Plowing out the tater patch

[Spots]

I figured some of you guys might enjoy this stuff. We harnessed up our Belgian Big John this morning, and started plowing around 7:30 am. We only plowed out about ten bushel, half we normally plant. We did the majority of it with me plowing, and dad driving, just makes it easier when the horse is only put under harness a few times a year due to time restraints.

Waiting to start plowing

Everyone picking up while I hold the horse and take a smoke break

Dad clucking to the John

Plowing in action

Double shovel plow, and my nephew farmer in training

[Will Carry]

MAN! That is the coolest thing I have seen in many a year. Every child in Tennessee should know what your children have seen. We used to perform in the Mule Day Parade in Columbia TN. I have seen a $10,000 set of mules and those animals can do a lot of work and they don't need gas!

[Spots]

$10,000 is a high dollar set of mules. We've got $650 in Big John. I'm looking for a team of Belgian drafts right now. I'd like to have two close to Big Johns size, he's 2200+ lbs and a lil over 16 hh. None of those kids are mine, I'm to young for kids still, I'm only 24. But I do realize now how lucky I got growing up working horses, doing blacksmith work, traditional wood work. I learned about a lot of dying arts from my Dad, who grew up with them as a way of life.

[RED333]

A true ground pounder if I ever saw one, good times there.

Thanks much for shairing!

[quietguy]

I have a buddy that still keeps a team of mules for logging duty. It is pretty amazing to see someone (who knows what they are doing) work them. It actually helps him quite a bit in his business, because he doesn't do near the damage to the property.

[gregintenn]

My potatoes were good sized this year, but not nearly as many of them as normal. I dug mine with a boring old tractor. Good pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[Spots]

My potatoes were good sized this year, but not nearly as many of them as normal. I dug mine with a boring old tractor. Good pictures! Thanks for sharing.

We had several big taters, but our quantity was way down below normal. Also noticed we had quiet a few big ones that were hollowed out, from rot and bugs which is also pretty unusual for us. Thanks for all the positive comments guys

[Trekbike]

Pretty cool stuff. One thing is for sure, if we ever get hit with an EMP, the horse will still work and help you get your food harvested.

[jtmaze]

When I was about 7yrs old my grandfather sold his tractor and bought a horse to plow his garden with. He said there were two reasons for this. He enjoyed working the horse and he could get more per acre with a horse.

JTM

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[TrickyNicky]

Man Spots looks like you all are having a blast. Ive always thought alot of the forgotten arts arent really so much forgotten as most people think, glad to see some people living the life.

My fathers taught me a hell of a lot about many things, unfortunately blacksmithing wasn't one of them. I'm envious.

[dlm37015]

MAN! That is the coolest thing I have seen in many a year. Every child in Tennessee should know what your children have seen. We used to perform in the Mule Day Parade in Columbia TN. I have seen a $10,000 set of mules and those animals can do a lot of work and they don't need gas!

but they have gas pretty regular

[leroy]

Spots:________________

The pictures remind me of when i wuz a boy; and that's been a long time ago. Used to help my grandad dig taters just the same way. What a wonderful window into the "old time ways" in a time when lots of folks think that taters come from the supermarket. Thanks for posting the great pictures.

leroy

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

I love a huge Draft.

Its becoming the norm that these pictures only are seen on mule days and some other special day. Would love to see this way more often

Very nice pictures and I think the harvest would taste so much better

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

but they have gas pretty regular

I rather smell farm smells.. cow poo, horse poo.. anything organic than a smelly ole diesel engine or chemicals being sprayed on the land..

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Got a really dumb question tho.....

Can you just stick taters that you got in a bag at the grocery store into the ground and they make more taters? or is there a special planting one you have to get first?

I seen corn and stuff at the co op to plant.. but never taters..

[tdot4q]

Growing up in Smithville, my Father would hire a man to plow the garden for us with a mule. He would pay the man for his work, but do the plowing himself. He missed working mules that bad. As a child, I thought that was rediculous, but now I understand.

[Dennis1209]

Now that's being a farmer!

I planted potato's for the first time in my life just before last St. Patrick's Day. I planted about 150 hills and started harvesting them toward the end of July when the above ground foliage was about dead. Had no choice as the weeds were about to take over.

The soil around here can become like concrete with no rain and dug them out by hand. Don't know if I did anything wrong but, I only got about three bushel's of tatters total with the occasional normal baking size?

I hear horse manure is much better than cow manure for a garden due to it's being better digested and the seeds in it can't germinate?

You have a nice garden!

Best of Luck.

[Dennis1209]

Got a really dumb question tho.....

Can you just stick taters that you got in a bag at the grocery store into the ground and they make more taters? or is there a special planting one you have to get first?

I seen corn and stuff at the co op to plant.. but never taters..

No such thing as a dumb gardening question.

I'm by no means an experienced potato farmer, as this was my first year planting them, but I'll tell you what I've learned, heard and tried.

Our co-op carries "seed potato's" both red and white prior to St. Patrick's Day. As I've "heard" they should be planted on or by St. Pat's day and something about full / dark moon? The more eyes on the seed potato the better. I went back to the co-op around end of April first part of May to get some more to plant, and they were long since sold out.

I've heard store bough tatters are not very productive due to not many "eyes" in them and they are most likely genetically modified and do not take well if at all.

I planted two rows of about 75 hills per row and saw an amazing difference between rows and production. In row #1 I quartered the seed potato and planted. I was getting tired and bored so in row #2, I halved them and planted them. Long story short, row #2 grew much bigger, looked better, and produced more and bigger tatters.

I'm in the learning process myself with tatters.

Oh yea! I planted both red and white potato's. The reds are a pain to peel, have those pesky eyes you have to dig out when peeling but, IMO taste better than the whites? Seems I got bigger and more whites than I did red tatters.

Just my humbling first experience with planting them.

Best of luck next season.

[JAB]

When I was a kid my dad had a tractor that he usually used to plow the garden. He got into mule or horse drawn wagons/buggies, (began building his own) though, so he ended up keeping a team of mules or horses most of the time (mom actually had a silhouette of him driving one of his wagons being pulled by one of his teams put on his tombstone.) He worked mules, etc. as a kid so he got a plow and used a horse or mule to cut the rows in the garden for a couple of years. He made it look simple - hot, sweaty but simple. I took a few turns, too. His rows were nice and straight. The ones I cut were not - especially until I got the hang of it. Anyhow, I am at least glad to be able to say I've done it.

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Now that's being a farmer!

I planted potato's for the first time in my life just before last St. Patrick's Day. I planted about 150 hills and started harvesting them toward the end of July when the above ground foliage was about dead. Had no choice as the weeds were about to take over.

The soil around here can become like concrete with no rain and dug them out by hand. Don't know if I did anything wrong but, I only got about three bushel's of tatters total with the occasional normal baking size?

I hear horse manure is much better than cow manure for a garden due to it's being better digested and the seeds in it can't germinate?

You have a nice garden!

Best of Luck.

Actually.. our barn has a huge pile of manure.. from horses only.. and stuff will grow out of them.. if its sits to long.. there are corn stalks and whatnot in there.. so it will germinate at some point..

Not sure on cow poo tho.. never seen stuff grow out of it exept mushrooms and that was in Germany

[JAB]

Got a really dumb question tho.....

Can you just stick taters that you got in a bag at the grocery store into the ground and they make more taters? or is there a special planting one you have to get first?

I seen corn and stuff at the co op to plant.. but never taters..

Mom and dad used to plant 'store bought' potatoes with pretty good results. Just look for potatoes that have eyes on them. They would actually cut the potatoes up before planting them - as long as each piece of potato has an 'eye' on it then there is a good chance it will sprout. It seems like they always wanted to be careful to make sure the eye was pointing up when planted (like making sure the sprout side is up when planting a bulb) but I can't recall for sure.

We had a metal, prefab type storage building that didn't have a floor in it (was sitting directly on the ground.) We would put the potatoes we harvested in there, mostly in a single layer, and cover them in lye. The lye helps them keep longer. By the time it was almost planting time, again, the potatoes we hadn't used were often soft and 'wrinkly' but still fine to eat. Sometimes they would have started little eyes, themselves, and we'd cut them up, soak them and plant them right along with the potatoes that had been bought for the purpose.

All of this was about twenty five to thirty years ago, though, when we had a pretty big garden spot. The potatoes available at the grocery might be different, now, and the last time I planted potatoes I used so-called 'seed' potatoes from Co-Op.

As I remember, you didn't have to plant the potatoes all that deep. In fact, in recent years I have heard of people growing potatoes without really 'planting' them at all. Instead, they mound up piles of leaves - just leaves raked up from their yards - and put a potato or two in each mound. Apparently, the potatoes will sprout, grow and produce that way. One big bonus is that - at least to my understanding - they don't have to 'dig' the potatoes. Instead, just separate the leaves (now leaf compost) and gather the potatoes. I've heard that the potatoes come out a lot cleaner, too, as there isn't dirt and so on clinging to them.

I think this is more or less what I am talking about:

http://www.ehow.com/...w-potatoes.html

At the end of that article it says that grocery store potatoes are treated with sprout growth inhibitor. Like I said, I guess store bought potatoes were different a quarter of a century ago because I remember they used to sprout like mad in the bags even when you didn't want them to. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing that happen as much in the last, few years.

Edited September 5, 2012 by JAB

[Oh Shoot]

Old boss of mine used to plant his taters in tires.

Put in a set or thee close together, when topside comes up, put a tire around it and fill in with soil, keep doing that as green tops grew out higher. Would go maybe 7 or 8 high, best I remember. Was there once when he harvested -- just knock the tire stack over, taters galore spill out.

Never heard of anyone else doing that, but it sure looked easy, no weeding, and didn't take much garden space to get a lot of them.

- OS

Edited September 6, 2012 by OhShoot

[quietguy]

Old boss of mine used to plant his taters in tires.

Put in a set or thee close together, when topside comes up, put a tire around it and fill in with soil, keep doing that as green tops grew out higher. Would go maybe 7 or 8 high, best I remember. Was there once when he harvested -- just knock the tire stack over, taters galore spill out.

Never heard of anyone else doing that, but it sure looked easy, no weeding, and didn't take much garden space to get a lot of them.

I gotta try that

[Oh Shoot]

I gotta try that

Here's a bunch of info, seems like I searched once before and didn't find much, must've used bad search terms, seems lots of people do it:

https://www.google.c...lient=firefox-a

- OS

Edited September 6, 2012 by OhShoot

[JAB]

Here's a bunch of info, seems like I searched once before and didn't find much, must've used bad search terms, seems lots of people do it:

https://www.google.c...lient=firefox-a

- OS

Okay, now that is pretty cool. I love the 'redneck' aspect of painting some of the tires white with labels telling what kind of potatoes are growing in them.

Speaking of 'redneck' and this sort of thing, isn't it funny how some things that would have been called 'redneck' just a few years back and looked down upon by the more 'enlightened' members of society are now called 'upcycling' and those same 'enlightened' members of society want to act like they invented the whole thing? Further proof that the stereotypical 'Bubba' may not be entirely versed in the social graces but he still might be pretty darned smart. What some do to be politically correct, now, others have done for years out of necessity or simply ingenuity.