Spud Time

I have been waiting for the sack of little red potatoes I put outside in a protected shady spot to sprout. I put them out almost two months ago and unlike the potatoes in my cupboard, this batch didn’t sprout right away. Go figure. Anyway, they finally sprouted so it was time to plant.

Spuds a sproutin'

I used a good combination of compost and a little shredded paper. I planted the potatoes whole instead of cut into pieces based on advice from my farmers market friend. She suggested that I plant them whole to give them a better store of nutrients to draw from since we are going into the cooler season and shorter days . When the weather warms up next spring then I can go back to using pieces of potato.

Tub of spuds

I covered the potatoes with about an inch of soil to start. As they grow, I will keep adding soil to keep the stems covered to promote more tuber (potato) growth. Will we have potatoes for St Paddy’s day? We’ll see….

I want to try some other kinds of potatoes and a friend wants to have a batch going as well so I just ordered some seed potatoes from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply. All the potatoes I ordered are organic, which wasn’t a priority for me but is a bonus, and I had to order a minimum of 5 pounds so I mixed and matched my order: Yukon Gold; German Butterball (I thought they were referring to me!); La Ratte Fingerlings (seemed appropriate given my recent problems with vermin); Red,Yellow & Blue Mix; and Russian Banana Fingerlings. Starch monsters all, but YUM!

Tagged as: potatoes