late blight

i ordered and received seed potatoes form north valley seed in march in anticipation of april planting which, it seems, is happening on the last day of the month because , while the weather is still on the chill side, events have overatken the weather...specifically...

when i opened the box to have a look i deiscovered on of the tubers had developed a rather serious case of late blight and was in an advanced state of putrifaction...the seller certified the tubers as non GMO, however they were not certified "disease free" since clearly they are not...something to be mindful of in future seed potao shopping...i have run into this before with locally grown seed potatoes and did take the precaustion of isolating these tubers from seed potatoes i have harvested from the basement and late last season ( those are in need of planting as well )...

so i cut the unaffected ( one hopes, although they were solid when i cut them so we may be fine )tubers to allow them to callous for a day and after work tomorrow there will be planting in a variety of places...

cold as april has been there is movement out in the yard...the strawberries are bloming...

and ( planted simply because i like the color ) so are the grape hyacinths...

the winter rye is approaching a foot in height ( we will leave the wheat for another time )...

more spears of asparagus are emerging...

the onions...

the garlic...

and the ramps all show a strong spring allium pesence in the yard...

while the mooseberry bush is looking much livelier than this time last year...we will see how the potato business goes tomorrow...and the rest of the season.