The sixth and final video about all the potato plants we grew in large grow bags this year, with a bunch of interesting observations that didn’t really make it into the other videos.
0:00 Big Grow Bag Trials
1:09 More Observations
2:39 1 Common Scab
3:34 2 Black Scruf
4:23 3 Dead Plants
5:47 4 Fungal Decomposition in Growing Medium
6:36 5 Decreasing Volume with Decomposition
7:44 6 Stem Length vs Yield
8:59 7 Number vs Size of Potatoes
10:47 Continuing Trial Next Year
12:30 A Robin, a Boot and a Request
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35 Comments
Another great video. I realized this is the only gardening channel I actually learn from on youtube, so finally signed up for your patreon. Thanks for all the vids.
So happy you are going to continue this for another year. Will the bags get extra fertility or will you study hwo the fertility is depleted year after year? if you have more growbags…. 😉 something i've been thinking of since the first video, is that i'd like to see a comparison of A) soil or compost vs B) same plus 1 inch much vs C) same plus 3-4 inch much. Since you said watering was an issue. And much is supposed to retain water.
Great video, and great series on growing potatoes. Really good camera work and I appreciated the little birdie at the end!
love these trials! i have found that plants are bred under high water and nutrient regimes and so struggle without supplemental feeding. Additionally, some nutrients are non-translocatable and so supplemental feeding may be ineffective if done after deficiency symptoms show up? although foliar feeding helps. Also some plants love fresh compost and manures eg curcubit, but some hate the fungal decomposition that inevitably occurs. Youre really covering some interesting stuff!
Another chapter of the potato saga 🥔🥔🥔
This is better than Netflix.
Congratulations
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You're gonna make me start growing potatoes again Bruce! Not like that's a bad thing I suppose.
It has been a few years (five or six maybe?) But I remember from my last spudventure that different skinned potatoes reacted very differently scab wise to the same soil. If I remember correctly (which I may not be so I apologize) purple skinned got scab the worst, whereas the reds had the least. They were planted anarchy style (throw it all in randomly and see what survives) in the same one metre by two metre section of garden and got the same water and fertilizer treatment.
That particular garden was at a house that was built on top of an old quarry that had been filled with sand then covered with about half a metre of soil. the "soil" quality was pretty terrible, but I do still remember that the red potatoes performed the best in that context.
Very interesting as usual. Jag with Daisy Creek Farm just showed a small experiment growing cut potatoes and whole potatoes. Interesting results.
What would your carbon medium(s) be called in the US? I’d love to try them.
I wish you would compare synthetic to organic fertilizer. The synthetic is usually more effective, cheaper and better for the environment.
Merci 🙂 !!
Maybe next trial let one bag of each type have access to natural soil
You know you're watching an Irish gardening channel when it features a 6 part saga on growing potatoes 🥔
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Your data collection is top tier lad. Thank you.
Try applying lacto ferments to the soil for the potato scab.
What do you do with the spent growing flowers mediums? I appreciate your work, it has worth to me.
Birdy
Great video! You have a very scientific approach. It's really very interesting the way you explain every single trial.
I am at the other end of the planet so make of this what you will.
I use a drip system in grow bags for my potatoes (and everything else I grow at home). 4 x 2 litres per hour pressure compensating drip emitters per bag. Grow bags are breathable. Never had any subterranean fungus problems. Moisture retention, sweating, etc. I feel the breathable bags help the plants fill the bag better because air pruning as opposed to pot binding.
I harvest larger potatoes as I go along. I think this allows the smaller potatoes that remain to size up faster. It doesn't result in less small potatoes though because the plant just makes more. I'm ok with that though because those tiny spuds are fkn delicious.
It''s never really been clear to me if you are a staunch organic gardener or not. Perhaps that is deliberate on your part. If you choose a drip system next time, we have great success pumping fungicide through that drip system right after planting. We also use foliar sprays regularly that include all kinds of things but particularly iron, calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, mono ammonium phosphate and any kind of fish emulsion early in the plant's life.
Now I'm going to bake a potato because, whatever.
One of the only gardening YT channel that teach you something every time.
Redsgarden… I didn't see one RED POTATO.. 😢😁
Love your channel Red, my passion for growing parallels yours but you have been so generous to teach others. Invaluable lessons I have learned in my journey from your efforts. Thank you so much!
interesting. I'll have to try topdressing my potatoes mid-season or something.
It appears that the difference in NPK is more important than growing medium.
This is interesting maybe put a thin layer of hay next soil and on top compost is the very best?
I have big problems growing potatoes in the ground because our spring weather is usually very rainy and our heavy clay soil stays much too wet. I've also had the same problems with grow bags that you did in hot or dry weather later in the year – that wonderful air exchange grow bags have to induce air-pruning of roots made them dry out too quickly and it can become a real pain to keep them watered.
My best success with various plants in grow bags has come when I bury a water reservoir in them with a rope wick leading out of the reservoir into the soil. A 2-liter or 1-gallon jug fits nicely in a ten-gallon bag, with plenty of room left for soil, roots etc. Even then they still go through more water than usual in June/July/August. But it's a matter of watering and filling the reservoir twice a week, instead of watering every other day or every day in some cases.
Last year I grew taters in several bags – but not proper grow bags, just empty 50# feed bags with some drainage holes poked in the lower part of the sides. I planted one or two potatoes in each bag, filling the bags 1/3 – 1/2 way with pretty standard soil mixes.
I found that resulted in a decent balance of the bags being up out of the far-too-wet conditions in spring, yet retaining moisture levels inside the bag quite well during summer. Without having to water them constantly. That's more or less like growing in a normal bucket or tub… except I buy chicken, rabbit and dog food anyway, so the feed bags were free.
The yield from those bags was not record-breaking, but it was definitely worth the effort. And I had almost zero problems with rot or disease. The bags sat on an unused portion of gravel driveway/parking area that otherwise wouldn't have produced anything useful at all.
Considering the decent yield, very low cost, and the reasonable amount of water and labor I put into that project, I'll be growing a lot more potatoes in feed bags this coming year. I'm considering trying the same technique with bush beans, because they also suffer in our very rainy spring season.
The p.H is a very interesing thing to research on.
At different p.H's, different nutrients become better avaliable to plants. It's not that potato plant enjoys acidic soil, it enjoys the nutrients that become more bio avaliable in an acidic soil.
I Googled black Scruff on potato skins and it is a fungus. I have the same problem over here in the United States.
Why weren't you able to keep the bags watered more? Just wondering because I love the idea and results from containers and no dig gardens.
Really insightful videos recently. I plan on implementing some of what I learned in this upcoming season, as I've had some of the same issues in my garden. Keep up the awesome content, I look forward to what what you discover in the future!
I put my grow bags in a kiddy pool, which is problem when it rains. Great video.
I have been trying to figure out what was "wrong" with the skin of my potatoes this year. The moment I saw the potatoes with scab I recognised them. Now knowing what to search for it made sense my potatoes developed scabs, since this year was very dry in The Netherlands and especialy in spring when I planted the potatoes. Thanks for this elaborate trial! Very interesting.
A very interesting video, thanks. I grew four different types of potatoes in around 20 plastic tubs ( 30 litres) in my own compost.
The harvest was okay but would have been much better if I had watered the tubs consistently.
You disserve research grants for all the work you do