Never Buy Seed POTATOES Again!

good morning everybody it's danny back from deep south homestead yep turning cold again on us guys here we are right here it's in the high 40s again this morning it is april the 20th in the deep south and it's this cool that's just unheard of for us but the cool weather crops are loving it the onions are doing phenomenal let me show you guys i want to show you just for a moment how big some of these are i mean look at some of these onions my hands won't even fit around them i can't even my fingers won't even go around and i got big hands i mean that's guys when i put my fingers together up here that's that big around that's four inches in diameter already and they're probably uh one and i were looking at them they're probably maybe a week or two probably two weeks maybe at the most and they should be ready to harvest and i don't even know how big they're going to be by then because i see some daniana's pushing five inches probably i mean these things are amazing over here three inches is a common there's one right there it's probably four and a half going for five i mean these things these are the texas legends and they have really outperformed anything i've ever imagined now that's what happens when you push the nitrogen to them when they're early get them up growing now one thing we're learning here about these onions these are the red bells they're not doing as well it may take them a lot longer now there's one right back here we're probably going to take this one out because the metal's already done uh mushy on it so it's probably gonna have to come out when it's got a little bulb on it about two and a half inches maybe three inches in diameter but the rest of them haven't really started bubbling up really good so they're going to take a lot longer than the texas legend and this is telling us we don't want to fool with the reds anymore we're going to stick this uh we could if we put another row of texas legends in here we would have really ramped up our onions more than what we did uh but it was an experiment and that's how you learn why you can now it's fixing to be to a point where we're not going to be doing any more testing it's just going to be grow grow grow that sound like grow network oh grow family family network yeah but that's what we're going to be doing is just growing growing growing uh experimenting we're about through with that but you know what we have found out when we come out here look at the onions this morning the potatoes behind us believe it or not they're ready to dig we didn't buy any seed potatoes this year we took a chance we buy seed potatoes every year but we've been working on a system to be able to save all of our own potatoes from this point forward without having to go to the store to buy seed potatoes this is our first year guys we saved all of our potatoes from last year um we're going to see how they all done now we predominantly saved the french fingerling and the purple majesty that was a two that we really focused on now i don't know for sure there could be some other varieties mixed in with it because once they start looking a little shriveled up and all they kind of all look the same uh so but you can definitely tell the blue ones from the red ones uh and that we know we don't have a problem with that but some of the french fingerlings so they could have a quinoa back white mixed in with it because we had a bunch of different varieties they could have a uh a redless soda mixed in with it or something like that so we did save all of our own potatoes this past year to see if we can do it we are planting in stages as y'all heard us talk about in our high tunnels and stuff like that we're planting in different stages to [Music] keep our potatoes going fresh we've learned we can grow them year round except for the two months actually three months in the summer which is july august and early september it's a little too hot for us to grow potatoes here but at the end of september we can put them back in the ground so we're trying to actively come up with a process and i believe we've got it almost perfected to where we don't have to buy seed potatoes anymore so come on along and let's see how our potato saving actually worked out for us okay guys here we are the plants are dying back pretty good uh i have to be careful right here behind me i stepped backwards and i realized my heels started sinking and when that happens in the deep south that means you're in a fire ant bed and as cool as it is this morning those crazy things are out here crawling around everywhere i mean look they just curse from hell that's all they are straight out of pit of hell them things are no good for nothing okay let's just take one of them here and let's just see we'll get kind of out away from them french penguins usually grow right up under the plant so let's just take a look and let's just see what we've got here when we start pulling this plant see fingers i see onions i mean uh taters look at that look at that look at this we've got to find out how much we get off of just one plant we gotta we gotta take our time here with this one plant i'm gonna just shake it lightly they usually just fall off okay got an oak tree coming up in there another oak tree squirrels planting acorns everywhere okay we're gonna get a bucket here wow you make sure them one plant one meal yeah i was just looking at that yeah that's one plant i don't know how many that is but oh let's see how many we got here one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15. 16 potatoes a plant nice size potatoes too because i mean you're looking in there probably not doing any justice but they they fit in the palm of your hand that's a pretty good-sized french fingerlings yeah that's good size good tater size french fries french fries and they're like buttery i mean when you cook them they're just like fantastic all right so let's pick some more pick some more let's dig some more let's see if this is going to be uh what would you say that how would you say let's go see if this is just going to stay the average normal yep look at the potatoes look at that one 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [Music] ten eleven and all the little ones twelve you ain't even twelve big ones you ain't even got the little two i'm gonna leave the little ones because we like to find rogue plants right here look at that there are two more 13 14 15. so 16 is going to be a good average yeah because there's actually little ones we're not even picking up there's another one there's one there we leave them because what happens we've learned uh there's actually 17 on that once you count all of them uh when we plant other crops in here this fall we'll come back and we'll have taters growing here and we didn't plant because of the little teeny ones we leave in the soil sounds like biblical don't it we're harvesting where we didn't sow we're reaping where we didn't so yeah because we have lots of volunteer potatoes over in the other field we'll show later yeah we'll show them later uh that's pretty pretty interesting there now oh no we got a white we got a white tater white tater got mixed up in here look at this we love these taters look at that that's interesting we got a white one mixed in here not surprising no doesn't surprise me at all get back over there you need to stay in there now that's a fingerling beside it there we put the white ones in that bucket wow some good size these are kenabeks and they are so good i had some in my greenhouse yeah that quinoa baked white got mixed in with that isn't that interesting i mean look at that two four six eight a little over ten good sized potatoes so that's a meal off that plant yeah we put the little white ones back into the soil so the t90 ones this is interesting wow look at that look at how big look at that four of them makes a good meal oh yeah you add them in with your other stuff yeah now see when we find one that's green like this right here that goes back into our seed stock i try not to mess up the row too bad because look at that right there you know what that is sweet potato that's a sweet potato and it is sprout so it's going back this goes back into the soil we're this is permaculture we're going to we'll see what we're going to do guys look at that that's how they get missed um what we're going to do is after all these potatoes is harvested we'll let it rest for a week or two or higher until we get this other field full up here let me put it that way when that other field up there gets full of sweet potato slips then this row right here will get re-bedded re-fertilized and it'll get planted with sweet potatoes and when the sweet potatoes come up in here they'll put the vines on everywhere and they'll shade the ground and in 125 days when we dig them what'll happen is these little potatoes that we're leaving in the ground we'll see it'll be close to fall by then these little potatoes in the ground here will begin to sprout because they've been laying dormant up under the shade of those sweet potatoes and they'll begin to make potatoes this fall so don't get confused potatoes and sweet potatoes are not both in the same family they're a total different one is a tuber and one is not so don't get confused about that saying while we're planting potatoes one consecutively right behind the other one no they're not in the same family so we're talking about planting one right behind the other here and not to be confused like we're talking about there is a difference between a night shade see these are night shades these you just plant the potato and it makes potatoes the sweet potatoes we're going to plant here they're in the morning glory family we you don't plant the potato to make potatoes you plant the potato to make a slip you pull that slip or a draw some people call them draws you take those off and we'll bring those and put those in the soil and those will actually grow potatoes or sweet potatoes in 125 days now i have a book i've wrote on sweet potatoes if you're interested in that we have it on our etsy store at deepsouthhomestead.etsy.com you'll be able to purchase one and it tells you all about sweet potatoes it tells you the history of them the origin of them everything about them how to grow them we have colored pictures details step by step of how to grow sweet potatoes because it isn't it is a different process than growing the regular potatoes which is in the nightshade family now we was going to plant another nightshade here we couldn't do it because you need to wait on the nightshades because of different problems in the soils that arise another thing you know when all these onions come out here uh this will be transformed also into another crop and if we have enough draws then we'll put it in sweet potatoes also because that's that seems to be our one of our main staples here um we have a a video coming up here very shortly we're going to be talking about the future of deep south homestead because we have another big project that we're adding at deep south homestead uh hopefully it will begin by this weekend and we'll be able to show a little bit of it in the next week we're excited we've gotten some of the parts in for it and some of the stuff to make this happen here at deep south we've waited for a long time for this project to come to fruition and it's going to allow us to continually keep our food storage going so stay with us for the upcoming videos on that so let's get back to digging here wow i already see potatoes rolling everywhere that's just amazing you know look at it just look at you they're just going everywhere i can tell right now we gonna have a tater harvest we're gonna have taters for lunch which i already have some out of my hot tunnel yep and danny's got some in his high tunnel they're not ready yet we're this ain't all of our taters we have some we've learned to uh what would you call it stage them out yeah they're everywhere we've got them planted we've got them on the other hill back yonder i mean we're we're actively moving things around here y'all can stay in the soil get that road keep it bedded up all right guys we're here i think the beauty of having as many onions is we got you get the beauty of coming out and choosing one now this one here has done fell over see it's done how the tops done got kind of the bottom foliage is starting to die on it here the bottom three or four of them so we're gonna go ahead and take this one here this is one of the smaller ones look at this that's just that's beautiful look at that yep remember what i was telling you guys about all the the foliage on them you want to make sure you get the foliage first you know we got all these big giant beautiful foliages out here and this thing's already broke over right here starting to lay down which means it's going not this one was getting close to being ready to take and it's see my hands still won't reach around it it's that big this one's a good three inches in diameter here let me show you what we got to go with this today well guys we had no idea our potatoes was all shriveled up when we were planting them and we evidently got some of the quinoa back whites mixed in with our french fingerlings and this is some nice little potatoes here and we like the quinoa baked whites they just don't make very many potatoes per plant here in the deep south that's why we really don't focus on them a lot but then we have the french fingerlings here i mean these are really nice potatoes here that's a one gallon bucket this is a two gallon bucket and this is a three gallon bucket so we probably got four gallons of potatoes here all together just off of this one little uh what is this about a 30 foot row here um and guys that's what this big old onion here is for today this one is gonna be making some fresh taters big old onion like this we're gonna we're going we're going to live high on the hog today boy this is the beauty of of uh living off the land like we do having our own fresh produce here all the time we have the joy of being able to come out here and take what the lord has blessed us with and be able to uh to harvest it and and to give thanks back to the lord for him being so gracious to us and now we're going to take these and go let the potatoes kind of lay out we're going to spread them out we're not going to wash them don't ever wash your potatoes leave them just like they are spread them out let them air cure for a while uh in a cool shade or something like that you don't want to be rained on or wet or anything like that you want to stay dry the beauty of the new potatoes like this is that you can actually eat them fresh out of the ground and they're actually really good when you eat them like in the first day i mean they're like really really good unlike the sweet potato see the sweet potato you want to let them cure for a good two weeks before you actually eat one of them you let the starches turn to sugars in them and stuff like that these are just the opposites you can actually eat these fresh and they're just as good fresh as they are you know after you've let them set for a while ain't nothing like eating good old mutators and fresh english peas out of garden which we're going to be picking here in the next week uh and good old fresh onion like this mixed in with it man my mouth water and thinking about this some good old danny corn cornbread that we've ground the cornmeal on this year uh good old bacon from our home raised pig here our home cured home smoked bacon here i mean it just don't get any better than that i mean that's what i call living free you're not dependent on a grocery store somewhere and and you know if you don't own one of these right here this is a garden fork now this one's a little short for me but hey i'm okay with it because when i get down on my knees they're on the ground to sit down now i don't get on my knees anymore i have to sit down uh it works really good for me because it's kind of short and this is what you want when it comes to digging these little fingerling taters and stuff like that this thing uh you just put it up under i mean i want y'all to i want to talk about the dirt here for a minute guys this dirt those of you who've watched us well a little over two years ago we had a uh two ponds built and as the mr lance dug them out we realized there's about 10 or 15 feet of topsoil in the bottom of them hollers and i asked him would he pile it out to the side for me if he didn't have to have it and he said sure guys i had like 25 18-wheeler loads of topsoil piled out to the side they've been pushed off these hills that had rained in there and settled in over the years and stuff like that and these gardens like this i came out here and this one here i think i dumped about 20 bucket loads off my tractor in here and i want to show you everybody was wondering about that black dirt that we had how is it going to work in the garden where you see the potatoes you see the onions and look how i want you to look at this look at this here now you'll find these little occasional pieces of wood and stuff like that in it don't you look at this this here guys perfectly sandy loom soil it has turned back into god's gold look at that another potato another potato that's how easily these things get missed god's gold i call this god's gold right here i mean look at that just falls through the fort another little piece of wood you know you're gonna have that in there guys i'm telling you this right here is tater growing dirt we still got a whole nother garden though beyond our taters to dig later on um we got taters in the high tunnel we got haters everywhere taters volunteering we got volunteer taters coming up in our kentucky wonder yellow wax bean pole beans over yonder have to remember which variety we had there it's an heirloom variety we're going to be saving the seeds from we got taters coming up in them because we're doing just what we did here we're leaving a little tiny ones in the soil and they just voluntarily just pop up and while we're along picking beans or something this spring we'll look at one of them if a plant starts to die a little bit we'll dig it up and be in this one they'll have a fresh tater to go with our beans when we're snapping them and stuff like that so guys thank y'all so much for staying with us today here and watching this here uh it's a little early for us this year things coming in quite early and we noticed as we was digging these the fire ants were already starting to congregate around the potatoes looking for the moisture in them and the sugars in them so we really hit it at the right time before the ants actually got into them because if they hadn't the little fire ants would have just bored little tiny holes all in them everywhere and you know it would really eventually ruin the potato you can't really save a potato like that but uh guys if you like seeing this kind of content from us be sure and subscribe to us uh hit that hit that like button because that puts us into an algorithm where everybody else out there gets to see what we're doing here and guys with the times we're going into about food shortages and the lack of food and stuff like that we're all going to have to know how to do this and maybe this will help someone in the future uh understand excuse me understand a little bit about growing potatoes and varieties of potatoes uh we have settled pretty much here in the deep south on the french fingerlings and the purple majesties the blue potatoes we're pretty much cutting out most of the others because i mean there's gonna be some of the others that's gonna come up like the quinoa back whites we had no clue they were there occasionally we'll get some like that pop up in there but um the french fingerlings and the purple majesties two of the ones that we've discovered here at deep south is gonna do probably better than anything else for us so thank you guys once again for watching thank you from deep south homestead

Channel: Deep South Homestead

Views: 69,668

Keywords: growing potatoes, how to grow potatoes, seed potatoes, gardening tips, organic gardening, how to plant potatoes, grow your own food, how to grow potatoes at home, seed potatoes 101, seed potatoes storage, seed potatoes preparation, deep south homestead, deep south homestead potatoes, potato growing at home, saving your own seed, saving your own seed potatoes, seed potatoes how to plant, seed potato method

Id: NmD1t64lPN0

Length: 23min 27sec (1407 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2022