More spuds

The Red Pontiac potatoes in two of the cages looked finished.  I pulled up the fenceposts and removed the cages.  The Red Pontiacs in the third cage were putting out some healthy looking new shoots, so I’m going to leave them and see if I can get more production from those plants.  I carefully dug up the potatoes with a shovel and sliced only one.   I was hoping for more (just under nine pounds) but that’s OK, they are really nice looking potatoes, and nice sized.  And the Red Pontiacs are every bit as good as the Yukon Golds.   

Next year I’ll know how to plant potatoes.   I planted Red Pontiacs in three cages side by side and put Yukon Golds in front (south) of them in the beds.  That defeated the purpose of the cages, which was to give the plants more sunlight and air exposure.  The potatoes in the middle cage did the worst.  Next year I’ll plant four cages across a twelve foot bed.   That will leave about ten inches of space between each cage.  In front of the potatoes will go something short, like onion.  This is the remaining cage with some new growth showing on the stems.  I’ll leave it for a week to see what it does.

I’ve really been going after the squash bugs lately.  If I don’t stop them or at least suppress them there aren’t going to be any more butternuts. I cut off leaves that are yellowed and sickly and they go in the compost bin with their bug stowaways.   Every day I direct the growing shoots toward open spaces in the trellis.  The vines on the trellis look healthier than the vines on the ground, and get less bug pressure.  The squash bugs use the lower stems like roads to get to the leaves, and they use the dead foliage around the base as cover.  I removed the deitrus on the ground and have been alternating sprayings of Neem and pyrethrins, making sure I spray the lower stems.  It looks like I’m getting the upper hand – this morning only a few bugs were found.

The last broccoli of the season, variety Gypsy, was picked.  The lone Brussell’s sprout plant just died a few days ago.  Probably a casualty of the hot weather.  The cauliflower plants have a lot of burned foliage at the growing tip but hope springs eternal.   It was a good year for nice quality broccoli. 

Here’s a pic of the whole garden.  Lots of empty spaces now.  I’ll have to draw up the plans for next year soon.

Weekly totals:  Tomato 5 lb 7 oz;  Okra 3 oz;  Broccoli 1 lb 2 oz;  Eggplant 1 lb 4 oz;  

Red Long onions 1 lb 8 oz;  Yellow onions 6 oz;  Hot pepper 3 oz;  Sweet pepper 2 oz; 

Red Pontiac potatoes 8 lb 11 oz.  

There’s a JPEG snapshot of the spreadsheet with the weekly totals under the Results tab.  I think it’s readable if you click on the picture.  Closing in on 120 lbs for the year.