RpR_, How deep did you plant them? I planted them 8" deep the first year and added soil as the season progressed, sort of to duplicate the potato tower effect. There were no potatoes on any of the stems so I counted the "Potato tower" as ineffective. The second year I planted them 8 or more inches but did not add soil. Surprisingly some of the ones that were forgotten sent up sprouts the next year so they were deep enough not to freeze. These early potatoes were true vectors for the flea beetle, and were consumed before the newly planted ones came up. (I didn't have a problem with the new ones and flea beetles, however) What did you amend with? I amended with B.O.S.S. compost. I also made fertilizer as described by Steve Solomon in Gardening When it Counts. (page 22). How did you care for them after planting? I watered them but not much else. When did you plant? In mid-May There is also The Maine Potato Lady and The Potato Garden if you wish a truly large choice. I ordered from Ronniger, AKA Potato Garden. Here is a link that might be useful: B.O.S.S. Compost

In the interests of planting in the late fall for a spring harvest, I'm looking for seed potatoes (preferably red ones), Jerusalem artichokes, onion sets, garlic cloves (soft or hard... anything but elephant garlic), Egyptian walking onion, horseradish root, ginger, and whatever else you might have. If you do not have plants, then I might take some seeds. Let me know. I have some seeds tot rade for, or Ic an send in a SASE or a SASBE. Thanks, ~Shawn

Thanks for posting, mersiepoo. I have not grown russets in years so I do not have any russet in my TPS gene pool - would you be interested in trading this fall? Interesting book suggestion, will look into it further when time permits. I have no time for reading during the busy growing season but I try to read a few books during the winter break. "Anyway, you sound like a committed plant breeder!" - No, just a person whose hobby has gotten way out of control. :-) Hi minnie. Thanks for reconnecting, it has been a while. I have been following your posts on another gardening site regarding your land acquisition. Congratulations! I wish you all the best on your new "digs". Sorry to hear of disease problems happening in your area. Things are going fine here in southwest MN, but a bit on the strange side. I am convinced the reduced solar output last couple years is having an effect as well. Weeds have been absolutely horrible this year in my area. Field corn plants around here are maxing out at 10-11 feet in height but plants are producing only 1 smallish/average ear each. Onions are doing very poorly, will be my worst crop in many years. Will not be any of my traditional fresh batter fried onion rings this year and that is a REAL bummer. May have to go shop my local farmers market to get my onion ring "fix". Garlic harvest was generally mediocre once again but I finally have around 150 very large, healthy German Browns of the quality I had before AY wiped me out. Took three years, almost lost hope and quit - this was going to be my last year attempting to reestablish my crop of market garlic. Have a few other varieties that are now showing promise as well. No way around it, it just takes time to properly acclimate garlic. Pepper plants doing average. I have a hundred ghost pepper plants that are doing very well because I am babying them and spoiling them rotten. I have a contract to sell the peppers. Project has been more labor intensive than I estimated it would be, oh well. First picking of ripe ghost peppers will be tomorrow for Monday delivery. Potato growing went well this year, but CPB was a serious problem. Potato plants were huge but hills yielded average weights and sizes. Very good quality tubers, though, and they are coming out clean with no scab whatsoever. No hollows, no internal brown spots, no insect/wireworm damage. I have harvested 475 pounds of potatoes so far and am a little over halfway done. Carola is my best producer this year, averaging 4.25 lbs. per hill. Most varieties are in the 3 lbs. per hill range. The poorest standard variety is Irish Cobbler at 1.89 lbs. per hill. Cobbler was one of my best producers last year. Strange how that works... Tomato plants here are doing well. This year I waited until April 16 to start my seedlings and I planted them out second week of June. Worked great but next year I am going to push tomato seed starting back even further, to April 23. Planted 80 plants and lost only one. Lots of healthy growth and time now to do a little trimming in order to be able to get in for harvesting. I spaced tomato plant rows six feet apart and I cannot walk through some areas. Guess I have to change the spacing to 8 feet in future. Barring a hail event I will finally be getting a decent tomato crop, probably my best in the last 10 years. Disease issues under control, but I do have some septoria and late blight issues which is typical for this time of year. Problem I have been having is squirrels and raccoons eating into the tomatoes but I have been working on this issue with some success. From one plant, variety "Bull's Heart" oxheart, I have already harvested five tomatoes with a combined weight of 6.25 lbs. and there are still more ripening on the plant. In total I have harvested around 3 dozen tomatoes so far, bulk harvest will be starting probably end of next week based on how many are finally starting to turn. The big processing push is coming very soon and I am looking forward to it. The larder is quite bare of canned tomato goods and I need to restock. I understand your decision to not save seeds and wanting to start with new commercial tuber stock, probably a wise move. As time passes I find myself becoming more and more protective of my soil and less inclined to acquiring outside seed/planting stock from non-commercial sources. Even the commercial sources are starting to concern me. In one of his threads, though, Tom Wagner spoke of how he treats his TPS to kill off anything nasty. My TPS plants are now starting to wind down. Cannot wait to dig them up and see what is there. I hope to post a couple of pics at the appropriate time, but I have had camera issues and have no time or interest to shop for a new one right now. BTW, last winter someone gave me TPS labeled "Rosalina" in trade but I cannot find any information on a potato variety by that name. Likely I misread the packet label, or perhaps that person just came up with their own variety name. Anyway, if anyone knows what it might be I would appreciate a quick comment. Blue flowers, stocky healthy plants with beautiful dark green leaves, somewhat CPB resistant, good seed berry producer, so I really want to correctly ID them if possible for my records. I want to isolate some of those plants next year for growout. Well, gotta go dig taters before it gets too hot outside to work... -Tom

I'm also into my fifth season of growing garlic and have followed each harvest with all the same crops as still_kris - potatoes; peas and mustard greens. The peas and mustard greens were intended as cover crops but didn't have the heart to dig them in and ended up letting them grow longer than they should have. The peas were cut back as soon as they started flowering and gently turned over. The mustard greens were seeds I'd saved of rocket, red mustard, mizuna etc that were great as cut and come again salad greens and despite having been cut back with hedge clippers, are still growing away after two recent snowfalls. Read somewhere that the brassica famiy are good soil fumigants.