Potato tests

Last fall and over winter, I had several ideas for tests to do this year involving potatoes.  For example, last year I got my first metal raised beds which I filled on the cheap using a lot of fill dirt.  Mixed in with this fill dirt was a lot of organic stuff like grass clippings and banana peels as well as some compost.  The idea is that while the soil might not be the greatest this first year, by adding compost every year it should get better.  So one test I wanted to do was to get three containers and fill one with just the fill dirt, one with the fill dirt and some compost, and one 50/50 fill dirt and compost to see how big of a difference compost makes.  But I didn’t have three empty containers that were the same size, and there was a lot of other stuff going on so I never got around to it.  Maybe next year.

Another test I wanted to do was I had seen some posts of people mocking people – worried the economy would collapse under Trump – of wanting to grow all their food.  The mocking was along the lines of, “You don’t even have a shovel to work the soil up,” or something.  So I had the idea of marking off a section of the yard and planting some potatoes as best I could to see if they did anything.  I think the plan was to also plant some in a raised bed to compare.  But I forgot about it until after I planted all my beds, and again there was a lot of other stuff going on.  Again, maybe next year.

But the third test, I actually did.  We have some old tires we grow in.  I know, I know, you shouldn’t do that, and I’ve been meaning to write up a post why I still do.  The main reason being, I live in a part of the country where if people have a brush pile that is too wet to burn, they’ll just throw some old tires on to get it going.  People worry about stuff leaching out of the tires, but worst stuff might be blowing in on the wind no matter where I plant.  Anyway, the bigger old tractor tires I plant with onions or beets or whatever, but the smaller ones I plant with sunflowers and potatoes. 

I have seven tires for potatoes, and last year after harvesting them I covered them in grass clippings.  I wanted to do a very basic test where I did very little work and started with smallish potatoes.

I took a handful of shifted compost and put it on top of the old grass clippings.  I then pushed a potato into the compost.  And since the level in the tires had fallen, I filled them up with the fill dirt.  Once the potatoes sprouted, I mulched them with grass clippings.  And that was it.  I didn’t even water them.  Although, we did have a wet spring, and it’s only the last few weeks – when the potatoes were already dying – that it’s become hot and dry.

Five of the potatoes came up, and after waiting a couple of weeks, when I dug up the other two, I found one had rotted and the other I think was eaten by a mole.  I replanted those tires, but I didn’t include them in this study.  Later, when the plants were starting to go strong, one of the remaining five and one of the replanted ones were killed.  Something chewed them off right above the mulch.  So I lost almost half of what I planted for the test.

Still, when I dug up the first plant, I was pleasantly surprised.

I should have used the same container for comparison, but probably that green one was about the size I planted.  And this is what I got from the four surviving plants.

Was it a great harvest?  For starting with smallish potatoes, only fertilizing with a handful of compost when I planted them, and not watering them, it was okay.  We’ve already eaten some of the larger ones.  I might save seven of the smaller ones to plant next year.

The one difference I plan to make for next year, is while harvesting them I noticed the soil was rather hard since there’s little organic matter in it.  So when I have an afternoon to kill, I plan to work up the soil, add some compost, and then cover it with grass clippings so the worms and such will have the rest of fall and winter to work.  Then depending on how low the level is next spring, I might not add more dirt.  We’ll have to see.

But that is the results of the one potato test I was able to run this year.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to do more next year.

Garden roundup for July

In no particular order, here is what I picked in July.

I had mentioned that the first patch of lettuce I had planted was eaten by slugs, but I had a second patch coming.  Well, I was able to pick from it a few times, but it’s been buried by a nasturtium.  I don’t know if I’ll get any more from it or not.  I have planted a third patch, but it hasn’t come up yet.

Last month I mentioned that I’d be picking our green beans, and I have picked four or five times.  I was worried if we’d get any, for various reasons, but I believe we had enough to can ten quarts, and there’s still a bag in the freezer we can add to any soup mixes we make.  There are still plenty of beans on the plants, but I didn’t pick them soon enough so they are getting big and tough.  Which is okay, because we’ll just let them go and get some shell beans.  These we either can by themselves or with kidney beans, or as part of soup mixes.  So I’ll probably get them in August.

We grew a bunch of onions last year and stored a bunch.  Early in the year, I noticed some of them were starting to grow, so I planted them.  About mid-July, I noticed that they were flopping over, so I pulled them.  A couple had rotted, but the rest were okay to start drying.  Shortly after that, I noticed that many of the onions in the first batch of sets I’d planted were flopped over.  Since we were supposed to have rain for two or three days, I figured I should just pull them and get them drying.  I left the ones that were still upright, but by the end of July they were starting to flop over as well, so I pulled all of them to get them drying.  The second set of set onions I planted are still growing, but were only planted a few weeks after the first set, so it won’t be long until they are drying.

I had a couple potatoes come up in my parsnip bed.  They’re either from the old potatoes I put in the bottom when I was filling it, or more likely some potato peels mixed in with banana peels and tea bags I added to start composting when I added the dirt.  One was starting to die, so I dug it up but only got a couple small potatoes.  A tad disappointing, but they were free potatoes. 

Very disappointing were my peas.  My total harvest was about seven pods.  What was worse, is that each pod only had one pea.  Last year, when we had better harvests, I saved a dozen or so peas I planned to plant in a raised bed as a sort of test.  But I forgot about them until after I had everything planted.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but I had an open space and decided to just plant them and see what happens.  I know the heat of summer isn’t great for peas, but who knows.  I might end up with more peas than from my spring planting.

My kidney beans – the few that came up – are producing pods.  With some shell bean padding, I might be able to can a quart.  We’ll see.

We buy our tomato plants from a local greenhouse.  Most are a few weeks old, but for the last few years my dad has also been buying an older tomato we plant in a big pot near our garage.  These usually already have blossoms when we get them.  In July, we got the first tomato from this older plant.  As I type this on August first, there’s another one that is about ready, and one of the younger plants has one that’s starting to ripen.  So August will likely be the tomato month.

It will also be zucchini month.  I had a lot of issues getting my zucchinis this year, but I have four, healthy plants starting to bloom.  So in a few weeks we’ll be buried in zucchini.  I also have a couple cucumbers that are … growing.  We’ll have to see if I get anything from them.

In July I had the last picking of currants.  There were more, I just never had the time to get around to pick them.  My dad and one sister picked most of our blueberries.  I think my mom said we had seventeen quart bags in the freezer, and I think my sister has about the same.  That’s despite the blueberry cakes that have been made, as well as my dad putting a handful in his cereal every morning.  And the end of July saw the first blackberries ripening. 

Somethings that we haven’t had this year, are raspberries – red and black – and yellow transparent apples.  The apples, I think, got wiped out by a late frost, and I think the birds got most of the black raspberries.  I’m not sure what happened to the red ones.

July was a busy month, and August will probably be just as busy.