Saturday, January 30, 2010

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

Actually, I've *never* ordered early enough from Moose Tubers to get what I want.  I guess you order as soon as you get the catalog. I'll try again next year.

Potato Update:

In April, I'm crossing my fingers that these seed potato varieties will be delivered to my tiny front-room:

1. Dark Red Norland: early variety, high scab resistance, dark red skin, high yield, good new potatoes
(Caribes were out of stock)

2. Rose Finn Apple fingerling:  late summer variety, high scab resistance, "winged tubers" when planted too close? (I need to find out exactly what that means.)

3.  Elba:  late potate, resistant to most everything, excellent yields (my husband just said, "Able was I ere I saw Elba." It's a palindrome; he's a nut.)

*By the way, the Purple Vikings I wanted were not fingerlings. I like the idea of them as fingerlings. I will have no purple potatoes this year. This hasn't quite set in yet.

3 comments:

Dan said...

Looks like a nice mix of spuds! The fingerlings are so nice, especially in potato salad. If you are looking for some purple fingerlings you should phone around to a few grocery stores. I am growing a few purples this year from grocery store spuds.

Jean Michelle Miernik said...

Do you grow your potatoes right in the ground, or have you ever tried some other method like growing them in a straw bale? I think my soil is wrong for potatoes (too much clay), but I keep trying them anyway. Not much success yet!

Molly said...

I'll think I'll do that Dan, thanks!

Genie, I've always been fortunate to have lots of good soil to grow potatoes in, though in NY they were SO much happier. I haven't had time to get my soil like I want it here yet. Lots of clay, yeah, I know.

When I grew veggies with school kids we "hilled" the potatoes with mulch and newspaper, which saved us space and soil. So, you plant your potatoes like normal, then as the sprouts grow you cover them with straw (or dried grass clippings... I liked those when I used to have a lawn that I mowed) or sheets of newspaper.

Did you also ask about the floating row covers? They sell them at Gardens Alive. Pretty useful little things.