Potatoes!

The potatoes are coming up!

This is very exciting because, well, growing stuff is always exciting, but you should realize that the new green plants are not from proper seed potatoes, nor are they in proper soil. So it’s even more exciting than usual.

I always have some potatoes in the bin that start growing eyes before I get around to using them. I’ve read that you’re not supposed to use store potatoes for planting because they’ve been treated with sprout inhibitors, but as I’ve rarely had aging potatoes refuse to put out eyes, maybe Canadian potato companies don’t use inhibitors. Maybe it’s a guerilla potato marketing tactic! You know, if we let the potatoes sprout, maybe folks will plant some of their own! The growing season here is short enough, we don’t have to worry about losing market share. A potato in every garden, that’s the way to increase our popularity! Spread the joy of potatoes! 

Anyway, if it’s got eyes growing out of it, it’s a candidate for the garden in my opinion, even if it isn’t a Canadian Potato Growers conspiracy.

Now, about the soil. The edges of the garden are piled deep with not-really-composted waste hay, mostly. All the really loose and still-identifiable bits from the compost pile got heaped around the edge of the garden: it’ll break down eventually, and it might as well break down in the spot it’s intended to stay in once it turns into proper compost. Then, since it wasn’t gonna cost me anything if the experiment didn’t work, I stuck some sprouted potatoes into the piles of not-really-soil-but-definitely-organic-waste, sprayed some water in the general vicinity when I remembered, and pretty much just hoped for the best.

We’ve had a bit of rain over the last few days (finally!) and during a break in the showers The Reluctant Farmer and I took a meander around the garden. “What are these?” he asked, “Potatoes?” Yup! Potato plants, coming up along the edge of the garden, growing right through the yellowed stems of straw and hay!

I counted thirteen plants showing their leaves, which is an encouraging start. There are probably a few more to come up yet, and the moisture will definitely help. I also planted another fifteen or so in a much-closer-to-actual-soil row in the centre of the garden about a week ago, so with luck, we will see their lovely green heads soon as well.

Ah, fresh potatoes from the garden … I can’t wait!