yema de huevos

the last ten yema de huevos tubers from the second generation have been sprouting for a while now but they have begun to shrivel so it was time to plant...i shallowly filled pots that came to hand with potting soil and put the tubers in with the intention of "hilling" them as they grow...no tubers will grow beneath the level these are planted at so i put them deep in the pots leaving room for tuber growth...it's almost too late for these...the potatoes i planted at the end of last year should produce tubers for planting in april and i have a few i started this year that should be ready to go in in may...these should be done by mid-june at the latest which will allow a staggered potato planting and a fall crop in late september or early october...we will be tuber rich in the community garden this coming season if this all works to fruition...anyone who favors yukon golds should like these little guys ( they will not be large tubers...i can understand stunted tubers from the indoor harvest last december, but the fall harvest of outdoor grown tubers didn't see any much more than an inch in diameter ) and i am curious to try them myself...bite sized spuds.,..boiled and seasoned, topped with a butter sauce...i, for one, think that sounds inviting...it's getting crowded down there under the lights...thirty-nine plant in residence so far and these will push it to forty-nine if they all work...new teosinte plants from the last soak ( see the next post ) will push it past fifty...there are limits to what can be done without further investment in lights, fixtures, and space...part of sustainability is respect for limits...my conclusion here is that the basement seed potato/teosinte/whatever else crops up project has pretty much reached its full size...more as it happens.

potatoes and teosinte

the early blue in the top photo are doing well as well as the others in the bushel basket...the two plants on the left of the second photo are yema de huevos i planted on the ninth of this month...the ollala in the third photo are progressing...but very slowly...and there is definite movement in the teosinte seed i soaked five days ago...more viable seed makes the gardener happy and if i can give more plants a head start on the long tesointe season the more likely there will be seed ears earlier...human intervention in the life ancient corn.

tuber issues II

i am relieved to say that after a full day in the breeze from a fan the leaves on the early blue have mostly uncurled...i don't see any more yellowing and there is good new growth at the tops of the plants...they will be on a strict water rationing program at least until they begin to set tubers in around in about twenty-nine days...then it's outdoors for the next generation...outdoor plants indoors aren't especially touchy but i have to do more work on learning the parameters of their indoor needs...this has been a cobbled together experiment born of a failed storage project..well not failed...they did actually keep for the four month standard storage duration of andean tubers...i just asked them to do too much...like all dna, potato dna is determined stuff...here's hoping it helps pull us through the next fifty days or so...more as it comes up.

just wild potataoes

it seems fairly clear that the wild potato root systems have finally gotten beyond the peat pellets they germinated in and have tapped into the compost in the pots...looking much more robust and the leaves are larger and much more numerous...feed the roots and grow tubers...that's what we are after.

tuber issues

when i checked on the early blue potatoes before i left for work this morning i found curled leaves...in the zea family curled leaves is a sure sign of a need for immediate watering and potatoes are moderately heavy users of water...particularly when setting tubers ( which these are not doing right now...sill days to go before they start ) i watered them thoroughly and left...when i got home an checked some of the leaves had indeed uncurled...unfortunately just as many had yellowed badly...a sure sign of over-watering...so i pulled off the yellowed leaves...they will never be green again, they will simply retain moisture until they die and fall off, i just preempted that...and threw them in the compost bucket...so now what? i turned on a fan to circulate air and dry things out and i am scurrying around looking for answers...there is till new growth at the tops of the plants and the upper leaves are not yellowed...they aren't all uncurled either...no aphids or visible pests...a fungus? perhaps...or maybe just a peculiarity of outdoor plant being grown to maturity in a basement under broad spectrum lights...any and all possibilities beyond not enough water are on the table yet...this does not please me one bit...however the early blue in the other pots and the yeme de huevos ( bottom photo ) all seem to be doing fine..it is the taller of the early blue that are behaving oddly...here's hoping there is a positive result...but failure is still an option...more as this develops. 6:43 p.m. turns out it is TOO MUCH moisture, not too little...humidity is up in the basement...fans all around...more as it occurs.

wild potatoes and teosinte

the teosinte seedling is on the bottom.

a secoond teosinte soak I

when i got home today i picked out seven store bought teosinte seeds to go with the fourteen i harvested from the plants in the basement and i put them in to soak in hydrogen peroxide ( 3% solution ) for twenty minutes...while they were soaking i took some brown paper towels ( these are not easy to find in the real world folks...i looked in hardware stores, home improvement stores, supermarkets, big box stores...no luck...where did i find them? the local dollar store, $1.25 for a hundred ) and soaked them in tap water that had been sitting out for at least twenty four hours...so the chlorine evanesces ( and bleached paper towels are not especially health for seeds either ) in preparation for the next step.