Thursday 26 January 2017

Potato Hunting

Tuesday and Wednesday turned out to be lovely sunny January days. It meant a couple of frost nights and misty mornings but the mist lifted quickly leaving us with almost dawn to dust sunshine.

Thursday morning has brought a change and the sunny weather has disappeared leaving us with a cold and cloudy morning.
Temperature & Wind Chill Records for 26 January 2017
It's not very windy but the little bit that there is makes it feel bitterly cold outside. Yesterday it was possible to feel a little bit of warmth in the sunshine.

We've got our list of seed potatoes ready for the coming season.
As you can see it's not a very high tech list but we've given careful consideration of last year's crops yields and tastes. We plan Armour as one of our main crop varieties rather than Vivaldi which suffered from slug damage but we are considering giving Vivaldi a second chance as it cropped well and tasted fine. We'd also like to find some different varieties to try if we can purchase them in small enough quantities.

4 comments:

  1. I'm trying potatoes for the first time ever this year: Sangre shipping 2/6/17 and Harvest Moon shipping 3/6/17. I have no idea whether or not they are early or main or weather (intended) or not they will grow here. So many varieties. Another experiment.

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    Replies
    1. Can you grow potatoes all year round? We have to stick to a fairly rigid timetable of a spring planting and harvesting late summer or early autumn. That purple variety Harvest Moon looks interesting. We tried a sort of blue skinned variety last year and didn't manage a single potato so I hope you have more luck. The Maine Potato Lady reckons Sangre are earlies and Harvest Moon mid-season.

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    2. I have no idea whether or not potatoes will grow here at all! Never seen or heard of them in anyone else's garden. I figured that if the seed companies are mailing them out, then it's time to plant them. I will go now and read the Maine Potato Lady web site. Thank you for alerting me to it.

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    3. Well, that was an interesting experience! Reading Maine Potato Lady. First off, she says Sangre is unavailable for 2017! Does this mean her crop only or is it for all sources? Next her description of Harvest Moon is very different from Burpee's. Burpee says 70 days to maturity (planted first week of March) and she says they are ready under the harvest moon. And the Burpee picture shows a lot of white, not totally blue like hers. Who to believe? I'll just have to wait an see 1) what is delivered, 2) what it looks like and 3) how long it takes to produce.

      I think earlies would be best in my climate so they produce before the heat comes.

      We are getting lots of chill hours! So maybe I'll have some deciduous fruit this year!

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