Tag: Potatoes

Does it make sense to still plant potatoes? (07.06.2022)

I still had a potato variety left in my storage from last year, nicely sprouted and even with roots. I sorted out the best looking and found some space to plant them.

Planting seed potatoes, onion sets & Garlic

Sowing carrots, red beets and lettuce between the rows

Finally the wetter was improving again and I could make some time for the garden. It is high time to plant the seed potatoes, onion sets and garlic. And while we are at it we are going to sow some faster cultures in between the rows.

I started with the seed potatoes. Our children helped me and we planted 21 kg of seed potatoes. We planted following varieties: Aromata, Ballerina, Folva, Sava, Laura & Belana. Most of these we already hat and we liked them. We had already covered most beds with straw, so first I took the straw down from the bed, laid out the seed potatoes on there place and put them in the ground. Then I divided the straw back on the beds. We filled 11 beds with the seed potatoes.

Then we filled 4 beds with onion sets. With 3 beds I sowed 3 rows of carrots in between the rows of onion sets. I also put a layer of straw on these beds, but a thinner layer. I am not sure if it is a good idea to put straw over the sown carrots, but we will see if they come up. I planted following onion sets: Rosanna, Karmen, Alpha, Sturon, Stuttgarter Riesen & Snowball. I sowed following carrots: Robila, Treenetaler, Rote Riesen 2, Milan & Vitella.

Unfortunately I could throw away half of my garlic because they had mold. My storage possibility was not so good for the garlic. So I could not even fill 2 beds with garlic. With one bed I sowed 2 rows of red beets in between the rows of garlic. With the other bed I sowed half rows with the following: Turnip, leafy greens, winter posteline and Asian salad mix. For the garlic I had following varieties: Edenrose, Flavor, Cledor. Here I also put a thinner layer of straw to cover the bed.

The children had a lot of fun helping and where eager to also fill there own beds. Next week the sowing goes on with other vegetables.

Checking on my Potatoes

A number of potatoes are rotting

When I went to get some potatoes for a meal I noticed some are rotting, so I took some time to check on all of the potatoes I had harvested and stored last year.

It took some time to really take every potato in my hand and sort all of the bad ones out. I ended up with half a bucked full of rotting potatoes.

I know it is normal that some potatoes in storage turn bad over time and I know my storage is not ideal. Therefore I am very happy that I still have potatoes to eat from and did not have to trough everything out jet. This is what we still have in storage.

We had a very cold period with up to -20°C and it became almost to freezing point in our barn, which is not very good for the potatoes. What I am noticing when I prepare the potatoes for a meal that many are somewhat gray on the inside. They should be a nice yellow colour. The first time I noticed this I did not think anything of it, but then my children and husband hardly ate from the potatoes. The potatoes had a dirty taste, as if you are eating the soil it self. Ever since I trough away such potatoes, but I do not know what causes the potatoes to turn like this. Maybe the cold, but then I would expect all of the potatoes to have turned bad. If anyone has an idea what could have caused this, I would be happy for a comment.