Spud garden

[uppityperson]

Due to Things Happening, I did not think I would be around to garden this summer so planted 1/2 my veg garden in spuds. Rather than crowding them into 1 to 1 1/2 beds as usual, I spread them out into 3 beds to give them room and shad out other weeds. The reason I was going to be not gardening has disappeared, but I am enjoying thinking of the break I will get with only spuds, 1 row of peas, 1 row of beans, and my spouse's flowers.

I have harvested 12:1 and 2:1 in the past. It will be interesting to see what happens with the 17# I planted this year.

-Austrian fingerlings
-Yukon Gold (only a couple)
-Red Chieftan
-Ozettes (local fingerlings)
-Pink Pearl
-German Butterball
-Nicola
-Bake King

[Scuba]

1. Good luck, and watch out for hungry critters!

[enough]

2. Nuts, I was going to skip potatoes this year, but seeing that list

makes me jealous. What's a garden without some potatoes?

[Thor_MN]

3. That would be my garden. Huge beautiful plants one day and stems the next.

Happens every time I plant potatoes, and is a source of shame for me. A couple generations back, my family produced huge potatoes out in East Grand Forks.

[Aerows]

5. Don't be ashamed

Dad has tried twice to grow them and they failed for some unknown reason. Tomatoes and onions? Good Lord they practically take over every space they are in.

Potatoes fail in the south.

[Thor_MN]

6. I'm in Minnesota. Not the Red River Valley where my ancestors grew wonderful potatoes, but...

Bugs get mine. They come from no where and eat every leaf within a day or two.

[Aerows]

7. It has to be the aphids

We tried and aphids destroyed them .

[Thor_MN]

8. The beasty things up here are much bigger than aphids and hungry.

They will leave nothing but a inch or two of stem sticking out of the ground where your plants was in 48 hours or less. First couple times, I thought some dirtyname pulled my plants and stole them, until I realized the ground was undisturbed and there were these bitty little pieces of stem where the plant had been.

[Aerows]

9. Awful!

I hope you have better luck this year.

[uppityperson]

11. That is awful and, in a way, makes me feel better as this is one thing my critters/bugs ignore

Are you talking bunnies or other such critters? Broccoli grows well here except last year the darned rats harvested all of it, and climbed my corn to ear the tiny little ears that finally matured. Grrrrrrr.

Try growing tomatoes here though and I average 3/plant, even tiny tomatoes. If I'd ended up in MN this summer I was going to grow a big salsa garden but came home instead.

[Thor_MN]

13. No, not critters, although I wouldn't mind an owl taking up residence nearby.

My potato plants get eaten by bugs. When they hit, they make quick work of it. Residential neighborhood, just a backyard garden plot.

[Aerows]

4. That sounds fantastic!

Potatoes are interesting to grow, but they don't grow well in the Deep South (my experience, dad tried a few times and it was a disaster).

Good for you

[mog75]

10. Try the purple

I have grown the purple majesty(as did my great grandma), they are supposed to have higher antioxidants, and they have a slightly different taste. My kids really liked the purple mashed potatoes and purple fries. I would recommended anyone who raises potatoes try them once. I bought the seed potatoes on eBay, I believe they are heirloom.

[uppityperson]

12. I grew them one year and didn't like them, as well as being very difficult to harvest since this is

glacierated area and we have lots of rocks. Purple potatoes and rocks look enough alike that it took forever to check each and every one. I did end up with having only half the rocks in that bed than I used to but it was annoying at the time.

I have thought of buying some to eat again, now that I've grown more different kinds, to give them another chance though. They are different, end up not being fluffy but good in their own right.

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. Ah, potatoes - I've had mixed luck through the years due to less than optimum conditions.

I had good luck with Red Gold, Caribe, Yukon Gold, All Blue, a few others...I may try some in straw bales...pondering exactly what I want to test in bales this year.

[lululu]

15. Yukon gold, tastes amazing.

I never managed to row potatoes in the garden, but the ones I tossed in the compost heap and some of their descendants grow like gangbusters every year.