Saturday, October 9, 2010

another year, another potato

I left the potatoes in longer this year, and put in more plants. It didn't help. Here's the potato harvest this year. Here was last year's. You noticed too, did you?

More potato plants left in longer equals fewer potatoes. They were smaller, too.

Go figure!

Ah well - they were free, and they're pretty red potatoes. I cut up the ones at the bottom of the bag which had started sprouting, let the cuts 'heal' for a few days in the air, and then threw them in the ground. Other than that, I ignored them all summer until just today, when I dug where I hoped I remembered planting them. It's a couple servings. Surely that's worth the planting and the harvesting!

After I'd gotten all the earth turned over and smoothed out again, I took the sprouting potatoes I'd cut up a few days ago and threw them in. Maybe I'll get a fall potato crop? Maybe they just don't like hot weather. . . . Ireland doesn't have hot weather and look what they do with potatoes! The nasturtiums that also flourish over there (and which barely limped along here this summer) have finally started flourishing here, now that the weather has cooled off. I'm going to take that as a sign that this is potato growing weather and we'll see what happens.