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Mead, WA

When cookingbone adds potatoes if need to balance soup if too many added elements they absorb some acidity I can't remember I think that's right

1/2/2025 4:36:45 AM

Germany

@Elaine: I agree with you, the potatoes can act as an acidity buffer. It´s a matter of the minerals contained in the potato itself (and of the way they are contained in the potato), which makes them capable of neutralizing a certain amount of acid.

@Little Ketchup: You are bringing up some interesting points (pretty often), that´s something I really appreciate. I made some similar observations which fall into the section "potatoes can do miracles in the patch". In my case it was pumpkin-related, there were some pretty good results in parts of the patch where potatoes were grown before. Not sure which way the potato is doing the miracles (it could be a combination of things), but I´m sure the potato plant and its root activity is improving the soil structure quite alot and thus making some minerals available for other plants. Great to see that this also seems to work with potato-tomato-combinations (maybe I´ll give it a try this year).

1/3/2025 5:11:03 AM

Grittyville, WA

There are disease concerns (unless your potatoes are disease free-- I suspect I managed to spread a mosaic type virus from potatoes to a pumpkin once, but I've also grown them together with no such problems). But yeah potatoes could be a good option for getting the soil in good condition, along with mustard, rye, etc. I think its worth a try especially if you think it helped you before.

As for tomatoes/potatoes... I had some verticulum or something get onto a couple of the tomato stems, and later some fusarium maybe, as well as flea beetles happily jumping between the two. So there were drawbacks, but I am intrigued by the possibility that the benefits outweighed those drawbacks.

[Last edit: 01/03/25 10:29:42 AM]

1/3/2025 10:16:53 AM