My Spring into Taters!

I’m not sure if anyone else got outside into a garden on March the 6th, but I did. The temperatures in southern Missouri got up to the mid sixties and that was enough to motivate me to amble into the back yard and begin what has become a ritual every year. Getting the raised beds ready for another season of great veggies.

Now as a gardener, my spatial aspirations are really quite small. I have just three little raised beds that are about four feet by eight feet in size. Last season, however, this sixty four square feet of growing space produced about fifty pounds of edible produce. (I know that's true because I actually weighed every bit and have the results available in a data file should anyone be interested).

On this date, I worked the soil in each bed to loosen it up a bit and then went ahead and planted some leaf lettuce seed I had left over from last year. I also planted a bit of radish seed as a marker and about 6 broccoli seed for the hell of it. I’ve never had much luck growing broccoli from seed. Even when I have gone to transplant, I’ve had poor luck. I think the climate is just not quite right here in southwest Missouri for them. They also take up quite a bit of room and when space is at a premium that can be a problem.

My biggest foray, this season, will be the great potato growing experiment! You see, I have never planted potatoes before and am a little nervous about making mistakes. My usual thing is to make every mistake possible and then some day I'll be an expert...at making mistakes! But, that's never deterred me. So, at the local grocery store, I managed to violate a potato growing principle right off the bat. I purchased ‘non-certified’ seed potatoes that will, in all likelihood, rot or become diseased the first chance they get. Well, maybe not. Anyways, they certainly look the proper part. They've got little shoots growing here and there. They're also pretty dirty.. The crate they were in said they were Kennebec seed potatoes. I’ll assume this is a good potato to grow in Missouri. When I got the checkout counter the young girl asked me if that was the best I could do. I just smiled and told here that last potato crop had evidently failed. I still don't know who was pulling whose leg. You know it’s funny how you can be really old and yet totally naive or young and very world wise.I tend to fall in to the former rather than the latter.

So, tomorrow is Sunday and the weather is supposed to hold tight for one more day before its forecast to get wet for much of the rest of the week. I’ll use this time to finish up with surface preparation and then when it get rainy outside, I plan to make a trip to a local garden center to stock up on seed and additional soil.

Updates to come!

Potato Planting Time is Nigh!

As spring gets ever closer (it’s March 5th as I write this), it’s time to begin thinking about those first vegetables of the gardening season. Potatoes are among the best vegetables to grow and they should deserve your consideration. As a died-in the-wool gardener, I’m hoping to get a few seed potatoes from the local market this weekend. The Home Depot where I live in Branson Missouri seems a good bet.

I have my trusty soil thermometer ready to go. As soon as soil temperatures reach about 50°F, seed potatoes can be planted. Currently, the temperature where I plan to plant is at 49F. Some gardeners use cold frames or high tunnels. Not me! I’m going for the close to the house plan this year. I just need to be careful to protect the young plants from freezing temperatures which can still happen at any time. (Note: If you are planting in the open field, you will need to wait 2-4 weeks before the last frost in your area).

Once I get my seed potatoes, I plan to pre-sprout them for a couple of weeks before planting. This will give them a boost for earlier and maybe larger production ratios. Pre-sprouting is accomplished by placing the potatoes in a warm room (>50°F) until sprouts are observed on the tubers. You also will need to consider using indirect, medium light to form tougher sprouts. These will have a higher chance of survival. That’s the theory anyway.
Note that you can plant either seed pieces or the whole potato. If the seed stock is small (size of an egg or less), whole ones can be used. Larger seed potatoes can be cut in slices having 2 or more eyes or buds per piece. (Since the potato is a root crop, the soil needs to be loose and friable for good growth). The optimum pH is around 5.5 to 7.0.

Speaking for myself, I prefer to plant potatoes on a raised bed that keeps the soil both warm and well-drained. Just make a 6” deep trench and plant the seed pieces or whole tubers about 12” apart. Cover the seed with 2-4” of loose soil. When the potatoes sprout or when they get a few inches above the soil, then rake some additional soil into the trench, making a small hill. Compost can be added and mixed with the soil prior to planting, or some may apply about an inch of compost after the potatoes have emerged from the soil. Take your pick. The nice thing is that this hill method of potato culture provides more than enough soil to form well-shaped tubers while preventing them from being exposed to sunlight that can make them green and inedible. Yuk!

As always, I will do updates through the growing season.