"The same boiling water that softens potatoes hardens eggs. It's all about what you are made of, not your circumstances." - Anonymous
Not long ago I rambled on about an experiment I was trying with fall potatoes. We save some of our potatoes that we harvested back in May from our Spring Crop and plant them for the fall. We didn't have many potatoes left, but the ones we did held over pretty good. The trouble with fall potatoes is that you are on a short leash with the weather. If you get an early frost like we do from time to time, you run the risk of losing your crop.
About the time it is fall potato planting time, I don't have room in the garden to plant anything. A real dilemma. I thought about some thing that we could try that would solve the early frost problem and the lack of space problem! I planted the fall crop of potatoes in landscape pots. That way they didn't have to go in the ground when I didn't really have the room AND if we get an early frost, I could pre-emptively take the pots of potatoes into the garage. Portable potatoes, perhaps? A win-win situation. But would it work??
I planted them in three year old composted wood chips mixed with chicken litter. The "soil" was wood chips three years ago. Now it is a rich medium for growing stuff. What will the experiment show us? Well, we won't really know until we harvest, but take a look at some of them:
Man, they are growing like our national debt. Or the inflation rate. Or interest rates. Let's change the subject and just say they are growing great. But it's what's beneath the soil that's important.
When it is time to harvest, we'll rate the experiment. I planted 12 whole potatoes that were a little smaller than the size of an egg. Upon harvest we'll count the yield and see how we did. Stay tuned and find out!
No comments:
Post a Comment