Potato update

Potato Update
Above (top) is a photo of my potato bin-I wrote about this earlier in my blog. It’s a attempt to foil to voles from eating the potatoes and seems to be working so far! The plants look nice and healthy. The bin is made of garden (or hardware) cloth and cardboard, filled with compost and soil. I did something similar with sweet potatoes (also pictured) but it is in ground, as follows:

The soil has finally warmed up enough to plant sweet potatoes (also pictured above) and I did so on 5/14. Sweet potatoes are a tropical vine and like warm soil, they react badly to chills. The last time I planted sweet potatoes, I was so excited when I dug them up to see the gorgeous, large sweet potatoes- that had been completely eaten from below by voles. This time, I had plan. I dug a trench (well, I dug half, my husband the other half) and lined the trench with hardware cloth (square wire fencing with small openings). This same technique has worked to keep the voles away from my tulip bulbs. I pressed the wire into the shape of the trench and back filled it with soil mixed with peat (yes, this is the last peat I am buying- it is a non-renewable resource) and a little compost. Sweet potatoes prefer sandy soil, but this stuff was light enough for them. You can see the edges of the garden cloth in the photo and the little potato slips in the center of the bed.

To start sweet potato slips, in early April take a sweet potato (or do this with two) and stick toothpicks in it to suspend it above a jar of water. Arrange it so you submerge about one third of the tuber into the water. Place it on a sunny windowsill and in about 2 to 4 weeks it will start to grow leaves. When the vines are about 4 inches long (the longer the better to a point). They are ready to plant. Some garden books recommend pulling the slips (sprouts) off of the potato and planting these, others recommend cutting with a sharp paring knife. I do the latter, with a bit of potato skin attached and plant these. This is a fun experiment for kids to do, even if you don’t intend to grow sweet potatoes.

I like to fertilize every few weeks with diluted liquid fish emulsion.

Hope I get a decent crop! I’ll keep you posted. Just Say “No” to Voles!

Happy gardening!