when this project was in the planning stage and kathy and i came down from being high as kites at the possibilities ( an academic easily as over the top as i am...a dangerous combination ) and began a somewhat serious discussion of what to put in the graden potatoes were a natural...they are a plant/replant perennial and they are native to the andes...kathy did a lot of research work in peru and so they were an early and definite choice...red nordlands are what went in that spring...when they finished up kathy was in florida so she never got any of that particular produce...you can't ( or, at least shouldn't ) plant potatoes in the same spot year after year ...pathogens build up in the soil and pests have an easier time vectoring in on the spuds...you need at least a three year rotation and , according to steve brush, some traditional systems only plant fields in potatoes every seven years, rotating with mashua, yakon, and oka...so for the last season...and after a four year gap between plantings, i planted a variety of spuds for the garden's last season...some of those plants are still flowering ( see facebook ) while some have finished...i harvested 4 1/2 pounds of red pontiacs, craigs' snowwhites, yukon golds, and purple valley tubers this morning and remembering better times in the garden.
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