Indoor Potato Experiment Ends
Greenhouse Winter Potato Growing Experiment Jan.1, '09 - May 4, '09
Four months may seem about the right timing for a successful potato harvest, the number of days for harvest ranging from 70 to 135 (according to The Wood Praire Farm in Maine, which is in no way responsible for this potato comedy. They are lovely growers of seed potatoes already planted outside. We'll see how those turn out in approximately 90 days.)
First mentioned on Feb.11 in the post Greenhouse Potatoes, this experiment was to see if seed potato would be able to last out the warmish winter until planting time by growing in a deep greenhouse bed. Was the experiment successful? That would depend if success was based solely on harvest or by the relative health of the plants and the carefree nature in which I'd wished they had grown.
Summer of '08 was my first potato planting, so I am unfamiliar with their ways. Now I realize that what I'd thought of as dread disease in the greenhouse plants may be just the natural dying off of mature plants. Are you experienced? Please let me know your thoughts.
They looked at first (well after the frost die off in their first weeks of life), to be marvelously healthy, albeit planted too closely together. It was an urgent "save the seed" movement, rather than careful planning of optimal growth conditions. This photo is from March 13th.
Then came the little disfigurements of disease
and depredation.
Then total disaster as the aphids increased, thanks to the ants.
Then it seemed that the plants were truly dying. Of course I never thought to count the days to see if perhaps all was on divine schedule after all. I used nitrogen therapy to try to bolster the leaves. That worked nicely for a couple of days, but alas, just more and more wilt.
Also, I was hoping to see some flowers. I'd read that the potatoes are reaching maturity when the plant flowers. I suppose all its flower-making energy was going into the aphids and I didn't receive the sign to start digging for potato treasures.
Finally today I decided I couldn't stand to see the dead foliage any more, cut the dead branches of one plant off and gingerly dug. First I pushed away the aphid ridden soil so it wouldn't get on the potatoes, then dug up ...
These beautiful, if small, clean and healthy looking blue skin potatoes. There's even enough left of the seed and stems to plant again, if there's room in the garden.
Although the original idea of these was to serve as seed potato, I've ordered many others from Maine. The brothers of the seed planted in the Greenhouse spent the rest of the winter in a friend's crawl space, cooler than mine. It turns out that those seed did wonderfully well and are now ready to plant. I hope that its dry enough tomorrow to do just that. They have wonderfully grown up eyes.
What to do with the new potatoes shown above? If they are not to be used as seed, what then? Hmmm, yummmm, with butter.
We'll know when we eat them, if the winter greenhouse potato experiment was indeed, a success.
May all your experiments bring out the beauty, joy and resiliency of life.
Salsify Flower, biennial seed saving project
It is living in the greenhouse as part of a seed saving experiment. As a biennial, seed can only be saved after it flowers, is pollinated, makes seed and has not been exposed to other like-species of plant.
An intense schedule of getting outdoor beds ready has kept me from my books. It would have been smart to research in advance what to do with this flower once it blooms. Even now, I sit before the fire with this computer on my lap, too tired out to get up and look it up. If the experiment goes no farther, still the joy of looking into this flower has ben worth the effort of caring for it.
An amazing color to greet me today. March is lovely, but there is no natural source of bright purple in my yard. Others may have crocus to jump start the eye's ability to process brilliant pallet of joy, but this is the first, this year for this gardener.
On a tall stalk, it opened facing the sun, and then remained in that position during the day.
In the late afternoon, it closed up again. I don't know what will be next.
Three days ago, the bud looked like this.
Salsify and carrot (above) on 2/6/09. These are root vegetables which are both biennial. I took the best roots that were harvested in the Fall. Instructions say to keep them in a root cellar all winter, and plant them again in the spring for them to grow tops and flower. Not having a good root cellar, and not being good at following directions, I took them into the deeper greenhouse beds and planted them there, open to whatever happens.
The Salsify is big and bushy now, as are the invisible carrot tops right next to them. I promise, I will read up on the seed saving technique for them. Everything I've read says that salsify seeds are viable only for one year. I'm hoping to be able to save most seeds, to grow or to share.
The root itself is close to a white color with a very delicate flavor, and stringy roots all along it. I didn't love the taste that much, but it doesn't stop the pseudoscientist within from attempting an experiment.
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In the climate change department, I noticed today that the quince blossoms are opening. Checking the digital record from last year, there were quince blossoms on 4/5/08 . They are at the same stage today, 3/19/09!
Wishing for you, in your garden, that the climate of Joy only Grows Brighter!
