[Homestead] potato flowers !

Leslie cayadopi at yahoo.com
Fri May 22 14:25:48 EDT 2009


I have no clue what I'm doing,,,,,, but so far things are looking pretty good.
 
I have about 80 feet of potatoes in one patch, and those are starting to flower; as are some of the potatoes in the tire.  
 
I received my "seed" potato from Park 2 months late!  So that was planted 2 weeks ago  and is just starting to come up, although I'm not sure if it will be ready before things get too hot here in the desert.  Maybe I'll have to hunt down used sheets and clothes, sew them together and make shade tents over them.  LOL !
 
My biggest battle has been with one kind of bird that I swear,,,, watches me plant seeds, then swoops down and digs out the seeds, or waits until the seedlings emerge and then eats the seedling.  Solution?  I made chicken wire tunnels and placed them over the rows until the plants are about 5" tall.  That has reduced the loss to birds.  
 
However, the road-runners follow me around whenever I'm outside and make all kinds of noise when I return, as they are little beggars looking for kitchen scraps.  They are quite friendly and walk right in the house all the time if I forget to close the door.  
 
A big rattler had some 30 babies,,, and I can't say I like finding snake trails in the biggest garden.  At least the roadrunners have been catching and eating the baby rattlers.  Not sure where the big one is though.
 
Carrots?  So far they are growing like weeds with no help other than a wire cage over them.  They sprouted a lot faster than I thought they would.  I stupidly forgot to put the fertilizer in the trench first though.  I'm tempted to start another patch with fertilizer in the bottom of the trench and see how much difference it makes.
 
Something small enough to get under the wire cages though seems to like beets, and keeps eating the greens.
 
There are a lot of quail here, and I found that putting bird seed out outside the garden has helped keep them out of the garden.
 
After initial multiple troubles getting seeds to sprout, most things are coming up quite well now, especially in the garden that I have a good amount of manure dug in.   I've never had luck before, so this is a real first.
 
Yesterday we got our first rain in many months, and it is still raining on/off rain today.  So weeding will have to get underway in earnest.  Although right along the irrigation lines, I've already had to weed around the new plants as the weeds like water & manure also.
 
I received some sweet potato slips in the mail, and boy oh boy were they ever dried out after spending the afternoon in a desert mailbox.... I hope they make it.  I'm trying to start my own, but who knows if that will work....
 
Tomato plants have been the hardest, and I finally purchased some at Walmart to at least have some, and threw some seeds in the ground.  Those finally sprouted, but it will be too late.  Peppers have been difficult too, and this is a pepper capital area.... I suspect my problem has more to do with trying to get the early start and my black thumb.  Transplanting has been so-so, and they do better started right in the ground.
 
 
Meanwhile the mice did $700 damage in the wires to my old truck............ causing numerous shorts and odd things making my truck seem like it is "possessed".  Hopefully they will be done by next week.
 
Hope the spuds get big under the soil.  I haven't been disturbing the soil by the potatoe plants to see if any little spuds yet.


      


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