Sprouting/Chitting spuds

[Bitter Ashes]

Rightio. In Huddersfield we've decieded to start a campaign for free food for local people by turning disused land into free allotments. We're out on Tuesday to go planting some spuds and brocoli ready for Crimbo. The brocoli's fine and sorted, but the spuds, I understand you should allow them to sprout a little first, so I was wondering if I could check a few things please.

Do you leave them in the sun, or the shade to sprout?
Do you put soil in the eggboxes?
Should the eggboxes be dry, damp, or sitting in water?

Thanks very much :)

[ellipsis]

they sprout in the shade/cubbard. just cut ONE eye (growth spot) off with a bit of the potato and stick it at the bottom of a deep container with a small amount of soil. it is grows continue adding soil, leaving the top leaves intact each time. the tubers will grow from the old branch. this process can be continued. the soil should be damp but not wet as that may cause the tubers to rot.

[ellipsis]

any luck with the veggies hannah kay?

[Bitter Ashes]

Sadly not. I was made homeless about 6 weeks ago and lost my job a few weeks before that. That and helping the fledgling (although sizable!) anarchist group in huddersfield to get organised has been taking my time. We'll be doing some digging in the New Year ready for planting in the spring though :)

We were going to go planting spuds in this wood near where I used to live but the day before we were going to go out we found out that the wood had been put there to mop up the toxins from some kind of toxic waste enviromental disaster that happened in the 80's and the ground still sends geiger counters funny. Planting in radioactive soil might work for Homer Simpson, but we decieded to postphone it and do better research in future :)

[ellipsis]

Sorry to hear of ur misfortune, but I'm sure the diy mod can lookout for herself.

[Ele'ill]

Rightio. In Huddersfield we've decieded to start a campaign for free food for local people by turning disused land into free allotments. We're out on Tuesday to go planting some spuds and brocoli ready for Crimbo. The brocoli's fine and sorted, but the spuds, I understand you should allow them to sprout a little first, so I was wondering if I could check a few things please.

Do you leave them in the sun, or the shade to sprout?
Do you put soil in the eggboxes?
Should the eggboxes be dry, damp, or sitting in water?

Thanks very much :)


I've been pondering an idea to get some of the local homeless involved in operating a free food drive in the SE here in Portland. Letting them direct things with organizing input. There's plenty of land and plenty of groups already operating such organizations but while they do donate it's still a form of 'charity' and the whole system still involves a group of displaced individuals having to rely on others. I'm fine with this to an extent but it would be nice to see it go a step further.


There would be some obvious hang-ups regarding things like experience (this is where experienced gardeners and social workers would come in to play as organizers), mental health, and the biggest one being confrontation with the state- which most homeless would want nothing to do with.

[ellipsis]

Good luck! I would suggest finding people who already do cmmunity urban farming and then go from there.

[Bitter Ashes]

I've been pondering an idea to get some of the local homeless involved in operating a free food drive in the SE here in Portland. Letting them direct things with organizing input. There's plenty of land and plenty of groups already operating such organizations but while they do donate it's still a form of 'charity' and the whole system still involves a group of displaced individuals having to rely on others. I'm fine with this to an extent but it would be nice to see it go a step further.


There would be some obvious hang-ups regarding things like experience (this is where experienced gardeners and social workers would come in to play as organizers), mental health, and the biggest one being confrontation with the state- which most homeless would want nothing to do with.
I've not done much research into the subject but the Food Not Bombs program in the United States springs to mind right away. Maybe you're already aware of it, but if not then maybe give it a looksie :)

[ellipsis]

recent article from the nation (http://www.thenation.com/blog/154818/food-not-bombs) about food not bombs, good launch place for food justice work.

BTW my local chapter, and maybe even me will be featured on a food network special on freeganism.