Spuds for 2009 have been planted

[svalli]

I planted all my spuds on Sunday and now I am just hoping for better summer than last year. In-laws had planted their potatoes on our field, so I planted my veggies and potatoes to theirs, because they have water source closer. My DH made mounds with the potato planting machine and >I planted the tubers to the hills by hand, because I had nine different varieties and wanted to know where each kind are. I have four 20 meter rows and since I planted and there must be at least 300 spuds. After I had planted all, I realized that in the end of the season I have to dig them up by hand too. Luckily some are such that we will eat them as fresh new potatoes and start using them as soon as the tubers are at least 1" diameter.

The varieties are Hankkijan Timo, Lapin Puikula (fingerling from Lapland), Peruvian Purple, Rosamunda and five different varieties grown last season from Tom Wagner's true potato seeds.

This spring they had spread composted cow manure from my sister in-law's farm to the field and I did also add commercial organic potato and root vegetable fertilizer directly to the potato rows. I also dusted the spuds with MycoGrow before planting. Some of the Peruvian Purples were started a month ago in milk cartons, so they have already leaves on them and I covered them with a row cover to protect in case of late frost and also to speed up the growth. Last season was so disappointing that this year I have tried to do everything to guarantee better harvest.

In town I have four Potato Dance plants (Thanks to Ted!) and two unknown from Tom's TPS growing in containers. It will be interesting to see, if all of the Potato Dance plants will produce similar tubers.