IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS FOR LARGE WOOD HEATING IN A LARGE SPACE:
http://www.vogelzang.com/MiscAcc/barrelStove-accessories.htm
Sunday, April 12, 2009
HOW TO GROW POTATOES IN A CONFINED SPACE
GOT THIS POTATO GROWING ARTICLE FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES (BE SURE AND LOOK AT THE ATTACHED PICS). SOME HIPPEE CAME UP WITH A NOVEL IDEA TO MAXIMIZE PRODUCTION IN A LOW SPACE AREA:
It's not Idaho, but you still can grow potatoes
By John B. Saul
Special to The Seattle Times
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JOHN SAUL
The potatoes are planted inside the box, the first row of boards is installed and the dirt or mulch can now be added to cover the seed potatoes. As the plant grows, more boards and dirt will be added.
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You don't need your own private Idaho to grow potatoes.
Greg Lutovsky, who has been growing potatoes as a business since 1993, says you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet. All it takes is some lumber, seed potatoes and careful attention to watering.
In Western Washington, potatoes can be planted as late as Aug. 1, with a harvest sometime in November, said Lutovsky. He now grows seed potatoes for the wholesale market after operating Garden City Seeds in Thorp, Kittitas County, with his wife, Sue, for the past decade.
In fact, gardeners who got in an early planting in April can now get started on their second crop.
A usual method of growing potatoes is to dig a trench, plant the seed potatoes in the bottom and then shovel the dirt back in as the plant grows, covering about a third of it.
"A lot of people think you plant a potato and that the new ones grow below it, but that's not so," Lutovsky said. "Potatoes grow between the seed piece and the above-ground plant."
So in the trench method, the new potatoes develop in the soil that is shoveled back in.
Potato pointers
Here are some growing tips from Greg Lutovsky:
• Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant.
• Dust the cut pieces with fir dust, which seals the open ends from bacteria.
• Fertilize with 10-20-20 fertilizer at planting and a couple of times during the season.
• Water so that the plants are kept at an even level of moisture.
• Don't plant in the same area in consecutive years or use the same soil to fill your potato box, as potatoes can attract various diseases.
• His recommended potato varieties for Western Washington include: Yellow Finn, Yukon Gold, Caribe, Red Pontiac and Red Lasoda.
To save space, Lutovsky recommends building a box and planting inside it, adding sides to the box as the plant grows and filling the new space with mulch or soil.
When the plant blossoms, it starts setting potatoes in this added soil. Soon after that, you can start removing the bottom boards from your box and "robbing" the plant, reaching in carefully and pulling out new potatoes.
Unless you steal all of them during the growing season, in the fall you should end up with a box of spuds — as much as 100 pounds, said Lutovsky.
Watering at an even rate is especially important when growing potatoes in a box, he said, since they will dry out faster in the container than in the ground.
"Don't drown and then let the potatoes dry out. Repeating that cycle throughout the year is a guarantee that you'll grow knobby, scabby potatoes," Lutovsky said.
Your full potato crop is ready to be harvested when frost kills the tops. Or, in the absence of frost, you can cut off the tops yourself, wait 10 days to two weeks for the skins to firm up and then take your box apart completely, sorting the potatoes from the soil.
Fall and winter temperatures and humidity in Western Washington are ideal for storing potatoes, and you can keep potatoes in a paper sack or basket in a garage.
Material for the box can be expensive, depending on the type of wood you choose. But the box can be used for several years if you buy wood that won't rot easily despite being out in weather.
You can also plant potatoes in solid containers, but you won't be able to rob the new potatoes as they are ready.
Or, you can plant potatoes in a tire lying on the ground and stack on new ones as the plant grows, filling each new tier with dirt. But again, you can't rob your plant.
And there's another drawback: Get that many tires in your yard and you're bound to end up the subject of a Jeff Foxworthy joke.
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
It's not Idaho, but you still can grow potatoes
By John B. Saul
Special to The Seattle Times
PREV | 2 of 2 | NEXT
Enlarge this photo
JOHN SAUL
The potatoes are planted inside the box, the first row of boards is installed and the dirt or mulch can now be added to cover the seed potatoes. As the plant grows, more boards and dirt will be added.
Enlarge this photo
E-mail article
Print view
Search
Most e-mailed
Most read
RSS
You don't need your own private Idaho to grow potatoes.
Greg Lutovsky, who has been growing potatoes as a business since 1993, says you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet. All it takes is some lumber, seed potatoes and careful attention to watering.
In Western Washington, potatoes can be planted as late as Aug. 1, with a harvest sometime in November, said Lutovsky. He now grows seed potatoes for the wholesale market after operating Garden City Seeds in Thorp, Kittitas County, with his wife, Sue, for the past decade.
In fact, gardeners who got in an early planting in April can now get started on their second crop.
A usual method of growing potatoes is to dig a trench, plant the seed potatoes in the bottom and then shovel the dirt back in as the plant grows, covering about a third of it.
"A lot of people think you plant a potato and that the new ones grow below it, but that's not so," Lutovsky said. "Potatoes grow between the seed piece and the above-ground plant."
So in the trench method, the new potatoes develop in the soil that is shoveled back in.
Potato pointers
Here are some growing tips from Greg Lutovsky:
• Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant.
• Dust the cut pieces with fir dust, which seals the open ends from bacteria.
• Fertilize with 10-20-20 fertilizer at planting and a couple of times during the season.
• Water so that the plants are kept at an even level of moisture.
• Don't plant in the same area in consecutive years or use the same soil to fill your potato box, as potatoes can attract various diseases.
• His recommended potato varieties for Western Washington include: Yellow Finn, Yukon Gold, Caribe, Red Pontiac and Red Lasoda.
To save space, Lutovsky recommends building a box and planting inside it, adding sides to the box as the plant grows and filling the new space with mulch or soil.
When the plant blossoms, it starts setting potatoes in this added soil. Soon after that, you can start removing the bottom boards from your box and "robbing" the plant, reaching in carefully and pulling out new potatoes.
Unless you steal all of them during the growing season, in the fall you should end up with a box of spuds — as much as 100 pounds, said Lutovsky.
Watering at an even rate is especially important when growing potatoes in a box, he said, since they will dry out faster in the container than in the ground.
"Don't drown and then let the potatoes dry out. Repeating that cycle throughout the year is a guarantee that you'll grow knobby, scabby potatoes," Lutovsky said.
Your full potato crop is ready to be harvested when frost kills the tops. Or, in the absence of frost, you can cut off the tops yourself, wait 10 days to two weeks for the skins to firm up and then take your box apart completely, sorting the potatoes from the soil.
Fall and winter temperatures and humidity in Western Washington are ideal for storing potatoes, and you can keep potatoes in a paper sack or basket in a garage.
Material for the box can be expensive, depending on the type of wood you choose. But the box can be used for several years if you buy wood that won't rot easily despite being out in weather.
You can also plant potatoes in solid containers, but you won't be able to rob the new potatoes as they are ready.
Or, you can plant potatoes in a tire lying on the ground and stack on new ones as the plant grows, filling each new tier with dirt. But again, you can't rob your plant.
And there's another drawback: Get that many tires in your yard and you're bound to end up the subject of a Jeff Foxworthy joke.
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
Monday, March 30, 2009
HOW TO GIT 'ER DONE - 1870'S STYLE
ANYONE THAT KNOWS ME WELL KNOWS THAT I JUST CONVERTED AROUND $40K OF MY "FOUR OH-OH NONE" OKAY.... INTO SOMETHING THAT CAN BE USED TO GET BY ON.
SHAWNA AND COMPANY WAS QUITE ASTOUNDED AT HOW QUICKLY I COULD BLOW THAT MUCH CASH ON "THE GOOD STUFF" - THE STUFF I ALWAYS WANTED TO GET BUT NEVER HAD THE IMPETUS TO STEP UP AND INVEST IN. LIKE I HAVE ALWAYS SAID, "THE ONLY GOOD THING A GREENBACK WILL BE WORTH ONE DAY IS TO WIPE YOUR POSTERIOR OR AS A FIRE STARTER." I THINK THAT DAY IS EITHER HERE OR FAST APPROACHING.....
SO I CONVERTED GREENBACKS TO USEFUL ASSETS. THIS SURVIVAL SITE PUTS TOGETHER A NICE LIST OF THE USEFUL TANGIBLES. THINGS THAT CAN BE USED TO GROW A GARDEN, HEAT A LIVING SPACE, GET FUEL, STAY WARM, KEEP FROM GETTING SICK, STAY WARM WHEN OUTDOORS IN ADVERSE WEATHER, AND PICK OFF A VARMINT OR TWO (OR 12,000) TO GET SOMETHING FOR THE POT '0 STEW....
MY MORE TREASURED ITEMS INCLUDES A PORTABLE (80LB) CAMP STOVE WITH A 3 GALLON STAINLESS STEEL WATER JACKET, TWO SOLAR OVENS, TWO PORTABLE CAMP OVENS THAT I CAN USE TO BAKE FOUR LOAVES OF BREAD ON THE TOP OF THE PORTABLE CAMP STOVE, TWO GERMAN CROSS-CUT TWO MAN SAWS FOR BUCKING LOGS INTO FIRE WOOD AND ALL OF THE TOOLS USED IN "ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS" TO MAKE A MORE PERMANENT SHELTER. THE GOAL IS TO HAVE APPROXIMATELY ENOUGH FOOD FOR UP TO SEVEN YEARS (STARTING SMALL IF YOU ARE NOT THERE YET MAY BE TOO LATE - BUT PRAY ABOUT IT AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELVES FOR YOUR INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES). IT MAY BE TIME TO THINK QUITE BIG AND ACT QUICKLY....
SILVER/GOLD ALSO COMES IN HANDY AS A BARTER ITEM UNTIL FOOD BECOMES SO SCARCE THAT 'YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO TRADE A CAT FOR A PILE OF GOLD' TO LOOSELY QUOTE BRIGHAM YOUNG.
DOES IT SOUND LIKE I HAVE TOTALLY FLIPPED OUT?? I WOULD SAY YES. BUT THEN, I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A VERY CONSERVATIVE GAMBLER (READ - NONE) AND I WILL LEAVE THE RISK TO OTHERS WITH MORE NERVES OR STUPIDITY. JUST TO ILLUSTRATE, I LOST A WHOPPING 1% IN THE LAST 2 YEARS OF "DOWN JONES" NIGHTMARE (MOSTLY ON SOME BOEING STOCK...), WHILE MOST OF MY COMPADRES LOST ON THE ORDER OF 40%. THIS IS PRECISELY WHY I STILL HAD SOMETHING LEFT TO INVEST IN A FEW TANGIBLES....
LIKE I HAVE BEEN ASKING PEOPLE LATELY, "HOW IS YOUR FOOD STORAGE?". I HAVE FINALLY PUT MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS AND MADE BETTER THAN MY USUAL RESPONSE OF "YEAH, I PROBABLY HAVE AROUND 3 MONTHS WORTH...".
MY GREATEST MOTIVATION IS HAVING SEEN SUFFERING CHILDREN IN BRAZIL. I DO NOT WANT TO PUT MY OWN IN THAT SITUATION DUE TO MY OWN LACK OF CONCERN. I CANNOT THINK OF A GREATER PERSONAL HELL THAN WATCHING MY OWN PROGENY SUFFER - WHEN I COULD HAVE HEEDED THE SIMPLE WHISPERINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JUST GOOD OLD FASHIONED COMMON SENSE.
AT SOME POINT I WILL GET TOGETHER SOME DIGI PICS AND DO SOME NICE YOUTUBES OF THE WHOLE ASSEMBLED PILE OF STUFF TO GIVE A FLAVOR OF WHAT I HAVE DONE.
SHAWNA AND COMPANY WAS QUITE ASTOUNDED AT HOW QUICKLY I COULD BLOW THAT MUCH CASH ON "THE GOOD STUFF" - THE STUFF I ALWAYS WANTED TO GET BUT NEVER HAD THE IMPETUS TO STEP UP AND INVEST IN. LIKE I HAVE ALWAYS SAID, "THE ONLY GOOD THING A GREENBACK WILL BE WORTH ONE DAY IS TO WIPE YOUR POSTERIOR OR AS A FIRE STARTER." I THINK THAT DAY IS EITHER HERE OR FAST APPROACHING.....
SO I CONVERTED GREENBACKS TO USEFUL ASSETS. THIS SURVIVAL SITE PUTS TOGETHER A NICE LIST OF THE USEFUL TANGIBLES. THINGS THAT CAN BE USED TO GROW A GARDEN, HEAT A LIVING SPACE, GET FUEL, STAY WARM, KEEP FROM GETTING SICK, STAY WARM WHEN OUTDOORS IN ADVERSE WEATHER, AND PICK OFF A VARMINT OR TWO (OR 12,000) TO GET SOMETHING FOR THE POT '0 STEW....
MY MORE TREASURED ITEMS INCLUDES A PORTABLE (80LB) CAMP STOVE WITH A 3 GALLON STAINLESS STEEL WATER JACKET, TWO SOLAR OVENS, TWO PORTABLE CAMP OVENS THAT I CAN USE TO BAKE FOUR LOAVES OF BREAD ON THE TOP OF THE PORTABLE CAMP STOVE, TWO GERMAN CROSS-CUT TWO MAN SAWS FOR BUCKING LOGS INTO FIRE WOOD AND ALL OF THE TOOLS USED IN "ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS" TO MAKE A MORE PERMANENT SHELTER. THE GOAL IS TO HAVE APPROXIMATELY ENOUGH FOOD FOR UP TO SEVEN YEARS (STARTING SMALL IF YOU ARE NOT THERE YET MAY BE TOO LATE - BUT PRAY ABOUT IT AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELVES FOR YOUR INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES). IT MAY BE TIME TO THINK QUITE BIG AND ACT QUICKLY....
SILVER/GOLD ALSO COMES IN HANDY AS A BARTER ITEM UNTIL FOOD BECOMES SO SCARCE THAT 'YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO TRADE A CAT FOR A PILE OF GOLD' TO LOOSELY QUOTE BRIGHAM YOUNG.
DOES IT SOUND LIKE I HAVE TOTALLY FLIPPED OUT?? I WOULD SAY YES. BUT THEN, I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A VERY CONSERVATIVE GAMBLER (READ - NONE) AND I WILL LEAVE THE RISK TO OTHERS WITH MORE NERVES OR STUPIDITY. JUST TO ILLUSTRATE, I LOST A WHOPPING 1% IN THE LAST 2 YEARS OF "DOWN JONES" NIGHTMARE (MOSTLY ON SOME BOEING STOCK...), WHILE MOST OF MY COMPADRES LOST ON THE ORDER OF 40%. THIS IS PRECISELY WHY I STILL HAD SOMETHING LEFT TO INVEST IN A FEW TANGIBLES....
LIKE I HAVE BEEN ASKING PEOPLE LATELY, "HOW IS YOUR FOOD STORAGE?". I HAVE FINALLY PUT MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS AND MADE BETTER THAN MY USUAL RESPONSE OF "YEAH, I PROBABLY HAVE AROUND 3 MONTHS WORTH...".
MY GREATEST MOTIVATION IS HAVING SEEN SUFFERING CHILDREN IN BRAZIL. I DO NOT WANT TO PUT MY OWN IN THAT SITUATION DUE TO MY OWN LACK OF CONCERN. I CANNOT THINK OF A GREATER PERSONAL HELL THAN WATCHING MY OWN PROGENY SUFFER - WHEN I COULD HAVE HEEDED THE SIMPLE WHISPERINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JUST GOOD OLD FASHIONED COMMON SENSE.
AT SOME POINT I WILL GET TOGETHER SOME DIGI PICS AND DO SOME NICE YOUTUBES OF THE WHOLE ASSEMBLED PILE OF STUFF TO GIVE A FLAVOR OF WHAT I HAVE DONE.
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