potatoes :)

I pulled out a few TINY potatoes from my pile by the fence. The chickens like to scratch around in there so I didn't know if I would find anything. I got a couple handfuls of reds that were hardly bigger than a quarter.

Hey, tater totters - I'm so glad most of you are finding buried treasure! That's the part I love best... grubbing around (maybe I shouldn't use THAT word) for those first ones. I have my little row out at our community farm. Our sparse workforce has had to commit to other things like harvesting the garlic and carrots so my experimental row was not getting ANY attention (read: WATER). So yesterday and today I PLEADED with our farm manager to WATER THE POTATOES! He had had to pull up the gigantic sprinkler system in order to get the tractor into the formerly garlic rows to till them. AND the remaining garlic shouldn't be drenched so of course what is on both sides of my potatoes still???

So Efrain used the age old acequia idea. He ran pipe directly from the spigot to the end of my row and turned on the water. I frantically raced over to start whaling away at the almost nonexistent trench with a hoe to deepen it; Efrain walked slowly (as he always does) to get a shovel, and meanwhile the mini trenches on either side of the row were overflowing into the garlic. UGH!

But we finally managed to get water to the other end. Then he showed me how to 'dam up' large sections of the trenches so the water would stop moving and soak in. COOL!

But now I have a question for you all. The tater hills are still dry but the 4 in deep trenches on the sides of the row are now good and wet. Do I need to go back tomorrow and at least moisten the hills themselves?

ANd in the meantime, we accidently discovered - potatoes! The whites are the size of a very fat short biscotti and the reds are larger than golfballs!!! woohoo! I brought home 6 taters who are now the early designees of their variety. Too tired to cook tonight! I'll boil up my babies tomorrow!

Gosh this is FUN!!!

oh how i love tater stories

oxmy not sure about the watering.....it does sound fine though....i have seen other garden video's that water that way.....i have seen corn planted in mounds and then they get watered by pooling water around them and not on top of the mounds....this is only my second year of gardening and first time getting any real taters

how are the tater plants looking?....standing tall and green?....if so then i think they are doing great.....unless their time is about up and they are falling and leaning over and drying up....then....it maybe time to harvest

congrats on the harvest today!!
hugs
rose

Oh dear! Oh dear!

I think I may have drowned my 4x4 potato box.

We have had quite a bit of rain yesterday, but before it started I put the hose on my box as I thought the compost pile they were growing in was a bit to dry.

I forgot it it until a few minutes ago I noticed that the plants were drooping. then I remebered the hose end I had buried in the middle. Out of sight, out of mind. I onluy meant to leave it there 15 minutes.

I hope they survive and don't go rotten. (sad emoticon)

hope your taters turned out to be ok kelejan!

here are some pic's of how my taters are doing...they are starting to look a little sad....yippppeeee!

our yukon golds where we picked some out of already



our red's that are still standing tall



our sad garbage can taters....we may take a peak soon



hugs
rose

My taters have survived my attempted drowning of them, thank you, FamilyGardening.

Just a few leaning over a little, but all of them have lovely purple flowers on them and it seems to me have some ways to go before the taters are full grown.

I took a few today from one of my tubs and they tasted so good. I doubt I will ever bother to buy a storebought tater again, even if they are only $1.69 for ten pounds.

Hey, FG - I keep meaning to get tater photos. They still looked good Friday. I am totally amazed that they have grown so fast, given how late I planted them! about a third of them have flowers, all in the kennebec section. The red norlands have no flowers but I did get two reds and 3 whites (little 'uns) last week when we did that frantic water dance with the acequias.

Since taters are supposed to have about an inch of water a week, does anyone know how that translates into actual watering? Maybe I should snag a rain gauge somewhere and still it out in the field with the sprinklers - except most of the water doesn't get to my row. We are DEFINITELY going to rearrange the plan of what goes where next year so the 'don't water so much's' are not on both sides of the 'water, water, I need water!' ones.

I just watched "The Botany of Desire" tonight on PBS. It has a fascinating segment on potatoes. I think you all would enjoy it.

well today was the day......potatoe day!....thought i would share some pic's
the kids had so much fun looking for taters!



we dump out one of our garbage can potatoes......we left the other one to grow more.....










we dug out the rest of the first wine barrel that has the yukon golds in them and we had them for dinner tonight!....we still have the red's left in the other wine barrel to continue to grow.....









hugs
rose

Some of my potato plants are broken off because of wind... they still have new growth below the break though. Are they goners, or are they probably ok?

Cheri

i say they should be ok

how long have they been in? and were they starting to die off yet?

hugs
rose

Nope, they're looking really healthy, except for something's been munching the leaves on a couple of them.

there had been something munching on our leaves as well...didnt seem to hurt the potatoes any....we also found a sluuuuug when we were dumping out the dirt...yuck!.......he was kinda pretty though (did i just say that?)

hugs
rose

I have a question for those who have raised potatoes in garbage cans. I am trying it this year and am kinda concerned because of the heat wave we had. I tried to water the cans every day to bring the soil temperature down, but I don't know how effective it is.

Does soil temperature make a huge difference? So far, I have only seen a few buds on the plants and when I've dug down into the straw and soil I haven't found any potatoes yet. I am trying very hard to wait patiently, but by this time last year (growing in regular dirt, hilling them up), I was seeing potatoes.

oxmyx1 wrote:Hey, tater totters -
I'm so glad most of you are finding buried treasure! That's the part I love best...

today I PLEADED with our farm manager to WATER THE POTATOES!
ANd in the meantime, we accidently discovered - potatoes!
The whites are the size of a very fat short biscotti and the reds are larger than golfballs!!! woohoo!
I brought home 6 taters who are now the early designees of their variety. Too tired to cook tonight! I'll boil up my babies tomorrow!

Gosh this is FUN!!!

Yuppers, any way you do it: GARDENing is soo much FUN! - Glad you discovered this as well.

Potatoes, need water? - (more than nature naturally provides), really?? -
hm,
when we were UNschooling, with hands-on Horticulture, etc, part of curriculum,
we never watered, yet our 1st. year, we harvested 30 lbs.
of 4 different kinds of 'taters', 2 - 6 inches long. - YUMMY!

FamilyGardening wrote:there had been something munching on our leaves as well...didnt seem to hurt the potatoes any....we also found a sluuuuug when we were dumping out the dirt...yuck!.......he was kinda pretty though (did i just say that?)

hugs
rose

I have not seen ANY pretty slugs... Although I did see one with a really indignant look to him when I scooped him out of my garlic section! He swiveled his head around, and I could swear he was glaring at me!





My potato plants still look healthy enough for now. I'm keeping an extra eye on the broken ones though. Still not sure who's munching on the leaves, but as long as they stay above ground I guess I can handle it...

This morning, I felt around under the Makah Ozette potatoes and "stole" four 'taters. Enough to round out our dinner tonight. I've been so anxious to taste these PNW heirloom potatoes, and just hours from now, we'll know if they're keepers for years to come. Nonna

Had the Makah Ozette potatoes for dinner, steamed, then rolled in a bit of browned butter and sprinkled with sea salt. In appearance, they are somewhat like a fingerling potato, an attractive pale gold interior. Taste: Mellow with earthy overtones, smooth mouth-filling texture, lovely creamy finish; in total: this 'tater cries out to become part of a German potato salad. We'll not dig any more until the vines have completely died down, and will definitely plant Makah Ozette again next year. Nonna

ok nonna my mouth is water now!!!!
we have left one garbage can and one wine barrel to see how they produce compared to the ones we harvest last week....last week the vines were falling over and wilting and since we did stick our hands in and take a peek.....we just couldnt stand it any longer and had to get in there and see what was growing.....this time around we are going to let the vine really die down....turn brown and dry up to nothing.....then harvest and see what we get i want to know if it really matters if we wait longer or not.....


for some reason cherimckay we get some pretty slugs around our place....i have thought about taking some pics ....not sure if anyone would apprecitate them though ....i always pick them up and throw them in the out side trash.....my husband who is becoming very protective of the gardens can kill them right on the spot...
hugs
rose.....

Rose - I would love to see pics of your 'pretty' slugs! Out in CA we had what we called Banana Slugs - HUGE, pale-colored, with brownish spots/patches like a banana getting over-ripe. I always thought they were cool looking, and we never had a problem with them in our garden. We always found them when we were out hiking in the hills.



GG

ha ha ha GG....when i see another pretty slug i will post ya a pic

well yesterday we dump the second garbage can taters.....i need to look back and see how long between these guys and the others has been....there was a big differnce in the size of the taters the taters were the same taters planted at the same time and had the same growing conditions....by waiting a bit longer to harvest we were able to harvest 2 more pounds of potatoes then we did the first time.....the first time was 3 pounds and yesterdays was 5 pounds i think we could have even waited a bit longer to harvest them as the vines were not all dead yet...but the weather here has been hot and i was affraid the taters were getting cooked....it turns out though after getting in there....the dirst was cool and moist....and the taters had no damage on them at all.....









we have one wine barrel left to go....its starting to show some signs....just not dead looking yet....LOL

hugs

rose

That is one good looking plate of taters!



My Yukon Gold's are just starting to turn yellow, so maybe in a week or so I will start digging.

GG

well...we dug up the last of our taters and had some for dinner tonight nothing is better then a fresh tater straight from the garden into a pan with butter

before:



After:



hugs

rose....who found a seed potato growing some little spuds on the end of it....re-planted it again into a bucket......to see what happens