Fixin' to plant the taters

Anything related to home improvement, home repair, homesteading, farm and garden.

Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby aunt betty » Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:34 am

Trying to get them in the ground by this weekend.
March 17 is the day they say (whoever they are) to plant potatoes.
Works for me.

I cut them where there's at least one good eye on a half then set them inside a closed card board box.
Some get cut in thirds. Whatever.

Have seven boxes of seed potatoes. You don't need to see them all but we'll be harvesting a lot of potatoes around the 4th of July. Maybe some "new potatoes" sooner. Fresh potatoes are awesome.

Two weeks ago the potatoes didn't have eyes forming so I put them in boxes and covered them up. Cut them Saturday. The store was almost late on the seeds this year. $.39/pound is what they charged me.

20180312_112909.jpg

20180312_112715.jpg
YOU MUST REGISTER TO VIEW THIS IMAGE.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
User avatar
aunt betty
 
Posts: 14634
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: East Side

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby Throbbin Rods » Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:47 am

Need a snowblower in front of the rototiller to plant anything at my house. 18" last storm 4 days ago and predicting another 16" today
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

George Orwell
User avatar
Throbbin Rods
WFF Forum Moderator
 
Posts: 267
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:02 pm
Location: New Hampshire

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby aunt betty » Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:50 am

I guess you fire up the propane heater out in the garage and paint your decoys. Maybe flock them.
Mine got used so little last year. All I had to do was hang them up. Done.


Now I need to plant the taters n onions, put the trolling motor on, buy some minnows, and tear up them crappies. Then get ready for the early bass thing.

Catfishin' on my mind but it's gotta wait til June. Fresh fried catfish an new taters oh yeah.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
User avatar
aunt betty
 
Posts: 14634
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: East Side

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:03 pm

My earliest daffodils are just starting to bloom. Almost every year they get snowed on after they start to bloom. I saw flurries yesterday and today. So I'm a good ways away from gardening.
User avatar
SpinnerMan
 
Posts: 2226
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 12:08 pm
Location: Joliet, IL

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby aunt betty » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:08 pm

I know spinner. It feels weird as heck planting something in March. Last year the wife was saying "it'll never work" but her sister said "do it on St Patricks Day". Her sister was right.

Potatoes are easy. You bury them about 4 inches deep, spaced about every 8-12 inches, in rows about 3' apart. As they send up new leaves you sort of bury them over and over until you got hilly rows. Last year was good so we're doing an even bigger patch. About 750 sq ft of just potatoes. Last year we did about half that much. Ran out of potatoes in late-November and had to start buying them. This winter maybe they'll last until February. They start making eyes around then.

Later at the end of April it gets serious.
Corn patch is going to be about 1000 sq feet. Illini Extra Sweet. Oh yeah.
Planning a nice strawberry patch for the grandkids.
Already have a pretty large area where we grow tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins.

I hate mowing the two acres so little by little I'm tilling it where it's sunny enough. By the time I get done I'll only have 1/2 to 3/4 acres to mow. Less mowing and more growing. :mrgreen:

Squirrels been a slight problem but just about the time I've had enough these small hawks that work in groups move in and wipe out the tree rats. It happens every summer twice because of rabbits getting out of control too. Them little hawks got it figured out.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
User avatar
aunt betty
 
Posts: 14634
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: East Side

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Mar 13, 2018 2:07 pm

It depends what you are planting and how much effort you are willing to put in. I'm not big on the early things. Also my garden is a lot smaller than yours.

I'm probably 1 or 2 weeks behind you in terms of temperature given how much further south you are than me.

Also, I don't have anywhere to store potatoes so I'm not worried about maximizing yields. I usually end up wasting or giving away a good chunk of them. I mix them in with my cantaloupes so I can't dig them early.
User avatar
SpinnerMan
 
Posts: 2226
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 12:08 pm
Location: Joliet, IL

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby aunt betty » Tue May 22, 2018 1:02 pm

The potatoes are starting to bloom. Hoed em into hills a while back.
Planted 14 rows of sweet corn 3 weeks apart. Each row has 50-60 plants so figure close to 5 dozen ears per row. We get two or even three ears per plant some years. Here is a corn planting trick that works great. Was watching a farm show where a farmer went into great detail about the ideal planting depth. Two to two and a quarter inches with 2.125" being ideal. Hard to do with any real precision. We'd been making a little trench and then burying the seeds about an inch and had problems with corn blowing over. Once we started the new method and depth no more of that. I lay the seeds out in the row them punch them in with index finger up to the second knuckle on finger. Works fantastic.


So far so good on the sweet potatoes. Something was getting at them but my friends the hawks have killed whatever it was. Dead vole...mole something like a long mouse that's not a mouse. There was a rabbit that got tore all apart and whatever ate it took a big ole dump right on the hill/row the sweet potatoes are in.

The first round of strawberries came the right day by the calendar but were a couple weeks early to plant.
They were the roots not actual plants. We planted them inside in pots under the lights. Seemed to be going well then they started falling over dead. Out of 25 only 7 survived. (june bearing) I'm blaming the potting soil.
Wife found some everbearing plants and bought 18 replacements. Planted them in the patch and they're doing great so far. Birds are eating every berry until the mulberry trees start having fruit. After that the strawberry crop is safe.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
User avatar
aunt betty
 
Posts: 14634
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: East Side

Re: Fixin' to plant the taters

Postby aunt betty » Thu May 24, 2018 5:18 pm

Potatoes are starting to bloom. That means I can dig some "new potatoes" pretty soon. In three weeks they'll be done. I harvest when the plants all turn yellow.
The sweet potatoes seem to have gotten past the "get dug up by critters" stage. They were trying but were too dumb to dig in the right place. I watered them until it was good and muddy. That ended the digging attempts. They needed water anyway. The weatherman used to lie and say it was going to rain tomorrow. Now he's lying and saying "next week". It's getting pretty dry.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
User avatar
aunt betty
 
Posts: 14634
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: East Side


Return to Home Improvement and Farm & Garden

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests