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digit_gw

Potatoes from Your Garden?

digit
13 years ago

The harvesting of the potato patch began yesterday.

It is not starting off quite the way I expected. The new-to-me Adora was planted at the shady end of the potato bed. I thought that they would have a longer season there and planted, what I thought was, my earliest-to-harvest Yukon Gold, at the other end.

Working my way slowly thru the bed and having new potatoes over the course of about a month turned out pretty well the last couple of years. Actually, I robbed a few of the Yukons about a week ago and that is partly what prompted me to start diggin'. I'd prefer not to do the robbing of healthy plants but my resistance was weakening.

Anyway, the Adora were dying back. They are little potatoes, little plants, and were growing in morning shade. I didn't expect much from them and wasn't really disappointed that there was only a little over 10 pounds of spuds in the Adora's 20 square feet share of the bed.

The other varieties have to do a little better tho'. I got 60 pounds out of 100 square feet last year. Still, I think I'm on my way to a fairly good potato harvest.

How about in your garden? Have you started harvesting the potatoes?

Steve

Comments (14)

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ugh. My small (~200sf) raised bed makes solanaceous rotation difficult. Only had limited space & wind pouuuunded sprouts & haven't recovered. Leaving town next weekend so have to get them up...already warned the fam. That'll be my failure this season, along with the edamame this year that couldn't get going cause of all the critters.

    Dan

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not to worry, Dan.

    We all have these things happen at-the-margins.

    Even if something works to benefit one critter, like cool wet weather benefited peas for me in 2010, that same something will grind another critter beneath its heel, like cool wet weather killing some of my melon plants . . .

    Steve

  • provogirl
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I planted La Ratte Fingerling Potatoes this year. They are the only veggie that survived the hail storms or recovered quickly from them. They have been flowering for over a month now. They still look pretty healthy and don't seem to be dying back at all. I have no idea what to look for before I start harvesting them. I have cut back on watering them even with the heat we have been getting. What should they look like before I start harvesting them? Also, what is the best way to harvest them? Thanks!

  • Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Evolution of this years first compost pile potato garden! My Potato Gardening adventures continue!

    Planted on March 18th and buried deeply under maple leaves to protect them from the impending snow storm. They were, again, the potatoes I had growing in the kitchen cabinet! When I uncovered them on April 4th they were coming up under the leaves.

    April 26th and May 15th.

    This is the first time IÂve ever had flowers on my potato plants! June 20th.

    By June 28th they were starting to flop and yellow a little bit, and I decided I couldnÂt wait any longer if I was gonna get another crop in.

    And hereÂs my first "big" harvest! This year I got 2 3/4 pounds out of my little potato garden! But the amazing thing is that the left half of the "bed" was planted with white potatoes, and the right half was planted with red potatoes. In the pictures you can see that they grew very well on both sidesÂbut I didnÂt get any POTATOES out of the left side! You can see in the bowl, there are very few white ones! SoÂtheoretically, if the white ones had produced too, I should have gotten at least 5 pounds this time! (Sorry! I ate them too fast this time to get a "nice" picture of them! And the "thing" that's still growing in the potato garden is an aspen sucker from my neighbors tree!)

    They WERE all very good, but the white ones definitely had a tougher skin, and IÂm leaning more and more toward just planting red from now on. IÂve been wanting to get another batch planted ever since I dug up the first oneÂbut I donÂt have any potatoes growing in my cabinet right now! This is depressing! Now what? I guess IÂll just need to bite the bullet and go out and buy a bagÂknowing I wonÂt get as many back out as I put inÂbut, oh, my, the ones I take back out will be SO much better!

    One other thing! For those of you that have been following my Compost Pile Potato Garden adventures! When I first started my adventure, the potatoes were planted in compost that was BARELY half decomposedÂvery loose, half rotted leaves and such. In the last couple years IÂve just been pushing the compost back enough to get out the "finished" potatoes, and plant more, but now my "compost pile" potato garden is turning into a "dirt" potato garden, and when I replant I think IÂm gonna start all over with half done compost. ItÂll be interesting to see how much of a difference it makesÂif any!

    Skybird

    P.S. ProvoGirl, dig up a few of them and see what you think!

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Agreed, Steve. Cool weather great for other things, and even neighbors got tired of our peas. Now that the heat is here, the vines are exploding up their trellisi and beans are happy and even the okra looks like it might grow. We'll do the badadas again just so I can say badada, and ramp down our expectations and maybe do a mail-order seed variety.

    Dan

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I just looked at potatogarden.com to see if there are any fingerlings that are early and any reds that are late.

    Out of 11 fingerlings, they have 2 that they say are early: Peanut and Red Thumb. (Makes me want to try those 2! ;o)

    ProvoGirl, I'd just allow the season to run its course. When they say late, you might as well wait for the 1st frost. I've only grown fingerlings twice and both of them were late. I made a mistake with one and dug it early. The plants were so healthy, I couldn't help but think that I would have gotten quite a few more pounds by letting them go another month or so.

    Skybird, reds are nearly always early. Potatogarden only has 1 red that they call late. It is Romanze and it has a "light red skin and golden flesh on the inside." That doesn't even quite sound like what we usually think of with a red - white flesh.

    You may have just been too quick with the harvest for your white potato. Me? For some reason, I like growing early potatoes! I'm amazed at how quickly I can get a crop and potatoes for dinner! And, I just do NOT like going thru the pea season with no potatoes to go with them . . . .

    Steve

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am continuing with my potato harvest bungle. Since the first variety to mature was at end of the bed I had expected to require the longest season . . . I continued from that direction and dug up another 5 feet today.

    Unfortunately, the next 5 feet held the Russet Norkotah. They were quite a ways from maturity! Oh well, one can really dig potatoes any old time - problem is, yield won't be as high if they are dug too early.

    Nevertheless, I got 11 1/2 pounds out of that 5 feet. There are more Norkotah ahead and since I'm now in with both feet, I'll take out the remainder of these russets and move on to the reds this week. Finally, I'll finish with the Yukon Golds where I'd intended to start way back when I planted the bed in the spring.

    Why am I digging this bed 5' at a time? Well, it's because I'm filling in behind me with plant debris.

    This is all part of my "composting in place" program for the year. I've done this often in the past but also had about 3 other composting techniques going on. Simplify, simplify, simplify . . . I'm just burying appropriate material in the garden, the heck with compost piles!

    Once again, I'll be planting bok choy seed in the 8" of soil that covers the compostables. That worked well enuf last year and I don't believe the seed went in until a week or so into August. This year, I'll try sowing the bok choy during the last week in July and then continuing as the soil settles behind my potato bungling over the next few weeks.

    I think I'm on course to get the 60# of spuds out of a 100 square foot bed again despite the bungle. Last year, there were also a few missteps to the potato season. Maybe I'll get closer to 75# in 2011! Then I can honestly claim that my spud production amounts to 16 tons an acre! On average . . . my 100 square feet (1/435.6) of an acre . . .

    Oh, I'll harvest the wheat soon but the soybeans haven't even begun to flower.

    Steve

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This photograph is kind of skewed just as is the reason for posting it . . .

    I have shown what has happened to the potato bed in another thread. And, posted a picture of the wheat harvest. Since I mentioned my other "commodity crop," here are the soybeans:

    I have to say that I am carefully shielding (if not holding the camera level) the bean plants behind me. Sapporo Midori wasn't a good choice for my garden in 'o9 and it wasn't a good idea to plant it again this year. I'd thought that since Sapporo was in the north of Japan and once hosted the winter Olympics . . . oh, never mind!

    Anyway! They have flowered and there are tiny beanpods! If there's several more weeks to the growing season, there will be edamame!

    Steve

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I had great edamame yields last year, but this year poor germination and critter attack has made yields almost nonexistent. Yum!

    The potatoes are smaller, but delicious and our Ronninger's catalogue has arrived and the fam is arguing about which vars to plant next year...

    Dan

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I really don't know anything about soybeans. They aren't grown commercially around here, at all.

    It may be that the varieties that I grew in 'o9 were "grain" rather than edamame soybeans. I don't really know, they all tasted about the same when harvested green and steamed - very good!

    Here is something I found a week or so ago: Edamame and "Gardensoy," National Soybean Research Laboratory. The information was updated in February of this year so I imagine that the offer of free seed is still valid.

    Probably, Johnny's really has choices that are appropriate for a short season area. Johnny's Soybeans

    Kitazawa has 6 different varieties including Beer Friend! Gotta love that name!! Kitazawa's Soybeans

    S'

  • kareng_grow
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    /home/karen/Desktop/Images/IMG_8092.JPG
    These red potatoes were harvested this afternoon. Can't wait to try them. Considering how little money it cost for the potatoes and how easy they were to grow, I think we'll be planting potatoes again next year!

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Karen, take another shot at posting that picture . . .

    '

  • kareng_grow
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Try this link to a photo of my potato harvest...

    http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4075/4918413073_53048b9e6a_m.jpg

  • digit
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Beautiful red potatoes, Karen!

    The potato bugs found my eggplants this year but not the potatoes. The potato plants were in another garden! I could start another thread on the eggplant . . . finally harvested some AppleGreen and 1 Dusky and they were terrible!!

    Bitter! Too much bug stress! Maybe too much rotenone/pyrethrum. Spraying began with trying to keep the aphids off them, before they'd been set out, which turned out to be very late. Then the potato bugs attacked! I really, really, really should have tried that new spinosad insect killer. The bugs were back every week and so was I, trying to save the dang eggplant!

    S'