Where did we go wrong? Our intern Jeffrey spent two hours digging up the six foot by three foot plot; here it is denuded —
Of course, in our uncritical arrogance, we were anticipating a gigantic potato harvest (after all, every thing else has been gigantic and bountiful this year), and instead, what? This? These pathetic little poops?
Okay. Where did we “go wrong”? Admittedly, we didn’t add anything to this bed when we planted them. Rebecca thinks maybe potash? Any advice welcome . . . Pretty hilarious, actually.
And to put our disappointment in perspective, here’s that basket of potato poops right next to today’s tomato harvest. To be dehydrated. By me. NOW.
10 thoughts on “GANG garden news: pathetic potato harvest”
I’m a resident of Texas and Southern USA several/many generations back. You probably already know this, but just in case, here it is. In this part of the country, to get big potato harvests as the plant is growing up from the seed potato in the soil, we mound soil around the plant, leaving a few inches exposed. Mounding continues until evidence of plant decline when potatoes are harvested. Potatoes will be found throughout the mound–rather than just at the root of the plant.
Aaah. Nice. I’ll forward this to Rebecca. Thanks.
This is the first year we have grown potatoes, and they are still vibrantly growing. We are waiting until the leaves die back for harvesting. We stacked and earthed up in bins of chicken wire. We planted in a more shady spot. also our sweet potatoes (doing well) are in a more shady spot. We won’t know however, until harvest time.
I found this info and perhaps it will supply some helpful information, lots of communication in comment section about potatoes. Your garden is beautiful. You certainly have enough potatoes for some delicious meals! making my mouth water! It is odd how one year a certain crop will flourish and the next year fail. Peas were the big surprise this year.
http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=82
I’d love to know what you discover when you do decide to harvest them. Thanks, Teresa Joy! And for the url!
Well, at least you have loads of tomatoes. It has been so cool here, we hardly have any ripe ones, even with 11 tomato plants! Fortunately, I planted lots of different varieties. The yellow ones — yellow gooseberry and yellow pear, both small sized — are producing reasonably well. We’ve gotten two heirlooms and three beefsteaks and a few stupich (a cold hardy Czech variety). Other than that, we have loads of tomatoes on the vines and nothing like last year’s crazy dehydration festival in August.
Hopefully, we won’t have as early a winter as I think we might. I’m going to start growing all Russian varieties of everything! LOL, we have huge Russian watermelons, and Pride of Wisconsin cantaloupe as big as pumpkins. Our okra plant is about 3.5 inches tall, though. So glad I didn’t bother trying to grow sweet potatoes this year!
Enjoy your abundance!
Our tomatoes started turning red about two weeks ago. Still hundreds of them green. I harvest those that are lying on the ground while still somewhat green, to get them before the critters do. Wow, watermelon and pumpkin! We did not grow either one this year.
I got three potato bags to try growing them next year. They were on sale, and I figured why not? That will be my first attempt. I’ll try growing them near bush beans. Apparently, they repel each others pests.
Good advice on the bush bean combo. Thanks. Hmmm. Potato bags . . . Love the fact that there’s never an end to the learning process, especially where nature is concerned. We think we are masters of the universe? HAH!
in regard to potato, you need to give it more land on top, sort of like hills above seeds so plant is protected from more sides, this hills can accumulate warmth and give more space for it to bloom (underground) saw dust in between this hills (rows) and around plant will also help to keep bugs away and keep moisture when watering so it doesn’t burn.
do not neglect your harvest though, reseed it, you might be amazed next year as this little ones probably accumulated much love but were missing habitat 😉
hope this helps 😉
Thank you so much!