Permaculture potatoes

[Annpan]

Has anyone tried 'not' planting potatoes...

The idea I have is to put potatoes on the ground, fold my very long grass over it and cover it with cardboard (or old carpet - which I have alot of) with appropriately placed holes. Would they be able to break the suface of the ground or would I need to dig down a little?

I am sure I have seen it done like this, any ideas would be most welcome.

[Sassinak]

I did it one year by placing them on the surface and then covering in black plastic then cutting holes for the shoots to come through as they pushed the membrane up.
I did get a crop but it was nothing like the crops that I used to get by more traditional methods.

[Annpan]

I reckoned it might be the easy way to start using my grassy land without having to cut it all back and dig it all up this year.

[Thomzo]

Ann - why not grow your potatoes in a bucket or bag? That would exclude the light underneath and kill the grass.

Zoe

[Annpan]

because the area I had earmarked for it is about 100 - 200 square yards (should have specified... sorry)

Now assuming I can chit enough potatoes that would feed me and my extended family all winter.

I'd need a REALLY big bag

[Magpie]

I tried this, and got a lesser crop too. It did vary with the type of soil underneath though - the rock-hard clay produced almost nothing (even with compost added on top) but the more friable soil did better.

[hedgewizard]

Potatoes have a reputation as a "clearing" crop, but that's down to lazy interpretation of what the original article said; he said that digging to plant, ridging up, and digging to harvest, along with the shading effect of the plants themselves, was a good way of clearing ground for future planting. It's still hard work I'm afraid, but it's a good "cropping" alternative to sheet mulch.

[Jack]

Gidday

It will work O.K. if you use plenty of straw to cover them with. Just keep the straw damp and remember you can't have too much.

[Thomzo]

Hi Ann
Ah, yes, a lot of bags. Perhaps Stony can help. He had some going spare.

Last year when I was creating my raised beds I just popped the potatoes on top of the grass and then covered them with soil and compost. The grass did grow through rather a lot though. I don't know how well it would work without the sides of the raised bed to keep the soil in place.

I did get a crop but it wasn't a great one. But then I was only using supermarket spuds so that might have been why.

Zoe

[Willow]

I grow my potatoes on top of the soil. Slash the grass first. Put down a layer of cardboard. Place the potatoes on top and cover with the slashed grass. Add more mulch if needed and sprinkle some manure on top. As the plants grow keep adding mulch until flowering is over and the tops die. There are two big advantages here. You can reach into the mulch and get a feed without uprooting the plant and the potatoes will be clean (due to the lack of dirt).