For those who asked about my potato bins . . they didn’t do so well but we learned from the experience.
They had bottoms. There were 3 or 4 planks of wood with about 1/8″ space between them. Vince drilled a couple of additional holes for drainage but because the bins sat a couple of inches off the ground, weeds promptly grew straight through the holes/spaces and blocked all drainage. We planted the potatoes in April and promptly had monsoons! Everything sprouted nicely but not long after the rains kept coming, and all my plants rotted. I replanted but only with the seed potatoes that I had left and they weren’t in very good condition. I was hoping to get about 200 pounds of potatoes and I might have gotten 40 pounds.
Next year, we’re going to remove the bottom altogether from the bins and put several inches of sand in the bottom, then add the dirt. Once the potatoes are planted, I’m going to add a mixture of sand, soil and peat moss on top of them until we get to our dry season. Then I’ll add straw on top. The straw kinda acted as a sponge and kept things even wetter than it was from the rains in the spring/early summer but by mid-summer, it’s dry enough normally that anything that holds moisture in will be welcome.
We also had an ant problem. They ate the potatoes, carrots and beets. We don’t want to use poison around root crops especially but we’re going to have to do some research and see what we can do about the ants. We tried cinnamon, baking soda, oil and I can’t remember what else. We definitely lost the ant battle this year but we haven’t surrendered yet! Next year we’ll be ready for them . . I hope.
So, we will try the potato bins again year.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
If you haven’t already tried it – DH has decided cayenne pepper solves almost all of his garden pests problems.
Rita E in AZ
Don’t think we tried that last year but we’ll try it next year. Thanks!
Ants: did you try diatomaceous earth?
It’s not recommended to use with bees around . . not that the bees are around anymore but we’ll have new hives for spring.
if you have an Ace Hardware store nearby, check and see if they still carry a product called Taro. we’ve had good luck with that, because one application kills the entire colony. all you have to do is find the ant hole and sprinkle some around the entrance. the ants take it in as food, and voila, no more ants.
if the ant holes are in your garden bed, try boiling water.
I use that around the edge of the house on the outside.
thought of you today while i was in wal-mart and saw a whole 1/4 rack of green shirts for $3 each.
Judy, we grow pototoes in bales of hay. You start w/1 layer, then add soil and more hay as they grow. We harvested a lot like this. When it’s time to harvest, it’s easy to disassemble and the spuds just fall out. We found out about by doing a Google search. Hilary
You may want to check out companion plantings for next year. A couple sites I checked indicated that ants do not like mints, wormwood, lavender and onion. But you do need to check the various sites/books because of everything you do plant. Otherwise, you might have a bad companion planting!
I don’t know if the “yard police” will like it, but I have grown potatoes in old tires. Like the bales of hay mentioned above, you fill one with dirt, plant and add more and fill as the plants grow. Then just knock over the stack and pick-up the potatoes.
I know my “southern” is showing, but not only are grits good to eat, but if you sprinkle dry grits around any ant hill you might have it kills off the whole colony.
As you know, but for your readers who may not know, Louisiana has fire ants. Horrible things……………Someone told me to use club soda. Mix up the hill with a rake and pour the club soda on all over the hill. I didn’t have club soda, but I had some out of date sprite and pepsi. So, I did that. The ants disappeared. I don’t know if they died or they left but no more fire ants.
I know you probably want to eat your grits but sprinkle dry grits on their mound. They eat them and the grits expand….my Mother does this all the time and it works.
What I really want to know is how is the cheese making coming along?
We tried a mixture of 1/2 borax and 1/2 powdered sugar and sprinkled around the ant beds and wherever their paths were. Seemed to work ok, not as good as poison but safe for around edibles I read.
Thanks for the update. Looks like we needed to blend out weather this year. We didn’t get enough rain here in the Northeast. DH likes to grow sweet potatoes. It sounds much easier using bales of hay than digging them up.
I’ve heard boric acid works and I haven’t heard any bad reports about it.
Sorry to hear your potatoes didn’t do well this year. I think the sand idea under the bottomless bins will work well unless you have gophers get into the bins somehow.
We use “Terro” ant bait outside. Small slim ant bait traps. They work great. Check them out. We have them under the house and anyplace we notice ants. You can camouflage them with a flower pot or board.
I get ants every spring in the house (everywhere downstairs) and I mix up borax (boracic acid) powder and sugar, then put it in little heaps inside those plastic ant bait traps (they’re like little round pin boxes with holes for ants to go in & out) on the ant trail. I do the same outside too. I use the bait traps because I don’t want anything else (like bees etc) who might be attracted to the sugar to get to it.
I find it works really well. Much better than rushing around squashing them! or pouring boiling water on them!
As you’ve got bees though and it’s got sugar in the mix, check with your bee man – I’d hate to be the cause of a hive death!