http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AGRMZ Staking POTATOES Quote To get the potato plants to grow longer, therefore harvesting more potatoes per square foot, try this. Get four bamboo stakes or anything that will double as bamboo stakes, and place them evenly around the potato plant. Then get some strong string and wrap it around the plants at just about the middle of the plant. As the plants grow secure more string around the new growth (when you hill them is a good time). The staked potato plants will grow longer than un-staked plants because hormones are produced when the plants fall over as a signal to stop producing tubers. Staking the plants tricks them into growing longer and producing more potatoes per square foot. Unquote What do potato growers think of this article?
Staking is easy and simple to implement. The author's surmise might have more validity, if some science backed up the statement, that when a potato plant falls over tuber growth is inhibited. It may be simply, that vegetation has less access to sunlight. Closely studying the growth of a potato plant, it as been observed that there are probably larger and more new tubers if there is prolific vegetation. This is just an observation without any controlled experimentation. I will experiment in 2010 to determines if there is any significant difference between staked and not-staked. Then it will be necessary to determine the cause. Meaning more vegetation being exposed, or something more esoteric like hormone generation from vegetation falling over shutting down further growth. The second part is probably impossible to verify in a home garden. Excessive hilling also hides vegetation from exposure to sunlight. But the myth that new tubers grow along the stem of a potato plant has been propagated so often that it is almost universally accepted a being a fact. They don't.
Durgan, you have had two great posting in a row. 1.) The new tomato support ring, and 2) Staking potatoes. I have a large greenhouse, so I am going to try the staking potatoes method this fall. I wonder if the tomato ring could be used on potatoes, instead of staking? Great posts, thanks for the information. - Millet (1,178-)
I was mulling the staking of potatoes and when I found the rings commercially, I thought that one ring at the appropriate height would be perfect for testing. There are other methods of staking, but diddling around tying plants is often irritating work, and the result is often less than ideal.. I tried to make the rings, but it was more cost effective to buy, plus the difficulty of making with limited hand tools, plus getting the construction material was a hassle. Three rings were ordered initially to determine the construction, and after testing, I ordered 60 more for use in the Spring. The shipping cost for three was outrageous.
A reminder: 21 August 2009 How a Potato Plant Grows. 21 August 2009 How a Potato Plant Grows Potato growing test box was opened today. The pictures literally speak for themselves. Clearly there is no advantage in carrying out excessive hilling when growing potatoes. The purpose of hilling is to insure the tubers are covered. For comparison one Pontiac Red was dug in the same row, which was almost identical to the test box potato in appearance. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?PotatoS Summary: Potato Test Box
I have staked up potato plants before, but the reason was to stop the haulms from trailing over paths or smothering lower growing plants nearby, not to stop them producing hormones. This hormone stuff sounds like bulls___, in fact many of my potato plants grow along the ground almost immediately, and many plants grow six foot vines which would be impossible to grow upright without staking. I have never heard of a potato farmer who would stake his plants in the field. The potato plants grow very well this way; I am sure any increase in yield can be attributed either to the fact that the stems suffer less physical damage if they are staked, or that they are potentially less likely to be infected with blight because they are away from the ground which is both damp and the place where blight spores are washed by the rain. I am not sure if there would be much difference in access to sunlight for staked plants vs non-staked, apart, of course, from less vigorous plants that are smothered by the others. Also, I don't think those nine inch rings would be much use to stake potato plants in practice. Given that each potato tuber produces multiple stems, you would be faced with the choice of squeezing all the stems into one series of rings, or using many rings and stakes per planted tuber. In practice I found the best method of staking potatoes to be to put multiple strong bamboo stakes (or equivalent) along each side of the row and run a length of twine along each side of the row, and then add additional lengths of twine across the row and at diagonals to create a network, rather than trying to stake plants individually. As the potato plants grow taller you can make another, higher, network of twine on the existing stakes and so on as they grow. (This summer I even used some of my potted Japanese maples as stake replacements, to surround a small bed of potato plants and hold them upright, with decent enough results, but please don't tell anyone in the maple forum.) Hope this experience helps, if you decide to try staking next year let us know how you get on. Unfortunately I have run out of places to rotate potatoes to in my small garden so won't be growing them next year.
I have a total of about 80 plants, of four varieties. I will ring 8 of each type, which should give me a trend. It would be nice to nip this business in the bud, before it is all over the internet, as to whether it has any merit or not. The rings should give some support and keep the vegetation upright longer. Usually, I just kick the vegetation out of the area of concern. Like most things it doesn't matter whether true, it only has to be perceived as such. A good example is potatoes growing off shoots the length of the part that is hilled. Even some well know garden books depict drawings of this phenomena. It isn't so.
It will be interesting to see what your results are. I have never notice my potato tops falling over. Maybe I need to pay more attention.
The result will be interesting. Please let us know how it goes. I did not grow potatoes this year as I just had no time to get them in. Squash and other vegetables were more important to me this year.
