It is interesting to see your side by side comparision. Mother Nature can be a harsh teacher. I've often wondered why people are so anxious to get potatoes in early. Your "sick of winter" sounds like a good explanation. For me "sick of winter" results in indoor sowing of seeds that really should not be started for another 3-4 weeks. Then I end up with transplants ready for planting while the weather is still much to cold.

I usually wait till the weather is settled in early May to put in potatoes. I put some in last year in early July after I found them in a forgotten corner, and they still yielded okay.

Here in central Indiana good Friday is the old tale for potatoes. My potatoe bed is raised and can work it when the rest of the garden is too wet. I still wait till it's dry regardless of the date. Another date for planting tender crops is no planting till after Mothers day.

Yep Easter was too early this year to use that old wives tale. To tell the truth I've always thought it referred to the latest possible Easter.....somewhere around mid-April.

It is nice to see the comparisons.

April works best around here, too. Early to middle of, late april is a little late. I often succumb to the temptation of planting some in late march, and they are never ahead much or not at all, though not usually behind either like yours are. I find differences between varietial growth-habit is a lot more than a few weeks difference in planting time.

The ones in your first photo are all the same variety?

I tried a similar experiment with peas this year, and arrived at the same conclusion. Lettuce, OTOH, took the abuse and grew gangbusters. I even had an immigrant asking me how I grew lettuce, which is a sure sign I'm doing something right ;o)

Do you use netting to support the pole beans?

Cheers,

Tim

Do immigrants tend to be lettuce-production experts? Must be different there, here they are more varied.

Down here the old line is "potatoes in by St. Patrick's Day" which this past spring was almost the same as Easter. ;) It works for me but up north I think I'd go for a nice mid-April Easter.

Dave

Hey all,

Easter being early is true this year, but we've been planting earlier and earlier in this area for the last 10 years. Farmers were starting to plant field corn before April 15th for the last several years. This year many didn't get started by May 1. I coulda planted potatoes late march last year with no problem. Mother nature just decided this will be a gut check year.

Hey PN,

The bad row is Yukon Gold, the next two are red Norland, and the last one you can see (there are actually 11 rows) is Yukon Gold again I also have Kennebec and Gold Rush.

Hey Tim,

I run a piece of sisal twine from the top of the frame to each plant and it grows up the twine. That way, I don't need to strip the beans off wire at the end of the season. I just cut the twine from the frame and run it all through the shredder.

pnbrown - around here immigrants tend to be interested in growing vegetables (and fruits)in general. The locals want to grow pizza ;o)

Completely off topic (some more!) an amigo from El Salvadore was telling me the other day how they grow watermelon in his old country. Rather than plant melon seeds in a hill, they dig a pit some 4 to 5 feet in diameter, and plant in that (trying to catch extra rain water). He said it was common to have watermelons that were 4 feet long! He grew the same seed last year at the community garden and got a good 2 footer out of it, but doesn't think the season is long enough to grow a melon that is much bigger (given we had a hot, dry season last year)

And back to potatoes - got mine in Apr 10 and they look like Bill's. Been a job protecting them from the frost this year, however.

Cheers,

Tim