I planted 5 lbs of red seed potatoes in a 15′ box and harvest almost 50 lbs of nice sized red potatoes. I did not mound or hill the potatoes. I fed them once a week and let the automatic watering…
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Red Potato Harvest: How I Got 10X Yield

| Gardening Education | 24 Comments
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24 Comments

  • jus4funtim

    This video is a more then a year old and food prices have risen since then
    but, I just bought a 10 Lb bag of red potatoes for .99 cents. Non GMO, no
    beat up potatoes in the bag so, I won’t be growing potatoes any time soon.?

  • Derek Miller

    Thank you for posting your results on your potato grow. I’m into my third
    year of growing potatoes and my yields are nothing near what you are
    pulling up in sand & sawdust. Cooler climates usually have better success
    with potatoes, but you seem to be doing just great. i think some of your
    commenters forget that a lot of potato varieties are not available in
    grocery stores & farmers markets. The quality greatly outweighs anything
    you can buy through a supermarket chain. You can also get an inexpensive
    belt sander or, mulcher, or chop saw to cut tree & woody tree branches
    from pruning that make great source of toxin free sawdust.?

  • D. Hansel

    The initial setup up of the garden is a one time thing. He can reuse the
    irrigation equipment and most everything else.
    When I was growing up we had 3 – 3 acre gardens and used a Farm-all Cub
    tractor to make the furrows and plow the weeds and grass.
    As for irrigation …. well we did not have it. The gardens were from 1/4
    mile to 2 miles from the house.
    I was the one to drive the tractor using a middle buster to dig the
    potatoes up. many times we would get 1,500 lbs of potatoes.
    Those were the days…?

  • Jeffrey Sokol

    You get impressive yields. However, I’m not at all impressed by your
    methodology. As a prepper, one should strive to be as sustainable as
    possible. Your method of using chemical fertilizer and secret sauce is not
    at all sustainable, and definitely is hazardous to any kind of soil life.
    Go “Back to Eden”…God didn’t intend you to live this way. This is little
    better than any chemically induced store bought garbage.?

  • dellasmom

    Did you know that pressure treated lumber contains many chemicals including
    arsenic that will leach into the soil when it is rained on or gets wet from
    your watering system, and potatoes in particular will take up whatever is
    in the soil since they are a root crop. Same with any other root crop
    including carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes, beets, etc. You really should
    replace all of the sand/sawdust soil and start again fresh and use non
    treated lumber for all of your garden construction.?

  • Robert Krohmer

    Good job on the harvest. I have been growing potatoes in the garden, in
    pots inside and out side, and in the compost pile. I get a small harvest
    from every location with little effort. In pots and in the compost I plant
    kitchen cuttings and I am very pleased with the results. In the garden I
    like using seed potatoes. I would recommend you place your potatoes out in
    a sunny window and get them to sprout. When you see the first sprout pop
    up, knock it off. Then watch as the potato will send out bunches of
    sprouts, and this is when you plant them. The more sprouts, the more stems,
    the more potatoes, simple really. And as mentioned earlier, mound them too.
    Keep dig’en.?

  • Vicki Olson

    I see what you are doing but am not impressed. When you look at the
    expense of your chemicals and nutrients, added to the cost of building and
    maintaining your watering system, plus the fact that this is not a
    sustainable method of gardening….you will always be dependent on adding
    the nutrients etc….I just think that there is a better way. I am
    referring to back to eden combined with a lasagna method. I build my bed
    in layers starting from the ground up using whatever types of green and
    brown that I can find and end up with wood chips on the top. You don’t
    have to mound potatoes in a back to eden garden either, but you don’t have
    to add any additional nutrients with maybe the exception of bone meal if
    you are planting in a newly built bed that has not over wintered and
    started the breaking down process. Because the wood chips retain moisture
    and gather in new moisture each evening from the dew and feed it to the
    plants as they need it, you have little or no watering to do. I wish
    someone would do both methods at the same time and compare results. My
    money is on back to eden. And even if they were equal in production I
    would choose back to eden because you are building a permanent and
    sustainable system that does not require the purchasing of new and
    expensive fertilizer every season. Also with the ‘m’ method you end up
    having to replace your sand and sawdust every three years or so which is
    hardly sustainable….according to the research I have done. I have
    gardened using the lasagna method and back to eden method for over 40 years
    now as well as experimenting with some of the fad methods of gardening that
    come and go and I always end up going back to the sustainable lasagna and
    back to eden methods. They work in container gardening in small urban
    settings also. I have personally had a 15 to 1 potato harvest using the
    back to eden method. I only wish I had documented it in photos.
    ……darn. ?

  • conservativetothecor

    Youve got my curiousity peaked for this Mid Atlantic gardening method. My
    mother did organic and made her own mix…but sand and sawdust? She would
    probably laugh. Makes sense that it would be lighter and hinder growth
    less. ?

  • mrshammerhankus

    i have access to pond and spring water, compost from my wooded area, leaf
    mulch-some maple, some oak, some pine needles. huge amount of mulched
    leaves from two years of saving. a patch with sun…ugh…mostly shade. AND
    a huge desire to grow my own food and can or dehydrate it. i am new to
    country. i did raised beds in city with success, but never root plants.
    about 2 acres of shade. about 1 acre of water fed run off from Amish farms
    in sunlight-that part is hard soil. my shade part is soft. My pumpkins in
    hard soil were fantastic. but i want FOOD! any suggestions? i kill
    everything it seems. but this year, hope to get better. i love to cook for
    others…but it would be nice to cut the bill?

  • OhHowHappyGardener

    That’s awesome. It has been said that a good potato farmer can get 10lbs
    of potatoes for every pound they plant. I’d say you are close enough.
    Great job!?

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