A note:
Just in case you're wondering, this is not the official website for Green Being Farm. This is just my blog from the summer I spent at the farm.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Potato planting

So, about two and half weeks ago, I planted all the potatoes. I was a big job. I had 1/3 of an acre to plant roughly. About 600 lbs of potato seed. I did it over two days, but really only about 12-15 hours of work.

I had prepared the bed before hand. I ploughed it, then used the furrower to make the furrows:



Hauled the potato seed out to the field. I have four different varieties. Two early (Onaway and Norland) and two main season types (Red Cheiftan and Yukon Gold). Here are the Onaway.


I stored them in our shed, under some cardboard and tarps. I was a bit concerned that this wasn't the best place to keep them (too moist, too dry, too hot, too cold... what do I know.), so I kept checking in on them. They stayed firm (except for one bag of Red Cheiftan that had a fair number of rotten guys in it).

I had also planned to let them sit out for a few days to let them grow sturdy sprouts, but they seemed to do this just fine on their own. :-) I had also planned to pull them all out and cut them if they were too big, but again, except for the Red Cheiftan, they were all a good planting size (about 2 oz). I didn't notice the big Red Cheiftan's until I got them out into the field, so I ended up cutting them out there and letting them dry before planting. Not ideal I don't think.

Anyhow, as to the actual planting. The furrows were 30 inches apart roughly, and I was planting 15 inches apart. I had about 29 rows at roughly 190 feet each (I plotted out a 200x200 foot area but then used some of the space as headers for turning the tractor and such).

I started by using a digging hoe to hack little pits into the furrow every 15 inches so that I could then drop the potato seeds in. This was probably unnecessary, but since it only took about 3 minutes for each row, and made it easier than placing the potatoes in the furrow and having them roll around, I stuck with it. I then used to hoe to pull a bit of dirt over each potato. Here's the sequence:

Divets


And, not that it looks much different, but here is the field after I was done planting:



And here's the field earlier this week, showing some green (both in plants and weeds... erm):

The early varieties having come up and are looking strong. The main season ones are just coming up. I spent a day this passed week weeding the early guys. It's pretty mind-numbing work to be hoeing the furrows (it's finicky and not nearly as fun as hoeing flat earth). It was also bit difficult with my lame hand.

Hopefully the next step will be hilling. I expect it'll be a bit cumbersome. When I was deciding how to layout to plot I didn't give much thought to the tractor and how I could use the furrower to hill (partly because we didn't have the tractor then, and partly I'm just a n00b). So, I think I'm stuck doing it by hand.

Luckily, working out on the far acre is really really nice. I'm right next to the wetland, and on a slight rise so I can look out over our fields, the wetland, and the neighbouring fields. I'm also away from the house and road so it has this quietness and peace about the place. I'm not sure how to take a picture to show you all of that.

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