at the homestead, in the dirt, in the kitchen
potato tower – results
30
Sep
Sep
well, the potato tower did not produce that much. in fact, it was quite disappointing, but i think we learned some valuable lessons and we are not so upset that we won’t try again next year. i think we planted them a bit late. we planted in may and they should have been planted in april. we also feel we planted them too close together. but, we have not tossed the potato tower….we will try again next year and report on results.
though, i should say, the few tiny potatoes we did end up with were super tasty….boiled them and ate them with a little butter, salt and pepper….yummy!
What variety of potato did you use? I found that towers really only work with late varieties such as Bintje. Yours look like they could be Bintje but also look like Yukon Gold which is not late enough.
The idea is that the late varieties are indeterminate, which means that they keep setting potatoes throughout the season (and throughout the tower). But early season potatoes are determinate, i.e., they set fruit only once, down near the bottom.
Hope you have great success next year. I will follow along!
Bob
Thank so much for the indeterminate / determinate explanation. That makes alot of sense. I believe we planted Kennebec potatos, but I will be sure to follow your advise for next year.
Eric
I’ve heard the late variety explanation too, and will try to flush it out with my three towers next year – my focus will be on late varieties know to be high yielding. Bob’s Bintje are a good candidate. Here is a GREAT resource to compare spuds from my seed source Moose Tubers:
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/moose/varietychart.htm
I will likely try their Burbank Russet (Very Late – but I really don’t like russets), Romanze (the red / yellow sounds intriguing), and perhaps Desiree (we were very impressed with its yields in the field)
-Rob