Saturday, October 18, 2014

planting spuds

i cut the sprouting early blue to callous yesterday so this afternoon i went downstairs and grabbed a pot ( september is a good time to find garden containers on clearance at garden centers...only the foolhardy plant in fall ) and i used that drill in the top photo to punch some more drainage holes in the bottom...then i filled the planter to a depth of about four inches with a mix of topsoil and compost ( once again, for the umpteenth time, no tuber will set below where these are planted so i left plenty of room to "hill" the plants as they grow and stimulate tuber growth )...you can see in the third photo that the pieces have callous well...there is a hard crust on the exposed starch and the edged of the peel along the cut have curled up....i placed them in the pot about ten inches or so apart ( fourth photo ) and then under one of the new, broader spectrum, light fixtures after i gave them just enough water to moisten the soil around them...too much and they will rot...not enough and they won't grow...watering in the basement is always a touchy process and last year it gave me fits...i am counting on it again this winter...off to visit the community garden and check on green manures in the morning...i sense another post.

No comments:

Post a Comment