Growing potatoes in Finland

[GunnarSK]

My grandfather used to farm grains (he probably introduced wheat in this region of Finland far north of the theoretical wheat growing area) and potatoes in Toby/Vaasa, but that was mainly before the war (until 1939). i got to meet him before he died in 1956, but as a little child then I don't remember his face from experience. I still have two aunts in Vaasa/Vasa and one in neighbouring municipality Korsholm/Mustasaari (Black Island). Now I just started gardening in Poland, and I got some TPS to try from a friend in Canada. If the TPS grow ok in interesting colours and set seeds, I will send some to Sari and to the Netherlands.
Here I am trying to grow tomatos in ground (it should be possible in Poland), and I will also try peppers and eggplants from Poland and other countries, but I can't rival greenhouse-growing in Finland (with just about two hours of dusk in summer and a lot of sun).

[amideutch]

GunnarSK, we have a member here that moved from the States last year to Vaasa and she goes by "Svalli". Ami

[GunnarSK]

Yes Ami, I'm aware that Svalli/Sari posts here. She is one of the vey few, that have grown potatoes from TPS seeds, and I hope that I will be able to exchange experiences/thoughts and possibly TPS with her, and I'm familiar with the area in Finland where she lives.

[svalli]

Hejsan,

I just put first TPS seeds with some pepper seeds to a seed starting box. It is early to start seeds when looking outside with -10C and a lot of snow, but days are slowly getting longer. I have some tomatoes like Opalka, which should grow in Poland. I could trade those to the potato seeds.

I am born in Mustasaari, but grew up in Vaasa. When we moved back to Finland we were looking for a house in Tuovila/Toby with a bigger yard, but ended up buying one with small city lot from Vaasa. Toby belongs to Mustasaari, which is mainly Swedish speaking municipality, but Toby has also a Finnish elementary school, so that is why the area would had suited us. We wanted our son to start in a Finnish school since he is bilingual in Finnish and English.

My parents grew up on farms and we used to go help my grandparents every summer, so I have learned how to plant and grow potatoes from childhood. As a teenager I used to hate the planting and harvest season, because my grandfather wanted everything to be done by hand and it was quite heavy work. Now I grow my own potatoes by my in-laws farm where we bought some land and I did not allow my DH to come with the tractor and harvester, but dug up the spuds by hand.

Sari