This year, we have started early to harvest the potatoes in spite of our "scheduled" date of September 16. The results are - uh - how shall I say - challenging.
The soil is very hard. It takes a lot of strength to push the garden fork into the soil which then comes up in large clumps. The potatoes - russet burbanks this year - are quite small and misshapen. We may struggle to get 300 pounds. This is well short of the 629 pounds of potatoes that we harvested last year.
On the positive, there is no slug damage. The potatoes are smooth and look great.
Some thoughts about this crop. Misshapen potatoes are a result of potatoes under stress - It has been very dry this year and so we'll put that aspect down to lack of moisture. The small size may be a result of the hard soil. We do not disturb the soil once it has been planted and so the tubers may struggle with this condition. Next year we will plan to have sufficient much so that we can mulch the beds as the growing season progresses,
In gardening, there is always next year.
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