Monday, June 8, 2009

Potato Post

This evening I choose to update on the three sections of potatoes I am growing this season. They seem to be doing pretty well in this miserably cold weather we have been having as of late. I will start with the compost bag spuds:

Here is a photo of the early reds I planted in compost bags on May 25th, the seed is from last years garden. They have just started to sprout in the last few days. Once they grow about 6" high I will add more soil to replicate hilling and then leave them until harvest time.

Here is the potato bin planted with Netted Gem Russet and Banana Fingerling and they were planted on May 19th. The seed for the bin was mail ordered from Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes. They are both late season producers which is what is needed to hopefully produce a bumper crop of spuds. I have done one filling so far up to the top of the first board. In the next day or two I will add another set of boards and fill it up again. I am planning on filling it 4 boards high this year but may change my mind and fill it the full 6 boards.

The last group of potatoes to update on are the red fingerlings that were planted on April 24th. The seed for these was also from last years garden. They are by far the largest and goes to show that planting potatoes early is the good way to go. I have so called "hilled" this pot once and it badly needs it again. That will be done tomorrow for sure.

Now to take things totally off topic here is a photo of the tomato on mister early that was start way back on Feb 16th. I was hoping to harvest a red fruit by the end of May, it is now the second week of June and it is still green. It has however grown to about the size of an average grocery store tomato. I am guessing if we had a warm spring it would have been harvested already. I will just have to keep watching and hoping for red.

9 comments:

  1. Since Mr. Early is a full size tomato, getting one ripe before the fourth of July is quite an achievement. It looks like this one is ripening based on the lighter coloration and dappling. Tomatoes ripen from the inside out and so they seem to suddenly go from unripe to ripe in a big hurry. I think all this fruit needs is some warmth to go red/ripe for you.

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  2. Look at that beautiful tomato!!! Congratulations!

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  3. everything looks so nice and fresh!

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  4. Go Mr Early Tomato!!! You can do it.

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  5. It is great to have just one container with an early picking of new potatoes! I have a compost bag full in my greenhouse. Almost ready but I'm not sure. I wait until the plant has flowers then it is just about done!

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  6. Your spuds ae doing well! The tom wont be long either. Ours are similarly suffering from a lack of warmth and sunshine.

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  7. Your potatoes are impressive. My husband has been trying to grow some from old potatoes and only has a few plants. I showed him the picture of your bin and he's inspired to try to build one of his own. He once made a compost bin with removable slats, so we'll see.
    I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your tomato!

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  8. With some warmer temps, everything will explode in growth. Maybe it will get warmer...

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  9. Nice taters. I hope to save some seed for next year like you did. It would cut down on the potato finding angst.

    I hope you get a little warm weather to get that tomato moving. Mine are just starting to set right now, so I have a while.

    BTW I haven't written about it on my blog, but after the taste test I really like the deer tongue lettuce. It is quite crunchy and has a nice taste. The AYL however has been a bit insipid. It still hasn't gotten to full size yet and my other leaf lettuce is always better then. So it still has a chance.

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