Potato planting time

M and I finally decided to plant things in our shared garden plot at the GHGP. I brought along the sprouting seed potatoes and my small wintersweet (腊梅) plant.


Certified seed and certified organic potatoes

I had purchased a set of three kinds (red, yellow, blue) of certified seed and certified organic seed potatoes, which were shipped to me from a Colorado grower. The online description had said the yellow ones were Yellow Finns, but mine came labelled as Yukon Gold (65 days, early season), not that I'm really complaining.


Yukon Gold, or Yellow Finn seed potatoes?

The red ones have red skin and white flesh, and are called Colorado Rose. I couldn't find too much about this potato type, but they do look pretty.


Colorado Rose seed potatoes

Last up are the purple All Blue potatoes (80 days, medium-to-late season). They are supposed to have purple skin and purple flesh, and I've seen pictures where the flesh right next to the skin is ringed in white.


All Blue seed potatoes

Because Halloween and colder weather is coming up, I decided to take my potted 腊梅 or Wintersweet plant and stick it in the plot. The reason is during Halloween in Isla Vista we get a lot of destructive behavior from the locals and visitors, and I didn't want to take any chances with my plant.


腊梅, Wintersweet (Chimonanthus Praecox), still in pot with new bottom growth

Also, I thought the 腊梅 would weather the winter better in the soil. I had thought the 腊梅 wasn't doing well in my pot, until today when I noticed the new growth leaves growing at the base of the plant.


腊梅, Wintersweet, planted into ground in GHGP plot

Our plot looks messy due to all the hay in the horse manure that we raked into the ground, but it will all break down eventually.


Our GHGP plot, with potatoes planted in the back

We had to hoe an extra row for the All Blue and Yukon Gold potatoes we received. They came in much smaller 1" to 2" sizes versus 3" to 4" for the Colorado Rose seed potatoes, and since amount of each in terms of weight was the same, we ended up with more of the former.


Closeup of hoed rows where seed potatoes were planted

We stuck little twigs and rocks into the mounds to mark where a seed potato was planted. Hopefully we didn't stick too much nor too little soil over the top of the sprouting potatoes.