Potatoes of Unknown Variety gradually being consumed. We dig them as we eat them, since no cold room or root cellar for storage.
I'm currently researching when best to harvest the Amaranth (above) and Quinoa (below). Teresa provided a good reference regarding when to harvest at Salt Spring Seeds.
For the record, I just weighed the lastest dig from a single potato plant at 4 lb. This could likely improve with better soil conditions.
ReplyDeleteDoing the math, the total harvest will be about 32 lbs from all 8 plants. We planted these from two or three spuds originally.
About 1/3 of the spuds are showing some scab, but all are very tasty especially when cooked an hour after leaving the earth.
Potatoes like sandy soil or at least soil they have room to grow in. Our garden soil is concrete clay and out potatoes are too small to bother. We buy them from babushkas by the road.
ReplyDeleteWhat does one do with Amaranth? Very lovely plant for a flower bed, I must say. And Quinoa?
Amaranth and Quinoa are typically used as high protein grain alternatives. We often cook and mix in with rice, among other things.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, but the best backyard harvest I have recorded from a single potato, a Safeway Russet, yielded 21 potatoes (10 lbs - over 4 kg if my maths are working). This was in a raised planter with little competition and good sun and before I read that you shouldn't use store-bought potatoes as seed.
ReplyDeleteSince then I've only used properly purchased seed potatoes (I always plant full potatoes and never divide them - space if always the limiting factor), but have had less and less sun as the trees and shrubs filled in. Still, from a tub or raised bed planted with 2-3 seed potatoes, I get 2-3 kg at harvest.
This year I started a new garden with black soil and full sun in the country. Thanks to the wet summer, the potatoes went mad and I am harvesting a minimum of 2 kg per seed potato. Some of the individual Caribe and Yukon Gold potatoes go to over 500g. I'm extremely thankful that my wife is of Irish descent and likes potatoes.
Dave: Glad to hear that yield can be increased with better soil! We are gradually improving it with homemade compost, I'm too cheap to buy compost to add. I may consider it in the future as the homemade compost volume is lower than expected.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you buy your seed potatoes?