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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Case of the Strange Walking Potatoes
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 15:28:57 -0400

(anybody remember the Case of the Strange Walking Sets from a couple of years ago?)

A friend of mine just came by with a puzzle. She had recently, and belatedly, planted some overly-sprouted potato sets. Most of them are growing fine; some haven't leafed out yet. Something has been coming by, each night, and digging up one potato. It's always one of the ones that haven't leafed yet. It's always only one potato. The next day, my friend replants it; the next night, the same one gets dug up again. After two or three replantings, the dug up potato not only gets dug up, but disappears; and whatever it is moves on to another potato; not the next one in the row, but another one that hasn't leafed yet. So far, this sequence has continued through about three potatoes.

The potato isn't just pulled up, because the hole it was in is always dug out larger than the potato piece. They're planted in old rotted hay; but there's old hay all over the place that isn't getting holes. They weren't treated with anything, or fertilized in the planting hole. Beans and squash growing in the same area have not been disturbed.

Anybody have any idea? My friend thinks "there's something out there playing soccer with the potatoes by the light of the stars and the fireflies; when they kick one potato / ball to pieces, they move on to the next."

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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