Potato Experiments

I figured I would try some vertical potato growing experiments. 

These I planted a few weeks ago but it has been very cold.

I will try this way as it will give me movable deep bed options for things like parsnips.

And because I have heard for years that potato cages are great I will also try this.

At least it will piss off a rooster.  Food Not Lawns!

 

Ramps

                         I have been watching this little patch of ramps for a few years now.

 

This now parking lot was a farm in the '70s and I bet these were moved here years ago. Now this 

is a poor spot and I feel sorry for them. People walk on them, piss on them and the plow truck

 puts a big snow bank here.  

                    

  So I dug three clumps and moved them in to my woods.

 

My hope is that they like their new homes.

   and spread slowly over years.  

 

 

 Perhaps when I am an old man I will pick some, or not I still love the lime green

 on a rainy grey day and that is enough.

This Has Been A Cold Late Spring

                      Weeks after I should have I transplanted some swiss chard and kohlrabi.

                              Getting way to big and I will need to cover them in a few days.

   Pound for pound swiss chard is the most productive plant in my garden and nothing bothers it but the chickens,
   Garlic is up and looking very good, the perennial bunching onions are looking good too. I have about 36 feet of peas planted and tomorrow I go and take the first look at the winter garden and hope to plant shell peas. I guess the game is on. Bloody hell.

True Potato Seed.

I had some good potato berries this year.  

 

                            So I decided to try my hand I growing potatoes from true seed.

   

  I let the berries ripen for a few months then I ground them up in a blender then let the pulp and water ferment for a week or so. I then poured off the scum and washed the seeds with trisodium phosphate to remove the germination inhibitors followed by a wash in 1:5 bleach solution and a hot water rinse. I then dried them.

                                     I planted them in a warm place, 85 degrees is best.

13 days later I have my first sprouts are coming up. The mother plants were Augusta and Purple Viking so I am hopeful that these are something interesting.

Beets for Krampus.

   I felt it was time to dig the last of the beets.

   I covered them after I harvested the greens.

   The burlap makes for easy snow removal.

    I am sure Krampus will be pleased.

Digging Potatoes

   Yesterday I dug the last of the potatoes. Late blight came through in mid September and killed all the tops. I waited to dig them till after we have had a few hard freezes in hopes that any spores would be killed. In this patch I had planted Reba, a long season baker and Augusta, a mid season yellow.

   Like jewels in the dirt. The Rebas had a high level of blight rot but the Augusta had none. The yields on the Augusta were much higher too. A really fine potato.

NOT A FUCKING TURNIP!

   Today I pulled the rutabagas. I have never grown them before and figured that if all else fails I will have some good veg in the root cellar. A rutabaga is a brassica. A turnip is a mustard.  Like how tigers look like house cats but taste not at all the same. If you have only had them boiled and mashed and have an opinion on them(turnips or rutabagas) you are a fool. That would be like saying you do not like steak because you have only had it boiled.

   Oddly some got bigger than my head but still good to eat. I guess about 150lbs. I will grow these again for sure.

  The root cellar is full of some yummy stuff for the cold winter to come. I am thankful.

   I had a look a the potatoes and dug a few for the week. I only found signs of blight on one but I will leave most in the ground for now.

  It has been a frustrating year and in the end fruitful. Dust to stardust, ever onward.