Here's a picture of most of the potatoes that came from "volunteer" plants that came from potatoes I missed during harvest last year. They're laid out to dry in the garage for a few days, and then they'll go into crates and stay down in the basement where it's quite dark, if not yet all that cool. There are still a few more volunteers to bring in, but this prodigious bounty weighed in just around 34 pounds (15.4 kg). I'm rather amazed at what we got for doing basically nothing, and from one of the smaller garden beds. It certainly brightened what was looking like a day of weeding drudgery.
Last year after this potato bed was harvested we lasagna mulched heavily. The lasagna mulch wasn't for the potatoes of course, because we never guessed we'd overlooked so many. The intention was just to improve the soil there and hold the weeds down. My surprise at the number of potatoes that poked up there this spring had as much to do with the plants (apparently effortlessly) punching through heavy layers of cardboard and a generous amount of wood chips as it did with having missed so many spuds at harvest last year. Obviously the lasagna mulch treatment meant that those potatoes that escaped harvest had some primo soil to grow in and a nice cozy layer of protection above them. Many of these harvested spuds were surprisingly deep in the soil. Which convinces me that I probably missed some this time around too. And we just lasagna mulched there again. Which suggests there might be a repeat of this event around this time next year. That would be fine by me. It's wonderful to have potatoes this early in the year.
The main crop of potatoes from those I planted deliberately this year remains to be harvested. They need another three to four weeks, I'd say. I like to keep them in the ground until the weather has cooled a bit so that they store for a longer time. We'll see if the stuff I deliberately planted produces as well as the inadvertent spuds.
This is just so awesome! I've yet to successfully grow potatoes in the ground but I'm not giving up.
ReplyDeleteYour surprise: Potatoes! My surprise: Powdery mildew.
ReplyDeleteYou get the garden you deserve.
Wow that's an amazing find! I had fruit of another kind in my garden -- my cantaloupe plant was "growing" lotion... grr. But that's the trouble with front yard gardens I guess. :-P
ReplyDeleteHow many different varieties of potato do you plant? The colors are beautiful!
Chile, keep trying. If you can come up with a little compost and something to mulch them with you should do all right. Potatoes aren't particularly demanding, but they do need to be covered. Oh, and water too.
ReplyDeleteGeez, Tamar! Give yourself a break, why doncha? My winter squash plants have been wiped out two years in a row by a combination of mildew, squash bugs, and probably squash vine borers too. All gardeners have their struggles. But some bloggers are more honest about their failures than others.
Dea-chan, they are pretty aren't they? I know I planted German butterballs, Sangres, and a blue variety last year. I think it was either All Blues, or Purple Viking. I'm mystified by your lotion reference, so I'm off to check your blog for illumination.
How very nice!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! I LOVE volunteers in the garden ;). I have one volunteer potato in my Three Sisters garden. I hope it's even a nth as productive as yours. Even just a couple of pounds of potatoes where I planted none would be a bonus ;).
ReplyDeleteDon't you love finding freebies in your garden? Great haul! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteoh, wow, well done!! we should all be so lucky! ;)
ReplyDelete