this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil 32 points 5 months ago (15 children)

Neighbor tried to plant potatoes. She got about six pounds worth of top and no tuber.

We spent weeks debugging and still don't know what went wrong.

[–] HatFullOfSky 41 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Potatoes you have to keep mounding up with dirt to force the plant to grow more roots (tubers) instead of the leafy tops.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 21 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Potato tubers are not actually roots. They are modified stems. So the surest way to force more potatoes is to “hill” them. In the commercial fields this is done with a huge tractor raking soil from in between planting rows and piling it up on the plants. You essentially bury the plants stem as it grows taller. Then the buds on the stem will push out stolons (horizontal underground stems.) these will terminate in tubers, aka: potatoes!

Source: did potato disease research for my PhD.

Additional edit: loose/sandy soil is critical. Too dense of soil and your tubers can’t expand well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Alert: agronomist infiltrated the chat

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Hacker voice: “I’m in 😎”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Does this apply to any other root vegetables? Beets?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Warning: I am not a beet expert. But I believe beets are actual roots. Just like carrots. And I think you only get one beer per plant? Burying the stem would just make it harder for new leaves to come up.

Potatoes are pretty unique in this sense. Even sweet potatoes are not the same.

[–] Doolbs 3 points 5 months ago

Don't plant them too close to each other. It doesn't work.

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