I usually grown vegetables in soil, with compost or other forms of compost added, but this year I took the opportunity of growing potatoes in a wide range of different carbon based materials. This was part of the big potato grow bag trials that we did this year, and some of the plants were very successful and others failed, but I learned a lot about how to get all of these non-soil based growing medium to produce a lot more potatoes.
0:00 Carbon vs Mineral
1:02 A lot of grow bags of potatoes
2:15 A better crop from carbon
3:13 Why is carbon better?
4:02 Water issues
5:10 Issues with municipal compost
6:48 Better compost
7:55 Mushroom compost and woodchip
9:38 Potting and rooftop mix
11:39 Straw and hay
12:57 Nutrients and decomposition
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Part of the Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Tipperary, Ireland http://www.thevillage.ie
25 Comments
A great overview of your trials. Thanks
I know it would be nearly impossible but it would be fascinating to see if the flavour of the potatoes varied depending on the growing medium.
Love your videos thank you for sharing
What is the carbon source in your professional grow mix, coco coir?
Why do people like yourself plant their seeds in pre bought bags of compost?
I have only ever used sieved compost out of my own no dig beds and never had an issue?
Have you experimented with the effect of hilling, it was a " must " that my Mom, Gramma, Grampa all said increased the volume as we come from eastern European farmers, the breadbasket of Europe, as we now see in the current war, my families " old Country" .
Very inspiring to see all of this. If it wasn't for the fact that it is almost winter, one would want to rush outside and start planting right away. I believe that I made too many mistakes last year. Armed with this knowledge I hope to improve on my harvest results. Thanks!
I´m repeating myself but i just need you to know that your videos are very much appreciated. Amazing stuff!
Next year you should try some slightly aged horse manure mixed with bedding wood shavings hay or straw.
I predict that Round 2 with the same compost is going to be better.
✌️😎
I swear i've seen this exact same video like 5 times now.
stupid question: why not intentionally poke a hole in the bag and make the plant root in the ground soil, so it would sip water from ground soil and the nutrients from the bag soil.
Slow decomposing carbon, do you think something like oak leaves would work?
Have you tried keeping chickens for fertilizer (nitrogen)?
My main compost is chicken coop soiled pine shavings with kitchen waste, my secondary compost is all the leaves (red & white oak and maple).
It's funny you keep dropping potato videos when I'm trying to figure something out with my potatoes.
My potato harvest was dismal this year, deer ate the leaves of all potatoes. I had no idea deer would eat nightshade family.
This potato saga is fantastic 🥔🥔🥔🥔
Go Urine!
Do you have a video on your organic fertilizer mix?
Having just created new beds with spoiled straw, this highlights how essential it will be to get nitrogen on the straw asap so it can break down before spring planting.
I'm consistently impressed how well your Irish climate applies to my Pacific Northwest US growing! Your experience and analysis is greatly appreciated
What general purpose fertilizer is that?
I really appreciate this trial
It might not be a 100% scientific but it is close enough to make some conclusions.
I need a good dataset to boost my next year potatoe harvest.
Last year I messed up and ruined everything by Listening to some bad tips. Potatoes might be a beginner friendly crop but as for all root/bulb vegetables it is often a black box.
They grew very well, the foliage looked fine but there seemed to be some problem nevertheless.
This time I try to incorporate someone the results of your trial.
Increase nutrient uptake and a change in placement.
Pretty sure it was the lack of sun but a grow bag could solve this.
I wanted to avoid growing in bags but the property I work on makes this a necessity I guess.
Best wishes from the continent 🙂
And thanks
This is the best series since GoT
I'm curious how that municipal compost is made. Without actually seeing, feeling, smelling it in person it's hard to tell but it seems… inert/sterile. If it's made very quickly at very high temperatures this might kill off a lot of the microbes, fungi, beneficial bacteria, etc. then it's left to sit in bags and doesn't have a chance to become inoculated. Could explain the slow start that those plants had.
Another great demonstation, thankyou! Seems the best way to get the benefits of container growing regardless of medium is to allow roots access to the soil beneath the containers!
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Another great video thanks, also how big those grow bags are?
To me the main take away from all this I that you have confirmed my suspicion that fresh community compost is just not that good, that it needs to break down more before being of much use and needs amending. I have been so disappointed with the results where I spread that kind of compost thinking it would be great (based on different renowned growers' recommendations who say they only use compost and nothing else). So thank you for doing these experiments, it has helped me to understand much better why things work or don't.