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I say pot-a-toes!

oregano

when all else fails...
V.I.P Member
tater1-26.webp


Yikes! This is what happens when seed potatoes sit for a month. I honestly didn't expect the supplier to ship them on 20 February. Fortunately, they went into the ground today (19 March).

tater2-26.webp


tater3-26.webp


Yes, I covered them with dirt after taking pics. It's kinda hard to see potatoes after they are buried. I ordered "10 lbs" of potatoes, and got a box of 47. I was only able to plant 32. I will order less next year.
 

But seriously. Yeah. Potoates start looking weird, and kinda alien, when they begin growing 'eyes'. Always good to have on hand though for cooking.

I've learned from gardening that too many of anything does tend to be hard to keep up with if you are not farming for a population, selling it to a farmer's market, or dircetly giving them out to other neighbors/folks in the community. Live and learn.
 
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I see nothing wrong with your potatoes.

You really don't need seed potatoes. That's a big scam.

All you need is a ten pound bag of potatoes from the store and to let them sit out for about a month and they'll do the same thing.

So everywhere there's an eye on a potato, cut a chunk of the potato "meat" off around the eye. Don't just pick the eye off. It needs to be attached to a small piece of the original potato so it thinks it's still alive.

Bury the eyes/cut off chunks, and eat the rest of the potato.

PS It's smarter to grow potatoes layered in 5 gallon buckets. Put some dirt in then a layer of potato cuttings.

Another layer, more potato cuttings.

And throughout the season, as you buy and eat more potatoes and cut off the eyes and a little flesh too, you just bury another layer of potato eyes.

At the end of the season, Flip over all your buckets o' potatoes onto the ground, and pick out all the big fat fatties. All the potatoes that are tiny, just throw those back in the buckets with the soil. And next time around they'll be ready.

And like I said, as you eat more papas, stick the eyes in the dirt filled buckets.

You can even sing a song to the tune of "Neverending Story". It goes "Neverending Pa-pas aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

Neverending, cyclical food and agriculture, potatoes rule.

PS grape hyacinth is another really easy crop. They are a bulb flower that wildlife usually doesn't see as food. The bulbs are edible when cooked and they taste like oniony potatoes. Takes a year to grow though, but they double every year, so you get twice the amount as last year.

PS x2 Sunchokes grow like crazy. Plant just a few sunchoke bulbs and within a few months you'll be digging up a ridiculous amount of sunchokes. Plus it's neat cos they have great big tall sunflower like blossoms that come up to pollinate.

Sunchokes are historic native american food.
 
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You really don't need seed potatoes. That's a big scam.

All you need is a ten pound bag of potatoes from the store and to let them sit out for about a month and they'll do the same thing.
I agree with this totally. Many of the vegetables I've planted over the years have come straight from the supermarket shelf, potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, capsicums, etc.

We also didn't plant whole potatoes but I think that was as much Mum's country upbringing as anything else, not wasting food. The eyes of the potatoes were cut out, you do this anyway when you're peeling them, but if you want them to grow you just cut a little deeper. The eye's would live in a bucket with just a quarter inch of water in the bottom to stop them from drying out until they were ready to plant.
 
I see nothing wrong with your potatoes.

You really don't need seed potatoes. That's a big scam.

All you need is a ten pound bag of potatoes from the store and to let them sit out for about a month and they'll do the same thing.

So everywhere there's an eye on a potato, cut a chunk of the potato "meat" off around the eye. Don't just pick the eye off. It needs to be attached to a small piece of the original potato so it thinks it's still alive.

Bury the eyes/cut off chunks, and eat the rest of the potato.

PS It's smarter to grow potatoes layered in 5 gallon buckets. Put some dirt in then a layer of potato cuttings.

Another layer, more potato cuttings.

And throughout the season, as you buy and eat more potatoes and cut off the eyes and a little flesh too, you just bury another layer of potato eyes.

At the end of the season, Flip over all your buckets o' potatoes onto the ground, and pick out all the big fat fatties. All the potatoes that are tiny, just throw those back in the buckets with the soil. And next time around they'll be ready.

And like I said, as you eat more papas, stick the eyes in the dirt filled buckets.

You can even sing a song to the tune of "Neverending Story". It goes "Neverending Pa-pas aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

Neverending, cyclical food and agriculture, potatoes rule.

PS grape hyacinth is another really easy crop. They are a bulb flower that wildlife usually doesn't see as food. The bulbs are edible when cooked and they taste like oniony potatoes. Takes a year to grow though, but they double every year, so you get twice the amount as last year.

PS x2 Sunchokes grow like crazy. Plant just a few sunchoke bulbs and within a few months you'll be digging up a ridiculous amount of sunchokes. Plus it's neat cos they have great big tall sunflower like blossoms that come up to pollinate.

Sunchokes are historic native american food.
I LOOOVVEEEE SUNCHOKES!!!! mashed w/ butter
 
And just in case you didn't already know - Potato leaves are poisonous, so, not good for the summer salads.

Potatoes are a member of the Nightshade family. This is also the reason we keep potatoes in the dark, if you leave them in the light the skin will start to become green, and then it's poisonous.

Solanine - Wikipedia
 
Potatoes.

Always reminds me of that sequence of Matt Damon having trouble with the airlock on Mars. :eek:

At least you shouldn't have such a similar thing to worry about. ;)
 
I should say that the potatoes in the store are "russet" taters, and they are very fragile and you can't keep them unless you refrigerate them. And even then it's likely that nowadays they have what's called "terminator DNA" that prevents them from sprouting. My grandfather grew Red Pontiac potatoes which is what these are. He said that Red Pontiacs are a much more hardy tater and can be kept at room temp. I got these from a company that sells "heirloom" plant seeds that are more like the non-genetically modified plants of old.

@Azeth, my grandfather actually grew plants that he would give to Loaves & Fishes which is the main food kitchen in Sacramento that hands out hot food to the homeless. I remember him growing leek onions and taking them downtown to give to L&F. One time he came home and said "wow, from the way they acted when they saw fresh leeks you woulda thought I was the Second Coming of Jesus".
 

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