Post by daisyhill on Oct 10, 2020 10:51:21 GMT -5
We usually plant about 200 pounds of potatoes (my siblings and their families gather to share this project every year). I think our best yield was something over 1200 pounds, and I didn't weigh the tiny ones. Other years we've brought in 600-700 pounds. We rotate spots, and some places and some years do better than others.
This year, we put the potatoes in a new place which we thought looked lovely. The soil felt good, and we planted on a great day. We planted some red potatoes, 100 pounds of Norkota, and the rest were Kennebec. For a few years, we planted only Kennebec, and saved our own seed potatoes, but last year we had a smaller crop and ate them all. I thought it was time to buy some new seed anyway. We'd planted Norkota several times in previous years, and always really liked them.
Well, the red and the Kennebec came up nicely, and were weeded and hilled at the normal time. The Norkota sat there and did nothing. At the time the other potatoes were blooming, we were surprised to find that the Norkota had finally decided to sprout--at least, about one in five sent up some shoots. They were pretty measly potato plants, but they did grow. At potato digging time, we were amazed to find about half of the remaining Norkota seed potatoes had finally decided to sprout! They looked about like I had expected them to look in mid-May. The few that had sprouted earlier in the summer had each produced two or three potatoes the size of duck eggs.
What in the world happened here? I've never see potatoes so reluctant to grow. I would have been less surprised to find that they had simply rotted in the ground than I was to find them growing after waiting all summer to start.
On a happier note, I don't know when I've had such a good sweet potato crop. We dug up one monster that is fully the size (and shape) of a regulation football!
This year, we put the potatoes in a new place which we thought looked lovely. The soil felt good, and we planted on a great day. We planted some red potatoes, 100 pounds of Norkota, and the rest were Kennebec. For a few years, we planted only Kennebec, and saved our own seed potatoes, but last year we had a smaller crop and ate them all. I thought it was time to buy some new seed anyway. We'd planted Norkota several times in previous years, and always really liked them.
Well, the red and the Kennebec came up nicely, and were weeded and hilled at the normal time. The Norkota sat there and did nothing. At the time the other potatoes were blooming, we were surprised to find that the Norkota had finally decided to sprout--at least, about one in five sent up some shoots. They were pretty measly potato plants, but they did grow. At potato digging time, we were amazed to find about half of the remaining Norkota seed potatoes had finally decided to sprout! They looked about like I had expected them to look in mid-May. The few that had sprouted earlier in the summer had each produced two or three potatoes the size of duck eggs.
What in the world happened here? I've never see potatoes so reluctant to grow. I would have been less surprised to find that they had simply rotted in the ground than I was to find them growing after waiting all summer to start.
On a happier note, I don't know when I've had such a good sweet potato crop. We dug up one monster that is fully the size (and shape) of a regulation football!
