Harvesting Potatoes Grown in Hay (Ruth Stout Experiment)
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- Опубликовано: 19 июл 2018
- It was time to have a peek under the hay and harvest all of the ruth stout potatoes due to blight setting in. Take a look to see how they did considering these were planted a month later than normal and also had no rain for about 2 months!
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I love that your bringing more recognition to Ruth Stout. Great video Huw!
you probably dont give a shit but if you are bored like me atm you can watch pretty much all the new movies on instaflixxer. Been binge watching with my gf these days =)
@Bruno Ricky yup, have been watching on InstaFlixxer for months myself :D
He had blight setting in though.
@@Geenine44 thats got nothing to do with the Ruth Stout method. Ive never had blight and i get big potato harvests using this method.
I grow potatoes in buckets here in Alaska. Something new that I tried on top to prevent green spuds was shredded cardboard since I don't have any straw. It appears to be working great. I use it for my vermicompost bins and used it as a second thought. When done I can put it in the compost pile.
Your honesty, curiosity and drive are inspiring! I look forward to my 'hugelculture/Ruth Stout' potato experiment this year!
I harvest bigger potatoes when I cut up the potatoes before planting them, with at least one eye on each cut portion. Some people say to let the cut potatoes dry for a few days after cutting them up, before you plant them. At our local seed swap, there are big pans of cut up potatoes for others to take & plant.
5:10 these potatoes definitely could have benefited from another 2 to 3 weeks of growing. Many people wait for the tops of the potatoes to start dying back to harvest but either way this is an excellent video.
I learned a lot.
potatoes all varieties need water especially after the first 20 - 30 days where they start showing leafage. I am watering them 2-3 times per week and will stop doing so and avoid any extra moisture in the last 20 days before harvest. I also started this ruth stout experiment this summer for the 1st time. Its been 18 since the 1st day and my potatoes started popping out from the straw. I am pretty excited.
I do the same but with woodchip, I lay potatoes on top of the soil and cover them with about 4” of woodchip fresh or rotted it doesn’t matter and when I see them poking their leaves out the top I just put another inch or two of woodchip and leave them alone until harvest time, and then when I harvest them I put some back and leave them to grow and I have potatoes all year round 😃 minus a few that the mice eat!
Awesome to see this Huw! I was curious how the method would work ever since seeing her documentary...now the mystery is solved!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Now if you have a drought, you can water them about 25 mm a week. Of course, if you have rain, don't water.
Ruth Stout has written books on her method so you’re not just stuck with the video tease
Thanks for your courage. I know those moments of low expectations. Ruth Stout added cottonseed meal to bump up nitrogen. Back to Eden garden guy plants his potatoes when he harvests them. I overwintered purple potatoes in snowy N.Idaho and they did well in a raised bed, came on early. The straw breaks down and makes a lovely dark silky soil. Thanks for all your videos and showing what real gardening is like. Experimentation is fun, but always a roll of the dice!
I've never heard of cottonseed meal thanks for that!:) Thank you so much for watching and commenting
As disheartening as it might be to get a lesser yield than you had expected, still it is encouraging to note that had the potatoes been planted earlier and if there been more rain then all those "tiny taters" of yours would have had a betobservation.
This is a valuable ovservation. I very much appreciate your sharing this because I am learning a lot, and as I get ready to plant potatoes in straw bales, compost, peat moss combo, I am better informed what pitfalls to avoid notwithstanding Mother Nature's whims, which are beyond anyone's control.
Our trouble is that we have had too much rain in the Mid-Atlantic region. The grounds were flooded and some of direct-sow seeds were washed away. This was the third such blow in the past 5 years.
Oh! Well ... we live an learn. Inspired by your clip, I can hardly wait to start this weekend and see what I get in 100-120 days down the road.
12:12 You make the best point of all right here: it's about calories expended vs. calories harvested! It isn't about the productivity per square foot necessarily. But if you're slaving away digging, weeding, watering, fertilizing, getting sore and achey and using up (say) 5000 calories of energy to harvest (say) 2000 calories of potatoes, you've really lost on that bargain. But say if you spent a mere 50 calories just dropping potatoes onto the ground and scattering loose hay over them, then came back to harvest that same 2000 calories later, then that would be a really good bargain!
I know you split it somewhere down the middle, with pre-digging your bed, pulling weeds, and hauling manure before planting and mulching your crop. But the point is that you do not necessarily "get out what you put in". Sometimes you get out WAY more!
Great Point Marialla. I love the fact that you don't have to consume too many calories!!
Do we know how many pounds he planted? So he got 12 lbs out of it?
I love how u experiment to see what works best every crop u do is amazing thanks for the content as always huw
Thank you so much I'm glad you're enjoying it!
If you had left the rest of the potatoes until the plants died back they would have grown full size. I am a true believer in growing in hay.
Wow, such a rude reply Pamela.
What?
Hi Pamela, I’m a newbie to hay growing. Could I ask you a question please? I have extremely fast growing tops on my potatoes…. I have popped more hay lightly on top but it’s bending the stalks. I had a sneaky peek and they’re aren’t any potatoes at all. How much hay can I keep putting on top without causing damage to the stalks. Thank you 😊
You cannot damage the stalks- no potatoes because they’re not ready. After they flower they start growing tubers but harvest is after the stalks and leaves are dying. Potatoes are a lesson in patience! However, after flowering begins, you can find small new potatoes .
Oh golly, thanks for replying. I was hoping you’d see my question considering the time lapsed. This gives me great hope. I’ll pop more hay on tomorrow and then learn the art of patience. Again, huge thank you 😊
It is my understanding that in Oregon USA some of the growers do not irrigate their potato beds and essentially grow them with very little water and do quite well.
I look forward to your videos as they are excellent and full of good advice. I have just watched Charles Dowding’s video about growing no dig potatoes and you might consider next year trialling his method with the Ruth Stout method to see what does best in your situation.
Thanks for sharing, and we are so happy you got rain there! Praise God for His goodness, we also got rain this week! We grew our potatoes differently this year also. We put down compost in rows, and planted the potatoes in that. We covered the plants with a frost blanket in April because we kept having late freezes, but the plants all survived. We mulched against greening, using grass clippings. We originally planted about 8 pounds of whole potatoes that we chitted before setting out. We harvested about 80 pounds. I planted them on March 17 and we harvested them in June, due to blight knocking them down. But they are the nicest red potatoes we've ever harvested, and we are very happy with the results. Thanks for your tips. We tried to use your grass clippings tips and Charles' no dig compost tips, and got good results! Blessings!
It is so satisfying learning new ways to do things. Thank you for the video :). Well done.
Huw, Thanks so much for making the video. The potatoes may not be huge but there are alot of the small potatoes which can be so nice and tender. Love the Ruth Stout method.
Something that strikes me is how clean they are coming out
Same with all potatoes this year, regardless of the method. There's been about half an inch of rain over the last two months throughout the UK. Less than that in London, where I live.
Been a hrad year this year with the weather Huw. Life always finds a way though mate.
Love watching your videos. My family originated from your country and it makes me wonder what it was like living there. It looks a lot like where I live now in KY. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Thanks for the excellent information, Huw. Really looking forward to trying this myself.
Great video. I look forward to watching many more. And, those potatoes look perfect size for boilung and eating with butter and mint, yum.
Enjoy your videos, always informative, and always like your perspective on the garden experience. 🌻🐞🐝🌱
Thank you for sharing.
Oh, yeah, and you said the blight was attacking the plants and that's why you decided to harvest them and not wait any longer. Yes, that's how it is with me, when I'm about to give up on the rain, it pours! Your place there looks beautiful.
Really cool experiment Huw! Keen to try this out sometime :)
When asked how much mulch do you need, Ruth Stout said "More". 😀 So glad that the method worked in Wales.
I'm 66 and plan on going full Ruth Stout method this year - I think I'd have left those spuds in the hay longer - You might have been able to double that yield - Thanks a ton for posting this - Great information - Very encouraging.
How did it come along?
He pulled the potatoes due to blight. How did your garden do? I'm going to try the Ruth Stout method this year.
I would say these look quite good considering the weather. I actually watered my potatoes all summer once a week with 5 liter per square meter, because of the severe drought here in Germany. And that sweet rain is coming to us tomorrow, or so they say. I would suggest to use that mulched space for a three sisters bed next year, with corn, beans and squash to really make a great soil and speed decomposition. Leeks and fava beans also leave a great soil.
Very successful experiment, like you said cant count on the weather but you did get some good spuds and will have a meal or two from what you DID get, and keep applying that spoiled hay and go at it again next year and see what you get. Comparing the two years and see the results from that.
I enjoy your videos very much. Thanks for your hard work and keep the videos coming.
Thank you so much Ron!
I used straw and it worked really well. I had to harvest now because of some blight (Northern Germany) . But the spuds are a decent size.
Always love your videos! Your editing is amazing. I can tell you've spent so much time finding & including the old video clips. On a side note, if you did a hay bed like that here in the SE USA you'd pull your hand out of it with a Copperhead or a Rattlesnake attached!
We are in NE Ark.snakes are present usually where there are mice. We where infested with rodents and had cottonmouths coming from the creek across the road to hunt them. DCon didnt work. However We got some one bite bar poison from the feed store and it done the job. Those snakes ate weakened poisoned rodents and died also.
And here in Australia too, plenty of tiger snakes, copperheads and eastern browns. So envious of Huw able to feel safe without snakes
I have used her method and enjoy it a lot. However, I want to incorporate deep mulching into tall raised beds. Getting older makes me desire kneeling and stooping not at all. I just read your book veg in one bed and love it. I think with a little investigation about frost and planting dates, I can adapt it to my new garden in a very cold, somewhat dry northern climate. Thank you. Your videos are quite visually appealing and so full of information. Thank you.
I agree with you comments and analysis.
Wonderful experiment! We have the opportunity to create a small garden for this upcoming summer and excited to try this potato growing method using leaf mulch.
Alright Huw, I’m going for it and planting potatoes the Ruth Stout way. Wish me luck! 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Thankfully my dog let me know in the fall that I had rodents chewing my potatoes growing in my hay beds. So I harvested a little early, but still had a very good crop grown with the hay method. But I feel that growing in the hay allowed a very accessible food source for the rodents. They had made lovely tunnels all through the beds and left me with partially chewed on potatoes.
I was thinking that might happen
Great experiment, but you only should start harvesting when the folage has completely died back, atleast thats how we do it in Belgium. Grtz
He harvested early because of the blight (fungal disease).
@@dickhead8775 ok, missed that, my bad ;)
I love planting any kind of plants hehe💖❤😇
Realy good vid
my potatoes failed this year so i might give this method a go next year. great video :)
Best potato video ever.
Nice potatoes 🥔
Inspired by the idea I am busy preparing long thin beds on my 1 ha grass field. However to stop the weeds I place a strip of non-woven fabric (which I get for free from someone who uses it a one time wrapping and then discards it) directly on the grass, then throw a bunch of straw on it. I am planning to make little cuts in the fabric and place the seed potatoes on hopefully by then wilted grass. Once the potato plants show through I am planning to 'hill" them up with hay produced in situ from grass growing in between the long beds (I spaced the beds some 5 - 6 metres from one another). I used to mow that grass anyway, so no extra work this summer in that respect. Can't wait for the results.
Thnk you for sharing your experience :) I'm still learning, but shouldn't you wait until the leaves are starting to yellow and wilt? Those might still have been in the process of growing.
Chipmunks really enjoyed the seed potatoes
And no muck to wash off! Definitely worth a try.
That's how I plant them. Late this year. Always have a nice crop. Time will tell.
Nice 🥔🥔
Very interesting! Did you continue with the Ruth Stout method?
Great video. I have been watching them for years now. Thanks for all your help. is potato harvest date from the day seed potatoes go in the ground or from the day that it breaks through the soil?
I was never able to grow potatoes in our Arkansas red clay soil. The last two years I covered the ground in cow manure during the winter. I placed the potatoes on top and covered with 20 inches of rotten hay. last year i got 6 x the amount that I planted. This year a much larger patch I planted 50 pounds of Pontiac red seed Potoatoes. They are already blooming.
Does it have to be hay, or can you use straw?
Actually for Ceredigion in July 2018 the crop is not bad at all (we kept ours in until late August)! The drought was a fluke but mini baked spuds are delicious (watch out for them exploding in the oven though). BUT, it did keep the slugs etc away...... The key issue will be 2019 being a 'normal' year for weather.
i put in every year potatoes with this method and it work very good if you keep the soil under hay wet
hi how much sun they need ..i live in rosarito mexico
@@LuisCastro-hm1cy normal condition.
i had a similar experiment this year, here in Ireland. I put a layer of 2 year old cow manure on the ground, put the seed potatoes on and covered with hay. The first earlier went well, the variety called "Swift" giving the largest harvest, sharpes express giving the smallest and duke of york in between. Had a lot of slugs under the hay, approx 10% of the tubers had slug damage. The main potatoes are still in, not sure what to expect from them because of the heat and drought we had here too. Now its warm and raining, the rain is really needed but now worried about blight. Will see how it goes. The first earlies definitely gave a better yield than last year when they were growing in the soil. Next year i will probably do the same way but will buy blight resistant varieties. Sooner or later i will get it right. :-D
Your supposed to wait till the plants turn brown before harvest . These are not ready yet.
Thanks….I will try this...is it the same with stay as hay?
You should set up a rain water collection near them to water them as you like
here, we wait until two weeks after the plants die before harvesting the potatoes. I don't know if potato plants will die after three months in longer growing season areas.
harvesting too early the plants are still growing.
In before P. infestans.
Hi Huw, I know I'm 2 years late to this video, but I'd like to point out a few things. Firstly, where I'm from in the States (Seattle, very similar climate to the UK), we mostly definitely have slugs. In fact, we have the black and brown European slugs that were brought over when the Europeans settled, and we have native slugs that are much larger and typically varying shades of green. Secondly, when you're studying garden methods from States, be careful to note where those methods have worked as the climates vary massively from region to region simply because of the country's size.
YAY
I have followed this trial from when you started as I was carrying out a similar test. I created a no-dig raised bed exactly a year ago formed with a layer of cardboard a layer of newspaper a layer of straw a layer of rotting garden waste covered with a black plastic sheet. Lifted the shet 6th April and laid Cara seed potatoes straight onto the top surface covered with bought compost. . When the green stalks appeared gave another layer of compost. The backend of June noticed some stalks laid flat suspect a fallow deer. Pulled the row and got about the same result as your video. No watering heavy rains last week of May. What has impressed me? Used hands to lift potatoes. Potatoes very clean no damage at all, three green potatoes. Taste brilliant. The little potatoes were deep fat fried and served with a salad a definite hit with the family. Will do again next year. Village show last week never saw such a poor show of potatoes should have entered mine. Watched a plot holder this morning harvesting potatoes it was like breaking concrete. The poor harvests are down to the weather and not the method. Take care Mike B
Hi Allotment UK, may i ask if you are still using this method? if so, with our kind of weather here in UK, do you recommend this kind of method to plant garlic and potatoes?
@@dyeydyey8283 Hi, I have not continued to use this method mainly I am in my eighties and I find growing my potatoes in pots easier on my back and legs. If bad weather is expected I can put a couple of buckets in the car boot and keep them in the shed at home and harvest the potatoes from there. Plus I use the spent compost next season on the no dig beds. I only grow what we eat which does not include garlic. Take care Mike
What should I plant before potatoes?
While there are good beneficial companion plants for potatoes, there are also plants that can cause disease and growth problems. Before planting potatoes, keep the following in mind: Raspberry, tomato, cucumber, squash and pumpkin are more susceptible to developing blight if planted with potatoes.4 Apr 2018
Anyone help pls it's my first year growing potatoes does every type flower if so mine hasn't lol. Also worrying two separate plants the main potato on each was all skin and tiny bit mush inside I removed them both from the crop and took the tiny potatos up do I need to bin my full crop cos of these two. Or just the bad ones and keep the rest of the plant.
Would you not want to mix the hay in with the soil? What would happen if you did? I am looking to plant potatoes this year and I'm just wondering what's the best way to do it.
Also, is it a good or a bad idea to mix in grass clippings into the soil before planting the potatoes in that, what is your advice? TIA!
I trialled it with grass clippings and few inches of it as mulch with surprising results. Please feel free to see video 👍
I'm starting my first potato tower, during the day I have it outside, but at night it gets cold so I bring it inside my house.
Excellent video huw, what varieties did you use??
Is there a nutritional difference between small and larger spuds?
Hi Huw! Any word on how the slugs responded to the Ruth Stout method?
Hello , can you tell me the variety of potato you grew here please ? Looks good.... I,m going to try this :)
Thanks Huw, your videos are always really helpful and interesting. I've planted potatoes under straw for the first time this year, and the plants are looking good so far (fingers crossed...). I noticed that you were careful when adding hay to the plants to place it around the leaves rather than simply throwing it on top of them. Do you think that if you had just tossed the hay on top of the plants, the plants would have grown their way through the hay? Or might it have impeded their growth. (As you can probably tell, I'm looking for the lazy way out....)
You can cover potatoes with 80 cm of hay, they will still come out
On the plus side for your method (and I will try this) is that you didn't have to dig into the soil, and the taters mostly are coming out clean
I've done the straw-covered garden thing myself and I gotta say one other nice point nobody mentions is how clean YOU stay while gardening! I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest of the USA, and you normally cannot walk outside from October to April without getting your shoes muddy. But a well mulched soil keeps your shoes clean, and the surface layer dries out quickly so even if you have to kneel in it you won't get soggy and gross like you would on bare mud.
I usually wait until potato vines are dead or nearly so (like the first plant you pulled up.) I understood you had a drought year and did not want to use water, but if you leave the ones that still look alive in the ground a few weeks longer, won't the potatoes grow a bit more? Too bad you are not able to irrigate them? I completely understand. Fortunately, this winter, the rains recently returned, but in our Mediterranean type climate here the summers are very dry, something I don't like about the climate here. We only get the rain October-April so we have to irrigate in summer. Here in California, we've had several droughts the past few years and there the water companies impose penalties for water use above a small monthly allowance.
What do you do with the small potatoes and the green potatoes?
I've grown no dig potatoes this year with a friend on clay under partially composted grass from last year's cut. I live in Suffolk and we've had two thimbles full of rain in the past 8 weeks - everything is suffering! . I think you have to consider how much you have to pay for miniature potatoes... 😀 a mouse or other rodent has been eating them underground though. We mounded them up with more compost but didn't water. Spuds are lovely! A meal off each plant though. Good size considering - variety was Bambino. Send us your rain please!
Oh and my friend grew Charlotte
you're lucky to have the hay to work with. Here in Massachusetts hay is so expensive it would not be practical.
You could use straw, leaves, grass, paper, cardboard, tree trimmings, or any other decomposable material to create a thick mulch to get similar results. Just don't use plastic.
Don't need to buy straw or hay. I used large dried weeds and grass that I cut by hand to cover the potatoes and it worked great. Potatoes are easier to dig up too, they are very near the surface. I also covered the potatoes and hay with 2x12 boards to help keep the moisture in.
Im trying mine under strimmed nettles and comfrey. Fingrs crossed
I know Mr. Barnes said this but I want to second his motion to let them grow longer. That said you got a crop of new potatoes there and would not have anything had you played video games... except a magic sword if youre good :)
Hi, does it NEED to be hay or can it be straw ???
i've got a whole heap of potatoe plants growing in my garden from one little potatoe peel so i am now just throwing as much hay on it but i'll stop now coz i think they only need a certain depth after that its too much depth ,,,,anyway lets see how this goes ....
Thus flowering makes any problems in potato.?
You done ok.
The only water is missing as the plant like when the soil is soaked.
Gr8
Really nice! I guess next years you'll get much more potatoes as hay improves your soil.
One question... If you hadnt harvested them, just let them sit in there, would them grow again for themselves next season? I saw once a method using woodchips that they've got the biggest ones and put them back there so they wouldnt need to plant again.
Francesco Dias I use woodchip and when I harvest the potatoes I put straight back on top of the soil some potatoes I harvested, cover them with woodchip and just leave them and they do just fine! Last year I had potatoes in December by doing this 😃
Helen Parry, that's awesome! So much less work!
Yes you can do this:)
I'm curious why you didn't water them? I followed along and planted exactly as you did and covered with hay, but watered daily. I have buckets of potatoes just growing on top of my very poor soil.
Glad to hear about your success. Could you tell how did you water them? Did you remove the hay or water from the top?
Water from top my brother
In 2018 there was a drought for months - in other vids Huw talks about their stream drying up, so there was very little water to be had for the garden.
@@helengauperaa4319 "a drought for months" has this Aussie giggling. We call that "summer". Droughts are counted in years.
That said, after a couple of heat waves around Christmas-New Year it has been relatively cool and very wet this summer.
They were only small cause you pulled them up before the top of the plants died off😊
Does it really work??
In the book «Selfsufficient life and how to live it» by John Seymour, he write about fighting blight with «Bordeaux mixture». Have you -or anyone following your channel- any experience with this?
Would be an interesting experience?
Great video and experiment! I grow my potatoes in buckets rather than the ground. Do you think by adding the hay to the buckets it would help? Or is it more for the ground?
I found a few green potatoes this year compared to last and not sure if that's due to the drier weather?
Hi Ella, now that's a great idea! Doing this method in a bucket! This is more for a large area but should be tested in containers
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Thanks for taking the time to reply. If i try it in containers it should still retain moisture and if we have another summer like this maybe protect it, use it more of a mulch than the Ruth stout method. Brilliant trial though especially with the heat we've had!
Can anyone say where I can get organic hay? (UK)
how many potatoes did you plant?
BTW Since potato blight is caused by moisture, the most likely cauce of the blight is the hay.
The area around the potatoes are probably never dry.
Um the blight hit the potatoes in the raised beds before the potatoes in the Hay
Then bring in Hercule Poirot to work out what happened.
You may try to let the weed grows first. When they get old, cut it but don't throw those weed away, put them where you have cut. Put potatoes and then hay like you did. If you see weed, just cut it, put it there, more hay.
I wonder if you could use wood shavings/ chippings instead of hay - what do you think?
I think I'll give it a go next year!
Can straw work as well?
That was my question.
How many pounds did you start with?