Everyone's Favorite Kohlrabi and Rogue Potatoes

Another strange summer from a weather perspective along the lake. It really hasn't been hot for any length of time. It feels like we have been in the 60's and 70's during the day and 50's at night forever. While this is great weather for growing lettuce, potatoes, spinach, peas and other cooler weather crops, it is terrible weather for the heat loving vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and zucchini.

The one thing with the cool, and not so humid weather, is that my tomato plants look really healthy. They just haven't developed any of the diseases you might find when it gets really humid.

I harvested all of my Kohlrabi. The variety I planted is called Grand Duke. The plants produced really nice 4 inch globes that were crisp and tender. I will be using this variety again next year for sure.

The potatoes that I grew last summer in the bags turned out so well that I decided to grow them the exact same way. As you can see, they are off to an amazing start. I am growing two different varieties. The first variety is called La Ratte. This is a late summer yellow heirloom fingerling variety that originated in France during the late 19th century. It is suppose to be excellent for roasting and in salads. The second variety is called Desiree. This is an early summer rosy red all purpose potato. Both varieties got planted in my grow bags on April 11th. The Desiree variety matures in 80 days which puts harvest time around June 30th. The La Ratte variety matures in 120 days which puts harvest time around August 9th. Desiree has been flowering hard so I am going to let it go longer. In the next week I plan to stick my hand down in the dirt to see if I can feel any potatoes. It is hard to tell that I have three tomato plants in front of the potatoes.

Early to mid May

Early to mid May

End of June

End of June

Speaking of potatoes, I got a bonus planting in my compost bin. When I cleaned out my garden last fall I dumped the contents of the grow bags into the compost bin. There must have been a few potatoes in the bags and they started to grow this spring. Fun, but I can't turn my compost pile without disrupting the rogue potatoes.