Saturday, April 19, 2014

soalanum tuberosum in the pgp

ther hasn't been a spud in the pgp since 2011 and there's a reason for that...there is limited space there and you need a three year rotation to avoid pest and virus build ups in potato beds...well it's been three years and i took out the intermediate wheat grass that had overgrown its bed on the west side a couple of weeks ago and today i went out to plant...first thing i did was turn another eighty pounds of compost into the bed ( i quit keeping track after i had reached a ton of compost in this one hundred and twenty square foot garden...it still isn't level...it sinks towards the east ) then i planted seventeen tubers...six german butterball, five red pontiac, one each of juice valley, craigs snowwhite, leona, pungo, and purple valley...plus one mashua tuber...there is still room for a few all reds or yukon golds later next month...so spuds return...they did well three years ago...hoping for a repeat...it occurs to me, a day after i posted this, that i negelected to mention i planted a mashua tuber in the pgp yesterday as well...there are two in a be din the community garden and i put the third in this one...sub-tropical tubers i wonder how they will take to the long summer photo period...they are cold hardy and have along season so perhaps they will begin to set tubers towards autumn when the days shorten...their natural habitat is at high elevations where it is too cold to grow potatoes ( they are another andean plant...relative of the garden nasturtium...another andean plant the incas used to grow for the edible flowers ) and i wonder about how the will take the heat of a northwest indiana summer...we will find out together.

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