Thread: Spuds.

Anyone tried growing spuds?

Originally Posted by expattaffy

Anyone tried growing spuds?

Planted a few eyes from a sprouting spud.

It grew well on top, but the actual spuds (about 10 per plant) were small. Golf ball size and smaller. They were white and firm with thin skin - different from the 'mother' potato which was larger, browner and yellowish inside.

They were planted in cement rings filled with river sand in the dry season (Nong Khai)

Taste was ok.

look in here

(Potatoes)https://teakdoor.com/farming-and-gardening-in-thailand/105737-potatoes.html

And don't forget to add plenty of worms

Good luck with growing spuds. I have tried and tried with poor results.

Thai spuds = 1
Western spuds = 0

I would appreciate any common sense suggestions.

Its just to hot here. The spuds for baking or roasting are fine. I have a baked potato in the oven now. But for chips or fries somehow they come out with too much moisture content. Unless you can get cooler night time temperatures its going to be hard.

I miss new and red potatoes. No advice at all HB.

Originally Posted by 9999

Get a bunch of old car tires.

I read somewhere tyres are not encouraged anymore due to potential health problems from the rubber leaching into the soil. Great system though.

There is also this box system I saw when searching the images...

Originally Posted by Chris L

Originally Posted by expattaffy

Anyone tried growing spuds?

Planted a few eyes from a sprouting spud.

It grew well on top, but the actual spuds (about 10 per plant) were small. Golf ball size and smaller. They were white and firm with thin skin - different from the 'mother' potato which was larger, browner and yellowish inside.

They were planted in cement rings filled with river sand in the dry season (Nong Khai)

Taste was ok.

. Looks like the same results as I have had. I tried planting in November, like you, good tops but small rubbers. It would be great if we could succeed because they are a lot more expensive than rice. My next step is to get some seeds from the uk and try from scratch.

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

Originally Posted by 9999

There is also this box system I saw when searching the images...

Yes this looks good, what I tried was using these concrete one meter diameter pipes but it looks like concrete gets to hot and retains the heat. As here wood should be better, let's try it.

Originally Posted by expattaffy

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

its bolting, caused by the heat.. you get the same problem with lettuce here.... you have to grow bot resistant varieties

Also beat rout is a waste of time

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Originally Posted by expattaffy

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

Oh that made me larf mate !


Sorry just had a vision of your sprouts .

Anyway mabe a bit of help ,, if your beans have great plants + flowers it ( mabe ) they are not getting pollinated ,, try spraying the flowers lightly each evening until the beans begin to form mate .

Wortha try

yep loads of Thais had the same vision, live. It is due to the vast quantitity of organic material that I incorporated.

Thais haven't got a clue about composting, all their garden waste is discarded or burned

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Originally Posted by expattaffy

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

Oh that made me larf mate !


Sorry just had a vision of your sprouts .

Anyway mabe a bit of help ,, if your beans have great plants + flowers it ( mabe ) they are not getting pollinated ,, try spraying the flowers lightly each evening until the beans begin to form mate .

Wortha try

they had to be supported by sticks. I intend to try again this year, Waite for the photos

^ Nice one mate ,, always look on the light side of life,, look forward to the pics

Originally Posted by expattaffy

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

I tried various beans during the cooler dry season, some Lima beans did OK till it got warmer, but Calico beans did very well and kept producing until late March, but they were a hot weather variety.

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

^ Nice one mate ,, always look on the light side of life,, look forward to the pics

As a matter of interest, tell us what's the tallest sprout plants you have ever seen?

Only standard mate I dunno mabe 1 metre

Originally Posted by hazz

Originally Posted by expattaffy

As well as spuds I have been experimenting with other uk veg as well. Last year I had loads of people coming around to view my sprouts, the plants got to about six feet high but for som reason, hardly any sprouts on them. Another I have tried if runner beans, great plants and flowers on them but sadly no bees so no beans, damn it what a disappointment.

its bolting, caused by the heat.. you get the same problem with lettuce here.... you have to grow bot resistant varieties

Hm Funny enough I have never had any problems with any member of the cabbage plants to be honest. I find lettuce to be the fastest growing after chinese kale, both of which I grow to create food for our ducks.

Originally Posted by hillbilly

Good luck with growing spuds. I have tried and tried with poor results.

Thai spuds = 1
Western spuds = 0

I would appreciate any common sense suggestions.

Well, what I would like to say to you all is dont give up on the spuds. We have proved one thing and that is they will grow out here, poor results so far with the tubbers but good results with the tops. As far as I am concerned I am a strong believer in adaptation, I am convinced that plants and animals have the abillity to adapt to new environments and new conditions. What I think we should try is growing the spuds and despite them being small, keep them back for the next season, just keep the same strain and see if they adapt over a couple of years. Spuds originally came from a hot climate in America, and they are now growing them as a second main crop behind rice in India. What I am trying this November is planting two rows between two long rows of banannas and hope that will provide sufficient shade.

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Only standard mate I dunno mabe 1 metre

Hmm, gives me the impression that you are not a keen gardener are you mate. Couple os stories. A friend in my home village about thiry years ago grew a cabbage that was over a metre in diameter. His name, John Sharp and the cabbage was front page in the local newspaper. 2/ In Bromsgrove there are many keen gardeners and what they used to do was take all their prize veg to a local pub with a prize given for the largest veg. A friend of my sister there won the prize more that once and his best veg was always onions, he used to have onions that were around about 7 to 8 inches in diameter. As for me I have a story to tell; around about 36 years ago after moving house to a new area I looked around for a suitable allotment plot. The only one available was this neglected plot which was covered in massive brables. I cleared these by attaching a chain and dragging them out with my car. When it came to digging I was amazed at this soil because it was just like one massive grow bag, I didnt need to put my foot on the fork to push down, it was so soft, on trying to turn it over the soil just fell through the forks, it was just like peat.The locals told me that it used to belong to a pole named Andy and he had around ten pigs on it for over 15 years. When digging this ground I was digging uo pig bones everywhere, obviously burried after slaughtering the pigs. One of my first crops in that ground was spouts and they grew up to around 4 feet and the sprouts on them were not golf ball size but tennice ball size. Anyway, we then went on holliday for two weeks and when we returned all these sprouts were down on the deck, they had fallen over with the weight and then what they done was the tops then turned up and started to grow up and they went another 3 foot from the ground, The stalks were about 2.5 inches diameter and I had to chop them up with an axe because they were like bamboo kanes and to hard to cut with a knife.