Category: Garden

I’ll start this post with a disclaimer: I’m not a  potato expert by any means. I’ve grown potatoes for only three years.

I’m always interested in self-sufficiency.
Seed-saving is something of an obsession, though it’s largely been theoretical as opposed to practical (i.e. I’ve not had much time to seed-save on the scale that I’d like).

If you’ve researched the topic of potato tuber saving for planting next year, it will not have taken much time at all for you to discover that the risks of diseased tubers and lower yields increase drastically with each set of tubers that you replant.

The only way to bypass tuber-transmitted diseases is to eliminate the tuber.
Ultimately, you WILL want a ‘seed’ potato to plant, from which your crop will be harvested, but how you get that seed potato is the topic of this post.

In a booklet from the late 1800s titled ‘The Potato (How to Cultivate – Chemistry of the Potato)‘, the authors detail the use of single-eye cuttings, and how stems can be cut into sections, each of which can be planted, resulting in yet more plants (see pages 3-4).
In my first year of growing potatoes, I actually pulled sprouts from some of my purchased seed potatoes, and planted those. They grew. They produced tubers.

However, it was really only this present year that I delved into the topic further, and came across the following two links to papers produced by the International Center for Potatoes out of Lima, Peru.

The two documents only appear readable at Google’s Italian site, and it is unfortunately not able to be saved/printed, but there is invaluable information if you’re interested in cutting your seed potato supplier out of the equation.

Stem Cuttings, a Rapid Multiplication Technique for Potatoes

Single-Node cuttings, a Rapid Multiplication Technique for Potatoes

 

Additional information can also be found from page 111 to 114 of the book ‘Potato Seed Production for Tropical Africa‘ (this link should take you straight there.

 

Now, go forth and propagate!!

It’s been a while since I really wrote anything about the garden.

We had a considerable amount of lettuce that survived the winter.
When we transplanted it in the spring, it filled an entire bed and more.
The taste wasn’t particularly good, as the lettuce was so old, but we’ve left the plants to bolt, and will collect the seeds in the hope that they’ll produce an even more winter-hardy variety.

I had made hundreds of newspaper pots for seedlings in the early spring, but I believe there was something about the ink in the paper that caused the roots to be stunted.
In fact, Frank has pulled up still-intact newspaper pots from the garden, so they are absolutely NOT degrading in the way I’d hoped.

The tomatoes and brassica that were planted were very much stunted compared to those planted into plastic pots (to the tune of 3 or 4 leaves as compared to 8!).
The tomatoes that were planted into the newspaper are probably around a month behind those that were planted into plastic.
Never again.

The brassica were a miserable failure AGAIN.
I’ll have to really look into why we can’t seem to grow cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower.

The melons and squash are doing beautifully.. This is our first year growing scalloped squash – they’re sweet like yellow squash, but have a beautiful shape!!
As for melons,  we have loads growing at the moment – and some are already the size of a child’s basketball!!
I’m hoping that there will be enough heat through the next 2 months to bring ’em up to a good size.

The corn has seemed a couple weeks behind the corn in farmers’ fields, but it nevertheless silking well.

I canned 4 1/2 quarts of beans two days ago.
It would seem that  one full colander fills two quarts.

The tomato harvest is about to begin in earnest.
We’ve been picking around one a week for the last three weeks, but there are loads that are on the cusp of turning.

It started out as an idea which Frank threw into the air “I’d like to have a beehive some day”.
This year, as I’ve been reading up on trying to get our tomatoes to produce earlier than others in the vicinity, the subject of bees popped up again.
We were going to build a “Langstroth” hive, but as we were watching various YouTube videos on the subject of beehive building, we came across the Top Bar Beehive, which Frank ended up building in a weekend from cabinet grade ply that we had laying around.

See this example of a Top Bar Beehive plan.

A relative of mine mentioned having lost two colonies to mites, but I read that menthol or neem can be used twice a year in combat against the various mites which afflict bees.

Two links which were a great resource of information on caring for bees:
http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/honey-plants.html
Lists  flowers which bees love:
Various types of clover (sweet and/or white), aster, goldenrod, sunflowers, fruit trees, dandelions, snap dragons, honeysuckle,
http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/bee-keeping.html
Gives good general information on caring for bees, along with the recommendation of using Neem as a combat against mites.

Placed an order for potatoes on Feb 1 (expected to ship around Feb 15th) from http://www.irisheyesgardenseeds.com/.
I asked if they’d extend the 25lb per-pound rates to me in light of me buying 35lbs of potatoes, but they wouldn’t.

The price per pound of the regular potatoes was $2.40
The French Fingerlings were $5.50
10 lbs Desiree
10 lbs Early Ohio
10 lbs Cal White
5 lbs French Fingerling

 

We have a fair number of seeds left over from last year, but I’ll be placing an order today or tomorrow for the shortfall.

 

I’ve planned the garden to follow a 7-yr crop rotation as follows:

Potato

Squash

Roots
(non-potato)

Legume

Nightshade

Brassica & Green

Corn

 

October 24th:
The days and nights have been getting cooler for a while with some light frosts in the past week, but we’re set to have our first ‘hard’ frost in the middle of next week.

The garden was a big disappointment.
I got a total of 9 acorn squash, one dutch-crooked-neck squash, and two smaller butternut squash.
The courgettes produced so-so – I think we got 6 of them in all. I left one on the vine, hoping that it’d provide seeds for next year, but there wasn’t a trace of a seed (which meant it was great for eating! just a shame about preparing for next year).

The peas were a pitiful failure. I guess those beds needed to be very very heavily weeded before the weeds get too big. The stems of the pea plants were so delicate, that they ended up getting mixed in with the weeds, and were pulled out.
They did not do well at all in warmer weather, so need to be planted nearer the start and end of the seasons.

In contrast, the beans did rather well. I probably left many of them on the vines for too long, being a bit less diligent than I should have been, but I canned 9 quarts in all – and this should provide for some hearty soups and casseroles.

The corn produced fairly well.
We weren’t diligent about picking, so many dried up.

The tomato plants were well loaded, but the unfortunate part was that most of the plants were of the pear variety – small.
I only canned 5 1/2 quarts.

None of the peppers we started from seed grew to any size worth mentioning.

The okra was planted late – the plants looked fair, but they never produced

November 11th:

We dug up 3/4 of the sweet potatoes on Nov 1st, and brought the plants in just in time to beat the first hard frost.
The plants that were left outside died, but the tubers survived until they were dug a week later.
I’ll be growing vines from them over the winter, and will transplant them in the early summer.
The tubers that have been inside for a week are shrivelling from the lack of moisture, so I’m going to have to plant them soon to stop them drying out.

We dug up the rest of the ‘normal’ potatoes on Tuesday 8th.
There were some good-sized tubers, but most were rather small.
I’ll probably start growing those once they sprout more heavily, and just transplant them in the early spring too.

The carrots were planted too close together. Someone had said that they’d weed themselves out (selection of the fittest and all that), but that wasn’t true. The only ones that were any size worth boasting were ones that were spaced further apart.

I’ve no idea what happened to the parsnips that we planted.

Frank started some cabbage plants later in the season

The lettuce is still growing very well, but with the first snow of the season today, I’m concerned about the extended exposure to snow, and what that will do to the plants.
We don’t have a single cold-frame built.

I spend my weekends cleaning a house that I can’t really enjoy until next weekend … when I’ll be too busy cleaning to really enjoy it.

I set my hair so that it looks nice in the morning (and then waste valuable minutes unraveling it all) …

I rush in the morning with no time to eat…

I cut visits with extended family short because I have to return to my desk

I rush and cram at work because they don’t wish to pay me for overtime…

My stress skyrockets … my health and overall well-being plummets…

I spend my days away from the ones I care most for…

WHY?

Because our world has become so governed by machinery to supply our every desire/need, and money is the common currency that a person can use.

There has to be a better way.

We have around 5 aacorn squash now.
The yellow squash (last I checked) is doing very well.
I’m going to let it die on the vine, and then save the seeds for next year.

The tomatoes are about to kick into full production. They appear to be LOADED.

Frank planted two beds worth of lettuce on Friday, and they sprouted over the weekend!
The days have been in the upper 20’s, and the nights have been cool.

 

We planted cabbage broccoli and cauliflower in trays the other night – they are cool-loving plants, and will hopefully kick into production before the end of the summer.

 

I noticed that the one of baby aacorn squash that I’d been watching was noticibly MISSING this morning … but another is producing on the opposite end of the bed. It’s about golf-ball sized now.

We have one yellow squash growing on a plant … but a number of the plants have also started rotting around the bases. Perhaps the weeds kept them too moist for too long?
I don’t know.

We’ve had cooler weather this past week, and the peas have perked up a bit.

The basil plants between the tomatoes and peppers are more like bushes now.
I’ve not seen any more peppers … but there are a number of green tomatoes.
I picked two more this weekend.

Sweet potatoes are doing well, seemingly.
I had to pull some of the vines out of the ground, as they were trying to put additional roots in (and that’s not good, coz it takes energy away from the potatoes under the main plant)

We had a lot of rain last week. Temperatures have been in the mid 30’s (celcius) for around a week too.
Suffice it to say that the garden is happy.
Well, the weeds are the happiest.

I see that the heat must also have kept the groundhogs at bay, as we have a courgette! Yesterday it was 3inches long.

I’ve not got around to canning the beans picked so far, and the latest lot of peas that I picked were super bitter. All I can think of is that it has been too hot, and they matured too quickly.
The youngest peas are the most tasty, I understand.

I managed to repot 32-odd asparagus plants last night.
The roots systems were actually huge! I was most surprised!
I’ll attempt to transplant from the other container tonight.