Sunday, January 24, 2016

anyone for more rhizomes?

if you aren't a potato fanatic you might want to skip this one...the robust ollala down in the basement isn't the only spud putting out rhizomes above ground...potato tubers always grow neat the surface and i have always hilled potatoes to stimulate rhizome growth but obviously there are some varieties that aren't going to wait to be hilled to do so..the top three photos are of recently planted huaycu potatoes...a "primitive cultivar" meaning the breeders haven't gotten hold of it to "improve" it...these plants produce lots of small tubers and that may explain why they are both already showing nascent rhizomes above the surface...the early blue in the last three photos is doing the same...left to their own in a bed the early blues will turn rather vine-like and trail across the surface of the soil...where stem nodes come into contact with the soil they will set roots ( something like a strawberry stolon producing a daughter plant...potato vines grown from seed do the same thing ) and produce more tubers...they seem to be prolific fruit producers as well...they certainly seem comfortable in the basement...needles to say i covered all these rhizomes with compost and hope to see more rhizomes above the soil soon...the only issue si that i will be running out of depth in the containers to hill the spuds...there may need to be container extensions...more on that as it develops.

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