Potatoes & Strawberries

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"Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius)" wrote:

 

> Our spuds are almost two feet high now, and some are starting to sort of

> fall over. Is that normal? I am not sure if they are being sat on by some

> creature. I plan to mulch them heavily with pine needles, instead of

> earthing them up. Is that a good idea?

 

We call that hilling them up here, instead of earthing them. Hilling does

help

support the vines and give the potatoes more space to form. They form above

the

original seed. Also, in large scale production, when you hill up the

potatoes, you are rolling dirt into the row and smothering weeds out that are

missed by cultivation. I will hill them up slightly, then cover deeply in

mulch. that gives the covering plus conserves moisture and smothers weeds.

 

Can't comment on the effects of pine needles as a mulch. Compost may not

change

the pH of soil, but it buffers the effects.

 

It is normal for potatoe vines to flop over and fill the space between rows,

so

if you don't see crushed leaves, it is probably normmal, but it would have

been better to have mulched/hilled them before they flopped.

 

The other thing with uncovered potato plants is some of the potatoes will push

through to the surface and turn green from exposure to light, which makes them

poisonous - hilling/mulching prevents that.

 

>

>

> Out of 150 strawberry plants we planted, only 30 survived, and I wondered if

> maybe the PH was just too acid for them too. We have them interplanted with

> onions.

 

Lack of survival can be due to a lot of things. Planting the crowns too deep

or

too shallow can cause death. Cats digging in a freshly tilled bed and burying

their dung can also wreak a lot of havoc, for instance.

 

>

>

> I planted corn, 4 to a hole, one for the blackbird one for the crow, and

> that leaves two to grow as they say. Of course it was a bit silly of me to

> do that, because we have neither blackbirds or crows, and consequently all

> the seeds came up.

 

Seed thick and then thin is a pretty basic principle of gardening. Thin when

young, in corn, I would thin before the 4 leaf stage. I have planted corn 6

to a hill, three foot spacing, and not thinned at all. For grain, higher

density plantings are recommended - you get smaller ears but total yield is

higher. For sweet corn, where larger ears are desired, use lower densities.

 

> So the question is, how big should I let them get before

> thinning and transplanting? Same question for Broccoli and Lettuce? Oh yes

> and how far apart to plant those last two?

 

You need to get a good basic garden book, like Rodale's Encyclopedia of

Organic

Gardening that has all basic info like spacings etc. Johnny's Selected Seeds

catalogue has good cultural info.

 

We plant broccoli 18 ", lettuce plant thick and keep thinning, eating the

thinnings. First thin to say 2", then when plants touch thin to 4", then

again to 8" or whatever. So adult plants touch lightly. Different lettuces

require different spacings.