first spuds

when i got to the garden after work today the yukon golds in the first photo still looked as if they had a way to go in their season...the red potatoes i planted on april ninth in the second photo were all but finished so i decided to harvest them...the root balls ( third ) told me they had been busy and when i rooted around the area what i found was thirty-eight tubers of varying sizes ( fourth )...i took them home and cleaned them up ( fifth )...the smallest of them didn't even register a weight on my kitchen scale ( sixth )..the largest weighs four ounces ( seventh ) and the whole bunch weighs a shade over two pounds...they will be a fin lunch soon...more when the yukon golds are done

community additions

events in the community garden tell me the season is moving along...my bed ( top photo ) is slowly beginning to fill...the jerusalem artichoke colony ( second ) will be over a foot tall by month's end while two yukon gold spuds ( third and fourth ) and another red potato ( fifth) have joined the three reds ( sixth) already booming along...the one egyptian walking onion in there ( seventh ) has begun to develop the aerial bulb ( eighth ) that will allow it to "walk" as the weight bends the stem down and the bulb roots at a distance from the parent plant...above ground colonization using bulbs rather than stolons...down the row the asparagus is doing just fine ( ninth ) and has already begun to flower ( tenth and eleventh )...acquiring some viable asparagus seed from this stand would be a bonus..i have a bed in my back yard i would like to seed...the plants continue to produce new spears ( twelfth through fourteenth ) a sign of a happy, heal;thy root system...finally i have some teosinte seed that has germinated (fifteenth and sixteenth ) so i planted a couple in my bed...no the aggressive type jerusalem artichokes are it will ,if it succeeds, still give them some competition for "tallest plant" honors at the end of the season.

garden satus quo

there's always movement in the garden...just sometimes it's slow...and the cold, breezy weather we have enjoyed lately seems to have stalled things a bit...another asparagus plant toppled over...so i staked another asparagus plant up ( first and second photos )...there is new growth in the bed ( third and fourth ) however there is nothing of a size that warrants harvesting..so i dressed the bed in compost ( fifth ) to feed the hungry roots....down the row the colony of jerusalem artichokes is still a bit short ( sixth )...they should be a foot tall by month's end...they are not quiet however...they keep expanding pout of their half of the bed to the extent that , once again, i took a shovel to them as a control measure...there are still only the three red potatoes up on the other side ( eighth through eleventh )...still waiting on the slow yukon golds and the solo all blue...one bed along there is some very robust garlic going on ( last photo )...a clean-up event is scheduled for monday afternoon...see you there.

spuds 2017

after i got back from the community garden i went out to a local farm market and bought eight pounds ( approximately ) of seed potatoes..half each of red pontiac and yukon gold...i cut enough to make seventeen plants and will be putting them in at the community garden and in my back yard tomorrow after they have calloused...add in eleven tubers that were chitting away merrily and we are up to twenty eight plants that will need homes...i put the chitted ones in peat pots to let them develop until after the danger of frost has passed...the smaller ones i left downstairs under the lights with the yema de huevos to get a bit bigger and the ones that were further along went out into the real world on the deck where they can be covered or brought in depending on the frost forecast...there was potting today...tomorrow will being real planting outdoors and in the soil...stay tuned..

spuds and seeds

another container spud came in from autumn this afternoon and it was about what i expected...nothing dramatic...a number of tubers...some to eat..some for seed...fair deal for being raised in a pot...while i was washing them up i remembered there was a bag of potato fruits ripe enough to process so, since i was in the kitchen anyway, i did...fourteen fruits resulted in many hundreds of small potato seeds to use in the spring...and for many springs hereafter...after they dry for a few weeks, into the freezer...who knows...there may be more winter vines downstairs...depends on how much other stuff is going on...it nay be a crowded winter down there if the yacon moves in.