someone's been watching "i am organic gardening" videos :)
Maritime Gardening No, bu I'll check that out. I have grown potatoes this way, and cover crops is one improvement I'm adding this year. I'm also interplanting pole beans with the potatos this spring.
I plant peas with them sometimes. Out in this part of the garden I can only plant things that the wild animals will leave alone.
Thanks for the tip about that channel. I wish I could get payed to receive leaves like he does.
Yes I was very jealous about that myself!
Try cutting them into eye sprouts and giving them time to dry off you can at least triple your input output ratio. You can cut each potato into at least 4 pieces that will all grow a potato plant
best comment section! 🤣🤣👊
Yes this is the way, we did this in Canada when I was a kid, as long as each chunk had an eye sprouting it was a the start. We did let let the, dry a day, just cut them and tossed them into a deep hole.
curious why do they have to dry on cut end?
@@RJSoftware2000 to keep them from rotting before they sprout and grow roots6
Renee Brown can you explain the first process I am confused. Eye sprouts? Time to dry off? Did not know they were wet to begin.?
Looks like a great french fries potential. 😋 yummy.
They are!
i seen some ppl up in Alaska do this also BUT they added more hay then leaves when the hay ran out over the growing season. just like one would hill up potatoes with dirt. They got a lot more potatoes.
I am using the method this year, I covered my about 12" of hay. I found with all the rain we got that it matted the hay down to much and was preventing the sprouts to come through.. I had to pull the hay back to the side, let the sprouts grow, then tuck hay to the sides of the plants and in between. This is working out good so far.
Some hays matt down more than others - glad you found a work-around
Glad I saw your comment because this is my first year so in the fall we put a foot of straw down. I went to plant some potatoes and also noticed how heavy and matted down it was. I went with my "horse sense" and moved hay down to dirt, disturbed it a bit, put potato down and then just lightly covered with straw. Hope I did okay!!!
If the plants can bust through 6 inches of heay soil they can come through the hay. It's called being patient lol
@@cjkatbruno Not my strength! LOL! ;-)
Ruth frequently pulled back the mulch to plant veg seeds then when plant was big enough she pushed the mulch back around plant.
My gold potatoes were much less of of a yeald
Good return
Thanks
I only do this method for potatoes. If the ground is just pasture, the first year I spread an inch or so og compost or lose soil. Then I sprinkle some blood and bone, put on my seed potatoes and cover with hay. Repeat the hay once more as the potatoes grow. My harvests are huge. The spuds are clean and the hay turns into a lovely soil. The weeds are suppressed. Whats not to love!
exactly
I have to look up the 1st video as I missed it come up in my RUclips feed
ruclips.net/video/5LIYckw8cPg/видео.html
My tomatoes are nearly ready to be potted on. I'm waiting for my crafted tomatoes to arrive.
It's like an Easter egg hunt, only it's potatoes.
I know and he fast forwards thru the best part. I love watching the digging and finding
Very nice Greg! I have a bunch of land outside fence and I've been wondering what I can grow that the deer and rabbits gophers won't eat.
I can't speak to gophers (I don't have them) - but outside my fenced area I plant tomatoes, potatoes, squash, onions and garlic
You had me at lazy! 😂