Thursday, May 20, 2010

planting potatoes

The mission for the past few days has been planting potatoes! I might have to join a body builder competition after this with all these muscles! :)

First we tilled a bed with 50 foot rows, then we dug trenches and mounds. We currently have dug about 20 rows...hopefully that's enough!



The potatoes need to be planted deep within these mounds so that they do not surface and turn green, otherwise they will be poisonous.



What kinds of seeds do we use, you ask? We cut up old potatoes into sections, each section containing an eye where new growth with form. I can't imagine how many pounds of potatoes we're going to harvest just from a few bags of old potatoes!

After planting some of the potatoes, we've mulched the mounds and trenches with straw. I kept calling it 'haaayyy,' but apparently hay is made of more leaf parts and grasses and used to feed horses, whereas straw is the stalk of wheat, rye, and other such grain plants. So much to learn!

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