Potatoes in compost heaps

[Jane]

I obviously managed to get a couple of small potatoes into my compost heap 2 years ago. Last year they produced some good foliage so I decided to leave them and see what they produced. Having emptied the compost heap last week I was amazed at the crop of potatoes, all clean and disease free and no slug damage! I suspect they were Sarpo Axona as I have been growing this for quite a few years now. Given the quality and size of crop I am going to try this with some earlies and maincrop this year. Has anyone else had any success with this method?
Jane

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Jane, one year when i was unable to use one of my open compost heaps, i had a huge crop of potatoes from a couple of self sets that grew in it.

But i have never tried it as an ongoing experiment.

[Monika]

Like OH, we have had the odd ones escape and they have been fine, but I think trying to keep it going would be risky. One day, mice and their larger cousins will discover this easy source of food and move in. I am surprised, too, that slugs had not got to your "crop" already!

[solway cropper]

One thing it does show is the value of compost in producing good yields.

[Marigold]

When I plant in containers I put a thick layer of unrotted kitchen waste at the bottom and the results are great. I read somewhere once of someone growing pumpkins on a whole heap of unrotted kitchen waste and if i can find seed will try that too.
It is all too easy to be suspicious of different ideas.People's faces when I tell them I save seed..

Some of the last bag of roosters have grown long shoots so I shall try this! Thank you..

[peter]

Worked on a farm one summer holiday and one of the old boys grew his marrows on the slurry pit behind the cowshed. He used a plank to get out there, but when we emptied it in August it was about twenty foot deep, stood on the edge looking down at the drot and tractors inside.

[Primrose]

After accidentally throwing a few old wrinkled potatoes onto a compost heap and getting great results, I now put two or three into my maturing heap every spring and get good results. In fact I got better results this way than growing them in dedicated plastic potato sacks, which was a complete waste of time. If you can keep the mice away, then go for it ! One year I grew a very splendid mini plum tomato plant in my heap from an obviously rotted tomato that found its way into it and self seeded, and I have kept the seeds of this variety ever since. The only problem is that my heap is in total shade, but this doesn't seem to have affected the quality of the produce that it accidentally produces.

I do wonder though whether the fact that vegetables have grown in the compost in some way reduces its nutrient value when I come to dig it out & spread on my vegetable patch.

[Jane]

I have often grown courgettes and squash in my compost heaps they generally do very well and keeping the heap moist seems to help with decomposition. The compost when I use it seems to be great, perhaps because it is such a large volume ( a cubic metre at least) the growing plants don't take out all the goodness. I am definately going to try the potatoes

[Marigold]

I'm accumulating old tyres, to the delight of tha garage man who longs to get rid of them, to use as compost bins and planters so will try things in there. NB they have an ulterior purpose as last year four large cattle got in, so the weaker spots in the fence will be blocked in with heaps of tyres etc with interesting things growing in them... There is an old bike in the shed to that will fill in a good space, between tyres, labelled "wheels within wheels" and with nasturtiums all over it.. or beans...

[Stephen]

I use lots of manure. Usually, I dig the tench, bung the spuds in and shovel the muck over the top.

[peter]

Marigold, two tips with tyres.
1 when you think you've filled them with soil/compost you probably haven't, as you have to shove it out into the body where the air goes.
2 if stacking them please remember to make two or three holes and using large washers bolt then together. More then two high, or not a smaller one at each level up, they are unstable even full of soil.


Best I've ever seen with tyres, they'd been mounted on old wheels, wheel right to tyre left, making a goblet style planter.

[Nature's Babe]

I have grown squash, pumpkin, courgettes potatoes and tomatoes on the compost heap in the past, some accidentally some on purpose and they always thrived - our cats ensure mice and rats aren't a problem and I layer as much different components as possible into the compost, card, paper, straw fowl bedding, veg waste / peelings, fish waste, grass clippings weeds nettles, comfrey, tea, coffee grounds etc etc. This year some blue potatoes are going onto the heap.
I think the natural balance of bacteria and fungi in the heap is what helps keep things healthy when growing in the heap.
When the compost is ready and spread as a mulch I then get more surprise plants, self seeding pumpkins, tomatoes, tomatilloes, red orach, and cape gooseberries are not at all unusual.

[Nature's Babe]

added a link about the symbiotic effects from fungi and bacteria.

http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/dept ... heet.shtml

[Marigold]

Marigold, two tips with tyres.
1 when you think you've filled them with soil/compost you probably haven't, as you have to shove it out into the body where the air goes.
2 if stacking them please remember to make two or three holes and using large washers bolt then together. More then two high, or not a smaller one at each level up, they are unstable even full of soil.


Best I've ever seen with tyres, they'd been mounted on old wheels, wheel right to tyre left, making a goblet style planter.

Ah but old hands at this here. Many decades of experience.. Not using them as planters just now as cannot afford compost etc; we are penniless. These are big tyres and very stable in taller stacks. Great too for barriers against putative invaders.