262 Spring Potato Basics

Show Transcript

GB 262 TRANSCRIPT Spring Potato Basics

Farmer Fred  0:00

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Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, well you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred

What is the most consumed vegetable in the United States? Potatoes! Oddly enough, it’s not even on the top 10 list of backyard garden vegetables. That’s too bad, because the potato varieties that are available for home gardeners are more colorful and flavorful than the varieties you’d find in a grocery store.  And potatoes are not that hard to grow. We revisit a conversation we had with America’s favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, about growing potatoes. She has some tips about choosing potatoes and how to cut and prepare them for planting. Also, she offers a couple of good reasons for growing your potatoes in containers: for ease of harvest and to thwart any diseases that could spread to tomatoes or peppers that might be in the same garden bed.

Plus Master Gardener Gail Pothour talks about the best months to be planting your potatoes. As we are fond of saying here, all gardening is local, so that timing will vary.

We will also get into storage tips for your harvest potatoes.

It’s all in today’s episode 262, Spring Potato Basics. We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Let’s go!

POTATO PLANTING POINTERS

Farmer Fred

Here on the Garden Basics podcast, we like to tackle your questions. There's a lot of ways to send them. You can email them into fred@farmerfred.com. You can leave us a text or a voice message, just give us a call at 916-292-8964 that's 916-292-8964. Also, you can leave a message vocally without using your phone, if you use Speakpipe. It's speakpipe.com slash garden basics. Give it a try, you might like it, and especially when we talk with our favorite college horticultural Professor Debbie Flower. And a lot of people are getting into potato planting mode. Melody writes in and says, "I'm attaching a picture of some sad potatoes that I forgot about in my garage and they are sprouting. I've been wanting to try growing potatoes. Can I just use these and just plant them all?" Melody, I wish we were talking to you live because we would have questions for you. Are those store-bought potatoes? Or are those seed potatoes? Because there is a big difference. And Debbie Flower, for your own information, I'm looking at the picture of the sprouting potatoes on Melody's workbench, and one of them does have sort of a blackish patina on one side of it. That blackish patina might represent a fungus, you wouldn't want to plant that potato because it would spread that fungus to your soil. Plus, you only want to take eyes of potatoes that are seed potatoes, because grocery store potatoes may have that fungus. So you want to use certified seed potatoes. Let's say they are seed potatoes, what do you do?

Debbie Flower  3:41

You can plant them, if you have seed potatoes that have sprouted, you can plant them, you could just plant the whole potato. But what's usually recommended is to cut the potato in pieces and make sure each piece has one eye. With it, the eye being the node and the node has the bud in it, it's often recommended that you either let them sit for 24 hours, potatoes are very wet. And if you put them in the ground immediately when you've cut them, there are natural funguses and bacteria in the soil that would love that moisture, glom onto it, grow, and potentially turn your little potato cutting into mush. So if you let it sit for 24 hours, the exterior of that part of the potato that you're going to plant that contains an eye will dry out a little bit and that will prevent fungus from occurring. If you need to plant immediately get some soil sulfur, cut your potato into the pieces, each with an eye and as much of the potato attached as you can, based on how many cuts you've made in that potato and shake it in soil sulfur. Sulfur is very acidic and will prevent funguses and bacteria from growing.

Farmer Fred  4:52

And I imagine there would be no harm when you're cubing that potato into eyes to include maybe two eyes per cube.

Debbie Flower  5:00

Right, the smaller the pieces you make, the more eyes you cut out individually, the less food that that eye has to live on until it gets itself established. The rest of the potato has lots of nutrition in it. As we know, we eat potatoes for that purpose. So the bigger pieces, yes, may have two eyes, but maybe one won't grow or but just having that extra potato attached provides the eye with that much more nutrition so that they have time, something to live on, something to eat basically, while they get the shoot up and the roots down. I would cut it in half from top to bottom. So from the skinny point from end to end, if you laid it sideways, it's sort of an egg shape or an oval from bisecting that oval in its longest dimension, at least do that. And then I'd probably cut those in half also.

Farmer Fred  5:51

That’s a good size.

Debbie Flower  5:52

So I'd have four pieces. Yeah, I have never gone to as small as one by one inches. I've gone two inches by two inches. An interesting thing about potatoes, as I said, potatoes or stems, hey, this is a science moment. Potatoes are stems, which is why they can turn green. Things like beets are roots, and they cannot turn green. But potatoes can and because they're stems. And if you at one end of that oval, there are many eyes close together. And if you look down the potato the eyes get further and further apart, the end with where the potato's eyes are close together is the growing end, and had that potato remained in the ground and been healthy, that stem would have grown out from that direction. But you can start at that end and find out that the eyes are in a spiral around the potato, the end where they're close together, it's sometimes hard to figure out the beginning of the spiral. But I've had students take a marker and find the spiral and then they spiral around and down the potato to the other end.

Farmer Fred  6:54

So which way when you plant that piece of potatoes should the eyes or the sprouts be facing or does it not matter?

Debbie Flower  7:00

It's not a big deal that the plant will find the upright for the stem and the down for the root. But if you have some control, and I imagine you do, I would point the eyes up.

Farmer Fred  7:10

All right, and how deep should you plant these pieces of potato?

Debbie Flower  7:14

Well the rule for planting for almost everything is two to three times the diameter of what you're planting. That's a little hard to gauge because we're using different potato sizes, but I would cover it with just a couple of inches of soil.

Farmer Fred  7:30

And, I'd say two to three inches deep. Okay, and hope for the best. Planting a potato whole would be much like planting a head of garlic whole. You'd end up with more, but smaller product

Debbie Flower  7:47

Yes, and crowded plants don't produce as well. I have seen that jungle because for me once a potato patch it's always a potato patch because I always miss harvesting something which I don't realize is there until it starts to grow the next season and then I have that jungle Yes.

Farmer Fred  8:04

Well now that brings up another interesting question since potatoes, correct me if I'm wrong, are members of the Solanaceae family. Would you want to avoid putting tomatoes or peppers in that same bed?

Debbie Flower  8:16

Yes, if you're doing crop rotation, which is an excellent thing to do, but you have to have the space to do it. Or the time. You skip seasons with things. Yes, you don't plant Solanaceae plants in the same family in the same spot as they were last year. So the Solanaceae family is a popular one for growing outdoors. Because it's tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, tobacco, which is is a fun plant to grow, whether you use it or not, it's still a fun plant to grow. They're all in the Solanaceae family and you don't want to plant a Solanaceae where you planted a Solanacease last year.

Farmer Fred  8:51

And so the thought then of having a bed dedicated to potatoes may not necessarily be a good idea, especially if you start seeing a decline in those potatoes year after year, you might want maybe two beds for potatoes and alternate the beds and then in the off year, in one potato bed, you might solarize it.

Debbie Flower  9:10

Yes, or there are lots of techniques for growing potatoes in containers. Mm hmm. Because they they're easier to harvest when they're grown in a container or grown in a straw bale something something along those lines. a straw bale in my mind, although I've never done it, I've just read about it, seen it seen other people do it, it takes more effort to produce a healthy crop. Because you don't have a lot of it isn't very similar to field soil. It drains differently, has different nutrient holding abilities, different water holding abilities, etc. So but if you get used to it, that could be a really great way because it's easy then to stick your hand in the straw and pull out the potato. But stuff like that is done in containers as well where there lots of drainage holes and straw is used or lightweight media is used. And as the potato grows up, remember the potatoes is stem. So as the potato grows up, the plant grows up, the green stems grow up, you throw in whatever it is you're using your medium, and cover the stems and then you get more stems, more underground stems and those are the edible potatoes. And because it's in a container, you can dump it all out and harvest that way or you can reach in through your lightweight media and find the potatoes very easily. Harvesting potatoes is a thing of its own. There are even tools called potato forks, but I always end up ended up impaling the potatoes with such a tool. So growing in a container might be an easier way to do it.

yes or there are lots of techniques for growing potatoes and containers. Because they

Farmer Fred  10:42

Yeah, you can just dump the container at harvest time.

Debbie Flower  10:46

And if you have used, which you shouldn't, but if you have used one of those grocery store potatoes that has the fungus on it, you haven't contaminated your soil, what you do with the media you grow in could be a little tricky. You either have to put it in a hot compost pile or solarize it or let it sit idle for certainly a year to hopefully quell that fungus. But once you've got fungus, I swear when the earth I shouldn't swear, when the earth does whatever it's going to do, let's say it freezes or totally catches fire, or whatever, fungus spores are going to survive. They're known to be able to survive fire, they're known to be able to survive freezing. So if you've added them from the grocery store, you're probably never going to get rid of them. Even if you grow in a container.

Farmer Fred  11:34

Even if you solarize the soil?

Debbie Flower  11:37

Because if they're in their spore phase, funguses can survive that. They can survive those high temperatures.

Farmer Fred  11:45

Debbie Downer!

Debbie Flower  11:46

I know.

Farmer Fred  11:50

But anyway, potatoes are fun to grow. And like you say it's the hunt job at harvest time. And how do you know when it's harvest time, since they grow under ground?

Debbie Flower  11:59

When they start to flower you don't want them to flower because flowering takes food out of the stem. As I've said multiple times, the potato is a stem, it's a modified stem, it's a stem, modified for storage of food, so that the plant can live off of that food if necessary. And when it goes to flower, it takes food out of that potato. So when it starts to flower, that would be time to start to harvest. But you can harvest anytime.

Farmer Fred  12:24

Yeah, there would just be probably just different sizes, really.

Debbie Flower  12:28

Different sizes, right. Those little potatoes, little boiling potatoes or whatever they're called, would be what you'd get in your first harvest your small harvests, you'll find them at the end as well, because they're being produced over time. And so the stem potatoes produced first will be biggest and the others will will be smaller.

Farmer Fred  12:48

As far as the potatoes you grow, can you use those as seed potatoes the following year?

Debbie Flower  12:55

Technically, yes, you can. You're cloning the plant, you're basically taking a stem cutting, and so you'll get what you, you'll get the same potato that you grew the previous year, if you use your potato as a seed potato, you want to be sure that it hasn't accumulated any disease problems. And that's tricky, because when you buy a seed potato, it has gone through laboratory testing. And they can do things in that laboratory that we can't do in our backyard. So I would recommend that you go buy a new seed potato.

Farmer Fred  13:26

All right. The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County have a nice page, and we'll put it in the show notes, about growing potatoes. And they point out that the potatoes usually mature 90 to 120 days after planting, it depends on the variety, you can harvest a few at a time, leave the rest until you're ready to eat them. And when you rob the potato plant for smaller, more tender potatoes, be careful not to damage the plant. Well, that makes plenty of sense. Like you said, don't stab them. Right? You don't want to do that. And they point out to harvest remaining potatoes when the plants wilt and turn brown.

Debbie Flower  14:05

Yeah, that's true. That's what I was initially going to say. But flowering certainly interferes with the size of the potatoes.

Farmer Fred  14:12

Do you have to keep them covered as the plant grows? If the tubers are basically surfacing or near the surface? Do you add more soil?

Debbie Flower  14:21

Yes, depends what you want. If a potato grows, and it's a stem, it's not a tuber. But if the potato grows near the surface and turns green, then it will start to grow its own stems, you know those eyes on that potato will germinate and you will get another stem in that location. And if that's a good thing, if it's feet away from the the main stem, then maybe you want that maybe you don't want that fat potato then will decline and will not be one that you'll be able to harvest.

Farmer Fred  14:53

I would think that any potato that's exposed to light may be rather bitter tasting. And you can see the telltale green area, can you cut out that area and eat the rest of the potato?

Debbie Flower  15:05

the food safety people say don't. But I've done it many times.

Farmer Fred  15:10

And you're still here.

Debbie Flower  15:11

I'm still here to talk about it. What's happening is, the potatoes is a stem. When it's exposed to light it can turn green, the green is chlorophyll formation, plants will only produce chlorophyll when it benefits them. And if you cover it up, that chlorophyll will potentially go away, the plant will break it down. It's valuable. The chlorophyll is made of things that are valuable to the plant for other reasons. And so we'll break it down and use the contents of the chlorophyll for something else. So all you're getting technically is chlorophyll. But the stem has now become active, is actively growing. And when it's actively growing, it also produces besides chlorophyll, something called solanine. And solanine is a chemical that can cause bitterness and in high quantities is poisonous. So that is why it's recommended that you do not eat a potato that has turned green. The green is only chlorophyll, but it does mean that stem has become actively growing, which could mean it's producing solanine, which in high quantities is poisonous.

Farmer Fred  16:11

Well, before we wrap this up, I would like you to expand upon your Don Quixote persona of explaining why a potato is not a tuber. It's a stem.

Debbie Flower  16:22

Certain plants produce underground parts for storage, so that they can live over from year to year. That's why we have perennials. Most plants we know use their roots and store food in their roots so that they can survive the hard times. But other plants have specialized structures in which they store the food, such as bulbs. An onion is a bulb tubers. What's a tuber? Yam is a tuber, I believe, and stem pieces, modified stems. Iris is another thing that has a modified stem. And it doesn't look like a potato because it's not related to a potato but it is a modified stem but that fat part that travels underground, are rhizomes. Bermuda grass has modified stems. They're not particularly thick to our eye but in the grass world, they are thick stems that travel underground and hold foods so that the plant can grow bigger and survive rough times and come back from it because it has stored food to live on.

Farmer Fred  17:20

Are you saying that Bermuda grass doesn't have rhizomes? They have modified stems?

Debbie Flower  17:25

Rhizomes are modified stems. Yeah, rhizomes and stolons are names for other modified stems. The Iris has a rhizome and rhizomes typically travel horizontally, underground, so Bermudagrass rhizomes travel side to side, Iris rhizomes travel side to side, they're fairly near the surface. But the potato stem is just formed off of the side of another stem, randomly in location. And it stores food so that if something major happens to that potato plant, it can regrow from that potato, the things that distinguish a stem from a tuber, or bulb. The easiest things to see are the fact that the stem can turn green, which a tuber and a bulb cannot. And the stem can has eyes or nodes on it, that will will grow leaves and stems from that spot, which a bulb does not. If you look at an onion, if you cut it in half, from top to bottom, you'll see what is inside. In the cooking shows I watch, they call it the core. The core of the onion is the actual stem. And it's a arc shaped, thick structure at the bottom of the onion. And at the very bottom. On the outside, you'll see a flat spot with some thick hair sort of on it. Those are the roots. So in a bulb, it's actually modified leaves that are attached to that strange stem. And  if an onion grows, if you ever find one in your pantry that grows and cut it in half, you will see that the stem of that onion that's growing out the top actually started from the stem down the core of the onion, down in the bottom. It didn't come from the leaf. So these are modified to hold food. So I don't know if that's clear.

Farmer Fred  19:20

It was fun. But I just think you have an uphill battle of convincing people that potatoes aren't tubers.

Debbie Flower  19:26

Well, I think the yams are tubers, beets are tubers, you can grow a yam, my mother used to do it all the time with toothpicks, hang it in a jar of water in the kitchen window. So there was always a yam growing there. And they can be grown ornamentally and they can be grown in the Sacramento garden. In order to do that they have to have a bud at the end of the plant where the tuber was attached to the plant.

Farmer Fred  19:51

Is a yam the same thing as a sweet potato?

Debbie Flower  19:55

Yes. Technically, no.  But what we call a yam and a sweet potato are the same thing. And they are a tuber. If you look at them, you don't see that spiral of eyes around them. If you see an eye it's going to be at one end, one of the skinny ends. That's where the plant was attached. That's where the tuber was attached to the plant. And if you grow it like my mother did on the kitchen window, so any buds are gonna come out of that tip. They don't have that spiral of eyes all the way down and around.

Farmer Fred  20:25

Did you plant them?

Debbie Flower  20:27

No, we lived in New Jersey. I guess we could have grown them in summer, but they would have died in winter. She just did it. I don't know. To make herself happy, I guess.

Farmer Fred  20:36

All right. Well, her last name was flower.

Debbie Flower

Not originally.

Farmer Fred

No, not originally.

Debbie Flower  20:44

She was very poor as a kid. Her dad was a blacksmith and they had chickens and they had a field of strawberries that we would go help harvest and he literally sold them at the side of the road.

Farmer Fred  20:58

So you have farming in your genes?

Debbie Flower  21:00

Yes, on both sides.

Farmer Fred  21:02

Well, we've learned a lot about potatoes today, Debbie Flower, thanks for your help on this.

Debbie Flower  21:06

Oh, my pleasure. Grow potatoes. They're fun.

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STORING POTATOES

Farmer Fred

We covered a lot about growing potatoes with Debbie Flower in that last segment. But one topic we didn't cover that we should is how to store potatoes.

And for that we turn to a very good online explanation by Dave Hollingsworth. He was with the UC Santa Cruz Agro-Ecology program of the University of California. And he talks about growing potatoes organically. including storage of those potatoes.

And he says this: be aware of the approximate growing season of each variety of potatoes that you grow. The vegetation of some varieties can be allowed to die back naturally. But for many types this practice may result in highly oversized potatoes. When a test digging indicates that a variety is at the size you prefer for harvest, it's time to prepare the potatoes for storage. The goal of this process is to cure and thicken the skin and to slow the respiration of the potatoes by closing the lenticels. Those are the breathing openings on the potato skin.

Most varieties, when cured properly, will store for months. However, new uncured potatoes, with their delightfully thin skins, will not keep. But they are delicious if eaten soon after harvesting.

To begin curing the potatoes, give them a last, complete watering. Then, a day or two later, cut off all the vines at ground level. They will already very likely show signs of aging and decay. Remove the vines from the field. Let the potatoes begin curing. Removing the vines reduces the chance that spores or infection on the leaves will come in contact with the potatoes. Disease-causing organisms will generally dry out and die on that now exposed soil surface.

Then begins the test digging of some potatoes. Do that about eight to 10 days after you remove the vines. The skins should be quite tough by then. If not, just give them a few more days underground.

Before digging the main crop, you may wish to irrigate again, it makes digging easier, and to break up the clods that can skin or bruise the potatoes. Dig the potatoes when the soil is workable, a few days later. Do not attempt to store potatoes that have been seriously damaged. They're just going to invite disease that might spread to other potatoes in storage. Instead, eat them right away. Put the undamaged potatoes in a flat or a cardboard box one layer deep, allowing them plenty of air space, for a few days.

After that, they can be packed more densely in boxes.

Where do you store them? Potatoes store best in a cool, moist environment, not wet though, with reasonable air movement and very little light, and temperatures in the 40s. And maybe even a little cooler if you're growing your potatoes as seed potatoes. That is optimal.

Keep the potatoes and ventilated boxes out of the light ,in a cool and moist sheltered area, such as a porch or a basement.

(But if you're in a hot environment, you need a cooler place. And that might even be indoors in a closet somewhere. But remember, they do need to be out of the light and they do need some ventilation.)

Those potatoes will keep for months and you may even have some little survivors for next year's seed potatoes.

TIMING YOUR POTATO PLANTING

Kat in Marysville  26:25

"Yes, I was wondering about something I read online. I'm planning to plant some potatoes. I'm a little late. So I became a little concerned when I read online that you have to prepare your raised bed a month ahead. I was just wondering, is that absolutely gospel? Can I plant sooner than that? I'm just using compost and a little fertilizer. I'm kind of double digging. I'm not using a rototiller, unless you think I should, but I am trying to be gentle, so I can plant sooner. I'd like to be able to plant in like a week. Is that possible? Thank you."

Farmer Fred  27:08

Well, we just heard from Kat in Marysville, California in the Sacramento Valley north of Sacramento. Gail Pothour is here, Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable expert. What about Kat and her potato bed? Do you need to prep that a month ahead? And she mentioned that she might be doing it a little bit late for here in our area of California. Winter is potato planting time.

Gail Pothour  27:32

End of February, March, you can do it into April, it sort of depends on the variety you're growing, if it's an early season, or late season. The ones that were growing at the Horticulture Center, actually is a late season variety, 120 to 140 days from sprouting to harvest. So we're going to be growing them through the heat of summer, which is not ideal for potatoes. They tend to suffer when it's so hot and dry. But the variety we have, we can't plant til early March and it'll probably be harvested in July or August. But you can still plant potatoes through I'd say, mid-April. So about now, as long as it's not a late season variety.

Farmer Fred  28:09

All right, and what sort of bed prep do they need? Do you really have to start prepping the soil a month ahead?

Gail Pothour  28:15

Well, I was curious when I heard that, because I'm wondering if perhaps Kat read some information about turning in cover crops, maybe this article related to cover crops. Because you would want to get that turned under and wait a month before you planted or if it was adding some fresh manure, you would not want to plant right away, you'd need to let it kind of decompose. So I don't know exactly what the article she read was about. In my home garden. And here at the Horticulture Center, we prep the beds and plant right away. So the fertilizer we use is a composted chicken manure that's 4-3-3 or 4-3-2. So it's already composted, we don't have any issues with burning the plants, we add compost, and as long as you have friable soil, nothing to dense or clay-like, it should be fine. And I don't know about waiting a month. It is not necessary unless it's something that you added to the soil that needs to decompose first.

Farmer Fred  29:16

You're growing all your potatoes here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in either large containers or raised beds, so the soil is going to warm up quicker. The soil temperature plays a key when you plant potatoes.

Gail Pothour  29:26

It does. Because if it's too cold, they might sit there and rot if it's wet. Potatoes are a cool season crop and they are sensitive to temperatures. So the ideal temperature for soil temperature for potatoes I think is like 50 to 80 with the optimum being about 60 or 65 degrees. One of the problems we're going to have is growing them through the summer. Our soil temperatures are going to get a little hotter. So we'll mulch with straw, maybe provide some shade cloth, keep them evenly moist, not too wet, because they can rot. But you don't want them to dry out, you'll start getting knobby potatoes if they dry out, and then you start watering them again. So soil temperature is critical. The air temperature is pretty critical. You don't want it too cold. As you can see, Fred, we had some really cold temperatures a couple nights ago and so our potatoes got a little frosted but they should be fine going into the summer. If it's too hot, provide some shade for them.

Farmer Fred  30:21

What about the quality of the soil itself? Now maybe Kat's problem there in Marysville, since it is a rice growing region, maybe it's a heavy clay soil that stays too wet. I would think potatoes need good drainage.

Gail Pothour  30:32

They do need good drainage. Because  the tuber can rot. You are planting a piece of a potato in the ground; it's not a seed or a plant. And if the soil is too cold and too wet, that tuber can rot before it starts sprouting, thus becoming a potato plant. So it's critical to have good drainage. We grow in wine barrels for good drainage, or in raised beds, I do the same at my home because I have clay soil. So raised beds with good, good drainage is perfect for potatoes.

Farmer Fred  31:04

You had mentioned in a conversation with me earlier that you've been conversing with relatives or friends back east, and they haven't even started planting potatoes yet, that their time is coming.

Gail Pothour  31:14

That's correct. I have in-laws in Wisconsin, and so they are probably thinking of planting potatoes about now. And they can definitely grow them through the summer without any problem. But here we are in the Central Valley, Sacramento Valley, we typically get them in the ground in February, March into early April, and that's about it. Or you could do a fall crop, plant in August or so, and harvest some potatoes by Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Farmer Fred  31:39

But in the colder regions of the country, then, you're looking at springtime, really mid-spring for planting potatoes.

Gail Pothour  31:46

Right, I think probably May is a good time to plant if you're in the Midwest or in a colder region.

Farmer Fred  31:54

And again, it's all about soil temperature too. So, Kat, maybe all you need is a raised bed or a large container and soil thermometer to let you know when the right time to plant is.

Gail Pothour  32:03

A soil thermometer is key. But the soil temperature might not be warm enough yet. So, growing in raised beds the soil will warm up faster than if you're growing directly in the ground, where it will take longer for it to warm up. If you're growing in large containers, it should warm up soon.

Farmer Fred  32:26

50 degrees is the magic soil temperature number.

Gail Pothour  32:29

50, pretty much for potatoes. Optimum is maybe more like 60. But yeah, you can grow in 50.

Farmer Fred  32:35

All right, Kat,  I hope that it helps you out and your potato planting mystery there. Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener we're here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center where people can browse, as they are today, during the Open Garden Day here at the Fair Oaks Hort Center. Everything that's going on, the planting, the preparation that's going on in the vegetable area; there's the orchard, there's the compost area, vineyard, perennial garden, drought tolerant garden, there's just so many aspects here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. This is really a great place for people to come and learn all about gardening. And of course, there's Harvest Day, which is the first Saturday in August. That's a big gardening event here, and it is free. Gail, thanks so much for your time and effort.

Gail Pothour  33:14

My pleasure, Fred.

DAVE WILSON NURSERY

Farmer Fred  33:19

Are you thinking of growing fruit trees? Maybe you already are, but you want to know more about them. Well, you probably have a million questions. Like, which fruit trees will grow where I live? What are the tastiest fruits? When is harvest time? How do I care for these trees? The answers are nearby.  Just go to dave wilson dot com, click on the Home Garden tab at the top of the page. Also in that home garden tab, you’ll find a link to their fruit and nut harvest chart, so you can be picking delicious, healthy fruits from your own yard from May to December here in USDA Zone 9. And you’re just a click away with the informative You Tube video series at DaveWilson.com. And as part of that video series, they will walk you through the simple process of using the Dave Wilson website to find their trees, either at a nearby local nursery or a mail order source. That's Dave Wilson nursery, the nation's largest grower of fruit trees for the backyard garden. They've got planting tips, taste test results, and information about their revolutionary backyard orchard culture techniques, which explain how you can have a cornucopia of different fruit trees in a small backyard. Your harvest to better health begins at DaveWilson.com.

SIX UNIQUE POTATO VARIETIES WORTH PLANTING

Farmer Fred  34:44

If we have piqued your interest about growing potatoes, well, let's get our minds off the russet potato, the popular baking potato that you see in grocery stores.

Let’s talk about some other potato varieties that you can grow in your yard that are unusual shapes, colors, and flavors. Some amazing varieties, including one that is a seed potato that you plant from seed, not from a cut eye.

So we're going to talk about six potatoes: the Dark Red Norland, the French Fingerling, Yukon Gold, the Adirondack Blue, Magic Molly, and that seed potato, Clancy.

So I went through all of my 2023 seed catalogs looking for those that were common to each because there's still a good chance that they might be available to you whichever catalog you might be using.

DARK RED NORLAND

First up is the Dark Red Norland. it is described as being a productive early red variety. They are round to oblong. We'll refer to them as tubers, much to the chagrin of Debbie Flower. They have red skin, white flesh, and are quick to bulk up. They are excellent for roasting and boiling, and you can plant them about eight inches apart and they produce a lot of small new potatoes. That again, was Dark Red Norland.

FRENCH FINGERLING

French Fingerling. Now, there's an interesting potato. It is a pink fingerling with bicolor flesh. The plants are rather tall. They produce tubers with pink skin and yellow red flecked flesh. They're known for their gourmet flavor. The tubers are larger and more oval in shape than some others, and they are very tasty when boiled or roasted. The French Fingerling.

YUKON GOLD

Yukon Gold. There's a potato variety that you may be aware of, but have never grown. It’s a ongtime favorite for flavor. Large upright plants produce round oval tubers with smooth thin skin, and that famously delicious yellow flesh. Very versatile in the kitchen and they store well, too. Yukon Gold is also considered a container-friendly potato because they're a small to medium size, and they mature in about 65 days. That's Yukon Gold.

ADIRONDACK BLUE

Adirondack Blue. Well, it's not quite blue. It's more of a dark purple skin and flesh. It's considered an early or mid season potato, with high yields of long oblong tubers with consistent blue violet flesh and deep eyes. And it even holds its color when cooked and is considered to be a variety that is high in antioxidants. Again, that's Adirondack Blue.

MAGIC MOLLY

Next up is Magic Molly, which is a purple fingerling potato I found that is in many catalogs. It's purple through and through, from its dark purple skin to its dark purple flesh. The Magic Molly retains its rich color when boiled. It produces large tubers with excellent earthy flavor, and they are especially tasty when roasted. That's the Magic Molly potato.

CLANCY

And finally, we come to a potato that you don't grow from an eye. You grow it from a seed, surprisingly enough. It is called Clancy, and it is a 2019 All America Selections winner. It's the first potato from seed that is an AAS winner. Obviously growing a potato from seed has many advantages for home gardeners. The sterile seed eliminates the potential for introducing disease to the garden. Seeds are also easier to store and can be stored longer than potato tubers. The Clancy potato produces compact and healthy dark green plants, with blue flowers. The resulting spuds are a beautiful ornamental mix, ranging from Red to Rose-blush skin tones. The interiors are creamy white and yellow. Clancy has, according to the judges, great texture and flavor. It's sort of a happy medium, they say, between a yellow skin potato and a Russet. That makes it especially good for mashing or boiling, due to its lighter texture. that again, is the seed potato, Clancy.

I don't have an opinion on the quality of Clancy potatoes, because I'm growing them for the first time this year, in a container in a Smart Pot. And I'll report back at the end of the growing season on that seed potato grown from seed, the Clancy potato.

BEYOND THE GARDEN BASICS NEWSLETTER: RECIPES FROM THE GARDEN

Farmer Fred

We are just a few short months away from backyard gardeners surveying their bountiful production of fruits and vegetables, and muttering under their breath, What are we going to do with all this food?

You grew it, now eat it! We’ve talked in the past about food preservation. How about a few recipes for eating all that fresh produce, as fresh as possible in some tasty seasonal recipes? That’s what the current Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter has in store for you. We talk with Master Gardeners Kathy Morrison and Andi McDonald, who go into detail about some recipes using food that just might be ripening in your yard right now. To make it easier for you, we have those recipes spelled out in today’s newsletter, so you don’t have to be scribbling things down hurriedly while your listening.

For current newsletter subscribers, look for the issue entitled, “You Grew It. Now, Eat It!”. If you are already a subscriber, it’s probably in your email, waiting for you now.  Or, you can start a free subscription, it’s free! Find the link to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter in today’s show notes, or at Substack, or sign up at the newsletter link at our homepage, gardenbasics dot net.

FLASHBACK: Ep. 114 CROP ROTATION. WORKING WITH CLAY SOIL

Farmer Fred

Perhaps you’re getting ready to plant your 2023 garden. Before you start digging, do a little planning to thwart future problems this summer. Give a listen to our Flashback Episode of the week, #114, All About Crop Rotation and working with clay soil, from June of 2021.

Crop rotation it's not just for farmers. Backyard gardeners can improve their food and flower production while improving their soil at the same time, simply by moving plant families from bed to bed each season. The key phrase there is plant families. America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, has the lowdown on the advantages of crop rotation for the home gardener. Do you have clay soil? You might be worried that it's not very good for a garden. Well, worry no more. Soil specialist Steve Zien says there's a lot of benefits to gardening with clay soil, and he has tips for improving it as well.

It’s this week’s Flashback episode. Go to your favorite podcast outlet and do a search for Episode 114 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. Crop rotation, and working with clay soil. You can also find the podcast, as well as a transcript at our home page, garden basics dot net.

Farmer Fred  41:41

The Garden Basics With Farmer Fred podcast comes out once a week, on Fridays. Plus the newsletter podcast, that comes with the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, continues, also released on Fridays. Both are free and are brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. The Garden Basics podcast is available wherever podcasts are handed out, and that includes our home page, Garden Basics dot net. , where you can also sign up for the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast. That’s Garden Basics dot net. or use the links in today’s show notes.  And thank you so much for listening.