Potatoes

I planted my potatoes this past week.  I tried potatoes my years ago but they really didn't grow that well.  While the soil in my garden is good, it isn't up to the standard you need to grow really good potatoes.  In general, potatoes require light and airy soil.  These conditions allows the potatoes to grow much easier.  If you have heavier clay like soil, the potatoes just have a hard time growing in those conditions. It is so much easier to grow when your surroundings are nice and soft.  To get around this condition, this year, I purchased four Smart Pot containers. Smart Pots are a porous fabric aeration container that releases heat and promotes fibrous root growth.  This should provide the ultimate solution for growing my potatoes.  This also saves a lot of space in my garden. You can put the Smart Pots on your patio or in a empty space of one of your other gardens.  The Smart Pots come in many different sizes but mine is a 15 gallon bag that measures 18 inches in diameter and 13.5 inches tall.

Bags ready to be filled

I filled my bags with a mixture of compost to about 6 to 8 inches from the top of the bag. I intend to continue to fill the bags as the potato plants grow.  Hopefully, this will encourage additional potatoes to grow.

Bags filled and ready for potatoes

I purchased two different varieties of potato this year.  I made my purchases from White Flower Farm.  My first variety is Austrian Crescent.  This is a larger and curvy fingerling with thin golden skin and light, yellow flesh.  This is a mid to late season variety that matures in about 90 days.  The second variety is a French Fingerling.  This variety is very old in that it was introduced to this country in the 1800's.  This variety of fingerling has smooth, cranberry colored skin and creamy yellow flesh.  It should have a somewhat nutty flavor and the skin is suppose to be so tender that there is no peeling required.  This variety takes more then 90 days to mature so I won't have a ton of potatoes all at once.

I will keep you posted as to how these grow and what kind of watering is required with these bags. I will say I am a bit worried about the bags drying out if we are out of town for the weekend.

Finally, I planted some more spinach and lettuce this week.  You really can't get enough this time of year.