The potatoes are in the ground! It all started last August when I tilled the ground and planted winter rye cover crop. The cover crop captures any nutrients left in the field and helps eliminate weeds as well as protecting the ground over the winter. The potato seed arrived at the farm the 1st of April and we put them in the warm greenhouse to bring them out of dormancy. The next week we put them on bread trays in the light to green sprout them. This helps the potatoes come up faster when we put them in the field. They were on the trays for 5 weeks. On April 17th I plowed down the cover crop. As the rye breaks down in the soil it will release the nutrients back in to the soil were they will be available to feed the potato plants. In early May I applied a nice thick layer of compost and certified organic fertilizer and tilled it all into the soil. Last week we put in the potatoes. When they are up about 6 or 8 inches I will hill the soil around the plants. This makes sure the tubers will grow under the ground where they belong. Hopefully in bout 60 days, after a number of trips through the field with the cultivators, hand picking potato beetles and irrigation, we will be able to start harvesting new potatoes. Quite a process, but there is nothing like new potatoes right out of the field. Farmer Mike
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 13:20:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015