20th August 2016 - Potatoes!

Well after an eventful week I got up to the plot today with the intention of lifting my potatoes.  I wasn't sure if I would manage to do both beds but I was worried that my bed of Maris Pipers wouldn't give me a good crop because the plants themselves had been a little pathetic.  I do a little bit of prep before lifting potatoes - I cut the plants off right to soil level and weed the whole bed.  Then I put my fork in (hoping to not hit any potatoes) and lift the whole plant out - give it a shake and pick up the potatoes.  I often have to fork the area again to catch any that dropped off as it was being lifted but I find that's the best way to try to ensure that no potatoes are left to grow next season!

Anyway, I needn't have worried.  This picture is from one half of one bed (the Maris Piper bed) and I've ended up with a sack full of potatoes from that one bed.  I haven't weighed them because I can't find my travel scale but I'm really happy with them.  There's a mixture of sizes and whilst some have holes in them from slugs or another critter I'm not worried about cutting around the holes.  I saw only 2 that had scab and none of them were squishy (which is a sure sign of blight).  Just a note on blight, while I'm on it...

Lots of people worry about blight and what to do with their plants if they have them.  I've seen loads of pictures of perfectly healthy plants being destroyed because the leaves have yellowed and then people saying they've burned them because they don't dare compost them.    

Blight starts with small, dark spots on leaves (usually around the edges) which often have a light green halo around them.  In warm, wet weather you may see a fine white downy growth which can release thousands of spores every day.  The spores can also be washed down the stem into the tubers, if the tubers are infected they have brown or purple marks on the skim and reddish/brown markings in the flesh.  Tubers might be firm when lifted but will rot during storage.  If your plants get blight you should cut off all of the foliage and put it in the compost.  You can compost leaves and stems because the spores can only live on live matter.  Once you have cut the stems the plant is no longer live and therefore can be composted.  You cannot however compost the tubers because they remain live and can grown new, blight infected, plants.  

If your potato plants have flowered and the flowers have died off, you're seeing green tomato like pods on your plants and your leaves are going yellow your plants are dying off at the end of the season just like they're supposed to.  In that case the potatoes are ready to be harvested, you don't need to destroy your hard work.  

I mentioned in my last post that I'd got a planting table from freegle.  I am still not sure what I'm going to do with it (Littlest L wants to make it into a bee table) but whilst I'm deciding I have lined it with weed membrane and put the pots onto it.  I do like the idea of a table of plants that attract bees and I might combine that with a fairy garden just because they make me smile and the idea of a bee fairy garden is appealing to me.  I don't know yet what plants I'm going to put in there, but given that we're nearly at the end of August I've got plenty of time to think about it before I need to plant it up so in the mean time I'm probably just going to keep my pots in there.  I like that they're raised off of the ground and away from the slugs (and it's a good place to put my drink!)

I've also decided that next year I will do more with the 'wildlife' area next to the pond.  I've got a couple of shrubs I'm going to plant there and my neighbour is giving me some yellow rattle seeds which should help to reduce the grass and let me grow more of the wildflower seeds.  On the plus side the moles have been working in that area and so hopefully it will be a bit easier to dig and plant into.

Tomorrow is the last day of my holiday and I'm hoping for good weather.  I really want to get the wires in place on the fence so that I can fan my cherry tree against it - watch this space!