Potatoes and the mole
The seasonal potato harvest is almost done here at Siren Song Farm. We have been frantically digging up blue, purple, red and even yellow potatoes all week. It turns out that the soil here kind of sucks so the potatoes are not what they could have been but they taste great. It seems like my horseradish spray may have helped somewhat with the potato scab but it’s hard to really tell. Next season I look forward to incorporating horseradish, comfrey leaves and leaf mulch into our potato growing practices.
We are also discovering that we have shared quite a bit of the harvest with our new friend the mole, who kindly took one bite out of many of the potatoes and then moved on. At first we saw his intrusion as a war on the crops but now we are realizing that actually it was a trade. Mr. Mole or that little sh** head, as he is sometimes called, is eating our potatoes but in exchange he is also eating the slugs and honestly the slugs eek me out way more than a nibbled on potato. The potato trials are also yielding interesting results. It seems that the higher yielding potatoes are not the ones with the most compost amendments or the biggest container but the ones most true to their south American origins. I am rather excited that nature seems to be yielding stronger results than us just messing around with the potato genome.
The seasonal potato harvest is almost done here at Siren Song Farm. We have been frantically digging up blue, purple, red and even yellow potatoes all week. It turns out that the soil here kind of sucks so the potatoes are not what they could have been but they taste great. It seems like my horseradish spray may have helped somewhat with the potato scab but it’s hard to really tell. Next season I look forward to incorporating horseradish, comfrey leaves and leaf mulch into our potato growing practices.
We are also discovering that we have shared quite a bit of the harvest with our new friend the mole, who kindly took one bite out of many of the potatoes and then moved on. At first we saw his intrusion as a war on the crops but now we are realizing that actually it was a trade. Mr. Mole or that little sh** head, as he is sometimes called, is eating our potatoes but in exchange he is also eating the slugs and honestly the slugs eek me out way more than a nibbled on potato. The potato trials are also yielding interesting results. It seems that the higher yielding potatoes are not the ones with the most compost amendments or the biggest container but the ones most true to their south American origins. I am rather excited that nature seems to be yielding stronger results than us just messing around with the potato genome.