4 minute read
Garden Chat
from Mankato Magazine
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By Jean Lundquist
You say potato…
I say small, mushy yield
What did you learn about gardening and such this year?
You may recall that I decided to plant whole potatoes rather than cut them up into eyes. I may try doing that again next year, but if I do, it will be beside a control bag of potatoes so I can see the difference.
My potato harvest was very small this year, and so were my potatoes. In all fairness, I had potato bugs something fierce last summer. I swear every day I would brush off the potato beetles, then sprinkle the foliage with Dipel dust.
Dipel is Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a species of bacteria that lives in soil. It makes proteins that are toxic to some insects when eaten, but not others. The proteins are not toxic to humans because, like all mammals, we cannot activate them.
The wind would blow, or it would rain or there would be a heavy dew in the morning, and the bugs were back. I guess it’s my fault for brushing them off rather than killing them, but I thought it would work.
When the leaves were all eaten, I dug out the potatoes, figuring if I left them in the bags, unable to grow, they would rot, even though it was very early for them.
I did discover one potato that had rotted and turned to mush, and it was a large potato. It probably had 10 eyes on it, so that’s 10 potatoes that didn’t grow.
For the number of potatoes I plant, it’s not a chore to cut them apart to plant. I was just curious as to what I’d get. I had intended to plant everything in the garden this year and do away with my grow bags, except for potatoes. But my garden is just too small to accommodate everything.
I had cut down to 10 tomato plants and 10 peppers. By the time I got them in the ground, along with beans, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, eggplants and onions, there was no room for carrots, radishes or kohlrabi, so they all went into bags or pots.
I was disappointed that I got no Aleppo peppers this year, the first year I had tried to grow them. Maybe it was my neglect or maybe external pressures on the plant, but I’ll have to try again next year.
This is precisely why I tend to grow at least two or three plants of everything, in case one falters. With my postage stamp-sized garden, that is just not an option anymore.
Fortunately, because of my chainlink fence that keeps my garden safe from most critters, it also means I can’t make it “just a little bit bigger” each year. That mentality of” just a little bit bigger” is how my garden grew to nearly seven times the footprint of my house years ago.
The deer found my hostas this year for the first time. When they finished them, they moved on to my bag of carrots.
I assume that when carrots are in the ground, deer will paw at them to dig them up and not be content to just eat the greens, but in a bag, they couldn’t do the pawing thing.
I’m sure the carrots were stunted when they lost their tops, but I also lost out on using the greens. If you ever make vegetable stock, you don’t have to use actual carrots in the mix. You can roast and use the greens instead, and it’s tasty.
I wasn’t hurt too bad by the drought last summer. A couple of times, when we got 2 or 3 inches of rain in a day, I was worried about flooding, however.
I save most of the seeds from the plants I grow, but I like to try new varieties of things, and I enjoy a couple of hybrid varieties from which seeds aren’t viable. If you need or want to buy seeds, you might want to get at it soon.
Because of droughts and flooding at various regions in the country, some seeds will not be available to purchase in the quantities we have become used to.
I’d advise you to beat the rush and order or buy soon.
Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com
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