Monday, January 22, 2007

I ordered potatoes!

Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes offers gardener packs of 4 seed potatoes of 4 varities for about 15 bucks for shipping and handling. How could I resist? I ordered:

  1. Russian Blue
  2. Carlton
  3. Kennebec
  4. Cherry Red

According to my new book, the 12 month gardener you can plant potatoes in the fall, heavily mulched and then let them grow through early in the season. If you are thinking to yourself but if there is a frost, they'll be killed. Fear not:
Optimistic Gardener Warning

I read - somewhere - that the spud will just send out more tendrils. I think this probably works best if you have planted whole seed potatoes, or biggish pieces so it has lots of reserves to draw upon and if it has not grown too far. Also, in case of a frost, you could just practice Garden Safety Procedure No.1 - throw something over it. In this case, a blanket, box, or just more of whatever mulch you threw over it in the fall. I am not sure how well this would work in freeze / thaw areas but I know that ever year I get potatoes growing out of my compost in the spring so hey maybe it's worth a try.

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