What Are You Planting Today, This Week, This Month?

flowerweaver

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I planted out sorrel and parsley starts from the greenhouse this week, and some rosy garlic and catawissa onions I ordered. Time to start potatoes from true seed.
 

digitS'

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Starts from the geenhouse in December?

Okay. Is that an easier and more sure way to have those plants than sowing seed in ... October (?) outdoors?

The parsley and sorrel must both be fairly hardy. We have a little wild sorrel around here. I was happy to have some in an earlier garden.

The potato seeds will start off in the greenhouse, right?

Steve
 

majorcatfish

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found these sprouting outside the raised bed fence this morning, as cold as it's been <well for us> these little guys should have never made it..
must have drop a couple boy choy seeds this fall
DSC_0001.JPG
 

catjac1975

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I planted the last of my daylily seeds and some herbs in my greenhouse. Decorated it with some purchased poinsettias. Making my giant wreath today.
 

flowerweaver

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Steve, I have to start almost everything (except beans, corn, squash) in the greenhouse or it is eaten by field mice. Especially greens. (And I have six cats and four terriers that work to remove the rodents). It would be so much easier if I could start them in the ground! Most brassicas are cold hardy where I live. The ground never freezes.

Yes, I start my potatoes from TPS, true potato seed (as opposed to 'seed' tubers) in the greenhouse. They are grown like tomato starts, only they are a lot more fragile at first.
 

thistlebloom

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Yes, I start my potatoes from TPS, true potato seed (as opposed to 'seed' tubers) in the greenhouse. They are grown like tomato starts, only they are a lot more fragile at first.

So how long does that make your potato season, from seed to harvest @flowerweaver? Do you start from seed to avoid disease? Are there very many vareties available from seed?

Eons ago in a different climate I ordered potato seeds, but for the life of me I can't remember if I planted them. I always had potatoes growing though. Wish I had kept records.
 

flowerweaver

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I start them in December @thistlebloom and plant them out in February. I harvest them whenever they die down, which is often in late summer. This year's were small, so I may wait until early fall in 2015. Pretty much they should be started 6 weeks before planting out, and follow the same schedule as a planted tuber in anyone's location.

The main reason I am planting potatoes by TPS is for greater genetic diversity and so that I can eventually breed my own varieties since they flower. I am working on breeding drought resistant vegetables, and the greater the diversity, the greater the chance I will find something that will excel in my extreme climate. Tubers are clones of clones of clones, and for the most part have had the ability to flower bred out of them. The neat thing about TPS is if your potatoes cross and you find a new one you like a lot you can then start propagating it by tuber. It's also a good backup plan to grow some of both, so if seeds don't make you have the tubers, and if the tubers rot, you have the seeds.

It isn't easy to source TPS unless you become active in farming groups that trade seed, but you can buy them from some excellent breeders, such as Tom Wagner, of Tater-Mater seeds, who offers quite a variety. Most of my seeds come from him.
 

digitS'

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A very different climate in Skagit Valley from SW Texas but I think you are going about this the right way, @flowerweaver .

It's even a different climate from Washington State's potato growing area, one of great commercial importance.

Potatoes can be grown without irrigation in the valleys of northeast Washington. That's nearly "alpine," however ;).

Oh yeah, there is a farmer in northern Utah who has done these TPS potatoes ... Lofthouse, I think. ... you have monsoons. Your potatoes might be harvested before that season, I'd guess.

Steve
 
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