When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
would end up with potatoes everywhere.

Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!

On 16/12/2023 19:17, Polly@golly wrote:
> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
> would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>
> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!

What rubbish! I've been putting potato peelings (and the odd lousy
potato with lots of black inside) on my compost heaps for years (I've
got two, each 1.2m^2 and about a metre high). I've never seen a potato
growing.

--

Jeff

In article <ulkt4m$2h3d1$1@dont-email.me>,
pwllgloyw@gmail.com says...
>
> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
> would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>
> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!

They won't start shooting, but if they carry any potato
blight/diseases you don't want those in your veg garden.

Even when the peels are from my own healthy potato crop,
I still don't compost them.

Janet

On 16/12/2023 20:18, Janet wrote:

> They won't start shooting, but if they carry any potato
> blight/diseases you don't want those in your veg garden.
>

Another old wives tale.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 19:17:42 +0000, "Polly@golly"
<pwllgloyw@gmail.com> wrote:

>When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
>strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
>remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
>would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>
>Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
>had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!

Apparently during the last war, people would save their potato
peelings and sprout them for the next crop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ygziHwOQe1I&t=42
and
https://www.quora.com/If-you-plant-potatoes-peelings-will-potatoes-grow

--
Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall, very mild, sheltered
from the West, but open to the North and East.

On 16/12/2023 19:17, Polly@golly wrote:
> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
> would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>
> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!
>
Oh, that happens OK.

We had a compost heap years ago in the 50s that had lots of potato
plants growing in it

--
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to
rule.
– H. L. Mencken, American journalist, 1880-1956

On 16/12/2023 21:04, Chris Hogg wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 19:17:42 +0000, "Polly@golly"
> <pwllgloyw@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
>> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
>> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
>> would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>>
>> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
>> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost bin!
>
> Apparently during the last war, people would save their potato
> peelings and sprout them for the next crop.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ygziHwOQe1I&t=42
> and
> https://www.quora.com/If-you-plant-potatoes-peelings-will-potatoes-grow
>

That is my recollection.

--
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to
rule.
– H. L. Mencken, American journalist, 1880-1956

On 16/12/2023 22:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 16/12/2023 19:17, Polly@golly wrote:
>> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
>> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
>> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
>> would end up with potatoes everywhere.

>You say that like it's a bad thing!

>>
>> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
>> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the compost
>> bin!
>>
> Oh, that happens OK.
>
> We had a compost heap years ago in the 50s that had lots of potato
> plants growing in it
>

If it happens it means your compost isn't getting hot enough. Same with
spreading blight.

john

In article <ulm8l2$2qvmb$1@dont-email.me>,
John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 16/12/2023 22:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>> We had a compost heap years ago in the 50s that had lots of potato
>> plants growing in it
>
>If it happens it means your compost isn't getting hot enough. Same with
>spreading blight.

Peeling potatoes reduces the flavour and considerably reduces their
nutrition. But we have never had that, even in my cold heaps.
What I have had is potato plants from rejected potatoes (especially
small ones), and I can believe that if their fruits ripen, they will
survive composting and germinate as well as tomatoes or Physalis
species.

Blight is carried only by living plant tissue in the UK, so far, and
volunteer plants from missed tubers are believed to be a main source.
I don't think it can be carried by seed, but could be wrong.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 17/12/2023 11:30, Nick Maclaren wrote:
> In article <ulm8l2$2qvmb$1@dont-email.me>,
> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On 16/12/2023 22:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
> Blight is carried only by living plant tissue in the UK, so far, and
> volunteer plants from missed tubers are believed to be a main source.

That doesn't come across as correct. Blight is windborne (and
waterborne); how else would it suddenly appear in our gardens? The wiki
is extensive and informative, in particular the section on the life cycle:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans#Life_cycle,_signs_and_symptoms>

I had no idea that the life cycle was so complicated:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:07_08_life_cycle,_Phytophthora_infestans_on_potato,_Peronosporales,_Oomycota_(M._Piepenbring).png>

Looking at the wiki, it might be that volunteer infected potatoes could
act as a source of infection, but it seems unlikely that peelings could.
Most of the hits on a search for "potato blight" and "composting" appear
to suggest that there's no problem.

--

Jeff

On 17/12/2023 12:50, Jeff Layman wrote:
> On 17/12/2023 11:30, Nick Maclaren wrote:
>> In article <ulm8l2$2qvmb$1@dont-email.me>,
>> John Ashby  <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> On 16/12/2023 22:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>
>> Blight is carried only by living plant tissue in the UK, so far, and
>> volunteer plants from missed tubers are believed to be a main source.
>
> That doesn't come across as correct. Blight is windborne (and
> waterborne); how else would it suddenly appear in our gardens? The wiki
> is extensive and informative, in particular the section on the life cycle:
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans#Life_cycle,_signs_and_symptoms>
>
> I had no idea that the life cycle was so complicated:
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:07_08_life_cycle,_Phytophthora_infestans_on_potato,_Peronosporales,_Oomycota_(M._Piepenbring).png>
>
> Looking at the wiki, it might be that volunteer infected potatoes could
> act as a source of infection, but it seems unlikely that peelings could.
> Most of the hits on a search for "potato blight" and "composting" appear
> to suggest that there's no problem.
>

Does that mean the end of the Scottish Seed Potato industry?

john

On 17/12/2023 07:40, John Ashby wrote:
> On 16/12/2023 22:17, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> On 16/12/2023 19:17, Polly@golly wrote:
>>> When I started to learn cookinf and gardening (65+ years ago) I was
>>> strictly told to NEVER put potatoe peelings in the compost. I vaguely
>>> remember it was because the potatoe sking would start shooting and I
>>> would end up with potatoes everywhere.
>
> >You say that like it's a bad thing!
>
>>>
>>> Just wondering if this was just an old wives tail (from my mother) or
>>> had some truth in it. I've never to this day put potato in the
>>> compost bin!
>>>
>> Oh, that happens OK.
>>
>> We had a compost heap years ago in the 50s that had lots of potato
>> plants growing in it
>>
>
> If it happens it means your compost isn't getting hot enough. Same with
> spreading blight.
>
Back in the day it was where we threw any organic kiitchen vegetable
waste, including potato peelings, and grass cuttings and autumn leaves.
It wasn't a purpose designed 'composting heap'. Back in the day we just
grew stuff. We didn't pontificate about it.
Rats loved it as I recall, and our cat aka 'Don Cockell' loved the rats
too. He was a butch son of a bitch. Hence the name.

> john

--
“A leader is best When people barely know he exists. Of a good leader,
who talks little,When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,They will say,
“We did this ourselves.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

In article <ulmqpu$2u8gk$1@dont-email.me>,
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>> Blight is carried only by living plant tissue in the UK, so far, and
>> volunteer plants from missed tubers are believed to be a main source.
>
>That doesn't come across as correct. Blight is windborne (and
>waterborne); how else would it suddenly appear in our gardens? The wiki
>is extensive and informative, in particular the section on the life cycle:

I was referring to how it is carried, not how it is transmitted.
What happens is that some infected tubers survive, grow, and when
the weather is ripe, the blight releases its transmissive form.

It can form spores that will last over winter but, as far as I know,
they have not yet been observed in the UK.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.