Homemaking Organized Blog

Posts Tagged ‘potatoes’

My Purple Viking potatoes got scab! They taste great anyway. Something new to read up on for the winter months.

Wheee!

So today the Quinn family got out early to harvest their potato yield. If you remember we have been testing out growing potatoes in the Smart Pots all summer. Apart from great soil preparation and haphazard watering (over the balcony) we have done precious little to these potatoes.

We grew the German Butterball and some rogue russet from Wild Oats that was going to seed in the fridge.  That was a last minute decision and not a bad one

So here is the potato gardening in a summary fashion (you know like “sum it all up”).

• We grew our potatoes from seeds from Seed Savers
• in Smart Pots
• using this method
• My husband laid the pots on a flat piece of wood that was sitting on top of some 2×4′s over the dirt (good decision)
• We picked a few new potatoes when the flowers died off
• We found some of those green seed pods and made the decision to get rid of those too.
• The foilage started to die back about 2-3 weeks ago (recommended time) and based on work schedules, school starting and the season we made the decision to harvest today.
• There were big VERY VERY ugly slugs and LOTS of spiders under the wood but we had not seen them all summer… well the spiders yes but they are always here.
• We planted 2.5 lbs of the German Butterball. They are estimated to yield between 2 to 3 times their planted amount. We are estimating we yielded about 10 to 13 pounds.
• Our rogue potato, of which I have long forgotten how many I planted, yielded some nice sized tuber and probably about to 10 lbs.
• It is rewarding to see the fruit of your labors even if it is not gargantuan amounts. We are sharing with family and hopefully next year we’ll have some for friends
• I will be planting these again next year. This time using all of our pots for the German Butterball (you just rinse them out and keep them in the garage…after removing the spiders of course). I’m going to try and save a few of ours for seed but order again from Seed Savers. The only thing I might change is how many go in each pot. I have to do some research. Everything else worked well and it was a great learning experience and activity for our daughter.