Seed potatoes

Seed Potato Shopping

This is a THE time of the year to buy your potato sets if you want to plant potatoes. Some catalogs have deadlines that come up soon if you want to get your potatoes in mid-March, plating time here in central VA. In the past I have found it difficult to find seed potatoes in garden centers, and, when I do, they are limited in variety. This year, I sat down with a dozen or so seed catalogs that sold seed potatoes and tried to compare by price, including shipping, and whether the potatoes were organic or not. I do not fuss a lot about non-organic seed (seems like a little, tiny thing with low probability of significant contamination), but I do prefer big tubers like potatoes to be organic (and, of course, certified disease free). One frustration I had were that some catalogs give a per pound price for seed potatoes, some a per- pre-cut set price (that is, potatoes that are already cut and cured that can be planted directly) and a few gave a price for a certain number of tiny seed potatoes that you pop in the ground whole. This makes it tough to compare across catalogs. I settled on two organic sources this year:

The Maine Potato Lady for Yukon Gold (excellent per pound price, higher on shipping) and Rio Grande Russet through Seeds of Change (standard per pound price, average shipping). I ordered 5 lbs (!) of each, so we better get cracking building potato bins!

Happy gardening!

Potato Bin Success!

Potato Bin Success!
[Photo: potato bin under construction-I lined it with cardboard and filled it half way up with soil).

The potato bin was a success! The garden cloth/wire fencing kept the voles and moles out of the potatoes and I harvested more than I planted! Next year I will need to remember to "hill up" which I didn't do much at all this year. What this means is to plant the seed potato tubers in a shallow bed, then as the tubers sprout and grow, add more soil, peat and compost and continue to build layers. This will cause more potatoes to grow more tubers along the sprout and increase the yield.

Other updates: my veg garden is winding down, as the tomatoes are spent and are succumbing to late blight (a rough year for later blight in the north east this year, not as bad in VA I think: see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?emc=eta1 ) and the cucumbers and eggplants are fading...but the figs are coming in gangbusters! I had a fresh fig smoothie for breakfast- yum!
Happy gardening!

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!

The Great Potato Bin Experiment!

The Great Potato Bin Experiment to Defeat Voles!
[photo caption: “Da bin” so far]

When I lived in Indiana, I had great fun growing potatoes. I planted yellow and purple varieties and was rewarded with “buried beauties” when I dug them up. I found the taste of freshly dug potatoes to be superior to ones I bought in the store. In addition, you cannot get true “new” potatoes at the grocery- new potatoes are ones with such a thin skin that it easily rubs off, and they are not good shippers (new potatoes are not just little potatoes).

In Virginia (where the state motto should be “Land of the Voles”) I have trouble growing root crops. Voles ate my sweet potatoes-I had beautiful vines, but when I dug them, all I found were sweet potato shells, the voles having eaten them from beneath- and I think they would eat white potatoes too. Hence, the Great Potato Bin Experiment.

I first covered the top if the soil with small-gauge garden cloth (garden fencing with small squares). I anchored it down, and I built a garden cloth bin around it. If it ever stops raining, I intend to fill the bin with soil, compost and peat moss, having first covered the sides with used landscape fabric to hold in the soil…and plant seed potatoes in it! Voila!

I will be taking next week off from blogging (except maybe a brief report or some photos) to celebrate my 50th birthday with several friends!