Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Potatoes gone wild!

Spuds in a canI know y'all are just dying to get an update on my spuds.

Well, I just may have underestimated the size of container I should have used for my potato project. But, it was what I had on hand. I really have been behind in hilling the Yukons so I finally did it this weekend. I filled the can up pretty much all the way to the brim, so I'll probably have to trellis the little fella for the remainder.

My French Fingerlings (on the right) are bringing up the rear (they were planted two weeks apart) and I suspect they will be in the same state soon.

I just can't get over the amazing vegetative growth on these guys. Oh well, maybe that means lot of potatoes come harvest time!

8 comments:

QT said...

MMM - there is something about new potatoes-you can't replicate that with store bought.

Two years ago, we grew our own potatoes in mounds of straw. That worked out really well and it was easy to harvest them.

oopuy said...

Crunchy, there's something great about growing plants. The greenness, the life, the addition (however small) of something that will make the air cleaner! I just planted a bit herb garden in an old pot and I can't wait to see the sprouts come out. I can't wait to see the harvest!

Anonymous said...

Okay, CC, tell me... do I have to order special "seed potatoes" or can I just plant some organic potatoes that have started to sprout eyes in my kitchen?

Anonymous said...

AND... is there a particular time I should have planted? Is it too late to throw 'em in the whiskey barrel?

Eva said...

WOW! Look at those! Can't wait to see your harvest. Time for me to plant my potatoes. This post has inspired me to get movin

Crunchy Chicken said...

qt - I've heard about using straw, it seems like a real easy way of growing taters.

lrapps - when I first started growing food about two years ago, I was so amazed that anything actually came up!

lori - here's the deal with "seed potatoes". They are usually certified, meaning you have some guarantee against tuber borne diseases. Another issue with non-seed spuds is that the ones you get from the grocery store have generally been sprayed to prevent sprouting, which obviously isn't your problem!

So, if you're willing to risk potentially-mutant potatoes with some weird ring rot, go for it!

Any potato experts out there, feel free to correct or clarify...

Crunchy Chicken said...

lori - didn't see the second post... I don't think it's too late to huck those babies in the whisky barrel.

K said...

Crunchy chicken - here's the only thing that I'd add about seed potatoes vs normal potatoes. If you use the kind that you buy in the supermarket, you also don't know if the potatoes have been genetically modified, and the likelihood that those potatoes have fungal stuff is higher, because the kind of potatoes (russetts etc) that tend to dominate in the supermarket are also the kind that tend to have the most problems. Also certain potato diseases (potato blight) passes from potato plant to potato plant (literally the green stuff) so you can potentially wipe out your entire crop.

If you're going to plant normal as opposed to seed potatoes ones, I'd stick to heirloom varieties that you picked up at the farmers markets. Smaller farmers who have less money tend to avoid disease prone potato types.

P.S. I like your site, I wandered over here from no Impact man