Grubs and Taters

I dug up our rows of potatoes this morning. I say 'our rows' because I also have a row of potatoes planted for some friends. Let me tell you why I am bitter about this. I planted my potatoes on Good Friday (which was later this year than last) and about three weeks after, my friend asked me if I could plant some potatoes for her as well. My potato plants grew about two feet high before they started to die off, whereas Emily's are about three and a half feet high and still thriving. I honestly have no idea what the difference is. Two years ago it was wet and hot and they did great. Last year was wet and cool and again the plants did great, but this year it was wet and hot and they were only so-so. It can't be the location because they are in the same section of garden that Emily's are, so really it doesn't make sense. But digging them today I found the only difference wasn't in the yield, but in the size of the potato. They are a little smaller, but that's ok because I have found the bigger ones, while they look healthy and feel firm, are sometimes black in the middle.

Having been a wet year I also found there were more grubs that I am used to seeing, but again, the last two years have been just as wet, so who knows? They are evil looking bugs that remind me of the alien that pops out of that guys chest in "Alien". The moles are slacking and need to start making their way towards the garden. Yes, I could spray for grubs, but that's not how I roll. A single potato plant can produce as many as six or eight potatoes; multiply that by forty plants and losing a few potatoes to grubs isn't a big deal. Sometimes they just eat a little path on the outside skin, so I just cut that part off.

I'll let them dry on the deck for a day or two, then put them in wooden boxes and cover them with peat moss. Well, first Art has to clean out the boxes of the left over potatoes from last year and then I can store them. They'll last for a good six or seven months down there. I planted a lot fewer potatoes this year, as you can see by the amount we had left over, we just didn't eat them all. They weren't a total was as I used a bunch as seed potatoes, but still...