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New life hack (lemmy.world)
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[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

Neighbor tried to plant potatoes. She got about six pounds worth of top and no tuber.

We spent weeks debugging and still don't know what went wrong.

[-] HatFullOfSky@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

Potatoes you have to keep mounding up with dirt to force the plant to grow more roots (tubers) instead of the leafy tops.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago
[-] Nimrod@lemm.ee 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Potato tubers are not actually roots. They are modified stems. So the surest way to force more potatoes is to “hill” them. In the commercial fields this is done with a huge tractor raking soil from in between planting rows and piling it up on the plants. You essentially bury the plants stem as it grows taller. Then the buds on the stem will push out stolons (horizontal underground stems.) these will terminate in tubers, aka: potatoes!

Source: did potato disease research for my PhD.

Additional edit: loose/sandy soil is critical. Too dense of soil and your tubers can’t expand well.

[-] uis@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago

Alert: agronomist infiltrated the chat

[-] Nimrod@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Hacker voice: “I’m in 😎”

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago

Does this apply to any other root vegetables? Beets?

[-] Nimrod@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

Warning: I am not a beet expert. But I believe beets are actual roots. Just like carrots. And I think you only get one beer per plant? Burying the stem would just make it harder for new leaves to come up.

Potatoes are pretty unique in this sense. Even sweet potatoes are not the same.

[-] Doolbs@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Don't plant them too close to each other. It doesn't work.

[-] PiratePanPan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 years ago

six pounds worth of top

Where is this neighbor located? Asking for a friend 👀

[-] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

All stems and leaves and flowers and shit. But no potatoes growing in the roots of the plants.

Thanks. Is that unusual? I always assumed potatoes were an easy grow.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

That is unusual, because yeah, potatoes are easy to grow

[-] AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

The leafy top is called a haulm and on commercial farms the harvester has a header that removes the haulm before the main part of the harvester scoops up the potatoes. Anyone who's played Farming Simulator is familiar with these machines, such as the Ropa Panther 2.

this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
1737 points (99.3% liked)

Microblog Memes

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