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Post by brownrexx on Jun 4, 2015 18:40:17 GMT -5
That means you can eat some "new" potatoes soon! Yummy.
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Post by desertwoman on Jun 4, 2015 19:21:41 GMT -5
ooo--la-la lucky you!
I've never eaten a homegrown new potato. They must be soon good.
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Post by thomis on Jun 5, 2015 7:51:02 GMT -5
hmmmm, I think I have enough plants in the ground to try some new potatoes. mine have flowered and the flowers have done their thing, dried up, wilted, maybe now is a good time, just dig the whole plant up, right?
to change the subject a little, i planted two kinds of garlic in october, one kind appears to be ready, brown stalks, falling over, etc. I dug one up yesterday, not very large but I would say a decent sized bulb. i put one clove through my garlic press and what came out was some almost clear-like gel, that didn't smell right. what gives?
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 5, 2015 8:24:43 GMT -5
"New" potatoes are small, thin skinned potatoes that can be harvested 2-3 weeks after flowering. Do NOT dig up the whole plant because potatoes will continue to develop until the plant turns brown and dies. You can harvest your new potatoes by digging gently with your hands and pulling out a few potatoes while allowing the plant to keep growing and producing bigger potatoes.
Garlic is said to be ready to harvest when most of the leaves are brown but 3 green ones are left. They start to turn brown from the top down. If you wait until all leaves are brown the cloves will start to separate from each other in the head.
Garlic should be "cured" for a few weeks in a dry place before it is ready to use. If you didn't do that, I would guess that is why you are seeing gel.
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Post by datgirl on Jun 5, 2015 8:44:19 GMT -5
I thought garlic had to cure too.
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Post by thomis on Jun 5, 2015 8:51:53 GMT -5
ah, ok, thanks
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Post by davidjp on Jun 5, 2015 10:17:13 GMT -5
I've never eaten a homegrown new potato. Thats really sad, definitely need to remedy. To me its one of the better garden investments to my mind,even just a few plants just so you can see the difference in a good variety grown as a new potato. Freshly dug from the garden, boiled for 10 minutes with some mint and topped with good butter, preferably the grass fed kind, its really something to treasure. Here's quite a good source for western gardens, not sure what your planting schedule would be but here i really need to plant in October, November and harvest March time so its difficult to source seed potatoes at that time but this place does it. From there selection I'd probably recommend La Ratte or Red thumb fingerling (photo above) www.groworganic.com/seeds/seed-potatoes.htmlFrom them I've got red thumb fingerling before which is a pretty nice variety. But get Charlotte if you can they have been the best I've grown, available here www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PG&Product_Code=77CHA&Category_Code=NSPLots of good recipes with Charlotte here www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?keywords=charlotte%20potato
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Post by thomis on Jun 5, 2015 12:19:40 GMT -5
those look beautiful, how did you deal with potato bugs, if you had them?
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 5, 2015 12:43:08 GMT -5
I am growing 3 types of fingerlings this year. A new one called Terra Rosa which is pink inside and out, Russian Banana which is golden and also a blue one called Purple Majesty. I am only growing 4-5 plants of each type of fingerling but I also grow Kennebec for baking and a couple plants of Red Norland and Yukon gold.
I am growing less potatoes than I did last year but I have a lot of different kinds which is fun.
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Post by davidjp on Jun 5, 2015 13:08:59 GMT -5
how did you deal with potato bugs, if you had them? I'm actually not sure what those are, do you mean Colorado potato beetles. I haven't had too much problems with bugs with them but I only grow a very small number just for the taste which i think is really worth while. One problem I did have one year which I thought was quite unusual was ground squirrels eating the foliage which I thought was poisonous. But a campaign against them involving traps and electrified fencing sorted them out.
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Post by ncgarden on Jun 5, 2015 18:03:49 GMT -5
For the first time in 6 years I have potato beetles - or to be more precise - Colorado Potatoe Beetle larvae. Haven't found an adult beetle but am plucking off the larvae as fast as I can find them.
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 5, 2015 18:06:48 GMT -5
If you get overwhelmed with them. Spinosad will kill them. I had to spray it last year but only one time.
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Post by OregonRed on Jun 6, 2015 12:35:11 GMT -5
thomis, I just love your avatar pic
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Post by thomis on Jun 17, 2015 8:29:44 GMT -5
thank you Oregon Red.
I'm overwhelmed with both potato bugs AND Colorado Potato Beetle. The DE works but must be reapplied and the bugs have learned to stay on the underside of the leaves where the DE doesn't land. Amazing. Now I have to ask, how much defoliation can the potatoes tolerate? I decided to dig up some and found some new potatoes which I'm very excited to try but there were just a handful. For some reason I was expected there to be a lot more potatoes.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Jun 17, 2015 9:41:16 GMT -5
I am growing less potatoes than I did last year but I have a lot of different kinds which is fun. Will they cross if flowering together? or would it even matter?
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