Potato Plans

The ground is all ice and mud and chicken crap around here.  Last night we got some snow turned rain, and it froze in the early morning hours, making every damn surface slick as shit.  Still, my mind has already made the turn home towards spring.  The days are lengthening as we chase the weekends like dogs do their tails. The goldfinches and cardinals are getting chatty, and the squirrels are stuffing their cheeks with leaves instead of nuts.  My windows are filled with a warm glow in the evening rather than a stark bright white and blue landscape.  Such is February, brutal yet filled with promise.  I'm not yet impatient to work the ground, but excited to start dreaming up garden plans again. It is a quiet time to write down priorities, think up new endeavors, ruminate on last year's failures and decide on the young year's garden projects. New this year: Homegrown potatoes.

In the past I have grown potatoes in a sandy community garden (epic fail) and a garden within a state park (one huge success, one huge bonk).  This year I am looking to grow them within the boundaries of our backyard.  Since I have Neil, it would prove pretty difficult to try to grow anything anywhere other than home.  So I came across the idea of a potato tower on Pinterest, and it excited me that I could try to grow the tasty tubers without compromising prime real estate in my back garden. Check it out:

 

The whole process can be found here...I already have all the supplies necessary lying around in the garage barn.  You take some galvanized wire and secure it in a two-three foot wide circle.  Then you line the inside of the wire with straw (I buy my straw bales at Thorofeed near the track for $4), add a foot of compost and your first layer of potatoes.  Layer it up like a dip and plant whatever you'd like on top.  Perhaps some flowers, nasturtiums? would look nice up there. Or maybe some basil?  The potato leaves will grow through the straw outside the container, kind of like those strawberry planters you see around Father's Day.  The potatoes are ready when their leaves yellow and die in early fall. Then you are free to tip over the whole deal and harvest them. 

 

Sounds like a decent idea to me, and well...if you're going to make a potato tower, why not double the pleasure?  I went a little crazy and decided to order two different kinds of potatoes from the Maine Potato Lady.  We use potatoes a variety of ways at our house...baked, mashed and roasted being the most common.  This year I chose to grow Kennebec (baked/mashed) and Red Maria (roasted, potato salad, etc).

 

  Red Maria is described in the Maine Potato Lady's catalog: Finally, we have a beautiful name for "NY 129", a late-season red potato developed by the cornell breeding program.  I've grown this variety in my trials several times and was always impressed with the yield and uniformity of these large, round tubers.  Bright red skin is lightly textured and holds color well in storage.  Here is a picture from Cornell:

 

 

 

Kennebec: Released by the USDA in 1948, Kennebec is still one of the top ten varieties grown in Maine.  And no wonder!  It's very dependable under most growing condidtions, with high yields of large, white-fleshed tubers.  You can cook Kennebec any way, boil, mash or bake-and enjoy a superb meal every time.  Excellent storage.  Loads of white flowers cover this large plant.

 

courtesy of the Maine Potato Lady

 

So there you have it.  I had the opportunity to choose from early, mid and late season potatoes, so I chose the latter two in case we have a shit spring.  The Kennebec potatoes will mature in 70-90 days, and the Red Marias will take a few weeks longer. I plan on getting them into their towers in early May, as I don't really have to depend on the earth and sun to warm up this soil. Things I still need to consider include how to keep Doug from using them as a marking post...bird netting?, where to put them, and how to secure them from gusty thunderstorms (I'm thinking a tpost here).

 

Oh yeah, and what to do with my cherry on top: 100 sets of Stuttgarter onions.

 

Kid in a candy store I tell ya.