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Post by RpR on Jun 10, 2015 10:37:43 GMT -5
Potatoes are now emerging from the mulch rapidly in both gardens, all that are coming up should be up by the end of the week.
I have six or seven bags of leaves for mulch left as with the semi-heavy rains we have had the leaves applied have been pounded down and I will use the rest in the thinnest areas.
With the heavy worm action caused by the sheep manure, which I found when dug out a few thistles that could not be poisoned, next year the ground should be even better.
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Post by RpR on Jul 7, 2015 23:57:30 GMT -5
Arhh, I have potato bugs in my south garden. I am not going to spray as the day I found them there were Bumblebees in the potato flower, so when I get back in another day I will crawl through and pick and squash the bugs and eggs.
I got a lot of them last week but I am sure there were many I missed.
Weather has been great and the gardens as a whole are doing great/
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Post by paquebot on Jul 8, 2015 14:41:31 GMT -5
Spray with Spinosad. It's organic and insects have to eat it to be killed. That stuff is absolutely great with potato beetles. Never thought that I would ever say that about any insecticide as there were always some that became immune to poisons.
Martin
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Post by nathanp on Jul 8, 2015 21:59:06 GMT -5
I am not 100% sure that is true. It can be harmful either by ingestion or contact. Spinosad Information |
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Post by ferdzy on Jul 9, 2015 12:56:31 GMT -5
I have had better luck handpicking potato beetles than spraying. Our first allotment garden was next to a crazy guy who grew nothing but potatoes, and saturation bombed them with some kind of nasty chemical. All that happened was that he created a completely resistant line of potato beetles, and they had an enormous population explosion. Even with the beetles constantly moving into our garden from the one next door, we were able to keep them reasonably under control by regular checking. We were not growing nearly as many potatoes, admittedly.
p.s. Don't forget to check your eggplants! Like them just as well, if not better. Physalis species are a big beetle draw too.
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Post by jondear on Jul 9, 2015 18:45:26 GMT -5
I've been handpicking mine too. Noticed today that more have hatched. Lots more. I'll have to take care of them this weekend.
On a positive note, we've been eating a few potatoes. So far we've boiled a few Abnakis and Nataschas, and roasted some AF 4659-12(pinto) tonight.
Fenton Blue is also setting berries like a champ. Maybe a dozen per plant? I didn't get any last year.
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Post by philagardener on Jul 9, 2015 19:59:21 GMT -5
Funny, last year I had a good seed set on several varieties but this year very few flowers and no berries at all.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 9, 2015 22:40:09 GMT -5
My potatoes are setting lots of berries this year: Even though I haven't weeded them.
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Post by RpR on Jul 10, 2015 23:32:46 GMT -5
I picked some bugs off, actually I squish them on site.
Not as bad as I though it would be but I noticed a lot of lady bugs in the potato patch and think that might be part of the reason.
I will go back again next week and pick some more. I did more weed pulling than anything as my bad knee is actually getting to more than an annoyance so I have sit on my buttocks, so simply working through the potatoes on my knees as I used to is not an option right now.
Even sitting on my butt is a problem as I have to point my leg with the bad knee in the right direction or it gets real uncomfortable after a while.
As big as the potato plants are, never had them that big before, I am hoping it is not big greens, little potatoes.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 11, 2015 6:26:16 GMT -5
We planted our tatties early this year and there were very few CPB. I was shocked. We typically handpick into a bucket of soapy water. If a leaf is crawling with juvies, I cut it off and put the whole thing in the bucket.
One of the tatties replanted were Anya. All the tatties produced extraordinarily well, the Anya in particular. No berries at all though. That was disappointing. This years crop was also extraordinarily large. Very impressive.
We have a friend whose children are so sensitive to corn & by-products that they can't drink our water because the salt we filter with is treated with corn products. She bought most of our harvest. She feels safe buying our produce because it's certified organic... by the bugs. LOLOL They are more honest than the government certifiers she says. I can't really argue that point.
So, we have spread a couple loads of composted chicken manure on the bed in preparation for a second planting. The idea will be to sell them all to her. We plan to plant between 7/15 and 8/7. Does anyone have any advice on a second potato crop?
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Post by jondear on Jul 20, 2015 20:37:29 GMT -5
^ maybe something that stores well?
I think if I were going to sell potatoes, it would be fingerling and very early varieties only (new potatoes).
Just had a beautiful potato salad made with Desiree, Peter Wilcox and Abnaki potatoes.
When I pulled the Desiree, I noticed after the fact, it had set a seed berry. Too late for that one... I'll be paying attention next time.
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Post by nathanp on Jul 20, 2015 22:38:08 GMT -5
MNJRutherford, Anya probably isn't a great one to hope for berries from. Like a lot of commercial potatoes, it suffers from partial sterility. ANYAFusionpower said it well: This thread has some useful information in it: Restoring potato sterility |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 21, 2015 7:13:58 GMT -5
Yea, there were only a couple plants in the entire bed that had berries and those fell off before ripening. Thanks for posting that thread. I'll have to read it. The plan is to purchase TPS for the sake of getting away from the "normal" strains. BUT, WHEN to plant? After several years of observation, my thinking is that the best time to plant should be right about this time of year and shallow. That is how they would be planted naturally. But it's a lot of money to put out on an idea and I can not afford to fail.
Secondarily, I will purchase seed in a couple of months, plant in cells here in the house then transplant in the early spring next year.
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Post by RpR on Jul 21, 2015 10:40:40 GMT -5
For the first time ever, I have a potato plant that is over my waist and I am six feet tall.
What happens happens, but the plants are so big, I plant at least sixteen inches apart, that I am a bit worried that some potatoes are over shading others too much.
I have volunteer Sunflowers in the potatoes and today will again cut off all but the top four to six leaves so they do not shade the plants below too much.
It is amazing what a yard of sheep poop can do for a garden that bottled fertilizer can not, although potatoes really need a different type of fertilizer in general as I never give them anything except soil acid in spring.
The only commercial fertilizer I ever used that had a noticed direct impact was some liquid Ironite that I first tried about ten or so years ago.
After that first batch of bottles, I could not find it again until years later after the formula changed by the label, the later stuff did not have the pop that the first stuff did in both potted and open garden plants.
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Post by philagardener on Jul 21, 2015 20:29:29 GMT -5
Dug potatoes this weekend. Pretty good yield, given this year's strange weather and my really heavy clay soil. All three flats come from a single 4x8ft bed. Katahdin and Red Norland:  Kennebec and a locally sourced Purple:  Fingerlings:  |
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