Spud

[digitS']

Well, it wasn't singular, 1 potato. I've had worst years. The year I planted Dora in about 20% of the spud bed and put that low producer in the shade, to boot!

It won't be a .6#/square foot year but I came so close to 200# out of 200 square feet last year . . ! Shoulda, coulda, woulda beat that this year :/.

Okay, I didn't even start off by weighing the harvest. Why set myself up for disappointment. There seemed to be something wrong with the 1st Yukon Gold plants that I harvested. Only went with 2 varieties this year. Thought I'd stay with my strengths: Yukon Gold and Sangre. After harvesting a few more Yukons, I decided to weigh a 1 plant yield: 1 3/4 pounds. What gives? I was getting nearly 4#/plant for all varieties in 2011!

Nope. The Yukons stayed that way as I slowly worked my way thru them. At 1st the Sangre didn't show much improvement but last week I dug 2 plants that had just short of 8# of spuds under them! However, I'm now working my way into the shady part of the bed. I can't expect that yield to hold up.

I started digging out the spud bed about 3 weeks ago. Why is it taking me so long? Once again this year, I'm burying "compostables" as I go and sowing Asian veggies in the soil. Lots of Bok Choy already up and growing and the Choy Sum began emerging yesterday! Got Maruba Santoh, too!

Things going okay in your spud patch??

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

My spud patch has me scared! So, I find other garden chores to keep me busy so I don't have to think about the potential disappointment lurking out there. It looks okay, but, as I shared elsewhere, I dug a few experimental plants to see what was happening down there in the dark, and was shocked at the poor production.

It shouldn't surprise me... this years garden hasn't received much attention, and the potatoes haven't got much more than a pat on the head. But I'm leaving them in to grow until the last possible minute. Maybe they'll pick up the pace and surprise me!

 

[digitS']

There are still a lot more weeks to the growing season, Thistle'.

This special pleasure I get from growing the early spud varieties may be a little off-base.

Still, it gets them out of the bed early so that there is still time to play in that dirt! I'll plant more Bok Choy seed this week then leave the remainder of the bed for expansion, moving the thinnings into it in a couple weeks.

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

After my first "successful" container planting, I took Thistle's advise and planted some more. I had about 4 potatoes that were starting to sprout. They are growing and I'm hilling them. Again, they're planted in the container. Can't wait to see how many if any they produce. Two crops in one season would be great!

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

My spuds haven't really died back yet so I haven't harvested more than one plant of "new" potatoes. The plants looked good all season so I'm hoping the potatoes will do well.

No big loss - other than the space - if they don't do well. I planted all the mini spuds from last season's four varieties just as they were beginning to rot in their containers. With so little rain this summer, I'm anxious to see if all my watering 'fooled' them into thinking it was raining.

 

[digitS']

With the possibility of getting only 1/8th of an inch of rain over an entire summer month - irrigation has always been a necessity in my garden.

Variable. That's what I'd have to say about performance.

Yukon Gold this year - pfft! I don't know what happened to them. The Sangre's performance was variable. Here is 6 1/4 pounds from just 1 plant!

Next door to this plant was another with 3 1/4 pounds and yesterday I dug the spuds from 3 plants that probably didn't total 6 pounds between them! (As you can see, I am more inclined to weigh the successful plants and dismiss the performance of the unsuccessful ones by not weighing .)

What I'd really like to have is a combination of garden veggies that can live together as companions and in succession. There is this little fantasy in my mind of a nearly complete yearly diet all within a very few square feet. Spuds have to play a part in that.

Steve

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i fiddled around with a few of the died back plants this morning while it was still overcast and pulled probably about 3-4lbs of spuds for the hubby to cook up for our dinner. i planted Irish Cobbler and Purple Vikings. only pulled the cobbler today since the vikings are still green.

hubby says the home grown taste better than the store bought! well.....i have to go have my dinner now and find out how those taste this year!

 

[Smart Red]

What I'd really like to have is a combination of garden veggies that can live together as companions and in succession. There is this little fantasy in my mind of a nearly complete yearly diet all within a very few square feet. Spuds have to play a part in that. Steve

This year I grew six varieties of pole beans on the long edges of a potato bed and added a few onions at the bed ends. I grow broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower between onion rows. By the time the coles need the space the onions have died down. It seems that the onion smell throws off cabbage worm butterflies and the cole leaves are nearly free of holes.

With my 5 foot wide beds I have several center spaces that are hard to reach. This year I staked my tomato plants in the center and other veggies were planted where it was easier to tend them. That seemed to have worked very well and the taller tomato plants are easy to reach for harvesting.

Think I'll dig some spuds tomorrow. They looked pretty tired today - either from lack of rain or because they're finally dying down - I'm not sure.

My 'fantasy' is to have Thanksgiving dinner with every bite grown or raised on this property. Still a ways to go, but I've come pretty close.

 

[Smart Red]

Dug two hills for dinner today. One was a blue variety. The blue had one medium spud and three marbles. The white variety (and I may have dug two plants before I was done) produced 14 mid to large marble-sized potatoes. Delicious, but not a good omen for the spud harvest.

 

[curly_kate]

I CAN'T GROW POTATOES!!! It drives me crazy! We tried containers this year. We've emptied 2 bins so far and have had exactly 1 potato in each.